Letters
Chemical Engineering Progress, Jun 2010
We look forward to receiving your letters. Send them to cepedit@aiche.org
TEACHING STUDENTS TO PRACTICE SAFE DEMOS Regarding the article “Students Teach Students Mass and Heat Transfer” on p. 6 of the April issue of CEP: The photo illustrates a number of unsafe practices.
First, most of the students are not wearing proper personal protective equipment (PPE). It is possible that the picture was taken after the experiments were completed and the PPE removed. However, this still reflects a poor safety situation since most people would assume that it was taken during the experiments.
The PPE required should include (at a minimum) safety glasses and lab coats. Some of the students are wearing gloves, but they also have short sieeve shirts, exposing then- arms to possible chemical exposure.
Also, I do not see any spill containment, such as a tray, to contain any chemical spills on the table.
The caption provided with the picture lists a number of chemicals that would require this PPE, although this experiment is not described in the article text.
I support these types of outreach programs to encourage students to consider careers in science, engineering and technology. However, ii is very important at this young age to instill in students the understanding that experiments have hazards, and that these hazards must be controlled properly to prevent exposure to people or damage to the environment. It is also important to demonstrate to students the concept of safety culture – it is easier to do this at a young age.
I suggest you screen these types of pictures in the future to ensure that they reflect the proper safety image for AIChE.
Dan Crawl
Houghton, MI
In Reply:
The picture was indeed taken before the actual demonstration began. During the actual demo, all students were in the appropriate protective gear. Unfortunately, we only had pre-demo pictures for the event, as we did not allow picture taking during the demo period to avoid distractions. We at the Univ. of Michigan make every effort to train our students in the appropriate PPE for different situations.
Omolola Eniola-Adefeso
Ann Arbor, MI
SOURCES OF SAFETY EQUIPMENT
Editor ’s Note: Several readers requested more information about April’s Process Safety Beacon (”Fire Protection – Long-Bolt Flangeless Valves,” p. 24). One asked about the recommended grade and thickness of stainless steel for the metal fire-resistant covers. Another wanted to know where to find the standard acceptable length for studs and what manufacturers produce metal covers for long-bolt flanges.
In Reply:
Thank you for your interest in the Process Safety Beacon topic. It is important to remember that the Beacon is written for operators, mechanics, and other plant workers. Even though many engineers, managers, and other technical personnel read the Beacon, and we hope learn a lot from it, it is not aimed at them. The subtitle of the Beacon is “Messages for Manufacturing Personnel.” So, the Beacon focuses on recognizing hazards, understanding hazards, understanding safety equipment, and understanding what operators and other plant workers must do to make sure that safety systems are operated properly. The authors actually try to avoid making the Beacon overly technical and engineering-design oriented so that the messages will be relevant to plant workers.
With regard to the Beacon on long-bolt flanges, we do not talk about whether a particular facility should have these or not, or how they should be designed if they are installed. The message of this Beacon for operators is; “If you have these in your plant, this is a possible reason why the designer chose to install them (there may be other reasons as well), and this is what you have to do to make sure they work as intended.” If operators understand the hazard and what they need to do to ensure the equipment is operated and maintained correctly, they are more likely to properly take care of the equipment.
AIChE and the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) do not have the appropriate resources and expertise to make specific recommendations on the design of equipment for a specific plant. AIChE and CCPS are not standards-setting organizations, and the series of CCPS “Guidelines” books are required to go through a lengthy internal and external peer-review process before they are published.
We suggest that you discuss this issue with internal piping and insulation experts. You can also contact engineering design and construction companies, who should have expertise on whether or not such an installation is appropriate for a particular facility and, if so, how it should be fabricated
heat reflective coating
