TY - JOUR PY - 2021// TI - Time to fix the damage of weakened chemical disaster prevention regulations JO - New solutions: a journal of environmental and occupational health policy A1 - Moure-Eraso, Rafael SP - ePub EP - ePub VL - ePub IS - ePub N2 - The Trump administration weakened regulations through changes on rules that have been improved during the Obama years. An example is the reversal in 2019 of the improvements to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Risk Management Program, Chemical Disaster Prevention Rule. In 2013 a catastrophic explosion of ammonium nitrate in West, Texas, provided the impetus to improve the original regulations after an investigation of its consequences. The justification for reversing the improvements was provided by one of the three federal investigations conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives which alleged, without proof, that the West Texas explosion was caused by arson and thus nonpreventable. This commentary reviews the details of this reversal and recommends that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, now under the Biden Administration, resurrect its 2016 Risk Management Program chemical disaster rule in order to prevent future chemical facility catastrophes.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1048-2911 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10482911211030609 ID - ref1 ER -