A massive explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas. The incident began with a smaller fire that ignited chemical tanks, causing an explosion that shot flames high into the air and leveled surrounding buildings for blocks in each direction. A police official estimated five to 15 people have died, but the casualty count is expected to rise as day breaks. One initial estimate put the death toll at between 60 to 70 people. Local officials say around a half dozen volunteer firefighters who first arrived on the scene are now missing. Toxic fumes rising from the rubble of the plant have raised health concerns, and about half the town has been evacuated, including a nursing home.
Mike Elk talking:
basically, whats interesting about this plant is, in the idea of workplace safety, we often talk about the idea of hazards, which is, you identify hazards, and you attempt to try to reduce the ability that those hazards result in accidents like the explosion we saw yesterday. Now, the story that The Dallas Morning News reported, that the plant said that there was no risk of explosion, shows that they did not properly identify the hazard, which led to the explosion, as we all know occurred. This is a big problem.
This kind of plant here, we can tell from the records that we were looking over last night, OSHA has not inspected this plant in at least five years. And thats not uncommon. This is a non-union facility. The way OSHA typically works, and as well as EPA, is that they get a call from a worker, and then inspectors show up, and they inspect the plant, and they find problems. When you have a non-union workforce, like you have in this plant, thats a lot less likely, since many folks are scared of losing their jobs. So there hasnt been an inspection in at least five years, from what we can tell.
every year in the United States, 4,500 Americans die a year in workplace accidents. And yet we only spend approximately $550 million on OSHAs budget to prevent workplace accidentson OSHAs total budget. And when you think about that, when you think about the fact 4,500 Americans die a year in workplace accidents and we only spend $500 million, and then you compare that to the hundreds of billions we spend overseas protecting Americans from acts of terrorism, it seems like theres some misplaced priorities. At least thats what workplace safety advocates would say. If you look at OSHAs budget, OSHA is so severely understaffed. There are 2,200 inspectors in this country, OSHA inspectors, for eight million workplaces. Due to the understaffing of OSHA, OSHA could inspect a plant once every 129 years.
OSHA stands for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
The one issue that people that hate regulation go after the most is workplace safety. There was a study released by the GAO last spring in 2012 showing that OSHA takes twice as long as the EPA to issue rules and five times as long as the SEC to issue new rules. In fact, during the Obama administration, the Obama administration has not initiated and completed a single new workplace safety rule in its four-and-a-half years of being in office. I mean, this is incredible. So, OSHA is a top enemy, and workplace safety rules, of deregulatory people. For instance, last year the Obama administration proposed a rule that would have limitedwould have put rules in place to protect children working on farms. Children that work on farms die at six times the rate of children working in other industries. The Obama administration, under pressure leading up to the election, withdrew that rule and said that they would never submit that rule again during the term of the Obama administration. Thats an unprecedented thing. So, obviously, workplace safety is one of the things the anti-regulatory people go after the most.
Texas, as statistics shows, has the highest rate of workplace deaths of any state in the country. And a big part of that can be contributed to the fact that its one of the most non-union states in the country. Quite frankly, no worker is going to speak up and call OSHA. OSHA has such a severe limited budget that they typically dont go and inspect a workplace unless they get a phone call from a worker saying theres a big problem. And when youre scared of losing your job, youre not going to do that. So, places that tend to have less unions tend to have much higher rates of workplace accidents. And as, you know, the West, Texas, accident showed, workplace accidents just dont hurt workers, they hurt the surrounding community, as well.
West Mayor Tommy Muska said perhaps 60 homes have been damaged, all the nursing home patients have been accounted for, and all of downtown West, Texas, has been evacuated.
– source democracynow.org
Mike Elk, labor reporter for In These Times magazine.