HOUSTON -- The US agency responsible for worker safety failed to inspect plants with enough care and frequency to prevent an accident like the March 23, 2005, explosion at
Companies have plenty of safeguards for individual workers' safety, but have a potentially deadly lack of sound procedures to measure process safety, according to the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, which released the report.
"Process safety programs to protect the lives of workers and the public deserve the same level of attention, investment, and scrutiny as companies now dedicate to managing their financial controls," board chairwoman Carolyn W. Merritt said at a news conference on the agency's final report.
The 335-page report also blamed BP, the London-based oil giant, for cost cutting that left the plant vulnerable to catastrophe.
The board said that although the Texas City plant had several fatal accidents over the last 30 years, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration had done only one process safety management inspection at the refinery -- in 1998.
The report said OSHA made other, unplanned inspections after accidents, complaints, or referrals -- it didn't say how many -- but that those visits were typically narrower and shorter than planned inspections. The board recommends OSHA increase both the number of comprehensive safety inspections and the number of people to do them.
"OSHA's national focus on inspecting facilities with high injury rates, while important, has resulted in reduced attention to preventing less frequent, but catastrophic, process safety incidents such as the one at Texas City," the report said.
OSHA representatives did not respond to messages seeking comment.