Fatigue Guideline Up For Review

Worker fatigue is the subject of an April 24 public hearing organized by the Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board and to be held in Washington, D.C. The meeting will allow CSB to hear public views on a guideline developed by the American Petroleum Institute (API) that is intended to avoid fatigue-related plant accidents. When announcing the hearing, CSB warned that the guideline is too weak and unlikely to protect refinery and petrochemical workers.

The guideline was developed in response to a 2007 CSB recommendation that API, the United Steelworkers, and other experts develop a consensus-based, industrywide guideline to avoid fatigue-related accidents.

However, that did not happen. The steelworkers union dropped out of negotiations in 2009, CSB says, when it appeared to them that workers were having little input in developing the new guideline. The guideline-negotiating committee included 15 to 20 industry members, one to three union members, and very little input from nonindustrial experts or the public, CSB adds.

As a result, CSB says, the guideline lacks explicit requirements in the form of “shall,” and instead calls for too many “shoulds.” Also, CSB says, the guideline’s limits on hours are too permissive and less protective than those suggested by current scientific knowledge. Additionally, the guideline relies on personal evaluations of fatigue and suggests that workers avoid fatigue without saying how.

CSB’s recommendation for new guidelines grew from a deadly plant accident in 2005 at BP’s Texas City, Texas, refinery.