What are the Common Gas Safety Accidents
Gas safety accidents are one of the common potential safety hazards in industrial production and daily life. There are a wide variety of harmful gases. Once a leak occurs or the gases are used improperly, it can easily trigger serious accidents such as fires, explosions, poisonings, and asphyxiations, posing a huge threat to people's lives and property. Therefore, it is of great significance to understand the types, causes, and preventive measures of common gas safety accidents.
1. Fire Accidents
A fire refers to a disaster caused by uncontrolled combustion in time or space. Among various disasters, fires are one of the main disasters that most frequently and commonly threaten public safety and social development.
01 Combustible gas leaks and burns upon contact with fire
Common gases: Natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, etc.
Cause: After a flammable gas leaks and reaches a certain concentration in the air, it will burn rapidly when it comes into contact with an open flame (such as a lighter flame or an electrical spark), and may even trigger a fire.
02 Fire Caused by Gas Supporting Combustion
Common gas: Oxygen.
Cause: Oxygen itself does not burn but can support combustion. If the oxygen concentration is too high around flammable materials, it will make the combustion of the combustibles more intense and may even trigger a fire. For example, if a large number of flammable items are stored in a warehouse and poor ventilation leads to oxygen accumulation, once there is a fire source, a fire is likely to occur.
2. Explosion Accidents
An explosion is a form of extremely rapid physical or chemical change of a substance. In an extremely short period of time, a large amount of energy is released, usually accompanied by strong heat release, light emission, and sound effects.
01 Explosion Caused by Flammable Gas Leakage
Common gases: Hydrogen, methane, acetylene, etc.
Cause: When a flammable gas mixes with air and reaches the explosion limit, it will explode when it comes into contact with an open flame or high temperature. For example, in chemical production, pipeline leakage causes hydrogen to mix with air, and an explosion may occur when it comes into contact with an electrical spark or electrostatic spark.
02 Explosion of a Mixture of Dust and Gas
Common situation: In industries such as grain processing and wood processing, flammable dust (such as flour dust and wood dust) mixes with air. When it reaches a certain concentration, it may trigger an explosion when it comes into contact with a fire source. If there are also flammable gases in the production environment, the explosion risk will increase further.
Cause: After the dust mixes with the gas, a more explosive mixture is formed. For example, when flour dust in a flour mill mixes with air and reaches the explosion limit, it will explode violently when it comes into contact with an open flame.
3. Poisoning Accidents
Toxic gases are a general term for gases harmful to the human body. Gas poisoning falls within the category of diseases caused by physical and chemical factors. Common harmful gas poisonings include ammonia poisoning, hydrogen sulfide poisoning, chlorine poisoning, carbon monoxide poisoning, and formaldehyde poisoning. Generally, gas poisoning accidents are likely to occur during operations in confined spaces, underground pipelines, and limited spaces. In daily family life, carbon monoxide poisoning is likely to occur due to gas leakage, "cooking tea around a stove", or improper use of gas water heaters.
01 Acute Poisoning
Common gases: Carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, chlorine, etc.
Cause: Inhaling a high concentration of toxic gas in a short period of time damages human tissues and organs. For example, when using a gas water heater in a confined space with poor ventilation, the concentration of carbon monoxide increases, which can cause acute carbon monoxide poisoning.
02 Chronic Poisoning
Common gases: Mercury vapor, benzene vapor, etc.
Cause: Long - term exposure to a low concentration of toxic gas causes the toxic substances to gradually accumulate in the body, damaging the nervous system, respiratory system, etc. For example, workers engaged in mercury - related work for a long time may suffer from mercury poisoning after inhaling mercury vapor, showing symptoms such as memory loss and finger tremors.
4. Suffocation accident
Suffocation accident refers to an accident where sudden fainting or even death occurs due to a lack of oxygen. This type of accident usually occurs in poorly ventilated or low oxygen environments, such as abandoned tunnels, shafts, culverts, underground pipelines, etc. The common causes of suffocation accidents include leakage of harmful gases, pipeline stringing, deposition and volatilization of large amounts of harmful gases, or low oxygen content in the local environment due to nitrogen sealing and other reasons.
01 Inert gas leakage suffocation
Common gases: nitrogen, carbon dioxide, etc.
Reason: Inert gases themselves are non-toxic, but when leaked in large quantities in enclosed spaces, they can reduce the oxygen content in the air, leading to suffocation of personnel due to lack of oxygen. For example, during cold storage maintenance operations, nitrogen gas leaks into the enclosed maintenance space, and maintenance personnel fail to detect it in a timely manner, resulting in suffocation.
02 Organic solvent volatilization suffocation
Common gases: certain high concentration organic solvent vapors (such as gasoline vapors).
Reason: After organic solvents evaporate, high concentration vapors are formed in enclosed spaces, which can displace oxygen from the air and cause suffocation of personnel. For example, in an underground parking lot, a large amount of gasoline leaks and evaporates, and personnel entering may suffocate due to lack of oxygen.
Product Recommendations
Replacing manual work with automation to achieve real-time monitoring of gas concentration can help discover problems in a timely manner, respond quickly, improve work efficiency, and ensure the safety of personnel to the greatest extent.