Three CSB Nominations Sent to Senate

Yesterday the Senate received three nominations for Board Members for the Chemical Safety and Inspection Board (CSB). The CSB is supposed to have five Board Members, but Dr. Katherine A. Lemos, the Board Chair, has been serving as the sole Board Member since she was confirmed in 2020.

The three new nominees are:

• Stephen A. Owens, of Arizona, to be a Member of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board for a term of five years.

• Jennifer Beth Sass, of Maryland, to be a Member of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board for a term of five years.

• Sylvia E. Johnson, of North Carolina, to be a Member of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board for a term of five years.

The White House web site provides brief biographies for the three nominees. Owns is a lawyer with regulatory experience at both the US EPA and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. Dr Sass currently works for the Natural Resources Defense Council advocating for regulations that are consistent with science, health policy, and environmental law. Dr Johnson currently works for the National Education Association working on COVID-19 related issues, but she does have a background in Biomedical Engineering and Industrial Hygiene.

It is not unexpected that two of the Biden nominees have backgrounds that include environmental activism. Nor is this necessarily a bad thing. The mandate of the CSB is to investigate significant chemical accidents, analyze the results of those investigations to detect systemic issues that could affect the wider chemical infrastructure and to advocate for changes to rectify those shortcomings. Environmental activists have a unique perspective that could provide interesting solutions to the problems that their investigators find.

I know that industry would rather have members with more of a manufacturing background so that they would understand the problems and limitations that industry needs to work with in pursuing their chemical safety goals. Trump, an industry friendly President, had a chance to pack the CSB with five people from that background; he only nominated Lemos. Instead of advocating for the disbanding of the Board, he could have ensured that more people with an industry background were on the Board. Too late now.