Cuyahoga County Chemical Safety
Inherently Safer Chemical Processes
Chemical Facility Security
Bhopal - 25th Anniversary of World's Worst Chemical Plant Disaster
Bhopal Disaster Risk - Institute, West Virginia - Bayer Lethal Chemical Explosion
Links to More Information on Chemical Safety and Security

Cuyahoga County Chemical Safety

• In Cuyahoga County (Cleveland, Ohio), about 250 facilities have dangerous chemicals on site in sufficient quantity that an accidental release could send a toxic cloud into the community, in some cases traveling several miles.
• Such a release has the potential to cause deaths, serious injuries and major environmental pollution.
• For several years, EHW has been working with the Cuyahoga County Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) to improve emergency response planning and to reduce the risk and consequences of major chemical accidents.
• Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPC) are appointed by the State Emergency Response Commission (SERC) to identify chemical hazards, plan for emergencies, convey public information, and include all citizens.
  •  LEPC Report Card - Evaluate your LEPC.

Inherently Safer Chemical Processes

• The traditional approach to chemical process safety is to add control, containment and mitigation layers to an inherently dangerous process. The Inherent Safety approach looks for ways to make the process less dangerous.
• Chemical Hazard Reduction Hierarchy: With inherent safety at the top, a strategy for improved chemcial safety.
• Illustrations of inherent safety concepts [Safe Hometowns Guide]
• Risk Reduction Awards [Cuyahoga County/Cleveland LEPCs]
• Elimination of Chlorine from Greater Cleveland Water Treatment Facilities
• Inherent Safety Articles:
  • Inherent Security: Protecting Process Plants Against Threats, Paul Baybutt, Primatech, Inc.
  • Challenges in Implementing Inherent Safety Principles in New and Existing Chemical Processes White Paper, Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center, Texas A & M University
  • Chemical Process Safety Publications, Dennis Hendershot, Rohm & Haas Company
  • Recommended Books and Periodicals

Chemical Facility Security and Safety

• "Since September 11, 2001, the nation has been on alert about the vulnerability of chemical facilities. And while the Bush Administration claims that homeland security is a priority, time after time, it has opted to do nothing dramatic to improve the security of U.S. chemical facilities. All along, it has followed the wishes of the U.S. chemical industry - at our peril." Open to Attack [Progressive Magazine]

• The Violence Policy Center report, Sitting Ducks, reveals the threat to the chemicaland refinery industry from 50 caliber sniper rifles.

• Chemical Security 101: What You Don't Have Can't Leak, or Be Blown Up by Terrorists
  Read this new report on the safety and security of chemical manufacturing facilities and hazmat transport by the Center For American Progress here.
  
  
• Clorox to stop using, transporting chlorine in US
  In a major move toward inherent safety, the Clorox Co. announced it is changing how it makes its bleach so it can stop transporting chlorine to U.S. factories by rail amid growing safety concerns and regulatory scrutiny. Read The New York Times editorial, Associated Press article,San Franscisco Business Times article and Greenpeace press release.
  
  
• House Passes Chemical Security Bill
  Read about the Chemical and Water Security Act of 2009
  
  
• Safer Chemicals Create a More Secure America
  Center for American Progress, March 2, 2010
  
  
• Benign by Design: protecting chemical facilities from attacks and accidents
  by Stu Greenberg
  Citizen Action Newsletter, Winter 2001
  
  

Bhopal - 25th Anniversary World's Worst Chemical Plant Disaster

25th Anniversary of Bhopal Disaster
Twenty-five years after a horrific industiral accident killed thousands and injured tens of thousands, the people of Bhopal, India, are still suffering. A U.S. tour which stopped in Cleveland sought support for justice from Dow Chemical. Local sponsors are Asha for Education, Cleveland and Environmental Health Watch.

• Decades Later, Toxic Sludge Torments Bhopal
  The New York Times
  July 7, 2008
  BHOPAL, India — Hundreds of tons of waste still languish inside a tin-roofed warehouse in a corner of the old grounds of the Union Carbide pesticide factory here, nearly a quarter-century after a poison gas leak killed thousands and turned this ancient city into a notorious symbol of industrial disaster.
  Read the whole article

• Bhopal victims lobby US Congress for action
  AFP
  May 8, 2009
  WASHINGTON (AFP) — Victims of the 1984 gas leak that killed thousands of people in Bhopal, India took their battle Thursday to the US Congress, seeking pressure on Dow Chemicals.
  Read the whole article

• Lessons of Bhopal: 25 Years Later, U.S. Chemical Laws Need Strengthening
  OMB Watch
  November 24, 2009
  Dec. 3 marks the 25th anniversary of the most catastrophic industrial accident in history: the leak of poisonous gas from a chemical plant in the Indian city of Bhopal. A similar accident some months later in West Virginia drove Congress to pass legislation intended to protect citizens from such disasters by requiring emergency planning and public disclosure of chemical releases. Twenty-five years after the Bhopal tragedy, much progress has been made, but much remains to be done to provide a minimum level of protection against chemical releases.
  

Bhopal Disaster Risk - Institute, West Virginia - Bayer Lethal Chemical Explosion

• Lawmakers Say Chemical Company Withheld Information About Explosion
  The New York Times
  April 22, 2009
  WASHINGTON — When a huge explosion occurred last August at a West Virginia chemical plant, managers refused for several hours to tell emergency responders the nature of the blast or the toxic chemical it released, and they later misused a law intended to keep information from terrorists to try to stop federal investigators from learning what had happened, members of a House subcommittee said Tuesday.
  
  The explosion, at Bayer CropScience, in Institute, W. Va., killed two employees and sickened six volunteer firefighters. It was felt 10 miles away, and a tank weighing several thousand pounds “rocketed 50 feet through the plant,” committee investigators found.
  
  Fortunately, it did not go in the direction of a tank holding the same chemical that killed thousands in a 1984 chemical plant explosion in Bhopal, India. Devices meant to detect releases of the chemical, methyl isocyanate, or MIC, had been disabled, and video cameras had been disconnected, steps that “raise concerns about an orchestrated effort by Bayer, a subsidiary of Bayer AG, to shroud the explosion in secrecy,” said the subcommittee chairman, Representative Bart Stupak, Democrat of Michigan.
  Read the whole article

• In Preliminary Findings, CSB Investigators Report Bayer CropScience Explosion Was Caused by Runaway Chemical Reaction; Cite Significant Lapses in Process Safety, Outdated Operating Procedures
  Chemical Safety Board, News Release
  April 23, 2009
  A large explosion and fire that took the lives of two workers at the Bayer CropScience (Bayer) plant last August was caused by a thermal runaway reaction during the production of an insecticide. The event likely resulted from significant lapses in chemical process safety management at the plant, U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) investigators said today in preliminary findings released at a news conference here.

  . . . "The explosion occurred within 80 feet of a pressure vessel containing more than 13,000 pounds of methyl isocyanate, or MIC, a raw material for the pesticide the company was making at the time, and the same chemical that caused death and injury in the Bhopal accident 25 years ago," Chairman Bresland said.
  Read the whole article

More Information on Chemical Safety and Security

• Risk Management Plan Database, Right-To-Know Network
  Federal law requires industrial facilities that use large amounts of extremely hazardous substances to file a Risk Management Plan (RMP) with the EPA. These RMP data are intended to save lives, protect property, and prevent pollution.
• US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board is an independent federal agency whose mission is to prevent industrial chemical accidents and save lives.
• PACE International Health and Safety Department provides lessons gained from other incident investigations.
• Chemical Emergency Prevention and Preparedness - This EPA site provides tools, resources and information for chemical accident prevention and preparedness.
• Risk Management Solutions' (RMS) Top Ten Greatest Risks (pdf, see pgs. 42-43)
• RMS Study Assesses Risk From Catastrophic Events
• Clean Production Action
• Recommended Books and Periodicals

More Chemical Safety and Security Links

Links to EHW's Activities Related to Chemical Safety and Security