 |
Three accidents which occurred within a 33-hour period in January 2010 at a DuPont Corp. chemical manufacturing plant in West Virginia were caused by a “series of preventable safety shortcomings,” including a failure to maintain the integrity of a hose that carried lethal phosgene gas, whose leak led to the death of one exposed plant worker.
That was the conclusion contained in a draft report prepared by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, which was directed to examine the circumstances surrounding three successive accidents that took place at DuPont’s facility in Belle, WV, on January 22 and 23, 2010.
The Board’s report included several remedial recommendations. “Among them, DuPont is urged to enclose all of its phosgene production and storage areas so that any releases of phosgene will be contained,” said a press release issued by the CSB on July 7.
The Board concluded that the hose that burst in front of the DuPont worker was supposed to be changed at least once a month, but the hose that failed had not been changed for seven months. Furthermore, the hose involved “was susceptible to corrosion from phosgene,” the release explained. Read more
No comments:
Post a Comment