Explosion at ADM facility
The explosion and resulting fire at the facility in Louisiana yesterday was apparently caused by grain dust, but was said to be small.
ADM spokesman, David Weintraub, director, External Communications, said in a statement: “At around 1:15 Thursday morning, an explosion occurred at ADM’s export grain elevator facility at Destrehan, La.
“Our primary concern is always the safety of our colleagues. We are relieved that nobody was injured and that everyone has been accounted for.
“We do not yet know the full extent of the damage or when the facility will be fully operational, but we are working as quickly as possible to assess the damage.”
Officials told Reuters that the explosion was caused by grain dust, which coats equipment and fills the air at grain elevators and processing plants. Although what ignited the volatile particles was not known.
ADM has four elevators in Louisiana that export grain from the Mississippi Gulf. Destrehan is the largest of these facilities with a storage capacity of 6.4m bushels (163,400 tonnes) and an hourly loading capacity of 75,000 bushels (1,900 tonnes).
Safety issues
In 1987, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued the Grain Handling Facilities Standard as the result of grain dust explosions in the 1970s and 1980s. This effectively reduced the number and severity of combustible grain dust explosions in the grain handling industry, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW). However, it stopped short of regulating combustible dust in industries outside of the grain industry.
In 2006 the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) conducted a major study of combustible dust hazards. Its report noted that a quarter of the explosions between 1980 and 2005 occurred at food industry facilities, including sugar plants.
In February an explosion at Imperial Sugar's Savannah refinery killed 11 people and injured more than 50. Reports indicated that combustible dust may have been implicated in this explosion.
In response the UFCW and International Brotherhood of Teamsters filed a petition with the US Department of Labor demanding that the OSHA put a new permanent standard in place for control of combustible dust hazards in general industry and inspect sugar processing plants among other measures.
