M7.7 Agency's Role

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U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB)

 The U.S. Chemical Safety Board is an "independent, non-regulatory federal agency that investigates the root causes of major chemical incidents." 

 Their mission is to "drive chemical safety change through independent investigations to protect people and the environment." 

 The agency was created under the Clear Air Act Amendments of 1990, and over the past 20 years, CSB has gone to investigate over 130 chemical incidents and issued more than 800 recommendations that have led to safety improvements across industries. 

 According to a safety report done in 2017, the CSB went to investigate an incident in Charleston, West Virginia where there was a chemical release and disruption of the drinking water supply. During this incident, an estimated 10,000 gallons of crude methycyclohexanemethanol (MCHM) [irritant - skin, eye, respiratory] mixed with propylene glycol phenyl ethers (PPH Stripped) [irritant - skin, eye, respiratory in continual/large quantities] were released into the Elk River when a 46,000 gallon storage tank failed and led to no water for 300,00 residents in nine counties.

 Based on this information, one can see that the CSB is critical in protecting the environment in providing recommendations to prevent similar incidents, in addition to providing alerts in communities about potential dangers and acknowledging these incidents.

Another area that CSB does is education -- the agency releases animated safety videos on its website and YouTube that are free of charge to the public to share investigation findings and lessons learned. 

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 16, 2018 at 3:25 PM

    Hi Daisy,
    I was happy to see that CSB does education as well. I thought that the animated safety videos were very informative and could be useful to help educate the general public.
    Thank you for your post!
    Kera

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownOctober 17, 2018 at 9:37 AM

    Hi Daisy,
    Thank you for your informative post regarding the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. I did not know much about the CSB but I am very glad to hear that they are investigating the effects of chemicals and make recommendations to ensure safety and protection. I agree that this is a critically important agency that protects the environment and communities. That is also great that they provide education to spread awareness.

    ReplyDelete

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