Protecting First Responders From Chemical Hazards

Awareness for stronger chemical safeguards has been a priority since a fertilizer facility exploded on April 17, 2013 in West, Texas. This accident which could have been prevented resulted in the death of 15 people, including 10 first responders. The accident occurred due to the lack of awareness of the vast amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the facility. Though congress passed a law nearly three decades ago to ensure that local communities are fully aware of stored hazardous substances, the truth is, many areas in the country are still unaware and unprepared to deal with such catastrophic emergencies.

According to Chemical Hazards in Your Backyard, six states were tested in regards to chemical reporting to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Across the six states (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin), 1,724 facilities stored over 600 million pounds of unreported hazardous chemicals. Although these chemicals are highly toxic, flammable, and/or explosive, they are not on the EPA’s Risk Management Program list. Therefore they were not required to be reported. In the West, Texas, ammonia nitrate was not mentioned because it was not on the EPA list.

In the two years since the explosion, companies have been encouraged to switch to safer chemicals to reduce risks for workers and nearby residents. It is important for companies to be more transparent about their chemicals and that failing to disclose such information could potentially put lives in danger, which was the case in West, Texas.