http://wvgazette.com/news/bayerexplosion " target="_blank">Read more about Bayer

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Faculty at West Virginia State University have voted to urge Bayer CropScience to remove the stockpile of deadly methyl isocyanate from the company's Institute plant.

The plant, adjacent to State's campus, stores more than 200,000 pounds of MIC, the chemical that killed thousands of people in a 1984 leak at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India.

In recent weeks, the Bayer facility has come under renewed scrutiny, after federal investigators reported the August 2008 explosion that killed two plant workers could easily have damaged or destroyed one of the MIC tanks.

Last week, West Virginia State's faculty unanimously approved a resolution on the MIC issue similar to one approved about a week earlier by the university's faculty senate.

The resolution stated, "The faculty at West Virginia State University demands that the storage of MIC and or other deadly toxins at Bayer's Institute plant be eliminated or drastically reduced to a minimum.

"Kanawha Valley residents are the only people in the United States still living or working next to a chemical plant that maintains large amounts of MIC in storage -- twenty five years after MIC claimed so many thousands of people's lives during the Bhopal disaster," the resolution said. "The recent and ongoing investigation by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board into the deadly accident at the Bayer-Institute plant on August 28, 2008, has revealed that Bayer has not, and likely cannot, responsibly manage the storage of these types of chemicals.

"The time has come for Bayer to eliminate these storage hazards as they continue to threaten the lives of all Kanawha Valley residents, rather than continue to force us to wait for another deadly incident and the loss of all hope that Bayer can ever effectively manage large-scale MIC storage."

Congressional investigators and safety board officials have said that serious safety lapses by Bayer caused the August 2008 explosion, which occurred about 80 feet from a tank that can hold up to 37,000 pounds of MIC.

For years, the local group People Concerned About MIC has advocated that the Institute plant get rid of its MIC stockpile. In recent weeks, political leaders including Kanawha County Commissioner Kent Carper and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., have joined in demanding an independent review of the issue by the safety board.

Bayer maintains that its MIC storage and handling is safe, but told a congressional hearing it sought to use chemical plant anti-terrorism secrecy rules to avoid a public discussion of the issue.

Tom Dover, an Institute plant spokesman, could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.

@tag:Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.

http://wvgazette.com/news/bayerexplosion " target="_blank">Read more about Bayer

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Faculty at West Virginia State University have voted to urge Bayer CropScience to remove the stockpile of deadly methyl isocyanate from the company's Institute plant.

The plant, adjacent to State's campus, stores more than 200,000 pounds of MIC, the chemical that killed thousands of people in a 1984 leak at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India.

In recent weeks, the Bayer facility has come under renewed scrutiny, after federal investigators reported the August 2008 explosion that killed two plant workers could easily have damaged or destroyed one of the MIC tanks.

Last week, West Virginia State's faculty unanimously approved a resolution on the MIC issue similar to one approved about a week earlier by the university's faculty senate.

The resolution stated, "The faculty at West Virginia State University demands that the storage of MIC and or other deadly toxins at Bayer's Institute plant be eliminated or drastically reduced to a minimum.

"Kanawha Valley residents are the only people in the United States still living or working next to a chemical plant that maintains large amounts of MIC in storage -- twenty five years after MIC claimed so many thousands of people's lives during the Bhopal disaster," the resolution said. "The recent and ongoing investigation by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board into the deadly accident at the Bayer-Institute plant on August 28, 2008, has revealed that Bayer has not, and likely cannot, responsibly manage the storage of these types of chemicals.

"The time has come for Bayer to eliminate these storage hazards as they continue to threaten the lives of all Kanawha Valley residents, rather than continue to force us to wait for another deadly incident and the loss of all hope that Bayer can ever effectively manage large-scale MIC storage."

Congressional investigators and safety board officials have said that serious safety lapses by Bayer caused the August 2008 explosion, which occurred about 80 feet from a tank that can hold up to 37,000 pounds of MIC.

For years, the local group People Concerned About MIC has advocated that the Institute plant get rid of its MIC stockpile. In recent weeks, political leaders including Kanawha County Commissioner Kent Carper and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., have joined in demanding an independent review of the issue by the safety board.

Bayer maintains that its MIC storage and handling is safe, but told a congressional hearing it sought to use chemical plant anti-terrorism secrecy rules to avoid a public discussion of the issue.

Tom Dover, an Institute plant spokesman, could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.

@tag:Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.