Two safety videos created by U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) have received prestigious Golden Eagle awards from CINE, an international organization that recognizes high standards of excellence in film and video production.

“No Place to Hang Out: The Danger of Oil Sites,” won a Golden Eagle in the Adult Education and Entertainment category. The 11-minute film focuses on an oil site explosion that occurred in October 2009, tragically killing two Mississippi teenagers, Devon Byrd and Wade White. Told through the voices of the victims’ family members and friends, the video warns other students of the dangers of hanging out at oil sites, an activity that the CSB found is common in rural areas. In the video, 18-year-old Cody Hunt, a friend of the two victims, urges other teenagers to stay away from oil sites, saying, “It’s not worth going out and losing your life over it.”

“Dangers of Hot Work” won a Golden Eagle in a category devoted to safety, training and employee development. The 14-minute safety video warns of the hazards of welding and other hot work activities in and around storage tanks containing flammable materials. The video uses 3-D computer animations to depict three hot work accidents at Partridge-Raleigh, an oil production site in Central Mississippi; the Bethune Waste Water Treatment Plant in Daytona Beach, Florida; and the former Motiva Enterprises Refinery in Delaware City, Delaware. The video also features an interview with John Capanna, who suffered burns over ninety percent of his body following a hot work accident while he performed maintenance activities at a refinery in New Jersey in 1979. Mr. Capanna warns: “Don’t think that something this tragic couldn’t happen to you or somebody you love. This could happen to anybody.”

More than 1,000 films per year compete in a variety of categories for CINE Golden Eagles, which have been awarded since 1957. Both “No Place to Hang Out” and “Dangers of Hot Work” will now compete for best of category awards to be decided by a cinema jury in February 2011. Previous CINE Golden Eagle winners include filmmakers Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and documentarian Ken Burns.

CSB Managing Director Daniel Horowitz said, “This important recognition of the CSB's work speaks to the continuing impact of the CSB's thorough, scientific, independent investigations and the commitment of our staff and Board members to state-of-the-art communication of safety information.”

Dr. Horowitz continued, “It is the mission of the CSB to disseminate lessons learned from chemical and industrial accidents to prevent similar tragedies in the future; the CSB’s video program has distributed thousands of DVDs to industry leaders, workers, and communities around the world to increase their knowledge of chemical hazards and apply it to real world situations.”

CSB videos are available online at www.csb.gov, and on www.youtube.com. They can be ordered free of charge as a two-DVD set by filling out the request form in the Video Room of www.csb.gov.

The CSB is an independent federal agency charged with investigating serious chemical accidents. The agency's board members are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. CSB investigations look into all aspects of chemical accidents, including physical causes such as equipment failure as well as inadequacies in regulations, industry standards, and safety management systems.

The Board does not issue citations or fines but does make safety recommendations to plants, industry organizations, labor groups, and regulatory agencies such as OSHA and EPA. Visit our website, www.csb.gov.