{"id":33523,"date":"2013-05-03T09:06:01","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T15:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/03\/business-interests-kill-for-money.html"},"modified":"2013-05-06T10:35:24","modified_gmt":"2013-05-06T16:35:24","slug":"business-interests-kill-for-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/03\/business-interests-kill-for-money.html","title":{"rendered":"Business interests kill for money"},"content":{"rendered":"
That's kind of a bold statement, but it's a true one. \u00a0When an industry fights tooth and nail to water down or eliminate safety standards, safety oversight, or safe alternatives to the dangerous thing they are doing, then they are putting their monetary gain over the lives and health of their workers and people in the surrounding community.<\/p>\n

So why doesn't the ammonium nitrate fertilizer industry embrace a formulation that won't explode under certain unplanned (or planned) conditions? \u00a0Because it would cost them some incremental amount of money to do so, to retrofit their plants and, possibly, for the secondary material to keep keep the explosions from happening. \u00a0_It would cost them money._ So they don't do it, and they keep state and federal officials from making them do it.<\/p>\n

And if people die, well, shit happens.<\/p>\n

(h\/t +<\/span>Paula Jones<\/a><\/span>)<\/p>\n

Reshared post from +Pamela Zuppo<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

America's Fertilizer Keeps Blowing Up. It Doesn't Have To.<\/b><\/p>\n

Europe and Australia long ago recognized the benefits of a fertilizer formula that doesn\u2019t blow up. Here, the chemical industry fought back.<\/i><\/p>\n

It didn't take long in the aftermath of April's explosion in West, Texas, for the problems with the fertilizer industry to come into focus<\/b>. Inspections are virtually nonexistent; regulatory agencies don't talk to each other; and there's no such thing as a buffer zone when it comes to constructing plants and storage facilities in populated areas<\/b><\/i>.<\/p>\n

Lost in the fallout, though, is a damning fact<\/i>: Fertilizer doesn't have to be explosive<\/b>. Pure ammonium nitrate like the kind that caused the West disaster is already banned in the United Kingdom, Germany, Colombia, the Philippines, and China, due to its explosive risk; Australia's largest fertilizer manufacturer discontinued the use of the compound after it was used in the 2002 Bali hotel bombing<\/b>. And the Department of Defense has pressured fertilizer manufacturers overseas to neutralize their own products, warning that anything less constitutes a threat to American personnel<\/i>. But in the United States, with the backing of the chemical industry<\/b>, explosive ammonium nitrate has held onto a small but powerful share of the market as the fertilizer of choice for citrus growers.<\/p>\n

It wasn't for lack of opportunity. In the late 1960s, a chemist from Kansas, Charles Saffer, and an explosives engineer, Samuel Porter, began working in their spare-time to develop an antidote to the kind of destructive devices Porter had witnessed while stationed in Somalia with the US military. Porter and Saffer secured a patent for noncombustible fertilizer that involves diluting ammonium nitrate with diammonium phosphate. Because diammonium phosphate is itself used as fertilizer, the new compound was\u2014in theory\u2014still an effective agricultural compound.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"I remember we testified and even said that one day someone is going to take this stuff and put it in a truck and blow it up," Tauzin recalls. But it was dead on arrival in every case. "The chemical association killed it." The one day<\/i> did come when\u00a0a truck bomb filled with store-bought ammonium nitrate fertilizer was the bomb of choice<\/i> used in the Oklahoma City bombings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/politics\/2013\/05\/fertilizer-explode-plant-west-texas-nra<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That's kind of a bold statement, but it's a true one. \u00a0When an industry fights tooth and nail to water down or eliminate safety standards, safety oversight, or safe alternatives to the dangerous thing they are doing, then they are putting their monetary gain over the lives and health of their workers and people in … Continue reading “Business interests kill for money”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-big-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13525,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/21\/running_out_of_gas.html","url_meta":{"origin":33523,"position":0},"title":"Running out of gas","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 21-Nov-08 4:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Not surprisingly, the Republican talking point answer seems to be: Unions (of course) Safety standards Economy standards I love the last. Sales have collapsed at the Big Three primarily because...","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48111,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/14\/don-blankenship-indicted-for-coal-mine-safety-violations.html","url_meta":{"origin":33523,"position":1},"title":"Don Blankenship indicted for coal mine safety violations","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 14-Nov-14 5:57pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I try to officially align with the principle of innocence until guilt is proven -- but if the litany of intentional safety violations and cover-up of same is proven, I'll be quite pleased to see Mr Blankenship (metaphorically) nailed to the wall. Ex-Massey CEO Scorned Over Mine Disaster as Charges\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11470,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/08\/21\/fox_in_the_mine_shaft.html","url_meta":{"origin":33523,"position":2},"title":"Fox in the Mine Shaft","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 21-Aug-07 2:25pm","format":false,"excerpt":"While I think there is value in bringing people with knowledge of an industry into governmental roles the regulate that industry, it's important to remember that such roles are meant...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46053,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/23\/fly-the-middle-earthian-skies.html","url_meta":{"origin":33523,"position":3},"title":"Fly the Middle-Earthian Skies","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 23-Oct-14 5:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yet another Air New Zealand safety video, Hobbit style. Originally shared by +Isaac Sher: I'm sure there are many in New Zealand who are sick of anything Tolkien-related, but you can't fault the NZ tourism and travel industry for capitalizing on said films with some wonderfully tongue-in-cheek travel videos. 'The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49095,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/31\/because-why-not-let-the-hospitality-industry-treat-us-unhospitably.html","url_meta":{"origin":33523,"position":4},"title":"Because why not let the hospitality industry treat us unhospitably?","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 31-Dec-14 12:20pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Marriott (with the support of other \"hospitality\" companies and venue owners) want the FCC to allow them to effectively jam public-frequency WiFi hotspots that they don't own. That way they can overcharge you for crappy service exclusively through them.(The claim is that it is for security and safety purposes. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41834,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/27\/privatization-loss-its-libertarian-luster.html","url_meta":{"origin":33523,"position":5},"title":"Privatization loses its libertarian luster","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 27-Apr-14 11:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"To me, the issue of privatization comes down to a few principles:1. The competition of private industry can drive efficiencies, innovation, and better ways of doing things, driving down cost for service or improving service for cost. Private industry provides such efficiencies, while public service often does not.2. 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