Occupational and public health risks from Big Oil

Justmeans has provided extensive coverage of BP's Deep Water Horizon oil-rig disaster currently unfolding off the coast of Louisiana, including its root causes, comparison to the largest spill in US history (hint: it wasn't in Alaska), and use of social media to track the spill. And coverage will continue.

In addition to environmental and ethical impact, there're also occupational safety and public health implications. The explosion that sank the rig and triggered the spill killed 11 and injured 17 workers. In 2005, an explosion at BP's Texas City plant killed 15 and injured more than 180. Four years earlier, OSHA cited a BP plant in Georgia for health and safety violations after three workers died from an explosion during routine maintenance.

Many comparisons have been made between BP's spill, and the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in 1989. Though a major environmental catastrophe with long term public health consequences, the grounding of Exxon Valdez didn't directly kill anyone. Since then, Exxon Mobil has been hailed as the industry leader in occupational health. They pay scrupulous attention to the smallest mishaps, studying them and changing process to avoid future errors. Well-scripted plans are put into place immediately when accidents do occur. But this doesn't mean Exxon Mobile has a perfect occupational health record. Their Torrance California plant alone has killed three workers over the past six years in various gruesome ways.

The petroleum industry has had more deaths related to the "process safety management of hazardous chemicals" (PSM) than any other industry. In 2007 OSHA sent a friendly reminder letter to industry heads reminding them of the standards. Between the institution of PSM in 1992 and OSHA's 2007 letter, 52 workers were killed and 250 injured at US oil and gas sites.

So overall, how much of an occupation and public health threat does the oil and gas industry represent? How does it compare with other industries?

The CDC reports that from 2003 to 2006, the gas and oil industry had an occupational death rate of 30.6 per 100,000 FTEs (full time equivalent employees), compared to an average of 4.0 for all industries. The total number of deaths for that period was 404, mostly due to transportation-related road accidents.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a total of 120 work-related deaths in oil and gas in 2008 (the most recent year available), among the 5,071 deaths in all industries. Most were caused by transportation (41%), objects and equipment (25%), and explosion (15%). Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana led the nation in oil and gas industry deaths (with 41,21, and 13 respectively). And each has seen dramatic increases in deaths over the previous five years, at 21, 91, and 30 percent respectively. The construction industry had the greatest number of deaths at 969, while commercial fishing had the highest rate at 129 per 100,000 FTEs.

Interestingly, the BLS figures for 2006 (the most recent reported) non-fatal injury rate for oil and gas was 4.6 per 100, roughly equivalent to the 4.2 for all industries.

Photo credit: BLS.gov