NEWS OF THE WEEK
CLOROX TO STOP USING CHLORINE PLANT SECURITY: Bleach maker will end shipment of hazardous chemical
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ITING A DESIRE to improve security, Clorox
NEWSCOM
says it will stop making its namesake bleach out of chlorine and sodium hydroxide. Instead, the big household-products company will purchase high-strength bleach of up to 15% concentration and dilute it to household strength of 6%. The company will convert its Fairfield, Calif., plant within the next six months and switch its six other U.S. plants over the coming years. Clorox’ announcement came three days before the House of Representatives was set to take up plant security legislation (H.R. 2868) that would require high-risk chemical plants and water-treatment facilities to use safer processes or chemicals. The environmental group Greenpeace is lauding Clorox for eliminating risk from the use and transport of chlorine. “By ending the use of chlorine gas, Clorox also proves that eliminating these risks is
OSHA HITS BP WITH RECORD FINE SAFETY: $87 million penalty for
CSB
The massive explosion in 2005 at BP’s Texas City, Texas, refinery was caused by inadequacies in the pressure-relief system, which OSHA charges still exist.
violations, failure to comply with 2005 settlement
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HE OCCUPATIONAL Safety & Health Adminis-
tration has slapped BP with an $87.4 million fine for failing to comply with a four-year-old agreement to fix process-safety problems at its Texas City, Texas, refinery, as well as for more recent violations of OSHA laws. It is the largest fine in OSHA history. OSHA says $56.7 million of the penalty is because of BP’s failure to meet terms of an agreement to correct hazards that led to a March 2005 explosion that killed 15 and injured 170 workers (C&EN, April 4, 2005, page 46). Within months of the accident, BP and OSHA entered into a settlement agreement, which expired in September. The remaining $30.7 WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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both technically feasible and a smart business decision,” says Rick Hind, Greenpeace’s legislative director. Greenpeace says it sent a letter to Clorox CEO Don Knauss in February seeking a meeting on the risks related to chlorine gas. The group says it learned of the conversion plan in May during a meeting with Knauss. Greenpeace is now calling on large chemical firms to switch away from chlorine to safer raw materials. Clorox isn’t disclosing the cost of the transition or the companies from which it will buy high-strength bleach. It does say, however, that it expects no chlorine movement in its U.S. supply chain, including to its bleach suppliers. That precludes companies that make bleach out of shipped-in chlorine and sodium hydroxide—the bulk of the industry. Timothy Maegly, vice president of high-strength bleach maker BleachTech, points out that two other classes of bleach supplier can meet the no-movement condition: chlorine producers such as Olin that make bleach on-site and companies such as BleachTech that make bleach directly from salt without isolating chlorine. Clorox’ conversion won’t cause a big spike in demand for high-strength bleach, Maegly predicts, but it’s indicative of the pressures on traditional bleach companies to comply with U.S. plant-security requirements. “Homeland Security is already knocking on their door,” he says.—MICHAEL MCCOY
million of the fine is because of a string of recent safetymanagement violations identified by OSHA. “When BP signed the OSHA settlement, it agreed to take comprehensive action to protect employees,” Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis said in a briefing. “Instead of living up to that commitment, BP has allowed hundreds of potential hazards to continue unabated.” BP protests the citations and is seeking a review by the Occupational Health & Safety Review Commission, a body independent of OSHA. “We continue to believe we are in full compliance with the settlement agreement, and we look forward to demonstrating that before the review commission,” Texas City Refinery Manager Keith Casey said in a statement. BP’s process-safety performance, he added, has been among the “most strenuous and comprehensive that the refining industry has ever seen.” However, OSHA says that since the 2005 accident, there have been several accidents and four fatalities at the BP plant. One of these accidents is under investigation by the Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board (CSB). CSB Chairman John S. Bresland points to a “disturbing frequency” of U.S. refinery accidents. The board is currently investigating seven separate refinery accidents. Bresland urges BP to adopt recommendations springing from CSB’s two-year investigation of the 2005 accident, including appointing a refinery processsafety expert to BP’s corporate board.—DAVID HANSON & JEFF JOHNSON
NOVEMBER 9, 2009
