CTA Report, Draft 1, ISP Review - US Chemical Safety and Hazard ...

incident, production logs documented another four fires on line 405 that were not recorded in fire reports.
Of the three fire reports that were recorded from line 405, one contained a recommendation to “clean
inside of oven more often.” The other two reports did not include any recommendations to prevent
recurrence.
The February 20 incident could have been prevented if the CTA investigation program had addressed all
fires, identified their underlying causes, and issued and implemented recommendations to prevent
recurrence.
8.8 Other Major Dust Explosions
Accumulations of combustible dust within industrial facilities create the potential for severe dust
explosions. In the past 5 years, several major dust explosions have occurred in the United States—among
them, Ford Motor Company, Rouge River Plant, Michigan (February 1999); Jahn Foundry,
Massachusetts (February 1999); Rouse Polymerics International Inc., Mississippi (May 2002); and West
Pharmaceutical Services, North Carolina (January 2003). The circumstances of both the Jahn and West
incidents are similar to CTA and are discussed below.
8.8.1 Jahn Foundry
On February 25, 1999—4 years prior to the CTA incident—12 employees were badly burned from a dust
fire and explosion at the Jahn Foundry in Springfield, Massachusetts (OSHA, 1999). Three of the injured
later died. The foundry produced iron castings by pouring molten metal into molds composed of a sand
and phenolic resin mixture.
The Jahn and CTA incidents have the following factors in common:
• The same family of phenolic resin powder was involved.
• Borden Chemical manufactured the phenolic resin powders.
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