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Cooking gas cylinder safety norms to be enforced strictly
The Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM) said it would shortly be enforcing gas cylinder safety norms strictly. Bottlers of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) will have to follow the prescribed rules on weight, valve, thickness and storage, and scrap old cylinders mandatorily, the bureau said.The Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM) said it would shortly be enforcing gas cylinder safety norms strictly. Bottlers of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) will have to follow the prescribed rules on weight, valve, thickness and storage, and scrap old cylinders mandatorily, the bureau said.
There are 55 companies supplying cooking gas in the domestic market. Many of them have been found to be selling the fuel in substandard cylinders posing a risk to users.
Bishwo Babu Pudasaini, director general of the NBSM, said they planned to enforce the norms strictly within three months. “We have targeted implementing the LPG cylinder norms effectively as soon as possible,” said Pudasaini, adding that they had sent a draft of the new regulation to the Law Ministry. It will be submitted to the Cabinet for its approval after which it will be implemented.
According to the NBSM, it is making the safety norms mandatory in order to minimise possible risks to the public from the use of inferior cylinders.
Over the last year, four people have been killed and several injured in three separate incidents involving bad LPG cylinders.
After the new standard goes into effect, all the 55 gas bottlers will have to receive certification for the cylinders they issue. As per Nepal Oil Corporation’s records, more than 6.5 million cooking gas cylinders are in circulation, and 30 percent of them are suspected to be defective. The companies will also have to provide a bung code, a unique coding marked on the valve of gas cylinders, which is expected to prevent gas bottlers from switching cylinders besides minimizing leakage.
Likewise, the companies will be required to use safety caps on the cylinder valve. As per the NBSM, 2-3 percent of the cylinders supplied by the bottlers are unsafe, primarily due to defective valves.
Similarly, hydrostatic testing of LPG cylinders will be made mandatory. It measures the cylinder’s capacity to withstand pressure. Generally, a gas-filled cylinder maintains a constant pressure of 16 MPa (megapascal). However, a standard cylinder has to sustain a pressure of 90 MPa for safety.
In addition, bottlers will have to clean the sludge inside cylinders regularly. If this is not done on time, it adds to the weight of the cylinder (the standard is 14-17 kg) and increases the risk of an explosion. “If the weight of a cylinder goes 2 percent beyond the accepted range, it poses a serious risk to users,” he said.
The standard will also prohibit sales of cylinders with thin walls. As per the NBSM standard, the wall thickness of a cooking gas cylinder should be between 2.4 mm and 2.9 mm.
The NBSM has not set the lifetime of gas cylinders. “If the weight of a cylinder decreases by 5 percent or more, it has to be destroyed immediately,” said Pudasaini.
According to him, bottlers should carry out the first hydraulic testing 10 years from the date of manufacture.