Rules & Regulations of the State of Tennessee
Title 0780 - Commerce and Insurance
Subtitle 0780-02 - Division of Fire Prevention
Chapter 0780-02-15 - Blasting Standards
Section 0780-02-15-.01 - DEFINITIONS

(a) "Blast area" means the area including the blast site and the immediate adjacent area within the influence of flying rock, missiles and concussion.

(b) "Blast site" means the area where explosive material is handled during loading of the blast hole, including fifty (50) feet in all directions from the perimeter formed by the loaded holes. A minimum of thirty (30) feet can replace the fifty (50) feet requirement if the perimeter for loaded holes is marked and separated from the non-blast site areas by a barrier. The fifty (50) feet distance requirements, as applicable, apply in all directions along the full depth of the blasthole. In underground blasts, at least fifteen (15) feet of solid rib, pillar or broken rock can be substituted for the fifty (50) feet distance.

(c) "Blast zone" means the area beyond the blast area that may be influenced by blasting operations. Areas beyond the initial blast area must have reasonable precautionary measures such as posting of signs and guards and redirection of traffic.

(d) "Binary explosive" means a blasting explosive formed by mixing or combining two (2) plosophoric materials which must be specifically packaged for that purpose (for example, ammonium nitrate and nitromethane).

(e) "Bulk mix" means a mass of explosive material prepared for use in bulk form without packaging.

(f) "Bulk mix delivery equipment" means equipment (usually a motor vehicle with or without a mechanical delivery device) that transports explosive materials in bulk form for mixing or loading directly into boreholes or both.

(g) "Fire-resistant construction" means construction designed to provide reasonable protection against fire. For exterior walls of magazines constructed of wood, this is defined as the fire resistance equivalency provided by sheet metal of not less than twenty-six (26) gauge.

(h) "Flyrock" means any dirt, mud, stone, fragmented rock or other material that is displaced from the point of the blast, traveling in the air or along the ground.

(i) "Inhabited building" means any building or structure regularly used in whole or part as a place of human habitation. The term includes any church, school, store, railway passenger station, airport passenger terminal and any other building or structure where people are accustomed to congregate or assemble. The term does not include any building or structure occupied in connection with the manufacture, transportation, storage, or use of explosive materials.

(j) "Labeled" means equipment or materials to which has been attached a label, symbol or other identifying mark of an organization that is acceptable to the Commissioner or his or her authorized representative and concerned with product evaluation that maintains periodic inspection of production of labeled equipment or materials and by whose labeling the manufacturer indicates compliance with appropriate standards or performance in a specified manner.

(k) "Listed" means equipment, materials or services included in a list published by an organization acceptable to the Commissioner or his or her authorized representative and concerned with evaluation of products or services that maintains periodic inspection of production of listed equipment or materials or periodic evaluation of services and whose listing states either that the equipment, material or service meets identified standards or has been tested and found suitable for a specified purpose.

(l) "Manufacturing" means mixing, blending, extruding, assembling, disassembling, chemical synthesis and other functions involved in making a product or device that is intended to explode.

(m) "Plosophoric materials" means two (2) or more unmixed, commercially manufactured, prepackaged chemical ingredients (including oxidizers, flammable liquids or solids or similar ingredients) that are not classified as explosives but that, where mixed or combined, form a blasting explosive.