OSHA’s response to CSB recommendations ‘unacceptable,’ board says
Washington – OSHA’s response to seven Chemical Safety Board recommendations has been “unacceptable,” the board declared during a July 25 meeting in Washington.
Recommendations CSB believes OSHA has not implemented in a timely manner include:
- Ensure the Process Safety Management Standard covers atmospheric storage tanks that could be involved in a potentially catastrophic release
- Amend the PSM standard to require management-of-change reviews for organizational changes
- Issue a fuel gas safety standard and a combustible dust standard
Several members of the public at the meeting supported the board members’ unanimous decision, but many called on the board to examine the larger context of OSHA inaction by considering the political and rulemaking obstacles the agency faces. Representing OSHA at the meeting was Tom Galassi, director of the agency’s Directorate of Enforcement Programs, who noted some of those obstacles and said OSHA sometimes opts to use methods it believes will more effectively achieve the goals set in CSB recommendations.
Near the end of the meeting, the board unanimously approved its Most Wanted Chemical Safety Improvements Program, adopting as the first item in the program the need for an OSHA general industry standard on combustible dust.