ER Stories and Lessons Learned 2010-02-18

 

Recently Liz Aton and I were trading war stories about interesting ER’s that we have been a part of over the years. As we tried to one up each other it occurred to us that these stories might be of value to the younger ER members. The challenge is how to capture these so that they would be of value and what forum should we use?

 

For example, one of my favorites was the one I posted recently

A local phosphoric acid plant burped phosphine during a reaction runaway. This was sucked into our facility ventilation system, setting off every one of our hydride gas detectors in the building that manufactured arsine, phosphine and hydrogen selenide as well as adjacent buildings for the lab and

cylinder storage areas. Immediate panic!, where do you go? What is it? Should we sound the facility evacuation horn for the neighbors? The sheer terror of the moment is one we will never forget. We panicked not knowing which way to run. Fortunately the windshift was brief and the sensors all cleared after a few minutes. We conducted an exhaustive recon of the facility using our handheld detectors. We knew the event was real since the MDA tapes were all discolored grey. We didn't find anything. We were perplexed for weeks, until we figured out that a rare windshift occurred, along with bad atmospheric stability and the event at the Phosphoric acid plant directly to the east. We were able to verify this using our weather station data and a call to the plant manager at that site. The wind at our facility over ten years based on NOAA data was fairly constant from west to east over 50% and north to south the remainder of the time. This was a rare east to west coupled with a reactor runaway.

 

Lessons Learned

Know your neighbors and what could possibly affect your safety systems. We confirmed that it was Phosphine but where did it come from? Know your typical local weather data A weather station and recorder can provide meaningful data during an incident After that incident I always parked close to the front door and had a personal escape pack!

Eugene Ngai

Chemically Speaking LLC

 

ERT PPE 2009-12-17

 

Sent: Thursday, December 17, 2009 7:52 PM

To: SEMI EHS Grapevine

Subject: ERT PPE

SEMI Environmental Health & Safety Grapevine

 

Hi,

Could people please let me know what the standard PPE response requirements are for your ERTs?

Regards

Jonathon

 

 

Jonathan

From a gas suppliers perspective, it would all depend on what chemical is involved in the incident. Corrosion resistant PPE is typically not resistant to fire. A significant challenge is when both hazards are present such as Trichlorosilane which is corrosive, flammable, water reactive liquid

Eugene Ngai

Chemically Speaking LLC

 

 

Evacuation/ERT scenarios 2010-02-15

 

Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 8:08 PM

To: SEMI EHS Grapevine

Subject: Evacuation/ERT scenarios

SEMI Environmental Health & Safety Grapevine

 

Hi,

I’m looking to plan a site evacuation and ERT drill and am tossing up a few scenarios. At this stage I’m thinking along the lines of a toxic gas leak inside our fab…such as DCS or NH3, but I’d be interested to see what other scenarios people have come up for their sites with and found to be effective.

Cheers

Jonathon

 

Jonathon,

I have added a unconscious victim to the exercise. It adds to the anxiety level as the team debates whether to make entry without full PPE, victim decon and medical treatment, wait for paramedics? Even though I’s an exercise, emotions seem to get in the way.

Eugene Ngai

Chemically Speaking LLC

Whether to start CPR PH3 2004-12-16

 

Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2004 5:29 PM

To: SEHS Grapevine

Subject: Whether to start CPR

SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & SAFETY (SEHS)

GRAPEVINE

 

Greetings,

If a PH3 gas leak accident victim is not breathing, can we start CPR as

soon as the victim is rescued from the clean room and transferred to a

safe location? Or should we wait for qualified medical professional? The

assumption is no other external injury.

This question came from ERT members who have been trained and qualified

for CPR at a clean room emergency exercise.

They fear secondary inhalation of toxic gas from the victim.

Supika

 

 

Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2004 8:45 PM

To: SEHS Grapevine

Subject: RE: Whether to start CPR

SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & SAFETY (SEHS)

GRAPEVINE

 

I would follow the recommendations of the MSDS, the one I just looked up says if not breathing remove to uncontaminated area and administer artificial resuscitation. This can be done with your breaths or one of those disposable bag resuscitators (they can be purchased from Lab Safety for ~$38). I would think that by the time you move the victim to a safe location, that if there was any gas left in the lungs it would be pretty minimal. The natural tendency is for the lungs to empty if not working normally on their own. That is why you don't have to push the air out of the lungs, it naturally comes out.

Kim

 

 

Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2004 8:57 PM

To: 'SEHS Grapevine'

Subject: RE: Whether to start CPR

 

Attached please find the US health dept guidance on Phosphine exposures. As noted, Phosphine gas will not pose a decon or secondary exposure issue.

Eugene Ngai