Washington — Chemical Safety Board member Sylvia Johnson maintains that “robust regulation” can help prevent explosions involving combustible dust; however, OSHA hasn’t yet started rulemaking on a general industry standard.
CSB resounded its call for such a standard in a new agency video exploring what caused a fatal May 2017 explosion and fire at the Didion Milling dry corn mill in Cambria, WI. Five workers were killed and 14 others were injured.
CSB issued a final report on the incident in December 2023. An agency investigation found that Didion Milling neglected to develop and implement a written program on combustible grain dust and failed to install venting or suppression on a dust filter collector to prevent an explosion.
Still, CSB notes that the company wasn’t required to enact various safety management systems because OSHA lacks an overarching general industry standard on combustible dust.
The video says OSHA’s standard on grain handling facilities (1910.272) doesn’t “incorporate safety management systems such as incident investigations, management of change and dust hazard analysis.
“And there are many other industries – such as food, agriculture and polymers – that present the hazard of combustible dust but are not subject to a comprehensive regulatory standard to address the hazard.”
In a press release, Johnson says CSB has been “calling for a comprehensive standard on combustible dust for many years to help prevent tragic, deadly incidents like the one at Didion from continuing to occur.”
