The Donaldsonville explosion on Friday night at the CF Industries plant in a heavily industrial corridor in Ascension Parish, Louisiana has sparked new awareness of worker and public safety issues. On Saturday, State Police Trooper Jared Sandifer announced that officials from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would be joining the investigation into the facility as soon as the conditions were safe.
As I reported yesterday, a longtime employee of 34 years was killed instantly in the blast. Seven other people were injured — four plant employees and three contractors.
For more details about the Donaldsonville explosion, including a video report, please click right here.
Coming back-to-back with Thursday's massive explosion at the nearby Williams-Olefins chemical plant in Geismar, the Donaldsonville explosion has rattled some nerves.
Ascension Parish sheriff Jeff Wiley objected to the media reports that the eruptive release of the nitrogen was an explosion. He compared it more to something like a tire or a balloon leaking gas.
However, locals don't underestimate the potential damage of the events.
Go to the Full Story: http://www.inquisitr.com/759142/donaldsonville-explosion-osha-joins-investigation-safety-debate-raised/
Just as the cleanup was beginning at the site of a fatal chemical plant explosion in Geismar, a second fatal blast that killed one worker occurred Friday at a chemical plant in Donaldsonville.
Federal investigators are now expected in south Louisiana. State Police Trooper Jared Sandifer said Saturday that officials from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will come to the CF Industries facility as soon as the site is deemed safe.
...Danger level
Louisiana Economic Development counts more than $30 billion in investments announced in Louisiana starting in 2011, and that doesn't include a number of upgrades. Among them is a $400 million expansion at the Williams Companies Inc. plant.
It might be easy to conclude that working in a chemical plant is a dangerous occupation, but statistics say otherwise. There were 25 fatalities in chemical manufacturing plants nationwide in 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That's a fatality rate of 1.9 per 100,000 full-time workers, barely half the rate among all workers.
Nationwide, 3.8 of every 100 full-time workers was injured in 2011 according to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The injury rate was 2.4 in the overall chemical manufacturing sector, and 0.6 in the area of chemical manufacturing including the Williams plant. That's among the very lowest injury rate of any manufacturing sector.
