T2 blast prompts request for US rules on runaway chem reactions

29 September 2009 17:32  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--Three US lawmakers requested that a regulator adopt rules to address runaway reactions, saying that such standards could have prevented a chemical plant explosion that killed four people, according to a copy of a letter obtained on Tuesday.

The congressmen's request followed a report on the 2007 T2 Laboratories explosion made by the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB).

That report found that the designers of a reactor at the T2 plant failed to adequately conduct tests for runaway reactions. Consequently, the reactor was made without safety features that could have prevented an uncontrolled reaction and, hence, the explosion.

Before the T2 explosion, the CSB recommended that runaway reactions be addressed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). That recommendation - made in 2002 - remains unheeded.

The T2 accident may have been prevented had OSHA's regulations covered runaway reactions, according to a letter the lawmakers sent to the regulator. 

"Indeed, the facts sifted from the rubble of this tragic explosion underscore the need for OSHA to follow CSB's 2002 recommendation to include reactive chemicals as part of its process safety management rule," the letter said.

The letter was signed by US House Representatives George Miller, Lynn Woolsey and Corrine Brown.

OSHA did not immediately comment on the letter.

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By: Al Greenwood
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