Tuesday, February 26, 2019 – Annual Report on Worker Safety

Numbers told the story of Pasadena plant workers injured and not injured in 2018 when the Pasadena Citizens’ Advisory Council (PCAC) received its Annual Report on Worker Safety. Data that workplaces must keep for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) showed that last year was the third safest ever for the 18 CAC plants, with 18 injuries occurring among approximately 300 employees and 3500 contractors who worked 14 million hours in 2018.

An OSHA recordable rate of 0.26 meant people were injured at a rate of well less than 1 per 100 or less 2.6 per 1000 in 2018. More than 15 years of CAC trends show safety is improving. If workers were injured at the same rate as they were in 2002, 83 people would have been injured instead of 18.

The following numbers describe the safety performance in 2018:

Out of about 6753 workers, 18 had an injury in 2018 serious enough to require a doctor’s intervention; 6735 did not.
8 of 18 plants had no OSHA recordable injuries among their employees and the contractors working at the site daily or during construction and maintenance turnarounds. (One of the 8 had no contractors.)
There were no fatalities in 2018. Since 2000, there have been a total of 8 fatalities in PCAC plants.)
9 of the 18 injuries resulted in lost work days, the same number as in 2017.
1 of the 18 injuries came from chemical contract or exposure.
Employees had 18 of the 20 injuries.
The most common recordable injuries in 2018 came from slips, trips, and falls.
3 of 18 plants take part in the OSHA Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) industry-agency partnership. Oxy Vinyls gained VPP status in 1991, Chevron Phillips in 2015, and Kinder Morgan Liquids Terminal in 2016. Intercontinental Terminals Company (ITC) is working toward VPP certification
17 of the 18 plants had safety rates better than plants around the country in similar kinds of business
The 0.26 recordable rate in PCAC plants in 2018 compares to a best-ever rate of 0.17 in 2016 and, based on 2017 data, rates of 0.70 for American Chemistry Council member companies, 1.40 for chemical manufacturers in Texas, 2.00 for chemical manufacturing nationally, and 3.50 for all kinds of manufacturing. The highest recordable rate in 2017 was for nursing and residential care in state hospitals; the rate was 10.9 injuries per 100. The safest workplace was again CPA offices, where the 0.20 rate meant 2 injuries per thousand. The recordable rate describes how many workers per 100 had an injury or illness as defined by OSHA in a 12-month period.

Underlying all these numbers is the fact that the safety report is about people. It is a way for PCAC to promote improvement in worker safety by letting plants evaluate their performance against that of neighboring plants and other businesses.

The 18 PCAC plants include refineries that refine crude oil into gasoline and other fuels; chemical plants that make organic and inorganic chemicals, plastics, and fertilizer; a plant that treats wastewater for industry and others; and terminals that store liquids until shipment. The largest worked 7.1 million work hours in 2018; the smallest worked 33.7 thousand hours.