A proposed revamping of the nation’s chemical regulations is meeting with both skepticism and resistance, notably from the EPA itself. Our Houston chemical plant injury attorneys’ reading of theproposed Chemical Safety Improvement Act (CSIA) did not indicate any real strides forward in safety or protection from chemical hazards, and possibly revealed additional roadblocks to states or individuals that might seek to regulate dangerous chemicals.
The reasons for the lack of any real improvement aren’t difficult to discern. At a time when the U.S. economy is dying a slow and agonizing death and skilled jobs that pay a good wage are increasingly being exported abroad even as almost all goods are being imported, the U.S. chemicals industry is steadily active. The Houston chemical plant injury attorneys at Denena Points, PC mention that states like Texas and Louisiana, with their busy petro-chemicals plants dotting active shipping corridors, rely on the chemicals industry for a substantial portion of their jobs and revenues.
The Associated Press (Jeff Amy and Michael Kunzelman, 6/13) quoted Iain Vasey, the Executive Director of Business Development at the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce, stating that the chemicals industry was “a very important sector in our economy.” The jobs offered by the industry tend to be highly paid and highly skilled, at an economically depressed time when such jobs are few and far between. And much of the manufacturing can be done in the United States, rather than relying on production abroad as is the case with so many industries these days.
As reported by AP, the average annual salary at the new or expanding chemical plants in Louisiana in 2011 was almost $70,000, well above the state’s median household income of $43,000. So in spite of possible safety concerns, state and local officials, as well as workers and local communities, have welcomed the chemical plants and refineries with open arms. Indeed, over $30 billion in investments (not even counting some industry significant upgrades) were announced for Louisiana starting in 2011.
For instance, the Williams Companies, Inc. announced a $400 million expansion. Our Houston chemical plant injury attorneys report that this facility was the site of a massive explosion in June that killed two workers. That was one of two fatal explosions in a single week, occurring just a few miles apart, at Louisiana chemical plants.
But despite the impression given by the back-to-back fatal explosions in Louisiana’s chemical industry, chemical manufacturing plants are safer places to work then the average American workplace. In 2011, 25 deaths occurred in U.S. chemical manufacturing plants, at a rate of 1.9 per 100,000 full-time workers, only about half the rate for all U.S. workers. And our Houston chemical plant injury attorneys emphasize that the injury rate was 0.6 in chemical manufacturing plants, in contrast to the 3.8 average rate across all U.S. industries.
Still the hazards posed by concentrations of dangerous chemicals shouldn’t be ignored. Not too long, a warehouse full of ammonium nitrate blew up in West, Texas and leveled nearly half the town, taking more than a dozen lives, many of them first responders.
And at Westlake Chemical in Geismar, Louisiana in May, a partial power loss at the plant caused a release of vinyl chloride, hospitalizing three workers for inhalation exposure. Due to the volatile and toxic nature of the substances involved, the chemical industry presents real hazards of explosions, chemical releases, and other dangerous accidents.
The Houston chemical plant injury attorneys at Denena Points, PC caution that the real challenge is balancing safety concerns with economic and job growth. And that’s where the current TSCA chemical regulatory scheme, the proposed CSIA scheme, and the EPA’s Essential Principles for chemical safety all fail. They overbalance to the side of economic interests.