Making LPG use safe

It took almost three months after the incident that resulted in the death of Ria George for NP to announce a review of its standards for liquid petroleum gas (LPG) tanks.

Ms George died on September 27 after sustaining severe injuries when a tank exploded at her home in Penal.

On October 17, Bevaughn Joseph died a week after a tank exploded at his Penal home.

Exploding LPG tanks caused two deaths earlier this year.

NP's assurances that its tanks are subject to batch sampling and quality assurance tests are hardly reassuring, given the real-world, mortal experiences that users are having with these products.

More troubling is the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries' statement that draft LPG regulations prepared and submitted in 2020 "never progressed to the implementation stage."

This isn't good enough.

As late as October 24, after four deaths attributable to explosions of the squat 20lb cylinders, NP was still, according to a press release, "actively monitoring media reports."

By then, the state fuel-distribution agency should have been aware of a serious problem in an industry that supplies cooking fuel to hundreds of thousands of households.

NP inexplicably dubbed the tanks Clyvester Cylinder in an odd effort at anthropomorphising them in safety messages for children. There are a million of the 20lb fuel cylinders in use across TT.

Ramco, a competing supplier of LPG and propane tanks, does not report on the number of tanks it manages in the market.

There are more than two billion household-class LPG cylinders in use globally, according to the World LPG Association (WLPGA).

NP has issued guidance on handling the tanks it supplies, urging customers to monitor the age of cylinder connectors, hose condition and the quality of the clips that secure the tank connectors to stoves.

The fuel supplier also noted that it tests tanks using hydraulic pressure testing every five years, half the global time established for tank integrity tests.

While those warnings are sensible, few homeowners have the technical savvy to inspect either tank valves or connector assemblies and may risk making things worse without professional guidance.

LPG installations in TT do not require follow-up inspections, though some countries require professional assessment of LPG systems every two to five years for homes and as frequently as annually for commercial cooking operations.

The WLPGA encourages LPG suppliers to use customer interactions at the point of delivery for both new installations and replacement cylinders to review recommended procedures for safe tank use and to distribute safety literature.

NP could benefit from other association suggestions, which include more rigorous brand identification of its tank assets, better tracking of cylinder distribution and improved monitoring of cylinder storage in its distributor channel.