Write a short paper (750-1,200 words) about an OSH disaster. This paper will be your initial post and is due on Tuesday, 4/2 by 11:59 PM.
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Choose one of the following events to research and write about:
1919 Great Molasses Flood, Boston, MA, USA
1984 Union Carbide gas release, Bhopal, India
1990-2019 U.S. Military burn pit toxic exposure, Iraq, Afganistan, and multiple other Middle East countries
2007-2011 Foxconn suicides, Shenzhen, China
2008 E. 51st Street crane collapse, Turtle Bay, New York, NY, USA
2010 BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Macondo Prospect, Gulf of Mexico
2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant meltdowns, Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan
2012 Dhaka garment factory fire, Dhaka, Bangladesh
2013 West Fertilizer Company explosion, West Texas, TX, USA
2014 Eynez coal mine fire, Soma, Manisa Province, Turkey
2018 Lion Air Flight 610 and 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, Boeing 737 MAX airline crashes
2023 Hazardous chemical train derailment, East Palestine, OH, USA
If you are interested in writing about an event not on this list, please email me to get the topic approved.
Address the following in your paper:
What happened and why? Succinctly describe what happened and the cause. This is a short paper for a big topic, so don’t belabor this section. Provide a brief description in this section. Your critical thinking on responsibility, accountability, prevention, and your opinion is more important.
Who was affected? As you have learned this semester, work incidents don’t only impact the company and its workers, but extend into the neighboring community and, sometimes, beyond. Describe the immediate impact of the event and the longer term effects that it had. They may be health related, environmental, economic, or psychological. Keep in mind, this is a course about work health and safety, so the health and safety of workers in the disaster should be addressed.
Who was responsible and how were they held accountable? This may be a person, an agency, a corporation, or some other entity.
How could it have been prevented and what can be done to prevent a similar event? What could have been done to prevent the disaster and what can be done to prevent a similar one in the future? Be sure to cite your sources here, for example, who made the determination of fault and the recommendation/s?
Now that you are a mini-expert about the event, what do you think about it? This is where you give your opinion about what happened.
Required format:
Length – 750-1,200 words (please provide a word count)
Sources – use a minimum of 3 credible and relevant sources. The sources can be scholarly or popular press articles. Wikipedia, law firm web sites, and industry association web sites are not acceptable sources for his assignment.
Citations and attributions – credit your sources by making proper citations and attributions. Simply providing a URL is not an acceptable citation. Failing to credit your sources will result in your paper being returned for a re-write (best case) or being considered plagiarism (worst case). If you aren’t sure how to make an attribution click here
AI – if you use a generative AI tool, such as ChatGPT, you adhere to the rules for using AI in this class. Remember, ChatGPT and other AI bots cannot be used as a citation!
