Posts Tagged ‘BP’

BP disaster: 10 years and 58 refinery deaths later…

Tuesday, March 24th, 2015

A decade after the BP Texas City explosion that killed 15 and injured 180, U.S. refineries are nearly as deadly as ever, according to Blood Lessons, an investigative journalism report by Houston Chronicle and Texas Tribune that looks at the aftermath of the tragedy at the facility itself and the industry at large. The report shows that serious risks remain unaddressed; survivors of the terrible event are distressed that even seemingly simple lessons haven’t been learned, such as locating flimsy break tents close to the refineries. The fatalities a decade ago largely occurred in just such temporary shelters.
In fact, it would appear that refineries are not a lot safer than they were then:

“No single refinery accident has matched Texas City’s devastation, but at least 58 people have died at American refineries since the BP blast, according to data compiled from Occupational Safety and Health Administration records, news accounts, lawsuits and union reports. There were at least 64 deaths in the 10 years before the accident.

The Department of Energy has tracked almost 350 fires at refineries in the past eight years – nearly one every week. There are about 140 refineries across the United States. Members of the United Steelworkers union like Ambrose have been out on strike, protesting at 15 locations. They’re worried, among other things, about safety, claiming that old refineries are routinely pushed far beyond safe operating limits, that fires occur too frequently and that trailers and tents remain in harm’s way.”

While OSHA stepped up inspections through a nationwide refinery emphasis program, it discontinued the highly labor-intensive program and lacks staff to enforce existing rules.

For other chapters in the report see:
Anatomy of a Disaster, which includes an animated video of what caused the BP explosion.
Survivors Remember, interviews and videos with survivors.
A deadly industry – Assembled data shows how and where refinery workers continue to die.

In other remembrances, Chemical Safety Board (CSB) Chairperson Rafael Moure-Eraso addresses the 10th Anniversary of the BP disaster in a brief video:

He faults organizational and safety deficiencies at all levels of BP for the disaster, citing
a weak safety culture, a deficient process safety management program, and obsolete equipment. These problems have continued in the refinery industry in decade since. He cites two large incidents, one being the 2010 Tesoro blast that killed 7 workers in Anacortes, Washington.

The CSB notes that current federal and state regulations are not strong enough on preventive measures and say that more regulatory oversight is required to strengthen prevention.
Related: The extended CSB report on the BP investigation, issued about one year after the tragedy.

Health Wonk Review and other workers comp news notes

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Joe Paduda is the man of the moment. His Managed Care Matters blog is worth a regular perusal for the informed commentary he offers about the medical side of workers comp. Today, there’s twice as much reason to visit because he’s the host of this week’s Health Wonk Review, in which the focus is on implementing health care reform. Check out this biweekly best of the health policy blogosphere!
Violence on the job – This week, The Hartford Courant posts that the total work comp payout for the shooting at Hartford Distributors could set a record. The company’s workers’ compensation insurer is The Hanover Insurance Group. Reporter Matthew Sturdevant notes that families of deceased and injured workers have one year from the Aug. 3 shooting to file workers’ compensation claims and discusses state benefit levels. (See our related posting from last week about the aftermath of the shooting in Connecticut. )
In another corner of the world, other workers were homicide victims. The New York Times offers a tribute to 10 medical workers who were killed while on a mission to provide aid to remote Afghanistan villages that generally don’t have access to medical care. Workers included 6 U.S. medical personnel and humanitarian workers, one German, one Briton and two Afghans.
Volunteer firefighter case – The Chicago Tribune reports on a recent Iowa court finding in a dispute between two insurers which ruled that a volunteer firefighter must be officially summoned to duty to be covered by workers’ comp. Justin Fauer died while trying to rescue his boss from a manure pit. In addition to being a farm worker at the farm where he died, Fauer was also a volunteer firefighter. According to the report, “The farm’s insurance company, Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Company, paid the claim but sought for it to be shared by the fire department’s company, Traveler’s Insurance Company, claiming Fauer also responded as a firefighter.” The Iowa Supreme Court upheld a district court decision that “…a volunteer firefighter cannot be summoned to duty by circumstances, but can only be summoned by the fire department or some other official channel.”
Deadline reminder to 9-11 recovery workersGround Zero workers must register by September 13 of this year to be eligible for future worker’s compensation benefits if they are sick or should become sick as a result of 9/11 exposure. Less than half the estimated 100,000 volunteers and workers who are eligible to register have done so. Authorities urge workers to register as a precaution. Joel Shufro of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health says that “”You don’t have to experience symptoms to file for this …You may never use it. We are seeing so many workers now developing symptoms and some are getting worse. So this is a very protective measure, safety net, so people who do get sick in the future will have protection.”
Popcorn Lung – Richard Bales of Workplace Prof Blog posts that an Illinois jury has awarded $30.4 million to a plant worker suffering severe lung disease from diacetyl. See more from on the popcorn lung case from the Joplin Globe.
BP agrees to pay for safety violations at Texas City refinery
Liz Borowski of The Pump Handle reminds us that before BP became synonymous with the Gulf oil disaster, it’s prior “claim to fame” was the 2005 Texas City refinery disaster that killed 15 workers. When OSHA conducted a 2009 follow-up investigation, it issued $50.6 million in failure-to-abate citations, plus $30.7 million for 439 new willful violations it identified. BP had disputed these violations, but last week, agreed to pay the entire $50.6 million.

Survivor stories: the human aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy

Monday, June 28th, 2010

Lawyers, investigators, policymakers and safety professionals will be wrangling over the Deepwater Horizon tragedy for years to determine what happened, where fault lay, and who will pay.
By many accounts, Deepwater Horizon was had a relatively good safety record. Its 125-member crew had no serious injuries in the seven years prior to the explosion. In a cruel irony, BP mangers were reported as being on board to recognize the Deepwater crew for its outstanding record on the very day that the explosion occurred.
The sheer magnitude of the disaster and the economic and ecological impact have taken center stage, while the deaths of 11 workers are all too often the asterisk to the story. Their surviving family members and their 156 work colleagues, who narrowly averted death themselves, are in the early stages of an arduous healing process. Coworkers lived through the harrowing and terrible event, many sustaining physical and psychological scars. At hearings and in the media, their personal survival accounts are beginning to be told.
In the first part of a 60 Minutes segment on the disaster, crew member Mike Williams talks about events leading up to the explosion. Production was off schedule by more than a month and $25 million had been lost. This put crews under even pressure to perform. A critical piece of equipment was damaged 4 weeks prior to the explosion, yet this unsettling event did not slow the inexorable push forward. Williams describes a “chest-bumping” argument that occurred on the morning of the fateful day, between a BP manager and crew manager about who would have the final word about process decisions. In his account, the BP manager won the argument and made a process decision, which preceded the explosion.
In the second part of the report, Williams relates his own struggle for survival, as well as the dramatic close call for other coworkers. He talks about being injured in the initial two explosions, the helpless feeling when crawling outside to see the extent of the damage, and the terror of jumping 90 feet into oil-slicked, fiery water and swimming until being rescued.
The dividing line between survival and death was a matter chance and of seconds. Although there had been weekly lifeboat drills, some survivors said that they had not anticipated such chaos, nor had they actually sat in lifeboats or thought through the details of a quick escape. And details could make the difference. One life raft of survivors was tethered to the rig and narrowly avoided being pulled back into the inferno simply because the company’s strict “no knives” policy meant that no one had a knife to cut the rope.
Other survivors and family members shared their experiences on CNN.

Family members relate the experience from their point of view – hearing the terrible news of the explosion and the long, terrible vigil waiting to get official word of whether their loved one survived or not.

Also see: Profiles of the profiles of the Deepwater Horizon Eleven, ranging in age from the youngest at 22 to the oldest at 56 years old.
Prior posts
News update on BP
Engulfed by risks

A killer edition of Health Wonk Review & other noteworthy news

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

Our Boston neighbor Tinker Ready hosts this week’s edition of Health Wonk Review at Boston Health News and it’s a killer edition – check it out.
Awkward – Making the web circuits, many have been posting about the Bollywood safety dance video by Transocean’s CEO. We encourage CEOs and senior managers to ensure that safety is top company priority – so on the one hand, we applaud the attempt. But in light of the recent explosion that resulted in 11 deaths, this video is ironic and embarrassing. This, coupled with the recent news that the company’s disaster response plan was riddled with egregious errors leaves one to think that BP’s risk management efforts were not as substantive as they might have appeared on the surface. The folks over at Risk Management Monitor have been posting about various aspects of the BP story. Jared Wade gives us the rundown on BP’s pattern of neglect and corner cutting as well as an infographics style rundown on the spill. Also, if you haven’t seen the wildly popular fake BP PR Twitter account, it might give you a chuckle if you are into black humor. BP is not amused by the parody.
Truck drivers & sleep apnea – A study on sleep apnea and truck drivers that was recently published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that treatment for sleep apnea led to more than $6,000 in total health plan and disability cost savings per treated driver. “On average, researchers found that for treated drivers, health plan costs decreased an average of $2,700 in the first year and another $3,100 in the second year compared to no change for untreated drivers. The treated drivers also missed fewer workdays (average 4.4 days in the first year) and had lower short-term disability costs ($528 over two years).”
Battle of the pharma giants – Joe Paduda keeps an eye on the Caremark vs Walmart pharma fight and offers informed commentary about what’s going on.
No go in Ohio for Noe – The Ohio Supreme Court has rejected Thomas Noe’s request for an appeal of his convictions. You may recall that Noe got in trouble for the theft of $13 million from $50 million that he invested in rare-coins and beanie babies for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. His capers were a contributing factor in bringing down Governor Taft and various other state officials. Stories like this don’t surface often in workers comp – we have quite an archive from the early days of the scandal through conviction and the early days of the appeal.
Octomom settles WC claim – From California comes the news that Nadya Suleman (aka “Octomom”) settled her workers comp lawsuit for $23,120. The injury occurred more than a decade ago. See my colleague’s prior post: Comp as Enabler: The Nadya Suleman Story
Tooting our own horn – thanks to Evan Carmichael for including Workers Comp Insider in his listing of theTop 50 HR Blogs: 2010 – it’s a good list and worth checking out. EvanCarmichael.com is a good resource for entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Also, our post on N.Y.’s domestic workers bill of rights was reprinted at Today’s Workplace, an excellent group blog on issues of workplace rights and employment law sponsored by Workplace Fairness, a non-profit organization helping to preserve and promote employee rights. Both resources are well worth your attention.

Engulfed by Risks

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

We are following the consequences of the gulf oil disaster with increasing despair. Images of oil soaked birds, dead fish, and the serene Gulf waters transformed from the customary beautiful blue-green to an appalling brown. Our thoughts also turn to the men and women laboring under very challenging conditions to contain the impact of this man-made disaster.
NIOSH has issued the following summary of the exposures facing the recovery workers:

Chemical exposures may include benzene and other volatile organic compounds, oil mist, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and diesel fumes. Physical hazards may include ergonomic hazards, excessive noise levels, sun exposure and heat stress. Injuries may occur due to slips, trips, and falls on slippery or uneven walking and working surfaces. Other safety hazards are associated with the use of tools, equipment, machinery, and vehicles. Biological hazards include possible exposure to biting or venomous insects or other animals. Psychological hazards may include witnessing traumatic injuries or death, inability to help affected wildlife, and fatigue.

You can read the CDC’s 96 page opus on managing the exposures to emergency workers here. (I can’t help but wonder if this particular web-available document is symbolically collecting dust on the shelf, like so many other well-intentioned but rather long-winded safety manuals – the ones risk managers point to with pride during a tour of an industrial plant.
“We’re Hiring!”
BP has hired about 22,000 workers to help with the clean up. I wonder how carefully they screened the new hires. Any rapid ramp up is full of risk; the hazards of hiring on this scale for jobs full of open-ended risk is simply beyond calculation. How many of the 22,000 workers will end up with work-related illnesses and injuries? How would you project the future impact on BP’s workers comp costs? (Perhaps BP is calling the new hires “independent contractors.” Some may well be; most are not.)
Under regulatory scrutiny, BP has provided some form of rudimentory training and the necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) for the new workers. But how well is the work supervised? With temperatures routinely in the high 80s and the heat index over 100 degrees, how long can people function in the requisite protective suits, steel-toed boots, gloves, hard hats and safety glasses? What is the impact of raw crude on bare skin and laboring lungs?
Looming Epidemic?
There have already been reports of illnesses among these workers. Law firms have put out the word that at least one of the dispersants used in the clean up may harm workers:

OSHA representatives, Obama administration officials and others have expressed concerns that the oil dispersant chemical Corexit may be the source of the illnesses reported on May 26 by cleanup workers. In May, the EPA urged BP to stop using Corexit because of its toxicity. Corexit is manufactured by Nalco, whose board of directors has strong ties to the oil industry, including sharing at least one board member with BP.

We all feel a sense of urgency on an unprecedented scale as the pristine Gulf waters are sullied by millions of gallons of oil. A huge workforce has been mobilized to help with the clean up. Looming on the distant horizon is the cost of cleaning up the damage to those who are currently engaged in the clean up. It’s something we give only passing thought to today. But the time will come when those costs are as conspicuous and nearly as disturbing as the image of an oil-soaked pelican trying to spread its soiled wings, trying and failing to launch itself into the brilliant blue skies of its Gulf home.

OSHA issues largest fine on record to BP

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

At the end of last week, OSHA issued $87 million in penalties against BP for failure to make make the changes which were specified in a settlement agreement related to the 2005 explosion at a Texas refinery which killed 15 and injured more than 170 others. The second-highest penalty that OSHA has imposed was in 2005 for $21 million – also issued to BP related to the same explosion.
BP had paid the $21 million fine and agreed to corrective actions to eliminate potential hazards similar to those that caused the 2005 tragedy as part of a settlement agreement with OSHA in September 2005. The penalties were imposed after a 6 month OSHA investigation. BP had recently sought but was denied more time for compliance.
OSHA issued 270 “notifications of failure to abate” previously identified hazards, as well as 439 new willful violations for failures to follow industry-accepted controls. A willful violation is defined by OSHA as an intentional violation of the Act or plain indifference to its requirements.
Unsurprisingly, BP is contesting the fines, stating that they have spent more than $1 billion on modernization and safety and have taken 550 corrective actions. (See BP’s offical response and October 5, 2009 response to OSHA, a 17-page PDF). The company has also gotten support from Texas City’s mayor, Matt Doyle, who has criticized OSHA for the fines, calling OSHA’s actions “one of the biggest affronts to the working men and women of this country” and “an example of intrusion into private business by government.”
Jordan Barab, acting assistant secretary of labor for OSHA, noted that BP had four years to comply with the agreement, and defended OSHA’s actions as protecting the safety of working men and women. While Barab acknowledged that improvements had been made, he noted that some of the most important things had not been addressed, particularly pressure relief and automatic shutdown systems, problems directly related to the accident. “Our experts say BP is 10 years behind where a lot of the leading refineries are when it comes to process safety,” Barab said. “This is a company that should have known better.”

News roundup: Health Wonk Review, OH, NY, fraud, BP and safety

Thursday, August 23rd, 2007

Health Wonk Review – Daniel Goldberg is this week’s host of Health Wonk Review and he offers up an abundance of varied links with interesting context and commentary. And while visiting HWR, please be sure to check out Daniel’s excellent Medical Humanities Blog. In today’s posting, he offers a good introduction to the nature of medial humanities as a discipline and the role that medical humanists play in health care. His blog is well worth an extra look-see, encompassing a literature review, a medical humanities lexicon, and an information exchange on events and conferences, among other things. His sidebar links are extensive and also give a good window into the multi-disciplinary nature of medical humanities as a subject matter.
Ohio – One of our readers kindly sent us a link to an interview with the new Administrator of the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, Marsha Ryan, who says that the state’s $21 billion system is “pretty broken.” She also states that it may take years before public trust is restored, unsurprising in the wake of wide-ranging corruption in the Bureau that led to 16 convictions. She also indicated that she plans to review group discounts that have been offered to business alliances, such as the Ohio Chamber of Commerce or National Federation of Independent Business. According to a recent investigation, some companies were given discounted rates, a practice that raised questions about fairness but which turned up no illegalities.
California – In news of another state workers comp body that is seeking to restore trust and transparency, the State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) has named Janet Frank as new president as of October. She will take the reins from interim president Lawrence E. Mulryan who was appointed after the prior president, James C. Tudor, and vp, Renee Koren, were fired. Sally Roberts of Business Insurance reports that there are a number of ongoing investigations to learn if misconduct or illegal activities occurred, particularly in relation to the payment of administrative fees in connection with SCIF’s group insurance programs.
More on fraud – On Tuesday, Tom Lynch blogged about a judge indicted for insurance fraud. One of our readers noted that the same issue of Insurance Journal also included another fraud item about four workers comp claimants in Texas sentenced for cheating the system. The four claimants collected a combined total of $17,346 for double-dipping, or collecting benefits while gainfully employed. Unlike the case of the judge, there was no suspension with pay for these folks: Penalties for the four included probations ranging from 1 to 5 years, community service requirements, and restitution. While fraud is certainly wrong and to be condemned under all circumstances, we agree with our reader that the juxtaposition of the two fraud cases and the disparity of the consequences present a study in irony. Presumably, the judge will have his day in court, and if the charges are proven, will have a steeper penalty imposed.
BP contests OSHA fines – According to Occupational Hazards, BP is contesting $92,000 in recent OSHA penalties for violation of safety rules related to process safety management and hazardous conditions at the Texas City refinery. This is the site of the March 2005 disaster in which 15 workers were killed and many others injured. For a recap of the investigations of that event, see Josh Cable’s excellent article, Anatomy of a Tragedy, a sad case study in safety and prevention gone awry. He notes, “Perhaps the real tragedy is that federal investigators believe that the accident – like so many other workplace accidents – was entirely avoidable.”
Health & safety resources
OSHA added a Health Care module to its Compliance Assistance Quick Start tool, which offers online free compliance assistance resources. The purpose of the module is ” …to help employers understand OSHA regulations applicable to the healthcare industry, including recordkeeping, reporting and posting requirements. It also contains information on developing a comprehensive safety and health program and on training employees.”
Dale Lindemer offers a practical overview of Scaffolding Good Practices in the August issue of Occupational Health & safety – a good resource on “dos and don’ts” to help prevent the most common hazards: falls from elevation; collapse/overturning of the scaffold;being struck by falling tools, work materials, or debris; and electrocution, principally due to proximity of the scaffold to overhead power lines.