CLAIRTON, Pa. — A deadly explosion at an industrial plant outside Pittsburgh on Monday morning left two people dead and many others injured. As investigators work to determine what caused the explosion, questions are looming about the immediate and long-term impacts the blast could have on the environment and health and safety for workers and Mon Valley residents alike.
PHOTOS: Explosion at U.S. Steel Clairton Works Plant
It is not the first deadly incident at the U.S. Steel Clairton Coke Works, and it is not the first explosion at the plant this year. The last one happened in early February and left two people injured.
Dr. Jim Fabisiak is an Associate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health. He is also the director of the Center for Healthy Environments and Communities. Fabisiak is currently doing research in East Palestine after the toxic train derailment.
He says both transparency and accurate information are needed from officials and U.S. Steel following Monday’s explosion.
“There have been no troubling tests of air or water that we have seen yet,” Governor Josh Shapiro said Tuesday.
Still, some residents remain unconvinced and concerned that could change.
Fabisiak said the air monitoring so far is a good sign but admits he would be taking precautions if he lived close to the plant, including keeping his windows sealed and not circulating outside air if he could avoid it.
“Out of precaution, until I had a clear understanding that I was getting the correct information and that there was really nothing to worry about,” he said.
He encourages neighbors and plant workers to monitor air quality checks and keep close tabs on their health, things like difficulty breathing and odors they notice in the air.
As for the long-term impacts, Fabisiak said there is a lot we can learn from the past. He specifically mentioned a big fire at the plant that happened in late 2018.
“We can go back to the fire at Clairton back in 2018 that essentially rendered some of the pollution control equipment inoperative, and the plant continued to run with significant emissions over 2 or 3 months,” he said.
That begs the question of whether similar equipment was damaged in Monday’s blast. Officials have not said, if they know.
The plant has a history of environmental violations and fines. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Clairton Coke Works has violated the Air Quality Act every quarter for at least the last three years. Records show U.S. Steel has paid more than five million dollars in fines for environmental violations in the last decade.
Those are a few of the factors fueling concerns about how deregulation will impact the plant.
“Any time you have a situation where you’re weighing productivity and profits, which is the result of deregulation, then health and safety is the other side of that scale,” he said.
His biggest concern is the impact cuts to OSHA under the Trump Administration will have on worker safety.
Officials have vowed a full investigation into the blast, and Fabisiak said there needs to be changes made based on the results of that investigation to prevent future incidents.
“Obviously the system can be improved. If this was the only event that ever happened, it would still be a devastating event and you would be having a conversation about it, but you wouldn’t be having quite the same conversation,” Fabisiak said.
He added that the tragic explosion should not be referred to as an “accident,” and lessons need to be learned and acted upon to prevent future tragedies.
“’Accident’ in many people’s minds implies something out of our control, unforeseen circumstances, and like a traffic accident, there’s not really an accident. People have crashes, because they are texting, because their brakes fail because they’re not inspected so it’s not maintained, etc. So there’s a reason for these ‘accidents’ to happen,” he said.
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