Chemical accident rates are climbing as the Trump administration moves to roll back industrial safety regulations designed to prevent catastrophic releases of hazardous materials.
Physicist Ronald Koopman ran hydrofluoric acid dispersion experiments in the 1980s and presented findings to a Southern California Air District meeting in 2018. HF is used to manufacture refrigerants, gasoline additives, fluorine-based pesticides, and fluoropolymers like Teflon. It is also among the most corrosive chemicals in industrial use. A new analysis from PEER documents the rising accident frequency alongside the proposed regulatory rollbacks at the EPA.
The original Ars Technica piece is worth reading for the specifics: what Koopman's experiments actually showed, which exact EPA rules are on the chopping block, and what the accident data looks like in numbers. The regulatory mechanism being dismantled, not just the headline trend, is the story.
[READ ORIGINAL →]