Tracking Chemical Disasters
500,000 views, 1,113 incidents, and counting
Today the Chemical Disasters Map surpassed its 500,000th individual viewer.
The Chemical Disasters Map is an extension of the Prevent Chemical Disasters tracking project. Since January 2021, Coming Clean and Material Research L3C have been working on this website to support the Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters, and have recorded 1,113 significant incidents - a rate of one every 30 hours. “The incidents logged by the coalition range widely in severity but each involves the accidental release of chemicals deemed to pose potential threats to human and environmental health,” reported Carey Gillam for The Guardian in February 2023.
The latest addition was a tragedy in Louisville, Kentucky. On November 12, a large explosion at a caramel color factory killed two workers and injured eleven others. Despite the death of a worker in 2003, caused by an exploding tank of ammonia, the factory did not have a Risk Management Plan (RMP). RMPs can provide greater protection for workers and neighbors against chemical hazards.
News reports routinely feature the Chemical Disasters Map, such as Héctor Ríos Morales’ report in Latin Times last month on a hydrogen sulfide leak at a Houston-area refinery that killed two people.
After a chemical fire broke out at a Georgia factory last month, Katya Schwenk reported for Jacobin, “According to a database maintained by the Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters, an advocacy group, there have been more than one hundred chemical accidents at industrial facilities not covered by this federal risk oversight [RMP] so far in 2024 — disasters that impacted communities from Oregon to Tennessee. Last year, there were 184.”
“Nongeeks will love that this tracker presents its data in interactive map form; geeks will love that you can access the underlying data in table form…The whole thing is nicely searchable,” wrote Joseph A. Davis, in a review for the Global Investigative Journalism Network. “We applaud this tracker’s conscientious effort to lay out its ‘methodology.’”
The map’s wide distribution demonstrates its importance as a resource for diverse stakeholders.
Current sponsors are Coming Clean, Earthjustice, Greenpeace U.S.A., and the League of Conservation Voters. Without their support our tracking would not be possible.
