Chemical Safety Board taking still more heat

The federal Chemical Safety Board is taking still more heat this week, this time for its report on an October 2008 leak of sulfuric acid mist from Indspec Chemical Corp. in Petrolia, Pa.

Several international labor organizations criticized the CSB, saying the board’s probe was not complete enough and that the local union representing workers at the facility had been excluded because of company demands that the probe was privileged.

Mike Wright, United Steelworkers health, safety and environment director, said:

The CSB report process is broken. This report lacks the quality of analysis of past reports. A major release of oleum, a widely used and highly hazardous material that endangers both workers and the public, should trigger a comprehensive investigation and formal recommendations, rather than just lessons learned. CSB recommendations are key to long term and sound improvement of workplace and community health and safety.

According to the CSB:

The accident that took place on Saturday, October 11, 2008, forced over two thousand residents of Petrolia, Bruin, and Fairview, to evacuate or to shelter-in-place for approximately eight hours. Oleum, also known as fuming sulfuric acid, was released when a tank transfer operation was left unattended during weekend operations and an oleum storage tank overflowed. The oleum formed a toxic sulfur trioxide gas, which mixed with moisture in the air to form a dense, corrosive, sulfuric acid cloud that threatened the neighboring towns.

In a final report issued Monday, the board:

… Identified four key safety lessons for companies: thoroughly evaluating temporary process changes, ensuring uniform safeguards for different modes of operation, monitoring deviations from operating procedures, and ensuring hazard analysis teams have complete information to perform their tasks.

But labor leaders and safety advocates said the board didn’t go far enough, and left major questions unanswered.

Eric Frumin, Change to Win Health and Safety Coordinator, said:

OSHA’s Process Safety Management Standard (PSM) requirements are designed to ensure that management has knowledge of and responsibility over, the systems, equipment and practices in the plant. The CSB report fails to identify the key and true root causes of the oleum release.

Harry Boltz, President of USW Local Union 6346-25, which represents workers at the facility, said:

The report has failed our workers and our community and it will do little to prevent future incidents. OSHA citations issued contained 27 legally-binding requirements. Our employer’s report contains 30 recommendations.  The CSB Case Study contains three general and somewhat vague recommendations.  Workers here and members of the community around the plant are still at risk of exposure to oleum, so are many others across the country.

The CSB has been under increasing pressure over the last few weeks. See previous posts here.  And now, labor groups are recommending:

1. The Obama Administration should immediately fill the existing vacant seat and name a candidate for the soon-to-be vacant seat on the Board.  
2. The CSB should examine its process for worker, union and public involvement in the investigation process to ensure that all parties can fully participate to bring about workplace and community safety.
3. The CSB should examine this investigation to determine if a more detailed review of the incident and more complete report was necessary and would have been more valuable to the stakeholders.