(85d) CSB Safety Videos: A New and Effective Communication Tool for Accident Investigation Findings

Since 1998 the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has issued detailed written reports based on investigations of major U.S. chemical accidents. While the reports are indispensable written records of the investigations, in many cases the audiences for these lengthy technical products have been limited. In 2005, the CSB introduced a new product: short safety videos of five to ten minutes that summarize an investigation. The videos have been distributed primarily as streaming content over Internet and also in DVD and downloadable formats. A centerpiece of each video is a 3-D computer animation sequence that recreates a complex chemical accident. The videos also have included CSB board members and investigators discussing good industrial safety practices to prevent similar accidents. In the first eight months of the video program, the audience for CSB accident investigations increased by more than one order of magnitude, and the results of the investigations are now being used for training, hazard analysis, and plant engineering in a variety of industries worldwide. The presentation will include excerpts from recent safety videos, discuss their use by industry, and examine possible reasons why their distribution is so broad.