RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina safety panel adopted emergency changes to its gas guidelines on Tuesday, despite federal inaction on the standards, three months after an explosion at a Slim Jim factory killed three people.
The North Carolina Building Code Council voted to require workers who are purging indoor gas lines to vent the pipes outside of the building. New guidelines demand that workers take proper precautions if venting is not possible, including the evacuation of those not directly working on the gas lines.
Corey Owens, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers union that represents several hundred workers at the snacks facility south of Raleigh, said the changes in North Carolina need to be replicated nationwide.
"State by state action is always an improvement over no action, but there are a lot of workers outside of North Carolina that are still exposed to these hazardous practices," Owens said. "That requires federal action."
The building code council's decision came one day after The Associated Press reported on documents showing that the U.S. Chemical Safety Board had voted against recommending similar changes to state, national and international codes.
A June explosion at a ConAgra Foods Inc. facility in Garner knocked down part of the building's roof, killing three workers and sending dozens of others to the hospital. Investigators believe contractors installing a water heater vented natural gas inside the building, leading to the blast.
Staff members at the Chemical Safety Board had recommended that the agency distribute a safety bulletin and emergency recommendations after an investigation found weaknesses in national standards and other instances of workplace explosions involving gas-line purges. Two of the four members of the national board voted down the idea, saying code writers should be the ones to decide on new guidelines.
The Building Code Council, a panel of 17 members appointed by the governor, sets minimum building standards for the state. Previous state codes had suggested that purged gas lines should be vented outdoors "or to ventilated areas of sufficient size."
Council members voted Tuesday to require that people not involved in the purging be evacuated if the line cannot be vented outdoors, and to have workers measure gas levels with a detector and eliminate all ignition sources, according to documents released by the panel.
Other accidents linked to gas line purges include a May 2008 incident during the construction of a San Diego hotel that injured 14; an August 2007 explosion at a hotel in Cheyenne, Wyo., that injured two; and an explosion at a Porterville, Calif., school that burned two plumbers in November 2005. The Chemical Safety Board also said a 1997 explosion at a fitness center in Cary that injured six was linked to purging.
Federal officials expect the full investigation to be finished in 2010.