The number of industrial chemical accidents in the United States has risen sharply, according to an analysis of federal data by the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer).
Incidents involving chemical explosions, fires, and atmospheric releases increased by at least 51% since 2021, while related injuries and fatalities rose by a minimum of 20%, as reported by The Guardian.
Recent high-profile emergencies include a malfunctioning chemical tank in Garden Grove, California, that forced the evacuation of over 40,000 residents, and a tank collapse in Longview, Washington, that killed 11 workers.
Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA oversees the Risk Management Program (RMP), requiring over 12,500 high-risk facilities to implement safety protocols.
The Biden administration strengthened these protections in 2024, but the Trump administration is now moving to dismantle the federal disaster management framework.
Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Peer and a former EPA enforcement attorney, called the deregulatory actions during a period of rising accidents "simply appalling."
"Like our public infrastructure, America’s industrial infrastructure is ageing, making disastrous failures increasingly likely," Whitehouse added. "Serious chemical accidents are becoming an almost daily occurrence."
Peer obtained the underlying figures after a 2017 lawsuit forced the federal government to track the statistics as mandated by the Clean Air Act.
Reports to the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board show industrial accidents causing chemical releases grew from 83 in 2021 to 131 in 2025.
Accidents resulting in injuries or deaths escalated from 60 to 89 during the same period, up from 73 in 2024.
Jeff Ruch, senior counsel with Peer, noted these statistics are likely an undercount because the tracking system only registers emissions that enter the atmosphere.
Plants that "poison their workers inside" would not be counted, Ruch added.
Separate estimates indicate the US averaged a chemical incident impacting human health or the environment every other day between 2004 and 2025.
Targeted federal safety regulations mandate measures such as release-detection technologies, fire suppression systems, and emergency response plans.
The 2024 guidelines required hazardous plants to implement modern disaster-prevention tech, secondary backup safety lines, and safer chemical alternatives.
These included easily accessible kill switches and automatic shut-off systems if an operator becomes incapacitated.
The 2024 rules also required facilities to draft contingency strategies for secondary disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, or wildfires impacting a chemical site.
The Trump EPA has already removed a public tracking website that informed communities and responders about onsite chemicals, and aims to rescind most of the 2024 updates.
The White House has also proposed eliminating the entire $14 million budget of the Chemical Safety Board (CSB), which investigates incidents to prevent recurrences.
Ruch pointed out that while the CSB is non-regulatory, industries voluntarily adopt about 90% of its safety recommendations.
He added that the administration "wants to take credit for eliminating another agency" despite the CSB being highly effective for a low cost.
Marc Boom, a former EPA policy adviser and senior director with the Environmental Protection Network, said the Peer findings underscore the need for rigid industrial oversight.
The current policy shift transfers the dangers of chemical operations from corporate entities onto surrounding populations, Boom noted.
"This report makes plain what communities, workers and first responders already know: chemical disasters are happening far too often, and are too often undercounted," Boom said.
"Many are preventable, but instead of strengthening safeguards, this EPA is trying to weaken the rules designed to stop them."
Ruch observed that halting the regulatory rollbacks remains difficult because the administration is using formal rule-making, with finalization expected by autumn.
Demographic data indicates about 40% of the US population lives within three miles of at least one of the nation's 12,000 high-risk chemical operations.
"You better hope you’re lucky in that there’s no proactive effort to make sure that these ultra-dangerous facilities are operating safely," Ruch said.
