Equilon
The Washington Equilon Puget Sound refinery is a 50-year-old facility located approximately 50 miles north of Seattle. Since 2003, the refinery has been known as the Shell Puget Sound Refinery; it is presently owned and operated by Shell Oil Products Group U.S.
About the Refinery
The facility processes crude oil shipped in from the fields of Alaska's North Slope and Alberta, Canada. Employing nearly 500 workers, the Shell Puget Sound Refinery has a daily capacity of 143,000 barrels, which is made in to gasoline, diesel, jet aircraft fuel and propane.
Located on March Point outside the town of Anacortes, Washington, the refinery was constructed by Texaco in 1958. Forty years later, the Equilon Corporation was formed as a result of Texaco's merger with Shell Oil. Shell took over the refinery in 2002.
Tragedy and Ongoing Safety Violations
In November 1998, an unusually violent storm caused a power outage at the refinery. Once power was restored, six workers attempted to restart a coking unit. The unit exploded, killing all six. Later investigations by the Washington Department of Labor and Industries discovered that error on the part of management was responsible.
Six months later, Equilon negotiated a settlement, eventually agreeing to pay $4.4 million in fines and compensation to the families.
Little has changed at the facility; in 2008, the state Department of L&I found 23 "serious safety and health violations."
Asbestos in Oil Refineries
For much of the 20th century, various forms of asbestos were chosen as a building material whenever flames or excessive heat was a risk. Plants like the Washington Equilon Puget Sound refinery, as a result, were often built with materials containing asbestos. One of the other properties of certain types of the fibrous mineral is that they are unaffected by reactive chemicals. Given the kind of work that occurs at oil refineries, asbestos, therefore, appeared not only in factory buildings, but also in safety clothes, coating materials and bench tops. There is little question that asbestos was excellent at protecting against flames or extreme heat. This strength, however, came with a horrible price in terms of human health.
Amosite was almost always the variety of asbestos used in these facilities. When it is mixed with chrysotile, which is resistant to heat and bases but not as resistant to acidic compounds, amosite creates materials that are especially good at protecting against corrosive chemicals. Although it was prohibited from use for construction purposes in the 1970s, amosite, in the form of asbestos-containing transite, was utilized for many years in chemical plants and refineries throughout the United States.
Like cement, asbestos transite could be laminated, molded into working surfaces and sprayed onto ductwork and pipes. For the most part, new items built with transite were safe since the asbestos particles were trapped in the transite. With age, however, asbestos-containing transite grows prone to crumbling, allowing microscopic particles to flake off into the air. In this state, it is said to be friable, which translates to easily crushed. Also, laboratory kilns often contained friable asbestos in insulation linings.
Why Is Friable Asbestos a Problem?
When friable, asbestos fibers are easily released in the air. Medical conditions like cancer and asbestosis can result from being exposed to airborne asbestos. In addition, inhaling asbestos is known to be the leading cause of pleural mesothelioma, a rare but often deadly cancer affecting the mesothelium, which is the lining between the lungs and the chest cavity. Peritoneal and pericardial mesothelioma are caused by the ingestion of fibers of asbestos, which is likely when microscopic particles are released into the air and land on food or in drinks.
In the past few decades medical researchers have discovered much information about the risks associated with being exposed to asbestos, and therefore there are strict guidelines regulating its use. However, when plants such as the Washington Equilon Puget Sound refinery were built, asbestos was much more prevalent. And in all too many cases workers used asbestos-containing materials when they did not have the benefit of protective equipment.
Asbestos Exposure - a Hidden Danger
Asbestos-related diseases, unlike most job-related injuries, which are readily observed and known about soon after the causing incident, may take many, many years to develop. The symptoms of mesothelioma and asbestosis - shortness of breath (also known as dyspnea) and pain in the chest or abdomen - may easily be mistaken for those of other, less serious conditions. It is extremely important, therefore, that folks who worked at or lived near sites like the Washington Equilon Puget Sound refinery ask their health care professionals for a mesothelioma treatment guide. Although there is no mesothelioma cure, the disease sometimes may be treated with various therapies. New ways to combat mesothelioma are being discovered, and early detection provides the patient and his or her doctor the highest chance of beating the once deathly disease.
Sources
HistoryLink - Explosion and fire at the Equilon Puget Sound Refinery in Anacortes Kill Six Refinery Workers on November 25, 1998
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?displaypage=output.cfm&file_id=5618
Manta - Shell Puget Sound Refinery
http://www.manta.com/c/mmcnjq0/shell-puget-sound-refinery
University of Wisconsin - Asbestos Containing Material (ACM) - Laboratories and Shops
http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/EHSRM/ASB/acmimages3.html
University of Wisconsin - Asbestos Disposal
http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/EHSRM/HAZEXCEPTIONS/a.html
Washington State Department of Labor and Industries - L&I Focus on Petroleum Refinery Safety Finds Multiple Violations at Equilon (L&I News, 25 June 2008)
