An in-depth article and accompanying videos explore various safety hazards in the workplace, underscoring the biggest reasons why GoatThroat Pumps is rapidly dominating the pumping industry: increased safety, assured compliance with regulatory agencies, increased employee productivity, and money-saving sustainability.

“Safety has always been a major reason why our pumps do so well in a wide variety of workplaces, and why our pumps are now being used in Europe,” said Nancy Westcott, President of GoatThroat Pumps. “Protecting employees and businesses from serious accidents and spills is what keeps our engineers working so hard to create the best, user-friendly pumps in the business. Tip-and-pour is probably one of the biggest culprits for spills. We want to see the end of this dangerous practice in every single industry that continues to use it. Our signature pumps have made the practice obsolete. Recent demand for increased production of disinfection liquids and sanitizers has made safety a priority. And we have the perfect pumps to make the combination of safety and economy a reality.”

Workplace spills are the bane of production environments, testing facilities, and other workplaces that utilize liquid chemicals. Spills are to blame for injuries, lost productivity, fires, property damage, costly and dangerous contaminations, increased insurance rates, and a host of other problems. The threat of spills is one of the main reasons that both OSHA and EPA regulate liquid chemical use so strictly.

Spills are generally classified into two categories: minor and major. But the simplest way to avoid spills altogether is to understand how they most commonly occur. The four main causes of spills are:

• Equipment Failure

• Improper Storage

• Failure to Follow Safety Procedures

• Improper Training

The only way to avoid the frequency of spills is to use a safe, dependable way to access and transfer liquids. GoatThroat pumps deliver a one-pump dispensing system that is predictable, allows complete control of fluids dispensed, and works within a sealed system that is virtually error-proof. Many users compare working with GoatThroat pumps to the ease and comfort of working with a common beer pump.

Eliminating spills in the workplace becomes an even more serious topic when one begins to consider the variety of flammable liquids and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that see industrial use. Acetone, alcohols, and methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) are three such liquids commonly used, and it is not difficult to see how a tip-and-pour method of liquid transference is dangerous when dealing with these substances. But what is less commonly understood are the dangers related to the vapors these chemicals emit – flammable vapors that are present even when large, professional industrial system pumps are used.

With GoatThroat’s sealed system, point-of-use pumps, there is absolutely no chance for vapors and VOCs to escape containers and drums as they are being pumped, thus greatly reducing the chance for dangerous ignition events. Moreover, OSHA requires the use of inert gas pressure to dispense such liquids, and GoatThroat currently offers the SCP pump to meet this requirement. Within the sealed system of a GoatThroat SCP pump, the components that actually come in contact with liquids are all conductive plastics that meet and exceed the NFPA77, Paragraph 6.4.1.3 recommendations. SCP pumps are also complete with attached grounding and bonding wires; for safe use, SCP pumps must be used with the appropriate O-ring seal, must be securely attached to the liquid storage vessel, and the pump’s ground wire must be grounded.

Test results from the Safety Testing Laboratory of Ciba Geigy have already concluded that the SCP series from GoatThroat has a negligible internal pressure, making vapor concentrations of volatile liquids too lean to ignite within the containers. The same study also concluded that the SCP sealed-system pumps are much safer than conventional pumps, which are usually attached to containers and are open to the environment. The study specifically mentions the dangers of using typical rotary and piston pumps for volatile liquids, which have open ports, stating that the “gap around the bung … may allow a weak explosion occurring at a temperature near the flash point (LFL) to vent in the form of a flame jet exiting near the bung at high velocity and high temperature … This jet could injure personnel working in close proximity to the container.” Sealed system pumps are the only solution to prevent these types of accidents from occurring.

GoatThroat pumps are safe for use with more than 2,000 liquids, including the most aggressive acids, flammable, and solvents currently used in manufacturing. GoatThroat pumps have engineering controls that prevent most of the commonly occurring fluid hazards at the point of use. The pumps are also crafted to last 10 years or more, ensuring that they will always serve as a long-term solution. The company offers a series of free best practice videos and articles to illustrate some of the hazards of antiquated pumping modalities.