Hearings Spotlight OSHA Inaction in Setting Combustible Standards to Save Lives

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/03/13/hearings-spotlight-osha-inaction-in-setting-combustible-standards-to-save-lives/

by Mike Hall, Mar 13, 2008

Edwin Foulke, head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), defended his agency’s actions in preventing combustible dust explosions like the Feb. 7 blast that claimed the lives of 12 workers and seriously injured 11 others at an Imperial Sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, Ga.

We’ve taken strong measures on combustible dust.

But several other safety experts and members of the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee laid out a pattern of inaction on OSHA’s part in setting a dust standard, including ignoring the 2006 recommendation of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) that an emergency combustible standard was needed to save lives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IPUIgqAzmI

At a hearing yesterday that probed the Imperial Sugar explosion, committee Chairman Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) said:

What’s particularly troubling about the Imperial Sugar explosion is that, not only was it preventable, but had been specifically warned about dust hazards and provided with guidance on how to address them.

The warned OSHA over a year ago that existing standards were inadequate to guard against the risk of industrial dusts, like sugar, building up to dangerous levels and exploding.

When dust builds up to dangerous levels in industrial worksites, it can become fuel for fires and explosions. Combustible dust can come from many sources, such as sugar, flour, feed, plastics, wood, rubber, furniture, textiles, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, dyes, coal and metals, and so poses a risk across a number of different industries.


FULL story at link.