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Catastrophic Incidents in Manufacturing

 

May 2010
DHHS (NIOSH) Publication Number 2010-149
cover of 2010-149

Explosions, fires, building structural failures and other catastrophic incidents during the handling and processing of chemicals in manufacturing industries cause worker deaths, injuries, significant economic losses and serious impacts on the surrounding communities and environment each year. Notorious and tragic catastrophic incidents (human toll in the thousands of affected lives) have triggered legislation and regulation to prevent and mitigate such incidents. Reports from investigations of catastrophic incidents can be found on the U. S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigations Board web site.