New CSB Paper Asserts Chemical Safety is “Good Business”

As its future under the administration of President Donald J. Trump remains unclear, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) issued a six-page paper Friday outlining the financial impacts of four major agency investigations to show that chemical safety is “good for business.”

The agency’s “Business Case for Safety” asserts that “hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent as a result of chemical disasters in the United States” and stresses the critical nature of learning and sharing the impacts of incidents to an array of stakeholders and industries.

Examining the financial impacts of the 2013 West Fertilizer Company explosion, a 2012 refinery explosion in Richmond, CA, the blowout at the Deepwater Horizon Macondo oil well in 2010, and an explosion at BP’s Texas City refinery in 2005, the paper presents both human and financial costs of safety incidents in the chemical and petrochemical industries.

In March 2017, President Trump’s proposed a budget that eliminated funding for the CSB and several other agencies including the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The CSB’s annual budget totals about $11 million.

“If the CSB’s many safety lessons prevented at least one catastrophic incident, the money saved by preventing damage to the facility and surrounding community, avoiding legal settlements, and saving human lives far exceeds the agency’s $11 million annual budget,” said CSB chairperson Vanessa Allen Sutherland in a press release announcing the paper.

Strong safety programs are called for by the paper’s authors as a means to ensure the “economic success” of chemical and petrochemical producers.

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