(Michael Ciaglo / Houston Chronicle)
In November 2014, four workers died at a DuPont plant in La Porte after being exposed to a toxic gas. Responding emergency workers weren’t sure what was in the air. The surrounding community wasn’t, either.
This Houston Chronicle investigation explores where another fatal mistake could have the largest consequences and probes the regulatory failures that put us in jeopardy.
All over America and across greater Houston, hundreds of chemicals pose serious threats to public safety at facilities that may be unknown to most neighbors and are largely unpoliced by government.
The U.S. regulatory system is poorly funded and has outdated, complex rules that go unenforced, leaving facilities that handle hazardous chemicals mostly to police themselves.
Local Emergency Planning Committees, groups that the federal government says could prevent the next major incident, all over Texas are disbanded or barely functioning, a Chronicle investigation has found.
Federal agencies have ignored even their own recommendations to more closely regulate reactive dangers, saying that the problem is too complex.
Much like the National Transportation Safety Board, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board's mission is to find out what caused an accident. Unlike the NTSB, the CSB deploys to only a handful.
The fire department in the nation's fourth-largest city has no idea where most hazardous chemicals are, forgetting lessons learned in a near-disaster 21 years ago, a Chronicle investigation found.
About 400 trucks a day loaded with hazardous chemicals, inch along 610 in bumper-to-bumper traffic and pass within a mile of NRG Stadium, Memorial Park and the Galleria shopping center.
After a plant explosion in West, TX, President Obama ordered a sweeping overhaul of chemical safety laws. The American chemical industry had other plans.
Check out what we uncovered in this video highlighting the Chemical Breakdown series.
The explosion – equivalent to about 1,400 pounds of TNT – leveled the plant. Debris landed nearly a mile away.
Check out what we uncovered in this video highlighting the Chemical Breakdown series.
The explosion – equivalent to about 1,400 pounds of TNT – leveled the plant. Debris landed nearly a mile away.
Want to learn more about how the Chronicle conducted this investigation?
Click here to see our methodology.
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