West Pharmaceutical Services explosion

[2] In October 2002, an inspector found a total of 22 "serious violations" at the plant, but said that these were routine findings for numerous industrial premises in North Carolina.

[3] As part of the manufacturing process, rubber strips were doused in a solution of polyethylene powder and water to reduce their stickiness and then blown dry.

While dust was regularly cleaned from visible surfaces in the production area, some was sucked in by air intakes and collected above the facility's dropped tile ceiling.

Witnesses reported hearing "a sound like rolling thunder", as what was later determined to be a chain reaction of explosions rapidly propagated.

[9] The investigation initially focused on two separate possibilities: a failure of a newly installed gas line, and a large dust explosion.

[9] But they were unaware that ventilation systems within the room pulled the dust up into the ceiling, where a layer 0.25 to 0.5 inches (6.4 to 12.7 mm) thick had accumulated.

[9] Several weeks prior to the accident, maintenance personnel did notice a thick coating of dust on surfaces above the suspended ceiling, but failed to realize the imminent danger it posed.

[10] It was determined that West had in their possession material safety data sheets (MSDSs) supplied by the powder manufacturer that warned of the danger of such explosions, but did not refer to them.

A brief summary: Less than a week after the disaster, the local county commission voted to donate $600,000 to West to rebuild.

The board's chairman, Carolyn Merritt, described the accidents as collectively raising "safety questions of national significance... Workers and workplaces need to be protected from this insidious hazard".

The study reviewed how the dust explosion hazard was controlled by regulatory codes, standards, and good operating practices, and also compared the US response to other nations' solutions to the same problem,[14] in order to produce a review of potential initiatives to reduce the occurrence of industrial dust explosions.