President Obama today ordered federal agencies to develop new rules to address the handling and storage of industrial chemicals such as the ammonia nitrate fertilizer that caught fire and exploded in West, Texas, killing 15 and leveling large portions of the town in April. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says the executive order was:

Urgently needed to improve chemical safety and security throughout the country...and provides the direction and road map to address chemical hazards.

Three months ago today in West, Texas, 30 tons of highly explosive ammonia nitrate—stored in wooden sheds without sprinkler systems and near other combustible material—caught fire, exploded and killed 14 people including 10 firefighters. The blast leveled the West Fertilizer Co., plant and demolished a good portion of the surrounding town.Yet ammonia nitrate is still regulated by the same “patchwork” of state and federal standards with “many holes."

Ammonia nitrate, used in manufacturing fertilizer, is a dangerous and highly combustible explosive, as shown by the April explosion that killed 14 people, including 10 firefighters, and leveled the West Fertilizer Co. plant in the town of West, Texas.

But the rules that govern its use and storage—30 tons of it were at West Fertilizer—fall under “a patchwork of U.S. safety standards and guidance—a patchwork that has many large holes,” Rafael Moure-Eraso, chair of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB), told a Senate hearing Thursday.  

The safety issues the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uncovered in a July 2012 inspection of ExxonMobil’s Baton Rouge, La., refinery are the same issues that are prevalent in many U.S. refineries, including those that were the sites of two fatal disasters, say the United Steelworkers (USW).