제  목 : EPA Teams Up With OSHA on Accidents
  일  자 : 1997년 04월
  제공처 : Safety ＆ health

     The EPA and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
  are teaming up to identify and publicize the causes of chemical accidents,
  and to recommend ways to prevent them. The two agencies also hope to avoid
  duplicating their investigations of major chemical accidents.

     They signed a joint agreement, which coordinates actions between them
  on accident investigation and reporting. In addition, the EPA will pursue
  additional agreements with states that have their own OSHA-approved occupa-
  tional safety and health programs.

     Chemical accidents or releases will be candidates for joint investigation
  if they have one or more of the following circumstances:

   · One or more fatalities
   · Hospitalization of three or more people
   · Property damage estimated at $500,000 or more
   · Serious threat to worker health or safety, public health, property or
      the environment
   · Significant off-site conse-quences such as large-scale evacuations,
      closing of major transportation routes, substantial environmental con-
      tamination, or injury to domestic or wild animals
   · Significant public concern The EPA and OSHA have coordinated investi-
      gations of several accidents since 1995, but this agreement formalizes
      those activities for the future, accordrng to Kathy Franklin of the
      EPA's Offtice of Chemical Emergency Preparedness and Preventron.
      "We're Trying to eliminate the duplication companies have to deal with,"
      she says.
      "Now they have to deal with only  one team of invertigators, rather
      than two separate agency investigations.
      We also want to do more in-depth investigations, look at the root causes
      of accidents, provide recommendations on how to prevent them and
      publicize the results to share with the public."  She compares the new
      process to the way the National Transportation Safety Board coordinates
      and publicizes investigations on airplane or railroad accidents.

     The EPA/OSHA agreement on chemical accident investigations is available
  on the EPA's World Wide Web home page at http://www.epa.gov/swercepp/.
  Copies are also available from the RCRA/Superfund/Emergency Planning and
  Community Right-to-Know Act Hotline at (800) 424-9346, or (703) 4l2-981O.
  For technical information, contact Kathy Franklin in the EPA's Office of
  Chemical Emergency Preparedness and Prevention at (202) 260-225O.