How tragic!
Six people died and 42 were injured after a sugar dust explosion at Imperial Sugar Co.’s sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, Georgia, near Savannah, Georgia, Bloomberg reported.
The culprit? Sugar dust.
That’s right, sugar dust in a "silo" — where refined sugar is stored before being packaged — "likely ignited like gunpowder," reported the AP’s Ross Bynum, attributing Imperial Sugar Co. president and CEO John Sheptor.
"Now, what does that say about our favorite little `treat’?" wondered Karen, who is a member of my Break Free to Soar With Glee program.
This incident certainly gives one pause about America’s sweetheart — sugar. Think about it: If sugar dust can explode, what then happens in our bodies after we consume this sweetener in abundance?
(You can get more info about sugar’s dangers by reading my book SUGAR SHOCK!)
Anyhow, back to the cause for the blast. As the AP’s Ross Bynum explains, "Sugar dust can be combustible if it’s too dry and builds up a static electric charge." This means, he adds, that static electricity, sparks from metal tools or a cigarette can ignite explosions.
"Sugar dust sounds like an unlikely killer," Bynum writes, "but federal regulators were
criticized just two years ago for doing too little to stop it from triggering
explosions at industrial plants."
Indeed, sadly, this is not the first time such a horrifying explosion has occurred.
"More than 300 dust
explosions have killed more than 120 workers in grain silos, sugar plants and
food processing plants in the past three decades," the AP’s Bynum reports. "Most are preventable by
removing fine-grain dust as it builds up, experts say."
According to the AP, the "U.S. Chemical
Safety Board, which was sending investigators to the plant Friday, said in a
special report in 2006 that OSHA had no comprehensive regulation to prevent
these explosions and that its program `inadequately addresses dust explosion
hazards.’"
Just listen to Bynum’s scary report about what happened: "A blast as
devastating as a bomb Thursday night collapsed floors, spread flames throughout
the plant, buckled metal girders into twisted heaps and shredded sheet metal.
Four bodies were pulled from tunnels underneath the rubble, and crews were
looking for at least four missing workers."
The Imperial Sugar website had only this announcement on its website on Saturday afternoon.
Injured people were taken to local hospitals, the Sugar Land, Texas-based Imperial
said. Eight were flown to a burn center in Augusta, Georgia, the Associated
Press reported.
Port Wentworth produced 14.51 million hundredweight of sugar in the
company’s last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, according to its
annual report, a fact reported by Bloomberg’s Alistair Holloway and
Choy Leng Yeong.