Numerous people are dead tonight and well
over 100 are injured after this massive explosion
at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas about
35 miles north of Waco.
Eyewitnesses likened the event to a nuclear
bomb blast and it sent a massive fireball
into the sky.
The explosion registered a 2.1 on the richter
scale, instantly leveled dozens of houses
in the area and shook others as far away as
50 miles.
Officials are evacuating parts of the town
as the plant contained 54,000 pounds of the
chemical anhydrous ammonia, a pungent gas
with suffocating fumes.
When exposed to humans, it can cause severe
burns if it combines with water in the body.
And exposure to high concentrations can lead
to death.
This tragic event casts a massive spotlight
on concerns over the lack of funding for inspection
agencies like OSHA - the Occupational Health
and Safety Administration.
OSHA understaffing means they can only inspect
plants like this one once every 129 years.
Just 6 fertilizer plants in the entire state
of Texas were inspected by OSHA over the last
five years and, naturally, the West, Texas
fertilizer plant was not one of them.
Another regulatory body that would have overseen
the plant, the Chemical Safety Board, was
coincidentally criticized today in a piece
by the Center for Public Integrity which highlighted
the dwindling productivity of the agency.
When the West, Texas fertilizer plant was
cited for OSHA violations way back in 1985,
the fine was a mere $30.
