California’s initiative to improve refinery safety is getting a big thumb’s up from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB). A report recently released by the California Interagency Working Group on Refinery Safety “is an important milestone for improving refinery safety across the State of California,” said CSB Chairperson Rafael Moure-Eraso.
After six workers were killed in a massive gas explosion at the Kleen Energy plant in Middletown, Connecticut four years ago, federal investigators tallied hundreds of violations at the site and issued $16.6 million in penalties against more than a dozen companies — the third-largest workplace-safety fine in the nation's history.
Unsafe method killed six workers at Kleen Energy plant in Conn.
February 7, 2014
The chairperson of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) yesterday commended the International Code Council (ICC) and its members for revising the International Fire Code (IFC) and International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC) to prohibit the unsafe practice that killed six workers in a tragic explosion at the Kleen Energy power generation facility in Middletown, Connecticut.
Tests done this morning at a West Virginia water treatment facility show some improvement in water quality – a sign that area residents may soon be able to drink water from their own taps.
The April 2, 2010, explosion and fire that fatally injured seven employees at the Tesoro Refinery in Anacortes, Washington was caused by a faulty heat exchanger, according to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB), which will officially wrap up its investigation into the tragedy at a meeting later this month.
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.
An explosion during a chemistry class science experiment last week sent two students from a Manhattan high school to the hospital with burns to their face, hands and neck. One of them, 16-year-old Alonzo Yanes, is in critical condition in the burn unit of a local hospital. The other sustained first degree burns.
The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) will vote on the draft regulatory report of the August 6, 2012, fire at the Chevron refinery that endangered 19 workers and sent more than 15,000 residents to the hospital for medical attention at its public meeting on January 15.
Firefighter cancer rates, hand safety, TSCA reform
November 9, 2013
New rulemaking from OSHA was the week’s top EHS-related story. In other news: shocking differences between U.S. and U.K. occupational fatality rates and the CSB gives high marks to the NFPA’s new gas process safety standard.
OSHA backs down from proposed changes to its On-Site Consultation Program, good news about U.S. mining fatality rates and reasons why some construction workers don’t report injuries are among the top EHS-related stories featured this week on ISHN.com: