Resources for Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

OSHA to Inspect Dust-Prone Factories

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Federal inspections will be carried out at hundreds of plants where combustible dust is a workplace hazard, a top safety official said Monday at a sugar refinery where dust is suspected of causing a deadly explosion.

Ed Foulke Jr., head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, announced the inspections while visiting the Imperial Sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, where a blast on Feb. 7 killed 12 workers injured dozens more.

OSHA has not completed its investigation of that explosion but is sending letters to 30,000 companies that deal with combustible dust to discuss the dangers, Foulke said in a telephone interview.

A preliminary investigation determined the explosion was caused by airborne sugar dust in a basement area beneath the refinery's three giant storage silos, but what ignited the dust has not yet been determined.

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