Manual for Refrigeration Servicing Technicians - UNEP - Division of ...

6
Summary 6.1. Overview of refrigerant safety
This section covers the relevant safety issues
necessary for working with refrigerants. There is
a general description of the safety implications of
refrigerants, including toxicity, oxygen displacement,
flammability, degradation products, and high
pressure to highlight the major hazards. It includes
a summary of the important safety procedures, such
as personal protection, ensuring a safe working
area, working on a system safety, and how to handle
refrigerant cylinders appropriately.
Primarily aimed at the use of hydrocarbon (HC)
refrigerants, there is also a section detailing the
special requirements for working with flammable
refrigerants, and further guidelines specific to the
use of ammonia (NH3, R717).
Upon completion, the technician should be able to
identify safety procedures for handling refrigerants
and servicing installations.
Safe Refrigerant Handling
The use, storage and handling of all refrigerants present safety hazards.
These hazards may be related to a number of aspects, in that they may:
• be stored at high pressure
• displace oxygen when released in air
• have toxicological effects
• be flammable
• have dangerous decomposition products.
At least one of these characteristics applies to any refrigerant,
and for that reason, a variety of precautions must be followed to
ensure against injury to persons and damage to property. Thus,
safety begins with observing basic precautions and following simple
procedures.
Before using or handling any refrigerant, personnel should be
familiar with the characteristics of the specific substance, reading all
relevant information, which is always available from the supplier and
manufacturer.
It is also important to understand that safety hazards equally apply
to other materials used with refrigerating systems. These include
refrigeration oils, nitrogen, cleaning agents and oxy-acetylene for
brazing.
Whenever handling hazardous substances, a risk assessment
should be carried out, in order to determine what the potential risks