CSB is an independent federal agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents. Headquartered in Washington, DC, the agency's board members are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
The CSB conducts root cause investigations of chemical accidents at fixed industrial facilities. Root causes are usually deficiencies in safety management systems, but can be any factor that would have prevented the accident if that factor had not occurred. Other accident causes often involve equipment failures, human errors, unforeseen chemical reactions or other hazards. The agency does not issue fines or citations, but does make recommendations to plants, regulatory agencies
Staff and members from the Washington-based U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board will be in town starting Wednesday, confirmed Daniel Horowitz, director of Congressional, Public, and Board Affairs for the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.
Board member William B. Wark, three investigators and a public affairs representative will arrive in Belvidere and are expected to investigate what chemicals were involved and whether clean air was endangered, he said.
“We investigate about 15 of the most serious chemical actions across the country each year,” he said. “For us, this is certainly among the most serious. We are equally distraught by the fatality of a member of the public and are required under the Clean Air Act to investigate any incident of this type. We’re going to try to get to the bottom of what happened and give safety recommendations to prevent something like this from ever happening again.”
The status of the NDK Investigation by CSD and its full report will eventually be available at: http://www.chemsafety.gov/investigations/investigations.aspx?Type=1&F_All=y
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