The Chemical Safety Board holds enormous promise for the health and safety of Americans as indicated by the impact it has had during its very brief operating history. Yet, much more remains to be done over the next five years before this new federal agency reaches its full potential. I would consider myself privileged and honored if this Committee concurs with the President's confidence in my qualifications and allows me to become part of that endeavor.
The Chemical Safety Board is an independent federal agency with the important mission of ensuring the safety of workers and the public by preventing or minimizing the effects of industrial and commercial chemical incidents. Congress modeled the CSB after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which investigates aircraft and other transportation accidents for the purpose of improving safety. The CSB is not an enforcement or regulatory body. Like the NTSB, the CSB is a scientific investigatory organization with responsibility for finding ways to prevent or minimize the effects of chemical incidents at commercial and industrial facilities. Beyond investigation of
incidents, the Board is charged with the conduct of safety research. Additionally, the Board can advise Congress, industry, labor, and others on actions that can be taken to improve safety, and we are asked to recommend regulatory actions to public agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Labor.
Qualifications I am a specialist in toxicology one of the technical qualifications specified for Board membership in CSB's enabling legislation. I received my doctoral degree from New York University, and then conducted research and developed curricula in toxicology and environmental science as a professor on the faculty at Miami University of Ohio. My research focused on the chronic health impacts of acute chemical exposures on biological systems.
I have extensive knowledge of policies regarding the safe management of chemical hazards. Prior to joining the Chemical Safety Board, I directed international programs and public health for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), serving as senior advisor to the director of NIEHS and the National Toxicology Program on disease prevention, health promotion, environmental justice, and international environmental health research activities. I coordinated minority health programs, and served on departmental and federal interagency task forces on environmental justice, migrant health and Brownfields Redevelopment. In addition, I also served on U.S. delegations to intergovernmental meetings on chemical safety. As a U.S. delegate, I helped forge consensus on contentious issues, such as endocrine disrupting substances and helped promote the development of international information networks to enhance global understanding of chemical hazards and their risks.
Prior to joining the Board, I testified before Congress on pollution prevention policy, Clean Air Act legislation, chemical accident prevention, and groundwater protection policies. I am a member of the Collegium Ramazzini, an international society of distinguished toxicological and safety experts, and a member of the American Public Health Association. I serve as an advisor to the National Association of City and (county Health Officials regarding community environmental health assessments. I have lectured on chemical hazards and policies to reduce their risks before community, labor, business, and government audiences in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.
I have also served as Vice President for Research at Green Seal where I directed research investigations into the environmental impacts of consumer products, evaluated life-cycle analyses, wrote criteria for voluntary environmental standards, and organized and chaired public hearings. As a senior scientist for the National Wildlife Federation, I managed multiple projects that researched, developed technical reports, and implemented activities regarding the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986, groundwater protection, pesticide risk reduction, and pollution prevention.
Board Accomplishments
I. Investigation Efforts A primary function of the Chemical Safety Board is to investigate significant chemical incidents for the purpose of preventing their recurrence. I have worked closely with fellow board members and senior technical staff to complete three investigative reports: the Sierra Chemical Explosion, Nitrogen Asphyxiation incident at Union Carbide, and the Herrig Brothers BLEVE incident. In March 1998, I served as the Board member on scene near Pitkin, Louisiana at the Sonat Exploration explosion and fire that claimed four lives. That investigation is nearing completion.
I also serve as the lead Board member on the investigative team examining the Tosco Refinery incident that killed four workers and seriously injured a fifth worker in February
of this year. Our Board has just completed a Board of Inquiry and public hearing in Martinez, CA regarding that incident. We are nearing the end of a thirty-day open request for additional evidence, a procedure that occurs as a prelude to completion of the investigation.
Two important challenges confront the Chemical Safety Board's investigative efforts: first, the number of incidents demands that we select only the most important incidents to investigate; second, the unique nature of the work requires that we establish a specific Chemical Safety Board protocol for conducting investigations.
Unfortunately, America experiences a greater number of deadly chemical incidents than the Board is staffed or funded to investigate. I have worked with senior staff and the lead Board Member who are preparing a draft report on incident selection criteria. The CSB will host a major roundtable discussion with our stakeholders on November 9, 1999 to finalize our selection procedures.
The CSB's investigation realm is unique. We are a non-regulatory, scientific and technical federal agency whose primary effort is to promote prevention of incidents in the private sector. While conceived in light of the National Transportation Board model, CSB lacks parallel authority to conduct preliminary fact-finding by employing relevant technical experts from among the key stakeholders. Other federal agencies have developed investigation protocols that are either regulatory driven (i.e., OSHA and EPA) or are similar to self-investigatory efforts in the private sector (i.e., DOE and DOD). Neither model is appropriate for the CSB. Consequently, I have reviewed major investigation protocols from the public and private sector to find the best practices to employ in the CSB's protocol. The CSB Board and staff will be preparing our own investigation protocol, based on elements of these other protocols and on lessons from our own completed and on-going Board investigations.
II. Research Efforts While the Board seeks to promote prevention through the primary mechanism of incident investigation, the agency is also directed to conduct prevention research towards the same purpose. In May, 1998 I worked with senior staff to organize and convene a Chemical
Safety Board meeting on Chemical Accident Prevention Research, as the first multi-stakeholder meeting sponsored by the Board. I represent the Chemical Safety Board on the White House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Toxics and Risk: an activity that seeks to harmonize federal research efforts. In addition, I participate in the Chemical Safety Program Assessment Project that seeks to set and implement national goals for accident prevention though a public-private partnership organized by the Mary Kay O'Connor Center for Process Safety at Texas A&M; University.
Since the Board's inception, I have overseen the Board's efforts on reducing the risks of incidents associated with Year 2000 (Y2K) computer problems. The Y2K Problem is significant in the chemical manufacturing and handling sector, posing unique risks to business continuity and worker and public health and safety, sometimes out of proportion to the size and staffing of the business. According to the U.S.EPA, 85 million Americans live, work, and play within a 5-mile radius of 66,000 facilities that handle regulated amounts of high hazard chemicals. Many of these facilities have internal and external dependencies on automated equipment. In the past week leading chemical manufacturers in Charleston, WV, including Rhone-Poulenc, DuPont, Monsanto Co. and Ashland Chemical., announced plans to temporarily halt operations New Year's Eve as a precaution against toxic accidents when the calendar turns from 1999 to 2000.
At the request of Senators Bennett and Dodd of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem, the CSB convened an expert workshop on Y2K and Chemical Safety. As coordinator of this effort, I involved leaders from industry, equipment vendors, insurance companies, regulatory agencies, research agencies, universities, labor organizations, environmental organizations, trade associations, professional engineering associations, and health and safety organizations. This culminated in the release of the CSB's first research report and recommendations: The Year 2000 Issues: Technology Problems and Industrial Chemical Safety, which included the following findings: Large enterprises with sufficient awareness, leadership, planning, financial and human resources are unlikely to experience catastrophic failures and business continuity problems unless their current progress is interrupted or there are massive failures of utilities. The situation with small and mid-sized enterprises is indeterminate, but efforts on the Y2K problem appears to be less than appropriate based upon expert analysis. While the impact of the Risk Management Plans should be positive, there are no special emphases or even specific mention of Year 2000 technology hazards in either U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or Occupational Safety and Health
Administration regulations regarding process safety. Federal agencies are aware of and involved in Year 2000 technology and chemical safety issues. However, significant gaps exist, and there do not appear to be specific plans to address these gaps.
As an outgrowth of this endeavor, I have testified twice in the U.S. Senate regarding chemical safety and Y2K: the first requests for the CSB to provide technical safety information to this legislative body. The Board worked with the EPA and seven trade associations of chemical handling industries to produce and distribute a special guidance document for small and mid-sized enterprises. I transmitted copies of our report to the governors of states and territories requesting their attentiveness to this problem. In conjunction with the Senate Special Committee, the Board promoted the initiation of a special focus on chemical safety at the President's Council on Y2K. Most recently, I helped develop and promote a Y2K Awareness Training module for the hazardous materials workforce available through the NIEHS.
In the international arena, I worked with the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety, the World Health Organization's International Programme on Chemical Safety, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to promote global awareness, remediation, and contingency planning around Y2K problems. I continue to interact with these organizations to improve preparedness in the chemical sector.
Summary
In summary, the Chemical Safety Board has enormous promise for the health and safety of Americans as indicated by the impact over our very brief history. I believe that I have made significant contributions to the Board over the last two years. Yet, much more work remains to be done over the next five years if the CSB is to reach its full potential. I would consider myself privileged and honored if this Committee concurs with the President's confidence in my qualifications and allows me to become part of that endeavor.