59: Bayer CropScience

After an extended outage of the Methomyl Unit at the Bayer facility in Institute, West Virginia, the decision was made to commence a restart of the Unit even though the DCS upgrade was still incomplete and the newly replaced Residue Treater hadn't been fully recommissioned. An incident whose root cause was years in the making would ultimately cost two people their lives.
With John Chidgey.

Related Episodes:

• Causality Episode 26: Bhopal

Formal Reports:

• Bayer CropScience Pesticide Waste Tank Explosion
• CSB Final Report (PDF)
• CSB Final Report News Release
• CSB Hearing Testimony (PDF)
• Public Meeting Transcript

News Releases and Articles:

• Lawsuit links student’s death to ‘08 Bayer explosion
• Bayer Settles 2008 Fatal Plant Explosion Lawsuit
• Bayer cited, fined in fatal explosion at plant in August

General Information:

• Bayer
• Insecticide
• Ovicide
• Organising for Safety: How Structure Creates Culture

Support Causality on Patreon

Episode Gold Producers: 'r', Steven Bridle and Kellen Frodelius-Fujimoto.
Episode Silver Producers: Mitch Biegler, Shane O'Neill, Jared Roman, Katharina Will, Chad Juehring, Ian Gallagher and Jamie Russell.