Washington — OSHA and the Environmental Protection Agency “must strengthen their regulations on reactive chemicals,” Chemical Safety Board member Sylvia Johnson reiterates in a new video.
The video examines the events that caused a deadly chemical explosion in December 2020 at the Optima Belle facility in Belle, WV. One worker died after the explosion of a dryer that was removing water from a compound. The blast also resulted in serious property damage and led to a shelter-in-place order for the surrounding community.
In its final report on the incident, issued in July 2023, CSB found that the company for which the facility was producing the chemical CDB-56 didn’t provide Optima Belle with sufficient data, under OSHA’s standard on process safety management of highly hazardous chemicals (1910.119).
Further, both organizations had “ineffective” PSM systems, the report stated.
“Outsourcing the production of a hazardous material does not outsource the responsibility for process safety,” Vonzella Vincent, CSB investigator in charge, says in the video.
The board notes that CDB-56 and numerous other reactive chemicals aren’t regulated under OSHA’s PSM standard or EPA’s Risk Management Program rule.
An “inadequate understanding, characterization and analysis” of the chemical hazards contributed to the blast, CSB found.
Johnson says in the video that neither OSHA nor EPA has acted on the board’s recommendations for changes to their PSM standards.
“Regulations addressing reactive hazards will help keep similar incidents from occurring, prevent injuries and deaths, and protect those who live in nearby communities,” Johnson adds. “The time is now for those agencies to act.”
