Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 002 Hazard: CHEMICAL

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: The employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that employees were exposed to carrying out chemical reactor operations in that: a- In Process Building at Reactor # 4 where a chemical reaction was in progress, the employer had not prepared and posted or otherwise provided adequate written procedural instructions to the employee(s) which would inform them of the proper rate and time of addition of raw materials; safe limits of temperature and pressure to be maintained within the reactor to safely control the chemical reaction; safely shuit down the reactor in the event that any process exceeded said safe operat- ing conditions; what to do in case of electric power failure and what procedures to take in the event it was necessary to shut down normal reactor operations if problems in other parts of the plant made it necessary. Among other methods, feasible and acceptable abatement methods to correct these hazards are as follows: l. An adrequate written Standard Operating Procedure (S.O.P.) hich will instruct and familiarize employees with proper reactor handling procedures and the safe limits of temperature and pressure in the reactor system for each receipe. 2. Methods to safely control and shut down reactor systems where there are indications of reactor or process malfunction shall be part of the S.O.P.'s as well as procedures for the safe evacuation of personnel from the area in question. 3. A check-off list shall be established which will ade- quately cover all reactant additions and associated methods of heating and cooling. This together with proper and in- formed supervision would prevent the improper addition or lack of addition of reactants and the improper heating anf cooling of the reactor which might cause instability in the reactor system. 4. An automatic alarm system shall be installed to warn vessel operators of excessive pressures and temperatures in process reactor systems.