[Marxism] Explosion at Bayer CropScience plant: the makers of pesticides alleged to be responsible for massive bee die-off

[Greg McDonald]

August 28, 2008
Investigation begins in blast
Explosion occurred in new chemical tank
Federal investigators are beginning what could turn into a detailed  
examination of what caused the explosion and fire that killed one  
worker Thursday night at the Bayer CropScience plant in Institute.
By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer

[cnImage] Interactive map: See approximate location of the blast

INSTITUTE, W.Va. -- Federal investigators are beginning what could  
turn into a detailed examination of what caused the explosion and  
fire that killed one worker Thursday night at the Bayer CropScience  
plant in Institute.

A five-person team from the federal Chemical Safety Board was  
expected in Charleston by early this evening to begin an independent  
probe of the accident.

Board chairman John Bresland made it to Charleston this afternoon,  
met with local emergency response officials and was setting up his  
agency's operations.

"The issues are broader than just -- something blew up," said  
Bresland, who by coincidence was at The Greenbrier Friday for a  
presentation with state business leaders about the chemical board.  
"We look at safety culture and underlying issues."

Earlier today, Bayer officials said the explosion appears to have  
occurred in a chemical tank that was added during a recent routine  
maintenance shutdown of a pesticide unit.

The 4,000-gallon cylindrical tank was used to clean up wastes created  
during the production of the pesticide Larvin, said Bayer site  
manager Nick Crosby.

"It appears to have occurred right at the back end of the process  
where we treat process residues," Crosby said. "[But] I can't tell  
you today what caused the incident. We don't know yet."

As the company began its own probe, inspectors from the U.S.  
Occupational Safety and Health Administration were on site for their  
own investigation. OSHA will examine the plant's compliance with  
various workplace safety rules, including federal requirements for  
how hazardous chemicals are managed, officials said.

The chemical board is a different, independent agency charged by  
Congress with investigating chemical accidents. CSB investigations  
look into all aspects of chemical accidents, including physical  
causes such as equipment failure as well as inadequacies in  
regulations, industry standards, and safety management systems.  
Congress created the board in 1990, and modeled it after the National  
Transportation Safety Board.

"It's under investigation, and it could be a couple of days or a  
couple of weeks before they know exactly what happened," said Dale  
Petry, Kanawha County's director of emergency services.

Petry confirmed that plant employee Barry Withrow was killed. A  
second worker was transported to a Pittsburgh hospital for treatment  
of third-degree burns, company officials said.

Witnesses reported seeing a red fireball and feeling the blast as far  
away as Charleston. The explosion, at about 10:25 p.m. Thursday, was  
heard at least as far away as Mink Shoals.

Thousands of residents between South Charleston and the Putnam County  
line were advised to take shelter in their homes, and the main  
highways through the area -- Interstate 64, U.S. 60 and W.Va. 25 --  
were closed for several hours. The shelter advisory was lifted  
shortly after 2 a.m. and roads reopened an hour or so after that,  
officials said.

The incident could have been far worse, given the location of the  
explosion and the types of chemicals used and stored nearby, said  
Mike Dorsey, chief of homeland security and emergency response for  
the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Dorsey said the unit that blew up contained a variety of dangerous  
caustics, and the Institute plant is best known for its production of  
methyl isocyanate, or MIC, the chemical that killed thousands of  
people at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, in December 1984.

"The thing that blew up was the least dangerous of the stuff that's  
in there," Dorsey said.

Bayer officials said in a statement that the explosion occurred in a  
portion of the plant known as the West Carbamoylation Center, where  
the company makes carbamate pesticides.

The plant makes the pesticide methomyl in the unit, but Bayer does  
not market that product. Instead, the company uses methomyl to make  
Larvin, its brand name of the insecticide thiodicarb. It is used to  
kill pests on cotton, corn and a variety of other vegetables. Larvin  
is a carbamate insecticide, a class of chemicals made from carbamic  
acid. Like organophosphate pesticides, these chemicals interfere with  
the conduction signals of the nervous system of insects, and in cases  
of poisoning with high levels of exposure, humans.

By itself, Larvin does not generally burn, according to a Bayer  
material safety data sheet.

But Crosby said the tank involved in Thursday night's blast contained  
a variety of waste products that were used to make or are created by  
the production of Larvin. Dorsey said officials were primarily  
concerned about the presence of methyl isobutyl ketone<co >, or MIBK,  
a highly flammable solvent that helps to make Larvin.

"What you had was a huge amount of fuel, so there was a really big  
fire," Dorsey said. The tank also contained hexane and dimethyl  
disulfide, Dorsey said.