One barometer is to look at the recently formed working groups that will be holding meetings in Montreal: Nanotechnologyworking group; Incident preparation and responseworking group; Oil and gasworking group; Control bandingworking group; Clandestine laboratoryworking group; Green buildingworking group.

OSHA has cited First Choice Energy of Minot with nine serious safety violations for exposing workers to unsafe conditions at an oil field drilling and fluid disposal operation in Stanley. The inspection was prompted after a worker was killed after being caught in the agitator of an oil field vacuum truck storage tank on March 14.

Missed opportunities to apply inherently safer design, failure to identify and evaluate damage mechanism hazards, and the lack of effective safeguards culminated in the vapor cloud release and massive fire that occurred at the Chevron refinery on August 6, 2012,a draft report by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has found.