DustEx Research Ltd. was founded in 2016 with the goal of seeing a year with zero dust explosion fatalities by 2038. To achieve that result, Dr. Chris Cloney, managing director, and his team have been publishing resources designed to increase awareness and inspire change in industries handling combustible dust.
One of the resources is the semi-annual Combustible Dust Incident Report, which analyzes the materials, equipment and industries involved in tracked incidents across the globe.
Report highlights
According to the most recent 2020 Mid-Year Combustible Dust Incident Report, all combustible dust-related fatalities during the first half of 2020 were due to dust explosions. Of those injured, 76% were hurt in explosions while 24% suffered injuries in fires. At least three incidents (two in the U.S. and one in Canada) caused over $1,000,000 worth of property loss.
Regarding affected industries, agriculture and wood processing accounted for 43% and 31% of the reported incidents, respectively.
Food products, which include agricultural output, were involved in 41% of the tracked fires and explosions while agricultural equipment like silos, grain dryers and grain elevators feature prominently in the list of equipment involved.
Grain dust fires and explosions are frequently severe and can damage equipment, cause downtime and lead to injury or death. Be sure to conduct a regularly scheduled dust hazard analysis, use proper dust collection equipment and pay close attention to housekeeping, including scheduling routine equipment inspections and maintenance.
For a summary of the 2020 incident report, visit dustsafetyscience.com/2020-report-summary. ■
Related Reading
For more information, visit the Dust Safety Science Platforms at dustsafetyscience.com, which is an awareness platform tracking combustible dust incidents around the world.
DustSafetyAcademy.com is a training and education platform helping industries understand and learn about combustible dust fire and explosion hazards.
DustSafetyProfessionals.com is a vendor connection platform helping to connect you with the right service and equipment providers to make your facility safe.
