July 29, 2021, Washington, D.C. - Today the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) held a virtual public meeting to present an update on CSB activities and progress since our previous virtual Board meeting in April. Dr. Lemos, Chairperson and CEO of the CSB provided a tangible update on the CSB's progress and said "- to date in FY 2021, we have issued 9 new recommendations, and advanced 46 recommendations, of which 28 have been closed with successful outcomes. This is up from FY 2020, which yielded no new recommendations, 15 advanced, of which 4 were closed with successful outcomes. These advancements occurred late in FY 2020 during my tenure."

The Acting Managing Director, David LaCerte, provided an update on CSB's hiring progress and indicated that a recent hiring action netted a strong group of candidates to fill four open investigator positions. This effort will be followed with another hiring action for less experienced investigators, and a search for a permanent Managing Director. Mr. LaCerte also said. "-you can expect two board meetings to close investigations in the August and September time frame.

• The 2019 tragic explosion and fire at AB Specialty Silicones facility in Waukegan, Illinois claimed the lives of four workers and seriously injured another.  
• The fatal fire in 2020 at the Evergreen Packaging Mill in Canton, NC tragically resulted in the deaths of two contractors."

Additional information on these incidents can be found at CSB.gov along with a recently released safety video focused on the Aghorn Waterflood Station final report.

CSB's Director of Recommendations, Charles Barbee, provided an overview of five recommendation status changes that were recently approved by the Board.  Details of these recommendation changes will be available on the CSB's website as well as a recording of today's meeting.

The CSB's core mission activities include conducting incident investigations; formulating preventive or mitigative recommendations based on investigation findings and advocating for their implementation; issuing reports containing the findings, conclusions, and recommendations arising from incident investigations; and conducting studies on chemical hazards.

For more information, contact Communications Manager Hillary Cohen at public**At_Symbol_Here**csb.gov or by phone at 202.446.8094.