Panel considering tighter control on explosives makers

The Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Enforcement Section would be required to inspect explosive manufacturers at least once a year as part of the recommendations scheduled to be voted on by the Commission on Workplace Safety and Community Prevention.

Public comments were being accepted at a hearing here before the commission was to forward the wide range of recommendations to Gov. Bob Miller.

Two people were killed and the manufacturer, Sierra Chemical Co., was fined $1 million by the state as a result of the January explosion near U.S. Interstate 80 about 12 miles east of Reno.

It left a crater 40 feet wide and 6 feet deep, broke windows a mile away and shook seismic needles at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Among other things, the commission's draft list of recommendations includes requirements employees be trained in a language understandable to them. Investigators found most of the Hispanic employees at the plant did not speak English.

The panel also has proposed banning so-called "piece work" at such manufacturing facilities, the practice of paying workers based on the number of items completed, in this case the number of explosive booster canisters filled.

"The commission found it inappropriate to expect employees of explosive manufacturing facilities to take appropriate precautions while being rewarded for speedy production," the commission said in a draft report.

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