OSHA News

Stronger OSHA Protection Against Reactive Chemical Explosions to be Demanded by Unions Decry CSB Failure

(September 16, 2009) - Numerous international unions representing hundreds of thousands of chemical industry workers criticized the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) for abrogating its mandate to recommend strong EPA and OSHA standards to prevent runaway reactions in chemical factories, and urged the board to repeat its prior recommendations in the final report when they adopt it.

The unions were reacting to the CSB`s new report on a deadly chemical incident in Jacksonville, FL, on December 19, 2007, which destroyed T2 Laboratories, a specialty chemical producer. The explosion killed four people and injured 32 others. According to an earlier CSB news release, the accident occurred when T2 mixed more than half a ton of highly reactive sodium metal with other chemicals in a process to make a gasoline additive, creating a 2000-foot-high fireball.

"The T2 explosion is yet more evidence of the need for stricter regulation and oversight of the chemical industry," said Leo Gerard, President, United Steel Workers. "For eight years the Bush administration ignored calls for stronger chemical process safety rules, and now American workers are paying for those flawed decisions with their lives."  "The CSB agreed today that their prior recommendations to OSHA were still `open,` but let the issue drop there," said Eric Frumin, Health and Safety Coordinator, Change to Win. "If the Board persists in flouting its mandate, it will require new leadership to assure that its mission is accomplished."

"Workers remain exposed to the possibility of these deadly explosions, and the least the CSB can do is to fully investigate these tragic events," said John Morawetz, Sr. Health and Safety Coordinator for the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) released a major report in December 2002, which pointed out serious deficiencies in OSHA`s Process Safety Management (PSM) standard. It called reactive chemical incidents a "significant chemical safety problem," and said the incidents have the potential for occurring at a wide range of worksites and "can severely affect workers and the public, as well as cause major economic losses and environmental damage." Reactive chemicals are substances and mixtures that can react or decompose violently during industrial processing.

When Bush administration officials refused to follow the commendation, the unions petitioned the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 2003 to amend PSM standard to strengthen its regulation of reactive chemicals and how they should be stored and handled to prevent explosions, fires and toxic releases in communities across America.  The unions have urged OSHA and the Environmental Protection Agency to act on reactive chemicals since 1995. They petitioned OSHA for an emergency temporary standard on reactive chemicals after two union members and three supervisors were killed in an April 1995 fire and explosion at Napp Technologies in Lodi, N.J. OSHA responded by adding this issue to OSHA`s "Regulatory Agenda"- admitting the seriousness of the problem, and promising to fix it.

Share or bookmarklet this web page at: