WASHINGTON, DC – CSB Chairperson Moure-Eraso has issued a statement that warns of the danger of hot work on tanks that contain biological or organic material. The statement is in response to an accident that occurred at an Omega Protein facility in Mississippi.
In August, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) deployed investigators to the Omega Protein facility in Moss Point, MS, where a tank explosion on July 28, 2014, killed a contract worker and severely injured another. The team, working alongside federal OSHA inspectors, found that the incident occurred during hot work on or near a tank containing eight inches of a slurry of water and fish matter known as “stickwater”.