Updated July 25, 2024
In today’s episode of the Dust Safety Science podcast, we review the current status of dust explosion safety in Israel. Process safety expert Shay Segev outlines the Israeli industries that generate and handle combustible dust, the regulations that apply to them, and the compliance challenges that exist.
Shay started his career as a safety engineer at the Dead Sea Works. From there, I moved to FM Global insurance company, where he became a Special Chemical Risk expert and received systematic training about combustible dust. After FM Global, he was the process safety manager for the API division at Teva Pharmaceuticals.
“At the time, we had 18 facilities worldwide and combustible dust was a major issue. We had several fire incidents and a small explosion,” he recalled. “We had a real concern about combustible dust, and that really got me into the fine details of how we can prevent or minimize the likelihood of a combustible dust explosion or fire. Today I am a process safety expert and combustible dust is one of my [areas of] expertise.”
The Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industries Have Major Issues With Combustible Dust
Shay explained that in Israel, the pharmaceutical industry encounters a lot of combustible dust issues because the processes involve organic materials. Unfortunately, the hazards are not always well understood.
“I see it sometimes, when small companies feed powder to reactors without closed systems, just opening the manhole and throwing the powder inside, and things that, let’s say, in good companies, had already been done away with many years ago. This is something that you don’t learn in university unless you get good process safety training.”
The Israeli standards consist of IEC 60079 and two introductory pages. They state that facility owners and managers can also implement NFPA standards.
If Israel receives a product from Europe and the US, the facility may have a two-zoning system. By adopting two standards, the engineer can use the NFPA, which is more descriptive.
“If you have a big manufacturing plant, you can take the NFPA and make the zoning quite easily,” Shay says. “In the places where you need a more specific or industry analysis, you will do the calculations that are required by IEC 60079. Using both standards gives the user a lot more flexibility.”
Although compliance is a legal requirement, enforcement is not particularly stringent.
“In Israel, I believe the process safety enforcement is not comparable with the US or the UK. There is still a long way to go.”
Process Safety in Israel Has Significant Challenges
Shay identified a number of challenges faced by process safety in Israel.
- Training: Training is one of the biggest challenges. Shay said that in his opinion, most companies want to do the right thing, but if they don’t have the knowledge and/or motivation, they can’t.
- Process Safety Knowledge: “For big pharmaceutical companies, it’s not an issue to send the powder for an overseas laboratory to test MIE and Kst,” he says. “But for smaller companies, that may be an issue.”
- Cost: “Process safety, in general, is sometimes a candidate for cost-cutting, especially if management doesn’t understand the risk involved with the cost-cutting that they take.”
- Maintenance: In larger companies in particular, the zoning is usually correct and the equipment installed is suitable for the required zone. However, maintenance can be inadequate, with the maintenance teams not understanding how to work with explosion prevention devices.
- Knowledge Sharing: Knowledge sharing in Israel is more problematic due to its distance from Europe and the U.S.
What Steps Are Being Taken to Support Process Safety?
There are courses available to make important knowledge more widely available. One is a 15-day course given by Eyal Zadok about electrostatic hazards while the other course (also 15 days long) covers the HAZOP, the LOPA, and the functional safety aspects of explosive dust.
Shay said that the first Sunday of every month, the Association of Engineers in Israel does a process safety training session. It consists of a lecture by knowledgeable guest speakers, all of them experts in their respective fields and eager to promote process safety in Israel.
He emphasized that we can’t continue to rely on experience and tragedy to learn more about safety.
“That’s not acceptable anymore. So we need to harness the power of technology, things like CFD. We need to promote artificial intelligence, AI solutions that really would implement the knowledge that was gathered throughout the years and be used to support the safety manager or the process safety manager at the most remote facility in the world.”
Shay believes that most accidents could have been prevented if knowledge was more widespread. There’s no lack of information, but there is a problem in increasing awareness of it.
“The more we are able to implement technological solutions to take advantage of computers, the more we will be able to do our work better.”
Conclusion
“We really want to drive process safety knowledge and support better knowledge sharing between the companies,” Shay explains. “We think that in process safety, we don’t have any secrets. The more you share, the more you understand. It benefits both sides. I think it’s very important for everyone to share their knowledge, to share their experience, to share their accidents. Eventually, it will save lives.”
If you would like to discuss further, leave your thoughts in the comments section below. You can also reach Shay Segev directly:
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shay-segev-32493125/
If you have questions about the contents of this or any other podcast episode, you can go to our ‘Questions from the Community’ page and submit a text message or video recording. We will then bring someone on to answer these questions in a future episode.
Resources mentioned
Dust Safety Science
Combustible Dust Incident Database
Dust Safety Science Podcast
Questions from the Community
Dust Safety Academy
Dust Safety Professionals
Organizations
NFPA
Standards
IEC 60079
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