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Sources say an investigation into the fatal April 17 blast at a West, Texas fertilizer plant has already yielded some information, though it’s expected to continue beyond this week. The Texas State Fire Marshal’s Office has identified ammonium nitrate – a relatively inexpensive fertilizer with a high nitrogen content – as the substance that caused the explosion, killing 14 people and injuring approximately 200 more.

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer said this week that the Environment and Public Works Committee she chairs will investigate the devastating West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion that killed 14 people – many of them first responders – on April 18^th.

President Barack Obama has signed a proclamation declaring May as Building Safety Month. “When natural disasters and other hazards put American lives at risk, robust codes and standards for our buildings play an important role in keeping us safe,” the proclamation reads. “They ensure our homes and businesses are resilient to the challenges of our time -- not just by making them structurally sound, but also by boosting their energy efficiency.”

OSHA has cited New England Confectionery Company Inc., also known as Necco, for 19 alleged serious violations of workplace health and safety standards at its Revere production plant. The manufacturer of Necco Wafers, Clark Bars and other candies faces proposed penalties of $133,000 in connection with the release of 8,000 pounds of ammonia from the plant's refrigeration system on Oct. 5, 2012.

The death toll in last week’s collapse of a factory building near Dhaka in Bangladesh has risen to at least 398, according to Red Crescent officials in that country, who say that they don’t expect additional survivors to be found.

In the speech he gave at yesterday’s memorial in Waco Texas for the victims of last week’s deadly fertilizer plant explosion, President Barack Obama made no mention of the role that regulatory oversight – or lack thereof – may have played in the tragedy.

While investigators in West, Texas, sift through the rubble of a fertilizer plant that exploded last week, killing 15 people, safety advocates are calling for stricter government oversight of potentially hazardous sites like that one. The operator of the plant, West Fertilizer Co., did file an emergency response plan update in 2011 with the EPA listing anhydrous ammonia on site, but did not indicate there was a risk of fire or explosion at the plant.

The Associated Press is reporting that officials at the Bangladesh garment factory that collapsed on Tuesday, killing at least 238 people, ignored orders to evacuate the building prior to the disaster.

The spectacle of frightened elderly nursing home patients being rescued from debris following last week’s explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant had a jarring affect on many Americans. So did photos of debris where approximately 80 homes once stood, and pictures of an apartment complex that had its windows blasted out by the explosion.

An estimated 123 people are dead after the collapse of a Bangladesh garment factory building Wednesday morning, news sources are reporting. The death toll could rise; many more may be trapped in the rubble.