On Fri, 4 Nov 2005 08:06:27 -0500, "George" George@least wrote:


"Mike Berger" wrote in message
...
My shop vac pushes enough air to ionize ne-2 neon lights and make
them glow. It gets very dry here in the midwest during the winter.
This is NOT urban legend. We see sparks and grain dust explosions
every year. It's not a big stretch to imagine a fire from sawdust.
People in this newsgroup have ignited it with sparks or hot metal
particles.

Vic Baron wrote:

IMHO, ignore the grounding - it really falls under the urban legend
heading.


" 'Our preliminary information shows that there have been 150 dust
explosions resulting in more than 80 deaths over the past two decades,' CSB
representative Dan Horowitz says. Hoyle, who is heading the investigation,
traveled to Baltimore in October to attend a meeting of NFPA's Technical
Committee on Handling and Conveying of Dusts, Vapors, and Gases, which has
jurisdiction over NFPA 654."

You need to do something. It would seem half the explosions in the US are
happening where you live.

The folks at NFPA will remind you that proper particle composition, size,
dispersal but overall confinement, and the availability of oxygen don't
guarantee an explosion. Even the ignition source has to fall within a fairly
narrow set of parameters.

That's why dust explosions so rare. Now explosions resulting from "dust"
off-gassing, like plastics and such are more common, but they're not really
dust explosions, nor are they so picky in their conditions.



OK, let's get a look at that preliminary data.
how many of those were in home shop dust collectors?
how many of them were caused by static discharge?

I'll guess none.