A disaster waiting to happen ?

One thing recent events in Texas highlight is the danger of allowing a housing suburb to be established alongside an explosives factory.   In the case of the town of West, the explosives factory came first and lax building laws allowed homes, schools, even a nursing home - to surround the factory building.

When that factory caught fire and then exploded the blast registered over 2 on the Richter scale - which measures earthquakes.  The dead are still being counted and the damage to the surrounding suburb is near total, and it is not the first time that Texas has suffered death and destruction from an industrial explosion.

Back in 1947 a ship was being unloaded in the Port of Texas city. It was carrying a cargo of 2,300 tonnes of ammonium nitrate and when it exploded it wrecked most of that city - and caused the death of 581 people.   Ammonium nitrate is both a farm fertiliser - and the main ingredient of commercial explosives.

This industrial accident at the town of West will result in a mammoth investigation and already there are suggestions that safety rules had been breached in the past and required inspections had not taken place over several years.   This seems to be a common factor when disaster strikes,   There are probably thousands of unsafe situations where disaster is waiting to happen - but sheer good luck has allowed that day of judgement to stay it's hand.    It is so easy to be wise - after the event !

Here in Australia, that Texas explosion should serve as a wakeup call.   We manufacture explosives in this country and one of the main plants is located on Kooragang island - in the port of Newcastle.   Now would be a very good time to take stock of what quantities of substances such as ammonium nitrate are held ready for processing - and how many people live within what would be considered a blast zone for that amount of explosives.

Unfortunately, Safety usually comes into collision with politics when a danger is revealed.   Logic suggests that a dangerous plant should move to where it can safely continue to manufacture, but that brings costs into the equation - and then there is the emotive subject of job losses.    Forcing a manufacturer to close a factory and relocate often means that relocation will be in another country with a lower wage structure.  The usual response is to do as little as possible, but to claim that new safety regulations apply that eliminate - or at least reduce - the danger of a catastrophe.

At least the danger is clearly on the wall.   Explosive manufacturing plants do explode - and we have one located in close proximity to other industries - and also close to a community where people live.   We can take a chance - cross our fingers and hope that Lady Luck smiles benevolently - or we can bite the bullet and do a proper investigation of the risks involved.

The odds are that a proper investigation will not deliver good news !