Lawmakers Want OSHA to regulate ammonium nitrate

Some federal lawmakers are calling on OSHA to update its ammonium nitrate handling standards in the wake of the Aug. 4 Beirut seaport blast that killed more than 170 people and laid waste to a large swath of the Lebanese capital.

Drawing a comparison to the West Fertilizer explosion that killed 15 people, including 12 emergency responders in West, Texas, in 2013, three members of the House Committee on Education and Labor wrote to Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia on Monday, urging him to have the Occupational Safety and Health Administration update its 50-year-old standards for the chemical compound.