Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2004 16:40:19 -0400
Reply-To: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject: Re: Carrying loose propane tanks?
In-Reply-To: <BAY19-DAV14adTMVwVn00021cb8@hotmail.com>
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At 15:07 9/24/2004, Aristotle Sagan wrote:
>Pleasant thoughts of rolling mortar shells disguised as 5 lb propane tanks.
>Any accident, or heaven forbid an engine fire...
>
>I drive my propane tanks for the grill exactly two blocks to the filling
>station... and feel a bit nervous at that. We did take one of those 3 lb
>mini tanks on a 1500 mile camping road trip to Glacier one summer, tied in
>securely in the hatch of our Saab 9000T... but then agin, I was young and
>dumb.
I think you're being overcautious. The projectile hazard is real and
serious in a collision and they should be outside anyway in case of a
leak. But anyone who actually uses a Westy must have come to terms with
the safety tradeoffs involved in carrying around camping gear, washing
machines etc. The BBQ tanks are built and certified to Department of
Transportation standards...they really do contemplate transporting them,
and we do, in huge numbers. The accident rate would seem to bear them
out. Two serious injuries in 500 million tank-years (all types of DOT
tanks, not just propane) sounds pretty good to me. And notice how many a
747 carries:
>The DOT requires cylinders to withstand a test pressure of five-thirds of
>the service pressure of the cylinder. The European standard is 11/2 times.
>
>DOT statistics estimate there are about 100 million cylinders in
>circulation in the U.S. Praxair alone owns five million cylinders, which
>are refilled on average three or four times a year.
>
>The airline industry alone uses cylinders for about 350 tasks, including
>providing emergency air to passengers, a role that oxygen generators has
>begun to usurp. Jim Jones, chief of the approvals branch at RSPA, says a
>747 has 350 different cylinders for various applications, including tasks
>such as deploying the emergency exit chute and the emergency brakes.
>
>In all fairness, the accident record for cylinders appears to be pretty
>good. There were 51 incidents between 1991-95 where the RSPA reported
>"packaging failure" as the cause of a hazardous materials accident. Those
>resulted in two major injuries, 19 minor injuries, no deaths and just
>$82,429 in damage. These statistics only cover cylinder accidents
>involving transportation. So an explosion of a propane cooking cylinder
>would not be included.
--
David Beierl - Providence RI USA -- http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage," '85 GL "Poor Relation"
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