US CHEMICAL SAFETY BOARD (CSB) TO HOLD PUBLIC MEETING IN EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ TO HEAR FINDINGS FROM US INK AND MILLARD INVESTIGATIONS AMMONIA RELEASE, WITH INFORMATION INTO HOW THESE INCIDENTS OCCURRED AND HOW SIMILAR FUTURE INCIDENTS CAN BE PREVENTED OR MITIGATED.

US CHEMICAL SAFETY BOARD (CSB) TO HOLD PUBLIC MEETING IN EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ TO HEAR FINDINGS FROM US INK AND MILLARD INVESTIGATIONS AMMONIA RELEASE, WITH INFORMATION INTO HOW THESE INCIDENTS OCCURRED AND HOW SIMILAR FUTURE INCIDENTS CAN BE PREVENTED OR MITIGATED.

The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) will convene a public meeting on January 15, 2015, starting at 6:00 p.m. at the Hilton Meadowlands Hotel, Two Meadowlands Plaza, Diamond Court Ballrooms A&B, East Rutherford, New Jersey 07073.

At the public meeting, the Board will hear from teams investigating the 2012 explosion and fire at the US Ink facility located in East Rutherford, NJ, that injured seven workers. The board will also consider a report into the CSB's investigation of the 2010 anhydrous ammonia release at Millard Refrigerated Services, a warehouse and distribution center in Theodore, Alabama, near Mobile, Alabama, where more than 130 members of the public sought medical attention as a result of an uncontrolled ammonia release.

This public meeting is intended to provide the community affected by the US Ink explosion and other interested stakeholders, with an opportunity to consider and hear about the CSB staff's findings on this matter.

In addition, the Board will also consider the staff's presentation and lessons learned resulting from the Millard ammonia release, with information into how these incidents occurred and how similar future incidents can be prevented or mitigated.

Following the staff presentation the Board will hear comments from the public. All staff presentations are preliminary and are intended solely to allow the Board to consider in a public forum the issues and factors involved in these cases. No factual analyses, conclusions, or findings presented by staff should be considered final. At the conclusion of the staff presentation the board may vote on the final products.

//____________________________________________________//

Ink Factory Explosion in East Rutherford Results in Multiple Casualties

An explosion at the US Ink plant in East Rutherford, New Jersey has left seven workers with injuries. The factory produces newspaper ink – the explosion occurred after a carbon compound ignited while the factory workers were mixing the convulsive chemicals. 


Owners of the plant, Sun Chemical, suspect that the explosion took place in the factory's 'pre-mix' room. Over twenty employees were standing outside the factory–many completely covered in the black chemicals ­­­–when the emergency workers arrived. They quickly set about decontaminating the workers by washing off the harmful chemicals.



Seven workers with first and second-degree burns were taken to the Hackensack University Medical Center. Three men who received burns to the hands and face were later taken to the St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, where they were listed in critical condition. 


Borough Assistant Fire Chief John Giancaspro stated that the explosion did not seem to be a result of human error but that the investigation would remain open. The last time the company was reported in the Occupational Safety and Healthy Administration database was in 1989. 

//_______________________________________________//

Dust collector suspected in fiery blast at East Rutherford ink plant

November 12, 2012

Seven workers were hurt in an Oct. 9 explosion at US Ink.

EAST RUTHERFORD — Federal investigators are focusing on a newly installed dust collector as the probable fuel source for an explosion and fire inside the US Ink plant that injured seven workers in October, an agency official said.

The workers were burned when a carbon compound used to make black newspaper ink ignited in ductwork at the Central Avenue plant, local fire officers said. Evidence, including witness inter views, points to a fiery chain reaction set off by a dust collector installed on the roof about a week before the Oct. 9 explosion, said Daniel Horowitz, director of congressional, public and board affairs for the federal Chemical Safety Board, a non-regulatory agency.

The dust collector is the "only probable fuel source" for the accident, said Horowitz.

Investigators "will be looking for anything that could have caused an undue amount of dust to accumulate," he said, including whether the system was equipped to handle the dust and oil mixture produced in ink manufacturing.

The inquiry was hampered by superstorm Sandy, but Horowitz said investigators will gather more dust samples from the collection system to test for combustibility.

After the sooty blast, three of the worst injured, with facial and hand burns, were taken to the burn unit at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston. Sun Chemical, which owns US Ink, didn't release the identities of the injured workers, citing federal insurance regulations. Borough police, however, identified six: Bill Wright, 49; Ed Caddell, 49; Greg Gualdarra ma, 56; Stan Prenenski, 54; Chris Jaje, 34; and John Castro, 59. No hometowns were given. A hospital spokesman confirmed that Caddell, Jaje and Castro were the three at St. Barnabas.

"I'm happy to report that the last hospitalized employee was released" at the start of November, Sun Chemical spokeswoman Lynn Campbell said in an email.

Campbell has said most of the plant is reopened, but the explosion area will remain closed until the inquiry is complete.

The Chemical Safety Board launched its probe last month after Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D–N.J., called for reviews ensuring chemical makers practice "the highest safety standards."

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration also is investigating and has six months to report findings, a spokesman said.

The flash fire occurred in the plant's pre-mix room, where carbon black, a dry pigment, is mixed with a liquid dispersing agent, some kind oil or water, to make black newspaper ink, according public statements and company documents from Sun Chemical. Horowitz said it's too early to know if carbon black dust fueled the explosion, adding investigators also are looking at a resin binder — a filmy adhesive — present in the area. The blast could have resulted from spontaneous combustion, said Horowitz, though investigators haven't ruled out that something else, like an electrical spark, ignited the dust, he said.

"There's no definite indication of what the source of ignition was," said Horowitz.

At a Titan Tire Corp. manufacturing plant in Mississippi in 1999, workers were burned when carbon black dust from a rubber-mixing machine ignited. Fluorescent lights above the machine didn't have a working dust collector, and "dust accumulations … may be ignitable by abnormal operation or failure of electrical equipment," a lawsuit against the firm argued.

The fire at US Ink apparently flashed around the dust collector on the roof and traveled down through ductwork to the pre-mix room, said Horowitz.

There are conflicting industry accounts of carbon black's combustibility and safety hazards. The International Carbon Black Association, a trade group, reported in 2004 that concentrations of carbon black dust don't pose an "explosion hazard," although "Under certain circumstances … it may be possible for smoldering carbon black to produce a sufficient concentration of combustible gases (carbon monoxide) to reach an explosive mixture in air."

A safety sheet from a carbon black manufacturer, Orion Engineered Carbons, states carbon black dust "at sufficient concentrations," can form an "explosive mixture with air."

The Orion safety sheet notes OSHA has not established a flammability classification for carbon black nor a temperature threshold for "auto-ignition." And OSHA doesn't include printing ink manufacturers on a list that flags industries that have the "potential" for combustible dust explosions.