Investigators at a small federal agency that examine major industrial disasters are focusing on the most relevant safety recommendations—a change from past practice, an agency official said Oct. 23.
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, established under the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 and launched in 1998, is tasked with investigating major chemical disasters, determining their root cause, and issuing safety recommendations to companies and the government to prevent them in the future.
Recommendations generated during an investigation must be based on factors with a causal relationship to the incident, rather than a “good idea tree” of ...