Safety Tidbit #28 – Propane Forklifts and Carbon Monoxide

Safety Tidbit #28 – Propane Forklifts and Carbon Monoxide

I like what I do for a living. I get to go to all these neat small employers and watch what they do to hurt themselves. I mean to earn a living. Sorry.  Recently, I was touring a facility, and I noticed a forklift moving pallets of electronics materials around.  The driver was very conscientious about putting his seatbelt on (at least he made sure I saw that he did).  As I continued to walk along, I noticed a couple of workers open a set of double man-doors to allow the forklift operator to pass through with a pallet of electronics materials into a room on the other side.  This building is a large (approx. 100,000 square feet and 25 feet high) concrete slab; metal I-beam framed, and metal-sided structure.  Nothing unusual, these commercial and industrial buildings are all over the place. They will typically have one side of the building with windows overlooking the parking lot for the management, admin, and engineering staff and the rest of the facility is a vast open area tailored to the needs of the company.  This particular company had a series of smaller specialty shops lining one other wall for supply, maintenance, and electronics repair (which is where I wanted to head).

After a short time, our tour entered the electronics repair room where I found a much smaller (20 by 30 space) cluttered with electronics “stuff” as is their custom. I don’t think these guys ever throw anything away.  There was one man-door as an exit to the outside.  However, since there was so much clutter in the space they were having a difficult time deciding where exactly to put the new pallet of “stuff.”  Consequently, when I entered the room, the forklift was still running.  Unfortunately, the use propane forklifts throughout the facility and the emissions coming from the lift were quite noticeable when I entered the room.  The workers pointed to the small ceiling fan 25 feet up in the air when I asked about ventilation.  I promptly inquired about a Safety Data Sheet on the propane to use it as a teaching aide.  My first question was: is carbon monoxide (a combustion by-product) of propane lighter or heavier than air? They all said lighter as the gas coming out is heated.  True but how long do you think the emissions are going to stay heated? Long enough to get all of the ways up to the fan?  And even if the fan was pulling the air up do you think it would be able to pull the carbon monoxide all the way from the floor up? By the way, the fan was going to pull anything since it was turning the wrong direction and was pushing what little air it was moving downwards. 

Ultimately, the answer is that carbon monoxide and air are about the same density.  Furthermore, most of us know that carbon monoxide is deadly.  Therefore, I recommended increased ventilation (open the doors and get some pedestal fans). The fans will help move the emissions around, and the open doors will keep fresh air coming into the space.  Ultimately, I would like to see them use an electric forklift or even a man-powered pallet jack as the electronics repair space is quite small and congested with “stuff” and I see someone getting struck-by the forklift eventually.

Hope you found this informative a little entertaining. Thanks for reading!