Reprint from China Fastener World Magazine, Vol. 49

At 9:45 a.m. on February 20, 1947 The O’Connor Electro- Plating Corporation of Los Angeles, California experienced a tremendous explosion leveling the company’s facilities and much of the surrounding four block area. The aftermath of this disaster left 17 dead, 150 injured, and 116 buildings damaged or destroyed. The cause was an unstable mixture of perchloric acid and acetic anhydride, a substance nearly as explosive as nitroglycerin, used by O’Conner in an experimental aluminum polishing process.

Although this example is perhaps one-of-a-kind and certainly not characteristic of the normal consequences of a metal finishing process gone awry, it does illustrate the crucial nature of the processes employed and the serious consequences to human safety and the environment when things go wrong. Additionally, in recent years, stories of gross industrial negligence such as the poisoning of municipal water supplies or polluting the land an industrial facility is located on or near have become all too commonplace. In fact, some of these incidents have been raised to global awareness through television documentaries and films such as “Erin Brockovich” (the story of a California town’s water supply tainted with hexavalent chromium).