by Mike Hall, Jun 6, 2008

If the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had acted to control combustible dust levels in the nation’s factories, the 13 workers killed in an explosion at a Georgia sugar factory in February probably would be alive today, safety experts tell CBS’s “60 Minutes.”

This Sunday at 7 p.m. (EDT), “60 Minutes” will air a segment on the catastrophic explosion at Imperial Sugar and OSHA’s foot dragging on issuing rules to protect workers from dust explosions.

Two years ago, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) urged OSHA to adopt combustible dust standards. Former CSB director Carolyn Merritt tells Scott Pelley of “60 Minutes”:

If OSHA had acted and if the industry itself had paid more attention, possibly this incident would not have happened. These people should not have been killed.

When dust builds up to dangerous levels at industrial worksites, it can become fuel for fires and explosions. Combustible dust stems from many sources, such as sugar, flour, feed, plastics, wood, rubber, furniture, textiles, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, dyes, coal and metals, thus posing a risk across a number of different industries.

The deaths at Imperial Sugar brought to 133 the total number of people killed in combustible dust blasts in the U.S. since 1980, incidents that also injured hundreds. But OSHA administrator Ed Foulke tells “60 Minutes” (just as he did when testifying before the House Education and Labor Committee in March) that new combustible dust level rules are not needed if employers follow OSHA’s housekeeping rules on keeping their facilities clean.