US Chemical Safety Board Investigations of Relevance to the ESI

摘要

The United States Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is an independent federal agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents. Headquartered in Washington, DC, the agency's board members are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The CSB conducts root cause investigations of chemical accidents at fixed industrial facilities. The root causes are usually due to deficiencies in safety management systems, but can be due to any factor that would have prevented the accident if that factor had not occurred. Other accident causes are found to involve equipment failures, human errors, unforeseen chemical reactions or other hazards. Accidents which have occurred over the past ten years of relevance to the NZ ESI include; ? Several natural gas explosions, including that at the Kleen Energy co-gen plant during a live gas purge. ? Confined space accidents including a fire in a hydro station penstock ? Dust explosions ? Pressure equipment failures ? Hot work fires This paper reviews the accident investigation reports, videos and recommendations and collates information and recommendations of relevance to the NZ ESI.