The EPA reports that locomotives are roughly three times cleaner than trucks on emissions per ton-mile. Pressure from trucks also helps generate highway expansion that often destroys precious habitat and adds to congestion problems. The stream of trucks in and through the region also accelerates roadway wear and tear, while increasing ambient noise and destructive vibrations. The incident sent nine workers to the hospital. The fact that such a catastrophic incident could occur in a plant like this just points out the urgent need for more regulatory oversight and industry responsibility concerning reactive chemicals.
Many processes involving reactive chemicals have a razor-thin safe operating envelope.
We need to act today to prevent tragedies like the one two years ago in Paterson. In 1995, after a similar explosion at Napp Technologies in Lodi, New Jersey killed five workers and injured dozens more, a group of five labor unions petitioned OSHA for an emergency standard to regulate reactive chemicals. OSHA has taken no formal action yet to close this loophole. Since then, there have been approximately 500 serious incidents in which workers have been killed or seriously injured, or in which there has been significant property damage. Excluding highly reactive chemicals from OSHA's standard on chemical Process Safety Management still endangers workers and communities in New Jersey and throughout the nation.