“The time is now for OSHA to take action to prevent these tragic accidents”
July 18, 2014
A final report from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) about the December 9, 2010 combustible dust explosion at the AL Solutions metal recycling facility in New Cumberland, West Virginia comes with a familiar recommendation: that OSHA promulgate a general industry combustible dust standard.
Testimony before a congressional hearing earlier this month blamed investigative delays at the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) – and the exodus of CSB personnel that’s contributing to the backlog – on poor leadership by Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso.
Investigation found lack of regulation at all levels of government
April 23, 2014
The lessons learned from the deadly 2013 West, Texas explosion and fire are not being passed along to emergency responders in other communities with facilities that store ammonium nitrate (AN), according to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB).
Massive release of hydrogen sent a blast wave through residential area
April 14, 2014
A massive explosion and fire at the Silver Eagle Refinery on November 4, 2009, in Woods Cross, Utah, which damaged homes in a nearby neighborhood, was caused by a rupture in a pipe that had become dangerously thin from corrosion, according to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB).
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has requested $12.25 million for fiscal year 2015 – an increase over the $11.484 million it requested in 2014. Chairperson Rafael Moure-Eraso said thefunds will enable the agency to continue to investigate high consequence chemical accidents, perform chemical safety studies, and advocate for effective safety recommendations.
CSB releases new message about the impact of chemical accidents
March 14, 2014
The CSB has released its second safety message in an occasional series focusing on the impacts of chemical accidents on people’s lives. The short video features Amy Gumbel, sister of Matt Gumbel - one of the workers fatally injured in the 2010 explosion and fire at the Tesoro Refinery in Anacortes, Washington.
CSB chief testifies before Senate about preventable accidents
March 10, 2014
The Chevron refinery fire in California in 2012 – the West Texas explosion last year – the West Virginia water crisis in January: All of these were preventable accidents. The United States is facing an industrial chemical safety crisis. After all of these accidents, we hear frustration and heartbreak. Workers, emergency responders, and the public continue to die and suffer injuries.
The CSB has released a new computer animation recreating the explosion and fire that killed seven workers at the Tesoro Refinery in Anacortes, Washington on April 2, 2010. The incident occurred when a nearly forty-year-old heat exchanger catastrophically failed during a maintenance operation to switch a process stream between two parallel banks of exchangers at the refinery.
The April 2010 fatal explosion and fire at the Tesoro refinery in Anacortes, Washington was caused by damage to the heat exchanger, a mechanism known as “high temperature hydrogen attack” or HTHA, which severely cracked and weakened carbon steel tubing leading to a rupture, according to a CSB draft report released today.
A rule to establish standards for combustible dust that’s been in the works since 2009 is scheduled to move closer to completion in 2014, with a proposed draft regulation due this spring. Worker safety advocates and agencies like the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) have expressed frustration over OSHA’s failure to make faster progress in making a combustible dust regulatory change.