CSB NEWS RELEASE
Chairman Bresland’s New YouTube Safety Message Urges More Government Action, Increased Industry Vigilance to Prevent Catastrophic Dust Explosions

For more information, go to: View Safety Message on YouTube

Washington, DC, February 4, 2009 - Marking the first anniversary of the Imperial Sugar explosion that killed 14 workers in February 2008, CSB Chairman John Bresland released a new video safety message today asking federal regulators and businesses to increase efforts to prevent combustible dust fires and explosions.

The safety message can be viewed on the CSB’s safety message channel, www.youtube.com/safetymessages, and the text can be also read on http://safetymessages.blogspot.com, an agency blog site.

In the safety message, Chairman Bresland noted that of eight catastrophic industrial dust explosions since 1995, all but one occurred during cold weather months. Four disastrous dust explosions occurred during the month of February alone.

“Yesterday’s reports of a coal dust explosion near Milwaukee that caused injuries and damage underscore the danger from these accidents,” Chairman Bresland said on the release of today’s message. Several contract workers suffered burn injuries from an explosion Tuesday morning involving a coal dust collection system at a power plant in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

“I call on all of industry to take this hazard seriously - during the winter months and throughout the year,” Mr. Bresland said in the video. “And I urge the incoming leadership at OSHA to act upon the CSB’s recommendations from 2006 to develop a comprehensive regulatory standard for combustible dust.”

The CSB completed a major study of combustible dust hazards in November 2006, identifying 281 fires and explosions that killed 119 workers and injured 718 others. The CSB urged the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to develop a comprehensive regulatory standard designed to prevent dust explosions. OSHA has not issued a standard but has developed a program to increase enforcement of existing regulatory provisions.

On February 7, 2008, a catastrophic dust explosion destroyed the massive packaging plant at the Imperial Sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, Georgia, fatally burning 14 workers and injuring 38 others. In Senate testimony in July 2008, Chairman Bresland noted that the Imperial explosion and other major dust explosions would likely have been prevented if the companies had followed existing National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recommendations for controlling dust hazards. Those measures - including appropriate equipment and building design, worker training, and rigorous dust-cleaning programs - should form the basis of a new regulatory standard for industrial workplaces, Mr. Bresland said.

“Despite the efforts of NFPA, OSHA, the Chemical Safety Board, and many others, serious dust explosions and fires continue to occur,” Mr. Bresland said in the new video. “As CSB chairman, my commitment is do everything possible to make these tragedies a thing of the past. Stronger, clearer regulations and more robust safety programs in industry will prevent most dust explosions - and save lives.”

The CSB is an independent federal agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents. The agency’s board members are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. CSB investigations look into all aspects of chemical accidents, including physical causes such as equipment failure as well as inadequacies in regulations, industry standards, and safety management systems.

The Board does not issue citations or fines but does make safety recommendations to plants, industry organizations, labor groups, and regulatory agencies such as OSHA and EPA. Visit our website, www.csb.gov.

For more information, contact Daniel Horowitz at (202) 261-7613 or Hillary Cohen at (202) 261-3601.

Viewers who can not access YouTube can download the video files for all safety messages and safety videos from a page within the CSB Video Room (http://www.csb.gov/index.cfm?folder=video_archive&page=trouble).

On September 12, 2006, OSHA published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register to seek comments on how to implement the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS).  The GHS has been adopted by the United Nations to facilitate international trade by developing consistency between laws in different counties. 

But since 2006 this proposed rule has seen little action.  Under the Obama administration that may change.  In a December 2008 meeting between the Obama transition team and the ASSE (American Society of Safety Engineers) the ASSE is recommending that this rule move forward.  ASSE has stated publicly “OSHA can help U.S. companies save jobs. Rulemaking on global harmonization of US hazard communications (GHS) will help U.S. employers compete across the globe and should be completed. An engaged OSHA can help ensure OSH issues are addressed fully in US trade agreements”.   

The adoption of the GHS by OSHA will require OSHA to propose changes to the Hazard Communication Standard (20 CFR 1910.1200).  It is important to realize that GHS is not a regulation or standard, but is a system for standardizing and harmonizing the classification of chemicals internationally.  Its purposes are to create a logical and comprehensive approach to defining health, physical, and environmental hazards; to create a classification process that uses data on chemicals with comparison with the define hazards criteria; and to standardize the communication of those hazards.

The GHS was developed because the global chemical business generates more the $17 trillion per year.  Just in the US alone, chemicals are more than a $450 billion business and exports are more that $80 billion per year.  While laws are similar, they are different enough to require multiple labels for the same product.  It is estimated that there are over 100 different types of Hazard Communication Standards for global products.  For large global companies, labeling is costly and time consuming.  The various global regulations are complex and expensive and can prevent medium and small companies from entering into the global market.  In the US alone, chemical manufactures, importers, suppliers, and users must comply with regulations from the CSPC, OSHA, DOT and EPA.

The proposed rule to the Hazard Communication Standard will address changes to the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) and product labeling.  In the US, workplace labels are “performance oriented” and result in labels that have product identity, hazard statements, and supplier information, but tend to be confusing.   Some global US companies follow the voluntary ANSI Z129.1 Precautionary Labeling Standard that includes several of the core elements to GHS.  The GHS label elements are Symbols (hazard pictograms) that show health, physical, and environmental hazards; Signal Words such as “Danger” or “Warning”; and Hazard Statements that would include standard phrases assigned to a hazard class and category.  All symbols, signal words, and hazard statements have been standardized and assigned to a specific hazard category and class.

Under the GHS, the MSDS will become the SDS (Safety Data Sheet), which will have 16 required sections.  A few of the new subjects that will be covered include Ecological, Transport Information, and Disposal Considerations. All three sections will have detailed information; for example, under the Disposal Considerations, the SDS will include a description of waste residues and information on the safe handling and methods of disposal, including any contaminated packaging.  

The proposed changes to the Hazard Communication Standard will take time.  For companies that are interested in entering into the global market or companies that are currently in the global market, the intent is to help streamline the process of providing information and to reduce the redundancies of all the various required labels resulting in less cost and time.

Click here to see “A Guide to The Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS)”.
 

Ann Pierce Towles is the President and a Safety Consultant for Advanced Safety & Health, LLC and is a Louisville, KY based Safety Consultant.  She can be reached at atowles@advancedsafetyheatlh.com or (502)240-6910



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American Society of Safety Engineers Discusses Future of OSHA With New Administration

Des Plaines, IL (December 19, 2008) — In discussing occupational safety, health and the environment (SH&E) issues with the new administration’s transition team, American Society of Safety Engineers’ (ASSE) officials reviewed its key concerns and suggestions for the U.S. Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Leadership, standards, risk-based safety and health management approaches, global harmonization rulemaking, third party consultation, ergonomics, workplace transportation fatalities, strengthening support for state OSHA programs, cooperation with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and continued support for cooperative programs like the Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) and OSHA alliances with businesses which advance employer understanding of the positive impact of SH&E on an employer’s bottom line were discussed.

As for leadership, ASSE notes federal safety and health agencies should be led by safety, health and environmental professionals who have the leadership capabilities to build relationships across the spectrum of occupational safety and health (OSH) stakeholders. ASSE also noted the following:

• Standards — An examination of how OSHA standards are pursued must be undertaken. OSHA should lead efforts to develop cooperative mechanisms to help counter the division that has limited OSHA’s ability to update standards and permissible exposure limits (PELs).
• Advance risk-based safety and health management approaches — OSHA should encourage employers to take proactive responsibility for safety and health through risk-based regulatory approaches and compliance assistance resources. Europe, Japan, China and committed U.S. employers already use such approaches. OSHA is falling behind the world in not incorporating risk-based safety and health management approaches.
• OSHA can help U.S. companies save jobs. Rulemaking on global harmonization of US hazard communications (GHS) will help U.S. employers compete across the globe and should be completed. An engaged OSHA can help ensure OSH issues are addressed fully in US trade agreements.
• Continue to support cooperative programs like VPP and the OSHA alliances, which continue to advance employer understanding that safe workplaces save lives and positively impact an employer’s bottom line.
• Third party consultation — ASSE supports extending OSHA effectiveness by establishing a program to allow third party safety audits of companies under strict requirements to ensure professionalism and maximize effect, thereby expanding OSHA’s reach beyond the limits of its current enforcement and cooperative programs.
• Ergonomics – If ergonomics emerges as a regulatory goal, ASSE will not be able to support a prescriptive approach. Our members’ knowledge and experience indicate that ergonomic problems are addressed through specific job and workplace fixes. Any approach to ergonomics must be risk-based, encourage cooperation, and avoid prescriptive, one-size-fits-all solutions that cannot work.
• Harmonization with voluntary consensus standards – OSHA should increase its participation level in the voluntary consensus standard community and comply fully with the Technology Transfer Act’s mandate to consider consensus standards when engaged in rulemaking. Use of such standards, like ANSI/ASSE Z117 (confined space standard) and ANSI/ASSE Z490.1 (safety training), will help expedite rulemaking and keep pace with current safety practices.
• Transportation-related deaths continue to be the leading cause of workplace fatalities in the U.S. OSHA should examine its current efforts and engage employers, employees and other federal agencies to create a new emphasis on addressing this problem.
• Cooperation with NIOSH – OSHA’s relationship with NIOSH envisioned by the 1970 Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act should be increased so that NIOSH’s work, including key SH&E research, can support and contribute to OSHA’s standards and other activities.
• Improve support for state programs – OSHA’s ability to support and encourage state program effectiveness must be strengthened.

Founded in 1911, Des Plaines, IL-based ASSE is the largest and oldest safety society. Its more than 32,000 occupational safety, health and environmental professionals work in all industries and are committed to protecting people, property and the environment. For more information please go to www.asse.org.