Bonding and grounding when dispensing flammable liquids
Employees may need to handle fuels, solvents, cleaners, thinners, and other flammable liquids. All containers of these liquids may need to be bonded and grounded during dispensing. This can include dispensing from or to non-metallic containers, even though the container material may not be recognized as conductive.
Bonding and grounding helps eliminate the build-up of static electricity by allowing it to dissipate into the ground safely. This might seem unnecessary for non-conductive containers since the materials cannot conduct current. However, flowing liquids could still generate a static charge, and a static spark could ignite vapors, causing an explosion.
With non-metallic containers, workers could use a fill tube or grounding wire to achieve proper bonding. They could also use a metallic pump on the container and ground or bond the pump. Many modern plastic containers have an embedded ground wire so they can be grounded or bonded as needed.
Employers are not specifically required to ground flammable storage cabinets, but most manufacturers provide a place on the flammable cabinet for grounding. If workers will dispense flammable liquids from a container that is inside the cabinet, then the cabinet itself should be grounded using the manufacturer’s approved grounding point.