From nanotechnology exposure guidelines to unusually large fines for a Sinclair Oil refinery in Wyoming to electrical safety, here are the week's top EHS-related news stories as featured on ISHN.com:
Wyoming’s most-fined refinery for safety violations is facing another round of penalties, this time stemming from a formal complaint and three August incidents at the facility, according to a report in the Casper Star-Tribune. The Wyoming Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed a $259,950 fine against the Sinclair Oil-owned Sinclair Wyoming Refinery. The fine would be the largest levied against a refinery in Wyoming in the past five years.
The California Division of Occupational Safety & Health (Cal/OSHA) has issued 25 citations against Chevron USA, with proposed penalties totaling nearly $1 million, for state safety standard violations related to the August 6, 2012 fire at Chevron’s Richmond refinery.
A search-and-rescue-dog will be brought in today to assist searchers who are still trying to find a worker missing in the Gulf of Mexico after a fire and explosion on an oil platform last week.
The New Mexico Environment Department says it’s reached a settlement with Navajo Refining of Artesia for citations issued by the Department’s Occupational Health and Safety Bureau, or New Mexico OSHA.
Wyoming Refining Co.’s oil refinery is situated literally on Main Street in Newcastle and a mere half-mile away from Newcastle High School. The school is equipped with a “panic button” that shuts off all ventilation in the building in the event of a toxic spill.
A Venezuelan refinery disaster that killed dozens of people and damaged hundreds of homes has finally been declared over, according to the country’s Oil Minister. Rafael Ramirez said that four days after the massive explosion which sparked the fire, the site is now in a “cooling phase.”
Although the photos released by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) were taken nine miles away, the vapor cloud rising from the burning Chevron Richmond Refinery is enormous.
Just months prior to two flash fires at the Sinclair oil refinery (one on May 8 and another on May 25) injuring a total of six workers (at least three of them, regrettably, burned “severely”) Wyoming Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors had witnessed several other fires and fire hazards while performing a “process safety management audit,” according to the agency.