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“It can kill you, as much as a motorcycle can kill you,” Ray Steil said about anhydrous ammonia. “You wouldn’t get on a Harley Davidson if you don’t know how to handle it. … You have to understand the animal you’re trying to tame.”
Steil, who owns a regulatory consulting firm in Sioux City, Iowa, addressed a group of more than 30 people Thursday, June 27, at CHS Magnolia.
The safety training involved Rock County Ambulance personnel, fire departments and first responders from Luverne, Magnolia and Edgerton and about a dozen CHS employees.
Steil said victims exposed to high concentrations of anhydrous ammonia suffer immediate injuries because the gas quickly seeks the nearest source of water, which is what largely comprises the human body.
“Clothing becomes like shrink wrap; if you attempt to peel it off, the skin is going to come with it,” he said. “Contact lenses ‘weld’ to the eye destroying the retina, and breathing it can freeze the lungs.”
By definition, “anhydrous” means “without water,” which means it has a high affinity for water.
That’s why water is paramount in treating anhydrous exposures to draw it back out of the body.
“How much water do you carry with you?” Steil asked RN Kaitlyn Van Meeteren, a Rock County Ambulance EMT.
“Probably not enough,” she said.
Steil told emergency responders who encounter anhydrous exposures to flush a victim with water for 30 minutes before transporting. Applying water-soaked towels can help continue that process during transport.
And he warned firefighters to be alert to the possibility of anhydrous ammonia contamination.
“It’s always about ‘how fast can I get there?’ and ‘who’s in charge?’” Steil said, referencing seven firemen who died while responding to a 2002 train derailment involving anhydrous ammonia in Minot, North Dakota.
Anhydrous ammonia is a commonly used crop nutrient on farms, and the most common emergencies — about 80 percent of them — involve farmers who are transporting “nurse” tanks to and from the field.
And Steil encouraged firemen and emergency responders to calculate their risks in anhydrous ammonia incidents.
“If there are no hurt people and it’s sitting out there in the field, don’t bother with it,” he said. “Unless someone’s life is in danger … ammonia’s cheap; let it go.”
Thursday night’s training involved “uprighting” a tipped-over nurse tank with proper machinery on both sides for counterweight.
Since most accidental ammonia releases occur with the transport tanks, Steil talked about the equipment and key valve components.
The training wrapped up with several teams of five firemen practicing how to contain controlled releases of anhydrous ammonia that formed clouds across the ground and spread with prevailing breezes.
Using fire hose fog nozzles at their largest spray capacity, pairs of firemen on either side of the plume “parted” the cloud to enable a fifth fireman to approach the turn-off valve.
Each team concluded the exercise by decontaminating each other under a healthy dose of rinse water from the hoses.
Denny Alexander, CHS regional safety specialist, said he’s grateful that local emergency responders attend trainings like the one offered Thursday.
“It’s a win-win for us,” he said. “If something happens, one — they’re going to help us, and two — we don’t get any of them hurt.”
He said CHS hosts similar trainings at plant locations all over the upper Midwest.
Brock Dexter, senior safety specialist for CHS Brandon, said he hopes farmers pay attention to the risks involved with handling anhydrous ammonia.
“It’s a hazardous product, but very much needed in farm operations,” Dexter said. “But I don’t know if a lot of farmers understand the dangers of using this product.”
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture website, mda.mn.us, has links to safety tips and handling advice for anhydrous ammonia.