"INSTITUTE, W.Va. -- Safety audits by state and local authorities, along with more citizen oversight, could have forced Bayer CropScience to fix longstanding problems that caused an August 2008 explosion that killed two Institute plant workers, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board said in a report issued Thursday.
Board investigators blamed the explosion and fire in the plant's methomyl-Larvin pesticide unit on a long string of equipment failures, management lapses, unsafe procedures and poor planning.
'This accident should never have happened,' said board member John Bresland, a longtime chemical plant manager who was chairman of the CSB when the Bayer incident occurred."
Ken Ward Jr. reports for the Charleston Gazette January 20, 2011.
Source: Charleston Gazette, 01/21/2011
