CSB releases safety video on hot work detailing 2010 DuPont accident
Last week the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) released a video detailing the accident at DuPont near Buffalo, NY that killed a contractor at the USW-represented facility in 2010. The video is below and is available on the CSB's YouTube channel.
According the CSB Chairperson Rafael Moure-Eraso, "The tragic explosion at the DuPont facility exposed weaknesses in how process hazards were analyzed and controlled. The result was the death of a welder in a preventable hot work accident." It is critically important that all aspects of the workplace are considered when hot work is being considered or permitted.
The CSB held a public hearing to release its final report and formal safety recommendations from the incident on April 19. USW HSE staff, USW District 4 staff, and Gary Guralny, president of local union 6992, were among many organizations and citizens who spoke at the meeting with concern that an accident like this could happen at a DuPont facility because the company is praised by industry for having an excellent safety culture. The USW disputed this praise in a 2005 report titled Not Walking the Talk: DuPont's Untold Safety Failures.
