Expert says EPA already has tools to prevent another West

"WASHINGTON — The chairman of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board told senators Thursday that the Obama administration should already be using its power to require industries to adopt safer technology in making and handling deadly chemicals such as the one that exploded last April at a fertilizer plant in West.

“The EPA has the authority today to require companies to apply IST [inherently safer technology] in design, equipment and processes,” Dr. Rafael Moure-Eraso said in testimony before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

“These major accidents don’t have to happen,” he said. “They kill and injure workers, harm communities and destroy productive businesses.”

Fifteen people died and hundreds were injured in the tiny farming town of West when highly explosive ammonium nitrate, a common fertilizer ingredient, exploded during a fire at the West Fertilizer Co."

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