4: Information Dissemination
Promote improved safety practices by broadly disseminating the findings, lessons, and recommendations from CSB investigations
and studies.
Other Information:
Key Results: - Investigations are publicized through community hearings, public meetings, news conferences, and website dissemination
- At least one public hearing or meeting for most major investigations - Each investigation leads to appropriate outreach
products that are distributed pursuant to an outreach plan - Relevant stakeholder groups promptly receive and widely disseminate
CSB information Key Strategies: Resources, Skills, and Technology Needed - Conduct public events (e.g. press conferences or
public meetings) for all ongoing investigations - Identify industries and sectors that have similar risks to those investigated
and target them for outreach efforts - Develop outreach plans and products such as videos and digests based on CSB investigations
and studies - Coordinate with stakeholder organizations to disseminate CSB information to their members - Provide Board members
to deployments, key conferences, and symposia - CSB website uses state-of-the-art technologies to provide access to essential
investigative information - Regularly brief Congressional committees and offices on the status of ongoing CSB investigations
and open safety recommendations - Surveys of web visitors, conference and meeting attendees, and recipients of outreach materials
to measure effectiveness of communication and usefulness of information for activities such as training, hazard analysis,
safe facility design, and improved safety practices Metrics: - Number of outreach products developed and distributed - Number
of public meetings, events, and hearings, and speeches to strategic audiences - Number of visits to CSB web pages, reports,
and videos and aggregate distribution of news stories describing CSB findings - Number of subscribers to CSB news and information
Discussion: The Board recognizes that a potent tool for achieving its mission is more widespread awareness of the causes of
chemical accidents and the measures that can prevent them. Companies and their employees share a strong interest in avoiding
major chemical accidents that cost lives, damage reputations, destroy productive capacity, and often result in expensive litigation.
But many companies, particularly smaller businesses, are not aware of all the high-consequence, low-probability risks they
face in operating their facilities. For example, major industrial dust explosions are rare events but when they occur they
can cause multiple fatalities and destroy or incapacitate large facilities. The culprit is often a thin layer of combustible
powder — such as a fine resin dust — that has accumulated in concealed or hard-to-reach places. This hazard was responsible
for devastating explosions in North Carolina and Kentucky in 2003 that cost 13 lives and caused tens of millions of dollars
in property damage. In both cases, the companies were not fully aware of the catastrophic nature of the combustible dust hazard.
If they had been, they would likely have taken relatively inexpensive control and housekeeping measures before the tragedies
occurred. While outreach is a shared responsibility among many federal agencies involved in chemical safety, the CSB has a
unique body of knowledge and insight gained from its more than 40 detailed accident investigations and safety studies. The
agency’s experience over the past several years is that relatively inexpensive and achievable outreach campaigns can greatly
increase the dissemination of its reports, findings, and recommended safety practices. Activities have included public meetings,
news conferences, speeches, and the development of focused outreach materials such as short safety videos, computer recreations
of accidents, and plain-language investigation summaries, known as digests. At costs that are a fraction of those expended
on the investigations themselves, the agency can effectively disseminate its safety information to thousands of facilities
and millions of individuals in locations all over the world. The CSB’s outreach programs have reached not only the traditional
audiences in the oil and chemical industries but also hospitals, national parks, nuclear power plants, schools and universities,
fire departments, and many other organizations. Perhaps most importantly, outreach efforts provide communities around the
country with essential information they need to promote improved safety at chemical facilities in their midst. In the past
several years, the CSB has moved toward virtually 100% electronic dissemination of all its information. The CSB’s website,
CSB.gov, is an internationally recognized resource for accident prevention that receives more than one million hits annually.
The site, which was completely redesigned in 2003, is the agency’s principal interface with the public. The Strategic Plan
envisions continued investment in the website to maintain its currency, including state-of-the-art technologies such as imbedded
streaming video. As technologies evolve we will utilize those new technologies to extend the dissemination of CSB safety findings.
The agency’s vision for outreach is that one day, the CSB’s findings and recommendations will be able to reach the majority
of all the companies, agencies, and other organizations that can benefit. The CSB Safety Videos DVD details recommendations
issued from recent CSB investigations in a series of short videos. Baseline Statistics: In fiscal year 2006, the CSB issued
reports on seven investigations. Four of these were accompanied by short safety videos highlighting the causes of the accidents
and key findings, recommendations, and good prevention practices. In six of seven cases, a news conference was held in the
community near the accident site to release the final reports and/or videos. In addition, videos were issued related to two
ongoing cases, and a large public meeting was held in Texas City, Texas, related to the BP refinery disaster. During the most
recent 12-month period ending in July 2006, more than 1.3 million hits were recorded on the CSB’s public website, including
more than 440,000 viewings of CSB’s safety videos. Over a seven-month period, more than 10,700 video DVDs were produced and
distributed to individuals and members of important stakeholder groups, such as the American Institute of Chemical Engineers,
the American Chemistry Council, the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association, and the United Steelworkers of America.
More than 2,200 DVD requests and comments were received through the CSB website over seven months; many attested to the usefulness
of CSB safety videos in worker training, hazard analysis, and facility design. Approximately 9,000 people from around the
world have registered to receive regular CSB news by email. Printed news stories describing CSB investigations and findings
were distributed to a total of 233 million people during the most recent 12-month period.
Objective(s):
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