“Glass Cancer”: How to mitigate the risks on your facade..

A 2009 article by Glass On Web (link below) called spontaneous glass failure and nickel sulphide inclusions “Glass Cancer” which “…Though rare, the nickel sulphide inclusions are very troublesome and potentially dangerous when present in toughened glass. The reason for all the trouble is a delayed phase transformation in nickel sulphide. Nickel sulphide crystals have a high temperature and a low temperature form. The dense crystal form at high temperature swells on cooling to make a less dense crystal form at low temperatures..”

The regions with the greatest risk are those with warmer climates such as the Middle East, Asia and Australia – where frequent newspaper reports can be found online of glass ‘falling from the skies’ in shopping districts or from high rise towers onto the street below. There have been cases of fatality and numerous close calls ending in serious injury to innocent pedestrians and customers.