US Congress, unions press for chem worker safety

22 March 2007 20:52  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--Union officials have asked the US Congress on Thursday for increased federal controls on worker safety at refineries and chemical plants as the House Democrat leader on labour issues promised more hearings on the matter.

 

“Risks of injury and death remain unnecessarily high for workers in oil refineries and chemical facilities because of lax enforcement of worker safety standards,” the House Committee on Education and Labor said in a statement.

 

The committee took testimony from union officials and government regulators as part of a hearing focused on lessons learned from the 23 March 2005 explosion and fire that killed 15 workers and injured 180 others at the BP refinery at Texas City, Texas.

 

“The BP explosion was the biggest workplace disaster in the last 18 years, yet it received very little congressional scrutiny until today,” said Representative George Miller (Democrat-California), committee chairman.

 

“Even more upsetting is that two years after this catastrophe, we’re still seeing a disturbing pattern of major fires and explosions” at US refineries and chemical plants, Miller said.

 

“Protecting the safety of refinery and chemical workers is reason enough to get this right,” he added, noting that Friday is the second anniversary of the Texas City blast.

 

Kim Nibarger, a workplace safety investigator for the United Steelworkers (USW) union, told the committee that there is at least one worker fatality at chemical facilities each month, although a spokeswoman for the union later clarified that Nibarger was referring to chemicals manufacturing worldwide, not just in the US.

 

The American Chemistry Council cited statistics from the US Occupational and Health Administration (Osha) showing 22 fatalities in the US chemicals industry in 2005, a figure that includes some of the Texas City deaths.

 

In comparison, there were 352 fatalities in the US agriculture industry and nearly 1,200 in construction, according to the Osha figures.

 

A spokeswoman said the union will press Congress for stronger enforcement of federal workplace safety rules at chemical plants and legislation to make current voluntary inspections mandatory in the sector.

 

Tom Kiley, spokesman for Congressman Miller, said the committee will hold further hearings in late April to consider additional legislation to strengthen federal inspection rights at chemical plants and refineries.

By: Joe Kamalick
+1 713 525 2653

< previous article(ICIS Podcast: Chemical News Central 2 November 2009)

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly