House OKs bill that’s targeting hazardous dust

The bill will likely face opposition in the Senate.

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives Wednesday passed legislation aimed at forcing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to issue stronger rules regulating combustible industrial dusts.

The new legislation would require OSHA to issue an interim standard on combustible dust within 90 days and a permanent standard within 18 months.

The largely Democratic push for a more uniform safety standard comes after a snowlike pile of sugar dust ignited at the Imperial Sugar Company plant outside Savannah, Ga. in February, killing 13 workers and injuring more than 60 others.

The cause of that explosion is still under investigation, but a U.S. Chemical Safety Board study found that over nearly three decades 281 industrial dust-related fires and explosions have caused 119 deaths and more than 718 injuries.

Piles of dust in factories that manufacture everything from insulation for the automotive and construction industries to sugar can ignite and set off explosions and fires that can cause life-threatening burns or other injuries.

“Even now — after 13 needless deaths in Georgia — OSHA demonstrates no understanding of the urgency of this problem,” said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the bill’s main author and the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.

The House measure now heads for a vote in the Senate, where it’s likely to face tough opposition. Bush administration officials are critical of what they consider the bill’s “expedited and one-size-fits-all regulatory approach”, and President Bush is likely to veto the measure if it passes both houses of Congress.