America Industrial Hygiene Association Atlantic Provinces Local Section (AIHA-APS) Fall Professional Development Conference
Tuesday November 18th, 2025 from 8:30 to 4:30
MicMac Amateur Aquatic Club, 192 Prince Albert Road, Dartmouth, NS
Join us on Tuesday November 18th to learn more about flammable liquids & combustible dusts. Our fantastic lineup of speakers and topics include:
Vahid Ebadat, Ph.D., Stonehouse Process Safety, who will give a half day PDC on the safe handling of flammable liquids and powders.
Paul Amyotte, Ph.D., Dalhousie University, who will deliver a technical presentation on combustible dusts.
Jonathan McCallum & Ken MacDonald, Levitt Safety, who will present on dust and particulate monitoring.
Additional Event Information
Attendees will receive a certificate of attendance for this PDC from the AIHA Atlantic Provinces Local Section.
Lunch and snacks will be provided. Please notify Alicia of any dietary restrictions (Alicia.Doiron@novascotia.ca).
Description of Dr. Vahid's PDC:
Flash fires and explosions in industrial settings are not uncommon and can result in fatalities, injuries, environmental damage and have serious community and economic impact. These flash fires and explosions involve the flammable or combustible liquids and powders that are integral to most industrial processes; yet with understanding and application of good Process Safety practices, many of these flash fires and explosions can be prevented.
This course will provide an overview of how flash fire and explosion hazards arise in manufacturing processes, how they can be systematically identified and assessed, and how the most appropriate basis of safety can be selected and applied in practice.
Bio: Vahid Ebadat Ph.D., is President of Stonehouse Process Safety, Inc. He has worked extensively as a process safety consultant for the chemical, pharmaceutical, food, paper/wood, and other process industries globally for over 30 years. Dr. Ebadat has published many technical articles and papers and is a regular speaker on process safety topics, including dust explosion, static electricity, gas & vapor flammability, and thermal decomposition/self-heating hazard assessment and control. Dr. Ebadat is a member of the Institute of Physics (IOP), a Chartered Physicist, a Member, American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Committee E-27 on Hazard Potential of Chemicals, and a principal member of the following National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Technical Committees:
- NFPA 77, Recommended Practice on Static Electricity
- NFPA 91, Standard for Exhaust Systems for Air Conveying of Vapors, Gases, Mists, and Particulate Solids
- NFPA 660, Standard for Combustible Dusts and Particulate Solids, including the Technical Committee on Fundamentals of Combustible Dust (formerly NFPA 652); the Technical Committee on Handling and Conveying of Dusts, Vapors, and Gases (formerly NFPA 654)
Description of Dr. Amyotte's PDC:
Dust Explosions: How and Why
Dust explosions are a persistent threat in industries that involve the handling of bulk powders. A dust explosion is not, however, the inevitable outcome of processing a combustible dust in an industrial scenario. Normalization of deviance by adopting such a belief ignores the fact that adoption of a rigorous hierarchy of safety controls can be highly effective with respect to dust explosion prevention and mitigation.
Within the above scope, and motivated by the primary need to protect people as well as business assets and operations, the objective of the presentation is to explore the reasons for the occurrence of dust explosions from a variety of perspectives. The discussion will begin with the scientific underpinning provided by the explosion pentagon, and then move on to lessons drawn from the management and social sciences. Explosion causation factors that will be examined include: (i) placing a primary emphasis on occupational health and safety concerns when a process safety approach is concurrently needed, (ii) overreliance on procedural safety and personal protective equipment – to the extent that other levels in the hierarchy of controls are not emphasized, (iii) ignoring warning signs of potential incidents, (iv) accepting safety management system deficiencies, and (v) adherence to a number of erroneous beliefs concerning the dust explosion problem. In this manner, the presentation will demonstrate that dust explosions do not occur because we lack the appropriate technology to prevent them. There are deeper, more systemic reasons for the occurrence of dust explosions.
Bio: Dr. Paul Amyotte, P.Eng., is a Distinguished Research Professor and Professor of Chemical Engineering in the Department of Process Engineering and Applied Science at Dalhousie University. He is a graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada (Bachelor’s), Queen’s University (Master’s), and the Technical University of Nova Scotia (PhD). Dr. Amyotte has an extensive record of authorship consisting of books, book chapters, journal papers, and conference presentations – including the book, An Introduction to Dust Explosions: Understanding the Myths and Realities of Dust Explosions for a Safer Workplace. He is the current editor of the Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries and a past-president of the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering, Engineers Nova Scotia, and Engineers Canada. His work on dust explosions and inherently safer design has included the provision of expert testimony for the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and U.S. Chemical Safety Board. In 2014, Dr. Amyotte was awarded the Cybulski Medal by the Polish Academy of Sciences for his team’s dust explosion research, and the Trevor Kletz Merit Award by the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center, Texas A&M University, for advancements in process safety.
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