The U.S. Department of Labor is starting a program to help reduce the amount of ammonium exposure that agricultural workers face on a regular basis.
The Regional Emphasis Program will address the hazards of exposure to fertilizer-grade ammonium nitrate and agricultural anhydrous ammonium, often used as factory refrigerant. Workers in proximity to these chemicals can face injury, illness or death, the Department of Labor warned.
“The goal is to improve worker safety and reduce the potential for catastrophic incidents,” Eric Harbin, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s acting regional administrator in Dallas, said in a news release. “At the end of the day, we want to ensure workers go home safely to their families.”
The program is being led by OSHA. It begins Oct. 1, with a three-month education and outreach period to encourage employers to get their facilities into compliance with OSHA standards. Midwest and Southern states, including Arkansas, are participating in the program.
The news release comes a few days after a mandate was issued by a federal appeals court to enact a rule from President Barack Obama’s administration that would require employers to take preventive measures in the case of a chemical disaster.
The Department of Labor did not return phone calls seeking comment on the reasons for the ammonia-hazard program.
The D.C. Circuit Court ruled last month that the Environmental Protection Agency, under the leadership of former chief administrator Scott Pruitt, unlawfully delayed implementation of the Chemical Disaster Rule finalized in 2017. It was developed to protect emergency workers and neighborhoods near chemical plants, by holding companies accountable.
Since the rule was delayed 17 months ago, there have been at least 74 reported chemical explosions, releases and accidents across the country, according to EarthJustice, a U.S. environmental law group. These include a sulfur trioxide gas leak at an Albemarle plant in Magnolia, an ammonia leak at a Butterball plant in Jonesboro and three ammonia-related incidents at Tyson Foods facilities in the Southeast and the Midwest.
Tyson Foods factories affected by ammonia leaks in the past 17 months were in Lexington, Neb., Dawson, Ga., and Goodlettsville, Tenn., which led to evacuations, hospitalizations and the closure of a chicken plant.
The nation’s largest meat company has come under scrutiny for its environmental track record in recent years. In 2013, Tyson agreed to pay the EPA $3.85 million to settle allegations that stemmed from the accidental release of anhydrous ammonia at its meat plants eight times between 2006 and 2010.
Anhydrous ammonia is considered extremely hazardous under the EPA’s Clean Air Act. Exposure to vapors can cause temporary blindness or eye damage, and irritate the skin, mouth or mucus membranes. Prolonged exposure can cause lung damage or death.
The Department of Labor said it will continue to respond to complaints, referrals, hospitalizations and fatalities while the program is ongoing. The agency said enforcement activities will begin after the outreach period and run through Sept. 30, 2019, unless extended. Information on ammonia hazards and methods of control are made available on the agency’s website.
“This program is an enforcement tool to emphasize the obligations under existing OSHA standards,” Kimberly Stille, regional OSHA administrator of Kansas City, Mo., said in a news release. “The 90-day outreach period is an opportunity for employers to proactively seek compliance assistance to ensure they are adequately protecting workers.”
While factory incidents are a concern, the largest source of ammonia emissions is livestock waste, and much of that comes from factory farms that house broiler chickens. Poultry litter is often collected from factory barns and sold as fertilizer.
The Environmental Integrity Project, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit founded by former EPA attorneys, published a report in December on the levels of ammonia emissions in broiler chicken operations being higher than expected.
A study cited in the report monitored four chicken barns in Arkansas in 2005 and 2006, over five flock cycles. With an average flock age of 50 days, the researchers estimated production emissions of 0.51 grams of ammonia per bird per day — almost double the EPA’s assumptions of 0.27 grams per bird per day.