Stronger regulation urged to prevent dust explosions

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) urged Congress Wednesday to create a comprehensive federal standard to prevent dust explosions like the blast that killed 12 people last month at the Imperial Sugar plant near Savannah, Ga.



"Mr. Chairman, these human tragedies are preventable," CSB interim executive William Wright told the House Committee on Education and Labor. 



While the board's investigation into the Imperial Sugar tragedy is ongoing, CSB's preliminary findings suggest the explosion began when accumulated sugar dust ignited and triggered a series of other explosions.



He said that while the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has general regulations that apply to dust hazards, a specific, comprehensive standard addressing combustible dust would help reduce the number of accidents. 



Wright noted that comprehensive grain dust regulations OSHA enacted after numerous grain dust explosions in the 1970s and 1980s reduced injuries and deaths by 60 percent, according to a 2003 OSHA review.  Those regulations include written plans and schedules for removing dust from areas where it accumulates and the immediate removal of any accumulation over 1/8 of an inch. 



Wright called for similar OSHA regulations on other industries that produce dust that has the potential to explode.



Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga., along with Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., introduced a bill earlier this month to require OSHA to enact such standards.



Barrow said the bill would direct OSHA to make current voluntary dust safety regulations mandatory.



"Right now, basic worker safety is an employer option or it's a local option," said Barrow. 



"It may be impossible for us to eliminate all such explosions," he said. "But we know from what we've been able to do with grain dust regulations … that this problem can be tackled."



Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., agreed that Congress should move quickly to prevent future tragedies like the Imperial Sugar explosion, but warned of lawmakers over-regulating in their haste.



"We want to make sure the solution isn't a random, one-size-fits-all approach," he said. "There are about 80,000 plants that would be affected by this."



He pointed out that there are many different types of industrial dust, including organic dust like flour and sugar, as well as other types, like dust from wood, metal and chemicals.



"You want to make sure that this legislation, while we want to do it quickly, that it is still effective and it achieves the purpose, which would be eliminating this kind of accident in the future," said Kingston.