Thirty-six people died from on-the-job chemical accidents in the US in a recent 11-month period, “the largest number of fatalities ever investigated by the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) in a comparable time period,” a top US chemical safety official said in June.
This recent rise in US deaths comes amid repeated efforts by the Donald J. Trump administration to defund the CSB and to rewrite a key industrial chemical safety regulation, the Risk Management Program (RMP). The proposed RMP changes, released in February, would save chemical industries billions of dollars and affect more than 11,000 chemical manufacturers and refineries, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. But they would also increase risks to workers at the facilities as well as community members living nearby, say safety advocates, community groups, and the CSB. Read the full story from Chemical and Engineering News here.
