DSS154: Dust Explosion Loss History In Asia

In this episode of the Dust Safety Science podcast, we continue on our global journey by reviewing dust explosion loss history in Asia. This is the final episode in a series covering loss history around the world:

In Episode 151, we talked about early textbooks and regulations on combustible dust in North America.
Episode 152 covered dust explosion loss history in North America.
Episode 153 reviewed loss history in Europe.

Understanding these losses is extremely important. We can’t let ourselves forget the potential dangers, which haven’t disappeared to time or been stopped by national borders, which is why continuous learning is so important. Understanding the risks and solutions in other countries can also help Dust Safety Science fulfill its mission of zero dust-related fatalities worldwide by 2038.

Although there aren’t a lot of resources that cover dust explosion loss history in Asia, we located four really interesting papers that covered different regions:

‘Recent Development of Standardization of Testing Methods for Dust Explosions in Japan’ by Dr. Masaharu Nifuku and his co-workers. Written in 2000, it’s published in the Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, Vol. 13, page 243 to page 251.
‘Case Studies for Dangerous Dust Explosions in South Korea During Recent Years’ by Seonggyu Pak and his team. It was published in the open journal Sustainability, Vol. 11 in 2019.
‘Dust Explosion Incidents in China,’ published by Yan and Yu in 2012 in Process Safety Progress, Vol.3 page 187 to 189.
‘A Statistical Analysis of Coal Mine Accidents Caused by Coal Dust Explosions in China,’ written by Zheng, Feng, Jing, Qian, Li, Liu and Huang and published in 2009 in Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries. Vol 22, pg 528-532

Let’s take a closer look at what they tell us about combustible dust safety in Asian countries.

Japan

The paper ‘Recent Development of Standardization of Testing Methods for Dust Explosions in Japan’ by Nifuku and his co-workers is a joint effort by the National Institute for Resources & Environment in Japan, the Association of Powder Process Industry & Engineering and the National Research Institute of Industrial Safety to develop a Japanese industrial standard for testing of combustible dust.

According to the authors, there was an annual average of around 10 dust explosions between 1950 and 1970 and five during the 1980s and 1990s. This accounts for all industries in Japan. The casualty numbers are relatively high: between 1953 and 1995, there were 269 explosions, 106 fatalities and 567 injuries reported. This amounts to between five and 10 explosion incidents, 13 injuries, and two to three fatalities a year.

When they looked at the materials involved, they found that metals were the most common material, accounting 24% of the explosions, 26% of the injuries and 38% of the fatalities. In the U.S. and Germany, only 10 to 20% of the incidents involve metal dust.

South Korea

‘Case Studies for Dangerous Dust Explosions in South Korea During Recent Years’ by Seonggyu Pak and his team was a joint effort by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency – Major Accident Prevention Center, the Department of Environment and Safety Engineering at Ajou University, and Decommissioning Technology Research Division – the Atomic Energy Research Institute, and several others.

In this paper, the authors looked at a 34-year period from 1984 to 2018 and found 53 combustible dust and flammable solid-related explosions in South Korea. This comes out to around 1.5 incidents a year. It seems like a low number given the high Gross Domestic Product in South Korea, but it’s possible that incidents are being underreported.

The report found that metals were the most common material involved in dust incidents, but plastics were the most deadly. They accounted for only 19% of the incidents but over 50% of the fatalities and 47% of the injuries.

China

‘Dust Explosion Incidents in China’ examines general industry (excluding coal mining) during a 31-year period from 1981 through to 2011. The authors found an average two to three explosions, 16 injuries and 4 fatalities per year.

China has experienced some large and significant dust explosions. One flax dust incident in a factory killed 58 workers and injured 177 others. We’ve also mentioned the 2014 Kunshan, China aluminum dust explosion, which injured over 250 people, in a previous episode.

The materials involved were closer to what we’d see here in North America. Flour and feed industries made up 39% percent of the general industry explosions, whereas metal made up 10% and plastics made up 15%.

A second paper, ‘A Statistical Analysis of Coal Mine Accidents Caused by Coal Dust Explosions in China,’ by Zheng et al, was published by the State Key Laboratory of Explosion Science & Technology, the School of Safety Science & Engineering and the International Office of Henan Polytechnic University. They found that 106 coal dust explosions had occurred in China coal mining industries between the years 1949 and 2007. That’s an average of two a year, which is high.

Even more alarming were the casualties: 4,613 casualties from coal mine explosions. Around 2500 of these involved methane in the coal mine and 2100 were straight coal dust explosions, resulting in almost 80 fatalities a year over this 58-year period.

The authors concluded, “To sum up, SMS (safety management systems) and safety culture badly need to be put in practice to prevent coal mines from being hit by coal dust explosions. Safety management systems, including management technical affairs, is the hardware necessary to guarantee safety, and safety culture is the software.”

Conclusion

These combustible dust incidents in Asia confirm the need for a global reporting network: a common system for incident reporting in terms of what’s reported, what’s captured and how it is stored. We’re starting to do this at the combustible dust incident database, but it needs to be expanded.

Our vision is to form a working group where we can come up with a common system for reporting what’s available, quantifying the percentage of incidents being captured in different countries, and having a representative from each country who can provide guidance and direction on the reporting network. If this is something you’re interested in, you can email [email protected] or you can go to DustSafetyShare.com.

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.