US chem safety panel seeks 15% funds boost in ‘08

12 March 2007 20:38  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) said on Monday it is seeking a 15% budget increase to $10.5m (€8m) for fiscal year 2008, saying there are more chemical accidents around the country than it can handle with current staff.

 

The board was chartered by Congress to investigate major chemical accidents - those causing loss of life or significant damage to property or the environment - and provide analysis and lessons-learned to industry in hopes of reducing accident rates.

 

Board chairwoman Carolyn Merritt noted in a message to Congress that despite a three-fold increase in investigations since 2002, her agency is operating on a budget that is smaller than in 2000, adjusted for inflation.

 

Merritt said that despite productivity gains, “in many cases we have no investigators available to deploy”.

 

The board has eight investigations under way, including a long-running inquiry into the March 2005 explosion at the BP Texas City, Texas, facility that killed 15 workers and injured 170 others.

 

She said the board is seeking $1.4m in additional funds to hire three new investigators to make up a fourth investigative team plus more money to expand its animated accident videos program.  That program, she said, has produced a variety of accident recreation videos that have received wide use in facility engineering and accident prevention and response training.

 

The board said the budget increase would help set up a small safety studies office to produce additional policy papers that give broad guidance that is not necessarily related to specific accidents.  Previous CSB safety studies have focused on hazards associated with combustible dust, reactive chemicals and nitrogen asphyxiation, among others.

 

Board spokesman Daniel Horowitz said the agency is hopeful that Congress will grant the additional $1.4m in funding for the new fiscal year, which begins 1 September this year.  “We think people are generally appreciative of the work we’re doing,” Horowitz said.

 

Citing a rash of recent fatal chemical industry accidents, Horowitz said “there is a renewed national focus on this issue, and now seems a good time to get the agency where it needs to be in size and budget”.

By: Joe Kamalick
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