OLD GAS CYLINDERS CAN EXPLODE ANYTIME

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, May 11 (ANTARA) - Three years after the government launched its kerosene-to-gas conversion program, old gas cylinders it has been  providing poor families since May 2009 for free have proven to be a safety hazard  as quite a number have exploded without apparent provocation causing human casualties.          In the past three years, the government has distributed at least 43 million liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders and stoves to the public in an effort to replace heavily subsidized kerosene in  households.          The program has been described as successful but due to their economic conditions, some of gas cylinder recipients are not able to replace their old gas tubes and other stove devices so that they are prone to accidents such as explosions.          Because many gas stove/cylinder explosions in many parts of the country of late are due to gas leakage, the government needs to tighten control on the use of expired gas cylinders and educate the public on how to use them in a safe way.          In this case, the consumers institute (LKY) has asked state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina to provide information transparently to the public about  outdated gas cylinders so that they do not threaten the safety of consumers.          "Consumers as users of Pertamina's products need clear and complete information about the expiry dates of all sizes of its gas cylinders and stoves," Widijantoro, chairman of the Yogyakarta Consumers Institute (LKY) said.          He said that  the need for Pertamina to provide complete, transparent and clear information on the conditions of gas tubes and stoves was something serious because so far consumers had not yet been well informed of the matter.          "We have not yet seen so far any efforts to evaluate and to popularize safety standard of gas cylinders," he said.          Because consumers have no knowledge of the expiry date of a gas cylinder they simply accept it in any condition when they purchase ones at the agent or at the retail level.          Widijanto said that Pertamina may not only decide that a tube was no longer suitable for use and withdraw it from circulation but the public must also be given knowledge so that they would know and take preventive measures if they learn something dangerous.          "Cylinders are scattered in various agents but no one can guarantee that their circulation is really under some kind of  control or supervision," he said.          In the meantime, the Trade Ministry said it would tighten supervision of all gas stove components, including cylinders and pipes following various gas explosion incidents at the household level in which people were hurt.          "We will  coordinate with the Ministry of Industry which is in charge of supervision at the pre-marketing level. We will conduct supervision in the market," Inayat Iman, director for supervision of services and goods of the Trade and Service Directorate General, said.          He said that his office would equip his assessment team with devices which could directly assess the thickness of a gas tube in the field. "We are doing our best to obtain the devices," he added.          Inayat said that besides increasing supervision in the market, the government will also require the use of the Indonesian National Standard (SNI) for all gas stove components.          "So far, only cylinders, regulators and pipes have been required to put the SNI standard requirement, the ministry of industry is preparing to require the use of the SNI for stove rubber seals," he added.          He expressed hope that there would be no more gas cylinder explosion of gas stoves. "We basically don't know what components of the stoves that would cause explosion. It can be the cylinder, the regulator or a mistake in attaching them," he said.          Most of the accident so far happened with the 3-kg cylinders, which the government has been promoting over the past three years.          For this purpose, state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina is intensifying its efforts to popularize the secure use of 3-kg cylinders.          According to Pertamina Corporate Secretary Toharoso, his company has established an LPG task force in charge of supervising the security and use of LPG in the country.       "This task force will soon be fielded to overcome any emergency condition or incident with regard to the use of 3-kg cylinder LPG. After all, many of accident so far occurred to this size.           The government has provided at least 43 million 3-kg cylinders since it launched its kerosene-to-gas conversion program three years ago.           Since the implementation of the conversion program in May, 2007, the total distribution of the conversion packages reached 43,154,365, consisting of 3,076,450 packages in 2007, 15,077,694 packages in 2008 and 24,100,221 packages in 2009.          Some of the accident occurred with old cylinders after three years of use.          Pertamina said that the frequent explosion accidents of late were also caused by, among others, poverty. "The explosion occurred after two years of conversion use ," Marketing Director of Pertamina Hanung Budya said.          He said that after two years, stoves, gas tubes and regulators began to experience damage so that the possibility of accidents to take place was big. And in this case, poverty is one of the roots of the problem.          The public whose economic condition is poor is not able to replace their cooking utensils. "The root of the problem is poverty," said Hanung.          Therefore, Pertamina is intensifying its efforts to popularize safe use of cylinders. The popularization includes various aspects such as introduction to the use of conversion device, methods and alertness that should be observed in using gas.          He said that cases found so far happened due to gas leakage, inappropriate attachment of regulators and the use of cylinders not based on standing procedures.          Other causes included misplacement of cylinders and stoves, absence of ventilation, smoking in a shared room and the use of kerosene and gas stoves at the same time.          Pertamina will also supervise distributors. "We are also conducting inspections and giving sanctions to distributors which deviate from the procedures," he said.     (T.A014/A/HAJM/21:06/H-YH) 10-05-2010 21:28:3