CSB Releases Fatal Nitrogen Gas Release Safety Video

Yesterday, the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) announced that it had released a new chemical safety video, Fatal Fog: Liquid Nitrogen Release at Foundation Food Group, based upon its investigation of the January 28th, 2021, fatal Foundation Food Group liquid nitrogen release in Gainesville, GA. Six people died of asphyxiation during the incident where a bent bubbler tube failed to properly control the level of liquid nitrogen in an emersion freezer. 

CSB Announces Their Latest Safety Video – 12-9-25

Yesterday the Chemical Safety Board announced the availability of their latest chemical incident safety video: “Low Pressure, Fatal Consequence: Explosion at Yenkin-Majestic”. This video looks at the April 8^th, 2021 low-pressure (less than the 15-psig minimum pressure limit for ‘high pressure’ operations standard) flammable-vapor release and explosion incident at the Yenkin-Majestic Paint Corporation facility in Columbus, Ohio. That incident resulted in the death of one employee and injuries to eight others.

While this video reviews the series of events that led to this specific incident, it makes the point that similar problems that led to this incident may exist at other facilities that handle flammable chemicals in vessels designed for low-pressure operations. It emphasizes that the recommendations made to the facility operator in this incident are applicable to many chemical operators.

CSB Releases Optima Belle Safety Video

Yesterday the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) announced that the Board had released a new safety video describing the December 2020 fatal explosion and fire at the Optima Belle chemical facility in Belle, West Virginia. The new safety video, called “Outsourcing Responsibility: Explosion at Optima Belle,” includes an animation of the events leading to the incident and an analysis of the root cause of the incident.

This incident was just another in the long series of incidents that the CSB has investigated over the years that involved essentially unregulated self-reactive chemicals. Yesterday’s announcement notes that:

“Among other important issues, the CSB’s report [link added] and the new video point out that although CDB-56 is a reactive chemical that can undergo a self-accelerating decomposition when heated, it and many other such reactive chemicals are not regulated under OSHA’s Process Safety Management (PSM) standard or the EPA’s Risk Management Program (RMP) rule. Consequently, the CSB recommended that OSHA amend the PSM standard to achieve more comprehensive control of reactive hazards that could have catastrophic consequences and that EPA amend the RMP rule to explicitly cover catastrophic reactive hazards that have the potential to seriously impact the public.”

CSB Announces New Acetic Acid Release Safety Video

Yesterday, the Chemical Safety Board announced the release of their latest safety video. The new video looks at the actions leading up to the 2021 fatal release of acetic acid at the LyondellBasell La Porte Complex in La Porte, Texas. The video highlights design problems with a plug valve that allowed inadequately trained contractors to inadvertently remove pressure-retaining fasteners while trying to remove the valve actuator assembly.

The CSB’s investigation of the incident identified two safety issues that contributed to the accident and made five recommendations to industry and the facility to prevent future recurrences of this type of incident.

CSB Releases New Butadiene Safety Video – 7-19-23

Yesterday, the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) announced the release of a new safety video: “The Danger of Popcorn Polymer: Incident at the TPC Group Chemical Plant”. The video provides a visual presentation of the safety information developed during the Board’s investigation of the 2019 explosions and fires at the TPC plant in Port Neches, TX. The major safety problem identified was the lack of control of ‘popcorn polymer’ being formed in a piping dead leg at the facility. While no new information was provided in the video, its presentation of the investigation results will be more useful to a wider audience than was the Board’s published report.

CSB Releases New Safety Video for Husky Refinery Explosion and Fire – 6-9-23

Yesterday, the Chemical Safety Board announced the availability of their latest safety video. The YouTube video looks at their investigation of the Husky Energy Superior Refinery Explosion and Fire. As we have come to expect with CSB videos, the animation of the accident provides an excellent visual depiction of the steps leading up to the explosion and the subsequent fire. The discussion of the safety recommendations made in the CSB report was enhanced by the animation of relevant portions of the incident.

My only complaint about the new video is the overly dramatic 45 second introduction of the CSB seal at the start of the video. It had nothing to do with the incident, it was overly long, and it was way over-the-top for a safety video.

CSB Releases New Safety Video for Loy-Lange Incident

Yesterday, the Chemical Safety Board announced the release of a new safety video that looks at the 2017 pressure vessel incident at Loy-Lange Box Company in St Louis, Missouri. The CSB published their report on the incident on July 29^th, 2022. The video provides the usual visual representation of the information provided in the accident report. Another good job by the CSB’s contract videographers.

Remaining Investigations

Back in October the CSB published their latest update on the expected clearance of their investigation backlog. That update projected the publication of three addition investigation reports by the end of 2022:

• Kuraray EVAL Pasadena, TX 5/19/2018,

• TPC Group Port Neches, TX 11/27/2019, and

• Husky Energy Refinery Superior, WI 4/26/2018 

Given the approaching holidays, the CSB is going to be hard-pressed to complete even two of those inspection reports by year-end.