industrial carbon monoxide

Larry (from OSHA)

I was dealing with an industrial accident today when my best friend, my AIM 450 carbon monoxide detector started talking. In the second floor office, the levels were about 35 to 37 ppm. and I asked the owner of the place what he had for forklifts and such. Well, the electric forklift wasn't a candidate so I ask what else you got. He says an oven, but it's electric. Again, I ask what else. Well there is a boiler, but it's only 4 years old. So, downstairs the levels go down to about 20 something and I'm dealing with this flesh ripping mixer for a while. Then we get to the boiler room. As soon as I go into the boiler room (where an employee was washing some parts of some piece of equipment), the levels go north very rapidly over 100 ppm. I did not feel like finding out just how high it was heading considering the very apparent odor of incomplete combustion, so I tell them to GET OUT NOW. The looks were priceless. Told the guy to shut it down right away and call his heating contractor. Had him ventilate and I left for lunch. (I have no desire to hang around with this stuff in the air). Returned and levels had dropped to about 18 in the boiler room. Now here is the question of the day. This 25 hp steam boiler was commissioned about 4 years ago and there was absolutely NO makeup air in the boiler room at all. So, strike one for the contractor who dropped the ball and strike two and three for the AHJ who signed off on this mess.

How did that happen?

Breathing deeply,

Larry (from OSHA)

Mark Hunt

Good job Larry!


Apparently CO can't read. The sticker said everything was OK!

High fives!

Mark H

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Larry (from OSHA)

The employer said

that he had not been feeling the best lately, but chalked it up to the stress of running a business. His office was right above the boiler room. These people had no clue and I have to wonder how long this had been going on and just how high the levels actually were. I was in there less than one minute with levels rapidly climbing over 100 ppm.

Thanks for your appreciation. I think I really helped several people yesterday.

Larry (from OSHA)

Unknown

Larry, what is amazing

is that in many areas industrial boilers have less regulation applied than residential systems. I would venture to guess that the boiler was installed and never tested.

I was staying at a hotel a while back and it just happened that the boiler was being replaced for the hotel. It was summertime so no rush to get it in. I wandered down to the boiler room. When I arrived they had removed the old boiler and had the new one waiting to go in. I was looking around and found that the flue for the old unit was all rotted out. When I mentioned this to the fella there he said "yeh we know" Four days later I decided to go take a look at the new installation. They had replaced all the piping up to the vertical rise on the flue but left the old flue in place, they had wrapped duct tape around the flue and no one was around. I looked over on the wall of the boiler room and a certificate of approval dated the day before was signed by the mechanical inspector.

The end of the story I approached hotel management and offered to conduct a free test on the boiler. They agreed and I took my class the next day to the boiler room. When we got the unit running the levels of CO got so high I had to evacuate the boiler room.

Final conclussion the mechanical inspector was called back and the contractor they met me in the boiler room. The first thing the inspector said was "who the hell are you to touch this boiler you are not liscensed in this state"
My answer was liscense or no liscense somebody did not do their job. They had to replace the entire flue in this building at no expense to the hotel.

I have been involved in a law suit they filed against me for three years now. My lawyer has made it very clear that I do not have to worry as they do not have a leg to stand on. Reason in that state you do not have to have a liscense to install and industrial boiler. What a joke.

Rudy

Good Call!!

Amazing what you find, isn't it???

Mark Hunt

So you need a liscence


to save lives?

I know it is an inconvenience for you Tim, but I'd love to see that go before a jury.



Mark H

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Larry (from OSHA)

It is amazing

What bothers me is how much of this stuff must go on without being found. Our group that deals with general industry locations is only about a dozen or so and I'm not the only one that gets hits like this. But this boiler was commissioned without any makeup air in place. That's what I'd call basic stuff. I'm just glad that we carry CO monitors with us now. We got these about 2 years ago, and everybody has said "I wonder what we were exposed to all these years?" I have to admit that my Gastec pump hasn't seen action in a long time and really didn't before either (unless there was some reason like a forklift or something).

I did get a chance to have a good conversation with the chief boiler inspector for our code services group that does boiler inspections in the state. He was not only amazed, but thought it might be a good idea to have their CO meters (4 gas) turned on when they enter an establishment. What a concept. I'm going to stop now before I say something I might regret!

Thanks for all that you do.

Larry (from OSHA)

Steamhead

It will take a disaster

to change that. That's what happened in Maryland.

About five or six years ago, in one of Baltimore City's ill-maintained, ill-supplied, ill-taught, ill-disciplined schools, something went wrong with a boiler that also handled the DHW supply- which had to be pretty hot to handle the needs of the kitchen. Hot water backed up into the cold water supply as far as a girls' restroom. A girl of about 12 (if I remember correctly) went into the restroom, perched, and when finished pulled the flushometer handle before getting up. She was scalded over most of the back of her hips and legs.

In the furor that resulted, all of the city school system's boilers were inspected and most of them failed. The state then tightened the licensing and inspection requirements for all commercial boilers.

In your case, it will probably take someone dying from CO before they change anything.

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