SA 46/21 - Risk of Instant Flash Fire during Cylinder Maintenance

(EIGA Members' area) Several incidents have recently been reported to EIGA that have highlighted the importance to conduct appropriate risk analysis for the process of cleaning cylinder neck threads and to take appropriate precautions.

Be aware that cleaning by using a fast-rotating iron brush will most likely induce enough ignition power to initialise an instant flash fire in an oxidising atmosphere. This may apply to other internal cleaning methods as well, for instance to the shot blasting process.

Please click here to download SA 46.

TP 63/21 - Yima City Gasification Plant Incident

(EIGA Members' area) In 2019 a serious incident occurred at a gasification plant at Yima City in China. This Training Package outlines the details of the incident as far as they are known, the lessons learned and the actions taken by the industrial gases industry.

EIGA actively contributes to WHO and EMA initatives

EIGA is on the WHO generic mailing list for quality assurance of medicines working documents and scientific monographs. The MGC has already commented on several new WHO documents, covering medical oxygen PSA's and Good Manufacturing Practices for medical gases.

The EMA, European Medicines Agency is preparing a new revision of the Directive 2001/83/EC , which regulates the Marketing Authorisations of medicines. This directive is also important for our medicinal gases and EIGA has already responded to the EMA on their first public consultation on the principles of this directive, particularly on two aspects:

• ‘’Inefficiency and administrative burden of regulatory procedures’’ on which we refer to our COVID19 proposed regulatory flexibilities in our BN25/21, and

• ‘’Vulnerability of supply of medicines, quality, environmental challenges and sustainability’’, where we commented that our industry believes that there is currently not an equal level of legislative regulation for on-site manufacturing machines producing medical oxygen at healthcare facilities.

Doc 141/21 - Planning Oxygen Supplies for Respiratory Patients when Travelling

(revision of Doc 141/13) This document provides advice to the Homecare Service Provider about the minimum safety precautions to be given to a patient when they require to use medical oxygen supply systems outside the home environment and whilst travelling.

The advice can also be provided to the travel companies, such as airlines, train and bus operators and public services providers as a guideline for the safe use of medical oxygen supply system for domiciliary patients.

The document details the actions and roles in providing a suitable medical oxygen supply system for the:

• patient when travelling with equipment;

• patient’s normal Homecare Service Provider to provide support to the patient when travelling; and

• Homecare Service Provider at the destination.

It also includes specific guidelines for homecare respiratory patients for using oxygen when, in transit, at locations outside the home and when travelling away from home for longer periods.

Templates are included for leaflets to be provided to the patient, advising the minimum safety requirements for the use of medical oxygen supply systems in transit, and for the travel service provider, for the safe use of medical oxygen equipment in transit.

Also provided is information covering carrying and/or using medical oxygen systems on different forms of transport and in different public environments.

Advice is provided on the permissions required when using medical oxygen supply equipment on public transport and in public areas.

The document may be used by anyone involved in planning oxygen supplies for respiratory patients when travelling as well as by patients and those travelling with them.

Taxonomy – Thresholds for sustainable manufacturing of hydrogen published

The European Commission has published a series of criteria that act as thresholds for defining whether the Manufacturing of Hydrogen can be classified as a sustainable economic activity. The criteria form part of the EU Taxonomy regulation, which is a legislative framework that classifies best in class sustainable economic activities according to whether they meet one of six criteria: climate change adaptation or mitigation, circular economy, sustainable use of water, pollution control and biodiversity protection.

More specifically, the current thresholds refer to the Manufacturing of Hydrogen as an activity that contributes to both climate change adaptation (p.67) and climate change mitigation (p.56). The latter specifically identities criteria for hydrogen where the activity complies with a life-cycle GHG emissions savings requirement of 73.4% - resulting in 3tCO2eq/tH2, and 70% for hydrogen-based synthetic fuels relative to a fossil fuel comparator of 94g CO2e/MJ.

The text that has been published by the Commission is now subject to a 4 month scrutiny period by the Member States and European Parliament, before it will apply as of 01 Jan 2022.

Doc 56/21 - Guide for the Delivery of Bulk Carbon Dioxide

(revision of Doc 56/09) Refrigerated liquified carbon dioxide has specific physical properties that present additional handling risks as compared to other cryogenic gases. This publication focuses on these risks and gives guidance on how they can be handled.

This publication contains information and guidance for transport function personnel dealing with carbon dioxide. For further information on transport safety, refer to EIGA Info TS01 Transport Safety Information, an Overview.

Doc 109/21 - Environmental Impacts of Acetylene Plants

(revision of Doc 109/14) This document details the environmental impacts of the management of acetylene plants and gives guidelines on how to reduce those impacts.

Doc 192/21 - Fluorinated Gases Management

(revision of Doc 192/14) This publication provides information and guidance on management of fluorinated gases (F gases).

This publication applies to the specification design, construction, installation, operation and maintenance of equipment containing F gases and the distribution and use of F gases and products containing F gases and specifically on the implementation of the F Gases Regulation enacted in May 2014 by Regulation (EU) No 517/2014.

Doc 920/21 – Guidance for Qualifying Customers Purchasing High Risk Security Chemicals

(EIGA Members' area - Revision of Doc 920/13) This publication provides guidelines for qualifying customers purchasing industrial gas products considered at risk for illegal use. In addition to the chemicals and industrial gases that are of concern for illicit use there are legal requirements to control the sale of environmentally harmful products. Some companies may wish to use the same control procedures for all these chemicals and industrial gases.

The purpose of this publication is to provide guidelines for qualifying customers purchasing industrial gas products that are at risk of being used illegally.