WARNING: Handling Dangerous Cargo

 Hello everyone, I am Abhirami - A final year MBA student from Amrita School Of Business majoring in Operations and Marketing. I am back with my blog , speaking about the manufacturing and supply chain behind the  handling of dangerous cargo 

we all know about the Beirut's incident. because of the carelessness that happened in the storing of dangerous cargo 163 people where killed and more than 6000 people got injured. The fact that the storage location was facing the sea is probably the only thing that saved the city of Beirut from total destruction. That shipped held there for around 6 years with the dangerous cargo inside it's due to the outstanding debts that were claimed in the Lebanese court made them held there. from this it is understood that it's a supply chain failure. But it was not because of  a single failure it was collaboration of many failures that contributed to the actual occurrence of the Beirut explosion.

• The ammonium nitrate was being stored in a large, unsecured warehouse; a highly dangerous situation given the lure of the material for terrorist groups.
• The storage building had multiple structural and condition-based issues, including a dislodged door and a hole in its southern wall.
• A significant quantity of fireworks was being stored in the same warehouse.
• Workers were called in to repair the building and re-secure the doors, but they were not supervised or warned about the contents of the building.
• Sparks from repair teams welding the hole in the wall shut are what created the fire risk. They raised the temperature in the building enough to start a fire among the fireworks, and within one hour that fire reached – and detonated – the ammonium nitrate.

we may think that this is an isolated incident but similar incidents where reported around the world

but the level of impact varies. 

for example in amazon warehouse in new jersey similar event happened a can of aerosol bear repellant fell off the shelf and 24 employees were sent to the hospital. and later amazon declarer that they will build a special warehouse just for hazardous material stocking. it takes multiple accident in amazon made them built special warehouse. Beirut incidents will take place again if the correct precautions is not taken. Knowing what materials are being stored where, under what conditions, and with what concerns is a key safety measure. As we observed in Beirut earlier this month, it can be a lifesaver as well. 

original post : https://www.allthingssupplychain.com/warning-handling-dangerous-cargo/