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It's a gas!

  • Jul. 12th, 2005 at 10:53 AM
Nuke
captpackrat
There are several large tanks of compressed gas in the storage room here at work. Argon, carbon dioxide, Freon, acetylene, and oxygen.

If you ask me, storing oxygen and acetylene together is just asking for trouble.

Aren't there some kind of regulations on how this stuff is supposed to be stored? The tanks are just stacked in a corner; they're not tied down or anything.
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bluedeer
Jul. 12th, 2005 06:39 pm (UTC)
Oxygen and Acetylene are often stored together, in the combination of an Acetylene torch. As long as the valves are secured and don't leak and the tanks are properly secured against falling over, they're generally very safely contained that way. Argon and Carbon Dioxide, it's the same. You may wish to mention to someone that the tanks should be secured more safely, but other than that, they should be fine.
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kibbles
Jul. 12th, 2005 07:36 pm (UTC)
They aren't supposed to be stored together.

Storage is different than having a torch set up.

Oh besides OSHA, the local fire department can be contacted about this, even to just call and ask what the regulations are for your local area. But they should not be STORED together.

(says the guy with all the certificates and liscences and shit from the fire dept.)
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kibbles
Jul. 12th, 2005 07:34 pm (UTC)
They are supposed to be on the opposite side of the building (or at least in seperate rooms), not together. Also supposed to be caged or strapped standing upright.

Dan says call OSHA. (He welds.)

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captpackrat
Jul. 13th, 2005 03:52 am (UTC)
I brought the situation up to the company executives, and one of them stated, "If OSHA ever did an inspection here, they'd kick our asses."

Great....
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kibbles
Jul. 13th, 2005 03:58 am (UTC)
Then the other question could be a call to the local fire department, not to report them but to simply ask the safest way to store them, they would know.

They'd rather give that information and save lives, I would think.

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dakhun
Jul. 12th, 2005 07:59 pm (UTC)
Yikes! You are not even supposed to store EMPTY gas cylinders combustible & non-combustible together, let alone the full ones.

http://www.bocgases.ca/newsite_eng/aboutboc/safety/special/cylinderstorage.html
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captpackrat
Jul. 13th, 2005 04:01 am (UTC)
Thank you for the link. We are in violation of SOOOO many of those.

The fuel and oxygen tanks are within inches of each other, in a non-climate controlled storage room that's used to tools and materials, a room that anyone and everyone can enter (and in fact, the smokers in the company take their cigarette breaks just outside the door, about 10 feet from the cylinders. When it rains, they sometimes smoke inside that room) The walls are just standard drywall, probably not very fire retardant. And I wouldn't be surprised if the acetylene cylinders have been transported horizontally.

I'll bring these up with the Powers That Be and see if anything can be done about it.
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