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IN A VACUUM Chauffeur Jack lITardle needed some petrol to clean up spilled paint.
Using a vacuum cleaner he siphoned petrol from a car at the Stanton and Staveley works at Ilkeston, Derbyshire, recently.
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The petrol burst into flames destroying two cars in a garage at the works.
One was a company car the other belonged to Mr. Wardle, of Mountfield Avenue, Sandiacre.
500 TANKERS CARRY LIQUID GAS
About 500 tankers carrying liquefied gas operate regularly on British roads, said a report sent to MPs recently.
The Chemical Industries Association survey set out safety precautions taken in Britain and reasons why dangerous chemicals have to be moved round the country.
"In ensuring that 'hazardous' materials in transport do not become 'dangerous' there can be no room for complacency or for freezing the development of safe methods and practices at a particular stage of development", said the association.
The association has its own safety code and would be happy to see the Government adopt it as the basis of legislation to pull all operators into the net.
But although the code covers tankers it does not extend to marking of individual barrels of dangerous chemicals. This is now being studied following an incident in East London recently when several people were overcome by fumes after a container fell off a lorry.
The report is a laymen's guide to what the industry has been doing over many years and is designed to reassure the public that stringent safety standartis are being enforced.
Most dangerous chemicals are converted into safe products before they go on the road. Gases are too bulky to be moved at normal pressure and have to be compressed, many are liquified and sent in road-tanker loads, but almost as much goes by rail, in trains under close supervision. There is no record of an accident yet ,happening in Britain which reptured a tank used by the chemical industry for moving liquified gas.
From the Daily Telepraph 11th August 1978
GANG SOLD PETROL FOR SOp
Business was brisk at a Birmingham filling station offering petrol at SOp a gallon. Rapidly, 1,350 gallons were sold.
But the garage owners had no idea what was going on until a week later, Birmingham magistrates were told recently.
Det. Con. John Hedigan said the garage had been closed for and a large amount of petrol was brought for the reopening at the end of May. But thieves moved in, reopened the premises early, and sole the petrol one weekend.
A man and a woman said to have had a 'very minor part' in the fiddle were each given a two-year conditional discharge by the magistrates.
Mr James Bailey, the Chairman, told AlIen Michael Broad, 23, and Mrs Catherine Cowley, a mother of three: "Th e persons who set this up have not yet been brought to justice. We feel you were two very foolish innocent parties".
Broad of Capern Grove, Harborne, Birmingham, and Mrs Cowley, of Simcox Gardens, Woodgate Valley Birmingham, both pleaded guilty to stealing 200 gallons of petrol from the garage in Island Road, Handsworth, Birmingham.
For jUst over two hours on Sunday, May 14 Mrs COwley operated the till and Broad "touted" for motorists who stopped at nearby traffic lights telling them about the cheap petrol.
They said that a Pakistani named "Mo" had asked them to help out and they did not realise it was suspicious until later.
Det. Con. Hedigan, of the Serious Crimes Squad, said the people named by the two accused had been interviewed. "They have denied being involved and there is insufficient evidence to proceed against them", he said.
The chemical industry is paying dearly for its past mistakes and accidents. Today it is surrounded by innumerable packs of watchdogs, watching its every move. As a result the industry often has forced on it unnecessary and sometimes absurd restrictions on the use of its products.
One senior executive who holds this view strongly is Norman Mischier, chairman of Hoechst UK, who at a Press dinner recently retailed the following cautionary tale, borrowed we are informed, from an ICI Safety magazine.
"ICI has announced the discovery of a new fire-fighting agent to add to their existing range. Known as WATER (Wonderful And Total Extinguishing Resource), it augments, rather than replaces, existing agents such as dry powder and BCF which have been in use from time imemorial. It is particularly suitable for dealing with fires in buildings, timber yards and warehouses.
Though required in large quantities, it is fairly cheap to produce and it is intended that quantities of about a million gallons should be stored in urban areas and near other installations of high risk ready for immediate use.
BCF and dry powder are usually stored under pressure, but WATER will be stored in open ponds or reservoirs and'conveyed to the scene of the fire by hoses and port ab le pumps.
"ICI's new proposals are already encountering strong oPposition from safety and environmental groups. Professor Connie Barriner has pointed out that, if anyone immersed their head in a bucket of WATER, it would prove fatal in as little as three minutes.
Each of ICI's proposed reservoirs will contain enough WATER to fill half a million two-gallon buckets. Each bucket-full could be used a hundred times so there is enough WATER in one reservoir to kill the entire population of the UK.
Risks of this size, said Professor Barriner, should not be allowed, whatever the gain. If the WATER were to get out of control, the results of Flixborough or Seveso would pale into insignifance by comparison. What use A local authority spokesman said that he would strongly oppose planning permissmn for construction of a WATER reservoir in this area the most stringent precautions were followed.
Open ponds were certainly not What would prevent people falling in them? What would prevent the contents from leaking out? At the very least the WATER would need to be contained in a steel pressure vessel surrounded by a leak-proof concrete wall.
A spokesman from the Fire Brigades said he did not see the need for the new agent.
The new agent would bring with it risks, particul!;.,rly to firemen', greater than any possible gain. Did we know what would happen to this new medium if it was exposed to intense heat? It had been reported that WATER was a constituent of beer. Did this mean that firemen would be intoxicated by the fumes?
The Friends of the World said that they had obtained a sample of WATER and found it caused clothes to shrink. If it did this to cotton, what would it do to men?
In the House of Commons recently, the Home Secretary was asked if he would prohibit the manufacture and storage of this lethal new material. The Home Secretary replied that, as it was clearly a major hazard, local authorities would have to take advice from Health and Safety Executive before giving planning permission. A full investigation was needed and the Hazards group would be asked to report".
(FROM CHEMICAL AGE MAGAZINE)
DANGEROUS GOODS ADVISORY GROUP
The Civil Aviation Authority has set up a Dangerous Goods Advisory Group to assist it in reviewing the requirements controlling the carriage of potentially daagerous materials by air, The Group will also assist the Authority in deciding UK policy regarding the international standards relating to the carriage of such goods which are to be produced by the
Civil Aviation Authority
British Airways
British Caledonian Airways Ltd Transmeridian Air Cargo Ltd
British Air Line Pilots Assoc.
British Shippers' Council
Institute of Freight Forwarders Chemical Industries Association PIRA (Packaging Industry) Health and Safety Executive Laboratory of the Government Chemist Department of Transport Department of Trade The address of the Secretariat for the Group is:Civil Aviation Authority Flight Operations 4(b) (Dangerous Goods Section) Rooms 315/316 Aviation House 129, Kingsway London, WC2B 6NN
Telephone number:- 01-405 6922 Exts. 292/293
AN ODD ODE
The following item was related to me by Mr. S. Warner, who is a Petroleum Officer in Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland. I found it a delightful story, and obtained Sam's permission to reproduce it for the benefit of readers. Stuart Crewe.
At re-organization of Local Government I 'inherited' a number of Licensed sites from a former Rural District Council, and in due course made a visit of inspection to a remote country area, seeking a Licencee with a 500 gallon installation, apparently a 'private tank' - probably a farmer. As there was no postal address shown on the fjle which had come to me, I had perforce to try to trace my rustic client in what we call a "townland" area (a parish in an English county). I eventually found an ancient peasant and addressed him thus" please can you tell me where Mr. ---- lives in this district?" "Indeed and I can, sur" says the old one "down the way your'e going now, a big farm on the left-you couldn't miss it". "Thanl<: says I "and would you say it would be far now?" "ach, indeed not at all" says he "sure its only about five minni ts walk if you run!". Following my digestion of this intelligence, I continued my quest, like Jason of old, and in due course found the farm that I sought, and upon explaining my business to the elderly proprietor, was conducted to his petrol pump for inspection of the apparatus, such as it was. I say, such as it was because it was, as they say in all the best novels; sinking heart that I viewed, the machinery. The pump was located just within the open door of an old byre, or cowshed to the uneducated in country ways. The pump was early Georgian (V) and manually operated, if, indeed, it operated at all. It was festooned with cobwebs and bits of goodness knows what, and on a nearby rickety shelf stood an old conical shaped fire extinguisher that might well have come out of the Ark.
The shelf also held an unbelievable collection of old jamjars, fuil of
God-knows-what, oil cans, various old dishes and bits and pieces of tools, and what looked like a selection of veterinary remedies in which James Herriot might have had a passing interest. Anyway, I thought, I might as well have a look at the damned thing, and I stooped down and tentatively inserted by head in amongst the works. I hadn't the foggiest idea what I was looking for _ this was all outside my experience heretofore. With shaking hand I gently fingered what looked like a little tap or valve, and immediately there came the most thunderous explosion'. I almost jumped out of my skin, and as I involuntarily straightened up, my head came into contact with a metal coaming on the pump, and I was almost stunned. As
I reeled back, clasping my head in my hands, I staggered into the underSide of the shelf previously referred to, and the whole cargo of tins, pots and pans, old paintbrushes and evil-smelling contents of ole jam-jars cascaded around and upon me.
The fire-extinguisher landed on the business end, and immediately settled my doubts as to whether it was functional -a sea of foam extruded from the spout, adding the finishing touch to the whole performance. I reeled from the cowshed, seeing more stars than Patrick Moore ever dreamt of, and wondered what the H-- I had
