In a final report set to be considered today, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) said an explosion and fire that killed five workers during a fireworks disposal operation in Hawaii in 2011 resulted from unsafe disposal practices; insufficient safety requirements for government contractor selection and oversight; and an absence of national guidelines, standards, and regulations for fireworks disposal.
该文件草案，定于华盛顿特区的董事会投票，今天建议联邦机构为承包商制定新的政府安全和环境责任要求，并呼吁新规定烟花的安全处置，美国的日益增长的问题
CSB还计划释放一个新的安全视频，其中包含描绘事件悲惨序列的动画。
2011年4月8日，事故发生作为Donaldson Enterprises的员工，Inc。（Dei）在夏威夷威普·普利鲁岛的Waipahu，夏威夷威普尔自助储存的隧道状杂志内寻求雨棚。存储设施包含政府没收非法标记的烟花，工人在分包给联邦主要合同下拆除。CSB确定Dei的烟花处理过程中的变化导致杂志入口内部大量爆炸性部件的积累，从而创造了群众爆炸的基本要素。一个大型爆炸和火灾致命地伤害了杂志内的所有五名工人。一名站在杂志入口门外的工人逃脱了伤病。
CSB Chairperson Dr. Rafael Moure-Eraso said, “Our investigation found that company personnel had no specific expertise in fireworks disposal, that the company’s procedures were extremely unsafe, and that there are no national standards or accepted good practices for disposing of fireworks. While fireworks provide entertainment for millions, the disposal of unused fireworks creates enormous hazards for workers because, we were surprised to find, there are no guidelines to do the work.”
The investigation found that a single, large, federal contractor, the VSE Corporation of Alexandria, Virginia, handles storage, auctions or disposal for large amounts of government-seized property, such as counterfeit goods, livestock, and in this case, illegal fireworks. VSE subcontracted the disposal of three imported fireworks shipments seized by federal law enforcement agencies that had come through Honolulu over a three-year period to DEI. They were labeled for consumer use, but actually contained far more explosive materials typical of those used for professionally-produced public displays.
CSB investigator Amanda Johnson said, “DEI was awarded the subcontract from VSE because it was a local company already storing the seized fireworks in the hillside facility, and its proposal was the lowest in cost and considered the most time-efficient. However, VSE was unaware that despite DEI’s military ordnance background, the company had no experience with fireworks disposal.” The report found that the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s contracting regulations did not impose sufficient requirements on VSE for selecting and overseeing subcontractors to handle hazardous materials.
Dei在2010年夏季开始在从国家工作获得紧急环境许可证后的运作。没有良好的练习标准跟踪，Dei即兴提交了一个处置计划并将其提交给VSE，批准它 - 相信Dei有能力进行工作。该计划要求浸泡柴油燃料中的烟花，然后在当地拍摄范围内燃烧它们。然而，一些烟花没有燃烧，而是爆炸。
该公司得出结论，柴油没有充分穿透空中壳，从而改变了手术，拆卸了各个烟花管和鸟壳中的切割狭缝，因此柴油可以将燃烧过程中的爆炸危险浸泡在壳中以减少爆炸过程中的爆炸危险。该过程进一步改变，加速了2011年初的下一批没收烟花的销毁。讲师被告知要将黑色粉末与贝壳分离，在单独的盒子中积聚它们，并急剧增加爆炸危险，CSB发现。调查发现该公司没有充分分析通过使这些变更对处置计划进行的潜在危害。
Investigator Johnson said, “Disassembling the fireworks was a major change to the disposal process. Good process safety practice would have called for a thorough hazard analysis as well as a comprehensive review of the potential safety impacts of the proposed change.”
On the morning of April 8, 2011, five DEI employees were taking apart one-inch firework tubes known as “Sky Festivals” under a tent outside the magazine. A sixth worker was cleaning up and organizing items inside. Using various tools the DEI workers cut the firework tubes and separated out the aerial shells and the black powder. The CSB calculated that combining such large amounts of these explosive materials inside boxes increased the explosion hazard by more than 450 times.
The CSB also found a lack of regulations or industry standards addressing fireworks disposal. The report found that there are no federal, state, or local regulations or industry standards establishing safety requirements, providing guidance on proper ways to dispose of fireworks, or addressing the hazards associated with the disassembly of fireworks and the accumulation of explosive fireworks components.
报告指出,OSHA的过程安全管理ment (PSM) standard applies to fireworks manufacturing, but not to fireworks disposal work. Had the standard applied, DEI would have been required to conduct a safety review of the potential hazards involved when it changed its fireworks disposal process. The investigation determined, “DEI would have greatly benefitted from Process Safety Management (PSM) principles and concepts of inherent safety,” among them, not accumulating large amounts of highly explosive black powder and aerial shells while awaiting disposal. A contributing factor, investigators found, was that data about the highly explosive compounds in the seized fireworks was not made available to DEI and was not required under the disposal contract, and the companies involved did not treat the fireworks as having the highest level of hazard.
Before engaging in the disposal work, DEI did obtain a waste disposal permit from the State of Hawaii. Such permits are granted throughout the country to entities seeking to dispose of seized contraband fireworks because they are considered an imminent threat to human health and the environment. But a CSB finding disclosed that the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) does not incorporate PSM-type elements in its hazardous waste permitting process, which would help assure the disposal process is conducted safely.
The CSB found that the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), which governs federal agencies’ acquisition of goods and services, does not specifically require a federal contracting officer to consider safety performance measures and qualifications when determining the “responsibility” of a potential government contractor. Contracting officers would be required to specifically review companies’ ability to use safe methods for any work involving hazardous materials, including explosives and fireworks, under the proposal.
The draft report — subject to the board’s approval — recommends that the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council and the Treasury Department incorporate rigorous safety-related provisions throughout the federal contracting process dealing with the storage, handling, and disposal of explosive hazardous materials, including fireworks.
The draft report makes recommendations to the VSE Corporation, which awarded the subcontract to DEI, to utilize experts for contractor selection and oversight of future contracts involving explosive hazardous materials. The report also recommends that the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) develop national best practices for the safe disposal of waste fireworks that are consistent with environmental requirements.
此外,报告矩形ommends that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revise the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations to require a permitting process with rigorous safety reviews to replace the use of emergency permits, as is the practice now, for the disposal of explosive hazardous materials, including fireworks. The draft report also urged the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which regulates fireworks in the U.S., to participate with the NFPA in developing guidance on the safe disposal of fireworks.
Though national statistics are not available, CSB investigators learned from various officials across the country that many local agencies have undertaken the task of disposing of seized fireworks themselves because contracting the work out to companies that have the requisite permits is too time-consuming and costly.
调查员Johnson表示，“随着我们在报告中陈述，众所周知，遗憾的是，遗憾的是，当地司法管辖区发运烟花的广泛时间和成本已经存在，导致非法消费者的积累越来越大，并在各州的杂志中显示烟花全国各地。由于缺乏这些库存安全处理的国家标准和指导方针，这造成严重危险。“
该报告引用2012年7月4日发生的致命事故，其中当他和其他志愿者正在处理在堪萨斯州兰辛的烟花展示展上没有出院的烟花时，志愿者被杀。三英寸直径的空中壳中的一个扔进一个燃烧的坑里，志愿者靠近志愿者。城市的显示器操作员告诉CSB，只需每年使用的烟花才能正常运行，并且必须被丢弃。报告指出的处置方法在全国范围内不一致，包括消防部门和地方执法机构使用的国家。
The CSB report concludes, “The wide array of disposal techniques across the country; incidents such as the one in Lansing, Kansas; and the lack of existing regulations and standards that provide safety requirements and guidance to those disposing of fireworks, all support the conclusion that a regulatory gap exists in this country pertaining to fireworks disposal. Closing this gap to prevent fatal incidents requires a combined effort by ATF, EPA, NFPA, state and local agencies, and the fireworks industry to create standards and guidance that clearly indicate the dangers of handling and disposing of fireworks, and discuss how to properly and effectively manage the hazards and safely conduct this work.”
