Philadelphia and Pennsylvania sued the Environmental Protection Agency Wednesday in a challenge to the agency’s rollback of an Obama-era chemical safety rule related to industrial facilities like the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery complex. The city and state joined 13 other states and the District of Columbia in a federal lawsuit that says the new rules violate the Clean […]
News Archive
Welcome to the Fluoride Action Network News Archive. The FAN News Archive serves as an historical repository for fluoride news stories, positive or negative. Since FAN catalogs all news stories on fluoride, our news section remains a reliable database of all published fluoride news.
Our news database is categorized by country, state/province, and industry. This collection of articles is constantly being updated with the most recent global news on fluoride-related issues and events.
OSHA Fines Philadelphia Energy Solutions Refinery $132K for PSM Hazards
Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) was issued several citations and fine of $132,600 this week by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) after a massive fire and series of explosions at its refinery in Philadelphia, PA last June. An investigation of the firm’s Grand Point Refinery complex revealed shortcomings in the […]
EPA announces $125,000 fine against Torrance refinery for safety violations
The EPA has levied a $125,000 fine against the owners of the Torrance Refinery for chemical safety and risk-management violations, the federal agency announced Monday, Jan. 13. The violations stem from a 2016 investigation, which found equipment designed to help contain an accidental release of toxic hydrofluoric acid — a modified version of which the […]
The Northland’s top stories of the decade
An enormous plume of smoke from a second fire at the Husky Energy refinery in Superior billows to the south on April 27, 2018. Residents within 10 miles in the direction of the smoke were evacuated. (File / News Tribune) With a new decade dawning, the News Tribune staff decided to look back at the […]
Exxon ordered to give information regarding 2015 explosion
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Monday that Exxon Mobil Corp. must comply with subpoenas issued by the Chemical Safety and Hazard Board in its investigation of a 2015 explosion. The Safety Board is interested in information relating to Exxon’s Acid Tank, which was located near the California explosion site. The […]
Many voices with one mission: Seeking a safer future for PES refinery site
Signs are held up as a standing room only crowd listens to testimony given by environmental experts, community activists and residents during a community meeting regarding the future of the site of Philadelphia Energy Solutions in August 2019. (Bastiaan Slabbers for WHYY) South Philadelphia residents, labor leaders, health and environmental experts, planners and municipal […]
EPA denies TSCA petition to ban hydrofluoric acid in oil refineries
The US EPA has denied an NGO’s petition to prohibit the use of hydrofluoric acid in manufacturing processes at oil refineries under TSCA, continuing the agency’s trend of rejecting such requests. Filed under section 21 of the law by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) in August, the petition argued that the substance – used as […]
Point Breeze residents protest refinery meeting, saying they’ve been left out of planning process
Shara Dae Howard/KYW Newsradio PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Residents in Point Breeze protested a meeting discussing Sunoco’s Philadelphia Energy Solutions Refinery clean up program Thursday evening, saying they’ve been left out of the process. Dozens of protestors shouting “We have a right to breath” blocked the doors of a meeting held by the city and […]
Archives: Acid leak over Texas City sends 800 to the hospital in 1987
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — As trick or treaters prepared to hit the streets of Texas City on Halloween of 1987, an accident occurred at the Marathon Petroleum plant sending a cloud of hydrofluoric acid streaming over the city. More than 3000 people across 50 city blocks were evacuated. More than 800 people went to the […]
CSB will focus on hydrofluoric acid in refining, Kulinowski says
Philadelphia — The Chemical Safety Board will begin “looking more closely” at hydrofluoric acid in the refining process, CSB interim Executive Authority Kristen Kulinowski said during an Oct. 16 news conference on a June 21 explosion and fire at a Philadelphia refinery. Announcing the release of a factual update and a new animation detailing the […]