U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board

Public SafetyPennsylvania, United States51-200 Employees

The CSB is an independent, non-regulatory federal agency that investigates the root causes of major chemical incidents. Our mission is to drive chemical safety excellence through independent investigations to protect communities, workers, and the environment. 

The CSB is headed by a five-member board of chemical safety experts who are appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The CSB is a scientific agency that operates independently from regulatory bodies. 

The CSB conducts thorough root-cause investigations of major chemical accidents by examining incident scenes, analyzing chemical process data, interviewing witnesses, performing metallurgical testing of damaged equipment, and conducting laboratory analysis. 

At the end of the investigation, CSB investigators draft a formal written report and present it to the CSB Board members for approval. Board members discuss, review, amend, and ultimately vote on adoption of the report. CSB investigation reports are public documents available online at www.CSB.gov. The reports consider all factors that lead to major incidents, including inadequate process design, training, maintenance, or engineering controls, as well as gaps in regulations or oversight.

Each full-length report includes specific safety recommendations that are addressed to companies, trade organizations, labor groups, or other government agencies. Recommendations are developed based on the root causes identified in the investigation. The purpose of the recommendations is to influence safety changes to help prevent similar accidents in the future.

The CSB also develops and distributes short products such as safety bulletins, safety videos and articles describing the causes of chemical incidents and measures to prevent them.

The CSB creates safety videos depicting the sequence of events leading to chemical incidents, which are available at https://www.youtube.com/user/USCSB

For more information, visit our website, www.CSB.gov.

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