Careless handling of gasoline could ruin your summer; here are some tips

EDITOR:
With the warm weather, comes yard work. The use of gasoline powered equipment, such as lawn mowers, trimmers, chain saws, leaf blowers and lawn tractors make our ground maintenance jobs a little easier, but do pose some risk factors for injury.
As we all know, gasoline is a highly flammable liquid. But, if transferred and stored properly, can be used in a safe manner. As a safety and health professional, I have inspected many accidents and injuries associated with the use of flammable liquids. Those inspections have identified the root cause of the incident, and they usually always involve the following.
Inadequate or improper flammable liquid containers were involved.
Potential ignition sources were not controlled.
Storage of flammable liquids was improper as to location and containers used.
Transferring of the liquid was done inadequately.
Remember, the two main hazards associated with the use of flammable liquids, e.g. gasoline, are explosion and fire. In order to reduce or eliminate the potential for an accident and injury, the following recommendations are given.
Store and transfer flammable liquids (gasoline) in an approved, metal safety can. The polyethylene containers we all have can be used to fill and transfer the liquid, but if you are going to store the remaining liquid in these containers, you may want to limit the container to a quantity of less than 5 gallons. If you see the need to have more than that amount around, use an approved metal safety can. These safety cans are designed for storage and proper transfer, and will not explode in a fire and will eliminate flash back in the event of a flash during transfer.
Control any and all ignition sources. This includes open flames, hot surfaces and static electric buildup. Some examples:
Open flames: smoking
Hot surfaces: Hot engine components
Static buildup: Electrical charge buildup, which can occur during the transfer of the liquid from one container to another.
Never store your flammable liquid (gasoline) in:
An open container
An unapproved container
In the basement
Near an ignition source
Where it can be easily knocked over or damaged.
One other area of concern when using flammable liquids, such as gasoline is associated with filling the container at your local gas station.
Every year we read about gasoline fires occurring during the filling of portable gasoline containers (gas cans) in the backs of pickup trucks equipped with plastic bed liners or in a car with carpeted surfaces.
These fires result from the build up of static electricity. The insulating effect of the bed liner or carpet prevents the static charge generated by gasoline flowing into the container or other sources from grounding. The discharge of this buildup to the grounded gasoline dispenser nozzle may cause a spark and ignite the gasoline. Both ungrounded metal (most hazardous) and plastic gas containers have been involved in these incidents.
The following safety practice so as to eliminate this potentially serious incident is:
Always place gas can on ground before refueling.
Touch can with gas dispenser nozzle before removing can lid.
Keep gas dispenser nozzle in contact with can inlet when filling.
If you pay attention, adhere to the above recommendations, you can use gasoline in a very safe and productive manner.
Enjoy the spring and summer months, and be safe.
JOHN P. LESEGANICH, CPEA
Safety and Health Consultant
Canfield