US reviews chemical incident prevention planning rules

Firefighters douse the exterior of a chemical plant with water after a fire following a storm

Source: © Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Risk Management Program has been extended and rolled back under successive governments

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has begun to reconsider and ‘reassess elements’ of the previous administration’s Risk Management Program (RMP), which requires facilities that use extremely hazardous substances to develop Risk Management Plans that identify the potential effects of a chemical incident, as well as steps being taken to prevent such incidents, and spell out emergency response procedures should an incident occur.