HTH Handling Safety

Powdered chlorine should be stored in a cool dry place separate from other chemicals. HTH must never be allowed to come in contact with petroleum products or organic solvents. If this happens, it will explode violently! This is also true for the other forms of chlorine, but is more likely to occur during the handling of HTH. Care must also be taken to avoid contact with the eyes or bare skin.

Anyone involved in handling chlorine should have access to respiratory protection equipment. Chlorine gas forms hydrochloric acid when it gets in the eyes or lungs. This can result in serious injury or death depending on the concentration and exposure time. The damage caused by exposure to chlorine gas is cumulative. Several incidents involving minor exposure can contribute to serious health problems at sometime in the future.

There are two basic types of respiratory protection. One is the gas mask that uses a filtering device to remove chlorine. These are either a full-face mask or a mouth/nose type respirator. The other type of respirator is the self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA). The SCBA unit is full-face mask with an air tank to provide the operator with fresh air to breathe when in hazardous atmospheres. Both of these devices may be rendered ineffective if the wearer has facial hair that interferes with the face-to-mask seal.

The gas mask is designed to allow the operator time to escape the chlorine room when a leak occurs. THESE DEVICES ARE INTENDED FOR ESCAPE PURPOSES ONLY! A GAS CANISTER MASK MUST NEVER BE USED TO ENTER ANY AREA WHERE CHLORINE GAS IS PRESENT! If the release of chlorine drops the oxygen concentration below 12%, it is impossible to survive even if all the chlorine is filtered out. If an operator is wearing a canister mask he must still leave the area immediately upon detection of a chlorine leak. The gas canisters should be changed every six months or anytime it has been exposed to chlorine gas.

The Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) unit must be used when working in a chlorine gas atmosphere. It has an air tank that allows the wearer to breathe uncontaminated air while attempting to correct a chlorine leak situation. The SCBA tank will hold enough air for approximately 30 minutes, depending on working conditions. When the air pressure drops to a point where there is about five minutes of air remaining in the tank (500 psi), an alarm will ring to signal the operator that it is time to exit the area and change tanks.

There are two ways to feed chlorine into the water system. Gas chlorination uses liquefied chlorine gas. Hypochlorination uses a positive displacement pump to feed a solution of dissolved HTH or bleach into the system. Many smaller systems will use a hypochlorination system because the equipment cost is lower. The solution of dissolved HTH or bleach is much easier to handle and presents less of a risk compared to a gas system. Gas chlorinating is used where the system requires larger dosages of chlorine than can be delivered by hypochlorination. Though capital costs are higher for gas chlorination, the chemical costs are significantly lower than when HTH or bleach is used.