NFPA 654-2020, Prevention of Fire and Dust Explosions

Man working hard sanding wood while preventing fire and dust explosions with NFPA 654-2020.

With the invention of the steam engine, humankind made a shift from human labor to machine labor for the production of goods. With this change came not only a drastic increase to the amount of goods produced in agriculture, metallurgy, construction, mining, and transportation, but also the waste produced with industrial scale manufacturing. Much of the dust that comes from the constant grinding and hammering of materials can result in dangerous explosions and fires that industrial workers need to be mindful of.

NFPA 654-2020: Standard for the Prevention of Fire and Dust Explosions from the Manufacturing, Processing, and Handling of Combustible Particulate Solids helps reduce the damage caused by explosions and fires from the resulting dust particulates from processing and cutting up industrial amounts of material of all kinds.

What is NFPA 654?

NFPA 654 was adopted in 1943 to prevent dust explosions in the plastics industry and was later expanded to chemical, pharmaceutical, and dye industries. In its recent history, the 2017 edition of NFPA 654 was aligned with NFPA 652, Standard on the Fundamentals of Combustible Dust to introduce dust hazard analysis, a process by which to identify potential threats.

The NFPA 654-2020 standard outlines guidelines for dust hazard analysis and cleaning frequency based on the amount of dust present, as well as recommended cleaning methods. These include the proper technique for vacuuming, sweeping, washing, and blowing with compressed air.