The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 authorized the creation of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, which became operational in January 1998, mandated to investigate, or cause to be investigated, serious accidents that result from the production, processing, handling, or storage of chemical substances, to determine the conditions and circumstances that led up to them, and then use its findings anyway and anywhere the information might help prevent similar incidents from occurring. Congress modeled CSB on the structure of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which investigates accidents in aviation, railroad, pipeline, highway, and marine transportation, charging that no other agency or executive branch official may direct the investigative activities of CSB, and that it be completely independent in its rulemaking, inspection, and enforcement authorities, so that pursuing the causes of an accident can be a process guaranteed to be free of any other division’s agendas.

 CSB’s two main functions are preventing industrial chemical accidents and investigating those that do happen. Among its specific responsibilities:

• Issuing safety reports and recommendations to the commercial and industrial sector, industry organizations, labor groups, and regulatory agencies - a process which has proven to be CSB’s most effective tool for accomplishing positive change, their observations and guidelines having been applied in varying ways and situations by hundreds of thousands of people since CSB was established.
• Providing an annual report to the President and Congress: Proposing specific rules and orders; suggesting changes in regulations, standards and guidelines; noting progress in the development of risk-reduction technologies; identifying priorities for study and investigation, including further steps that can be taken to reduce the likelihood or consequences of accidents; and exhibiting the responses to and implementation of previous research findings on chemical safety in the public and private sector. 
• Convening community meetings and hearings across the country, to distribute safety information and solicit and respond to citizen complaints and suggestions.
• Utilizing the expertise and experience of other agencies, including EPA, OSHA, and NTSB, using in the process memorandums of understanding which define the collaboration terms, allowing each agency to carry out its mission most efficiently without unnecessary duplication of effort.
• Creating safety videos for CSB board members and staff to show at speaking engagements, as well as for the media and general public to view at any time via the CSB website, YouTube or iTunes Podcasts, the videos on the agency site having been watched almost a million times since they began appearing there in late 2005. Among the available titles (Internet Explorer only):

• Conducting general studies and investigations where there has not yet been an accident, but where there is evidence of a potential hazard to human health or property.
• Deploying chemical safety investigators, including chemical and mechanical engineers, industrial safety experts, and other specialists with experience in the private and public sectors, as well as a public affairs representative, to the site of accidents causing death, serious injury, or substantial property or natural resources damage, to look for root causes. This can include: Deficiencies in safety management systems, technical or human; unforeseen chemical reactions; equipment failures; inadequate maintenance; inadequate regulations or standards; and/or lack of proper staffing.
• Sending chemical samples and equipment obtained from accident sites to independent laboratories for testing; examining company safety records, inventories, and operating procedures; and conferring with plant managers, workers, labor groups and other government authorities.
• Sifting through evidence, and, after it has been analyzed by the experts and studied by the board, drafting key findings and recommendations from all avenues of the investigation into a written document, then disseminating it to the involved parties, and others for whom it is deemed likely to be a valuable guide, and making it available as well to anyone else who wants to read it.
• Tracking and monitoring the entities to whom they make recommendations, to assure what they’ve advised is implemented.

Video Room