Is Dry Acid considered a dangerous good?
Royal Life Saving WA and the LGIS Safety Assessment Team are seeing more aquatic facilities move to Sodium Bisulphate (Dry Acid) rather than hydrochloric acid to lower the pH of their water.
According to Safety Data Sheets supplied by chemical suppliers, dry acid is not considered a dangerous good for transport or handling and is therefore not subject to the provisions of the Dangerous Goods Safety Act and Regulations.
However, Principal Dangerous Goods Officer for the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS), Lawry Lim, has advised the aquatic industry that “it is still considered best practice to bund the solution as it may be present in the same room as a hypochlorite solution and we obviously don’t want them mixing in case of leaks.”
Both LIWA Aquatics and Royal Life Saving WA see the potential risk when sodium bisulphate is mixed with water and becomes a liquid acid, as it is often stored in large vats with the potential for leaks. As safety must be paramount, facilities that use sodium bisulphate/dry acid mixed with water and stored in large vats must have sufficient bunding installed to mitigate the risks.
Facilities without bunding installed around the storage of the acid will be considered as a fault and an improvement measure must be made.
If you would like any support or assistance with meeting compliance, please contact the Royal Life Saving Safe Venues Team via the link below.
