Chemical accidents up 51% as Trump targets disaster rules, report finds

Deaths and injuries rose at least 20% since 2021

The number of U.S. chemical accidents has risen by at least 51% since 2021, according to a new analysis of federal data by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), as the Trump administration is moving to roll back rules governing the federal disaster management system designed to prevent such emergencies.

PEER obtained the data after suing in 2017 to compel the government to track the information as required by the Clean Air Act. The analysis shows industrial accidents resulting in chemical releases into the atmosphere grew from 83 in 2021 to 131 in 2025, based on reports filed with the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB). Accidents involving injuries or fatalities rose from 60 to 89 during the same period, up from 73 in 2024.

The figures are likely an undercount, said Jeff Ruch, senior counsel with PEER, because they only include chemical releases that escape into the atmosphere. Plants that “poison their workers inside” the facility without releasing chemicals externally would not be counted, Ruch said.

The analysis found that deaths and injuries from chemical accidents were up at least 20% over the period. Another estimate cited by PEER found the U.S. experienced a chemical accident that harmed humans or the environment every other day on average between 2004 and 2025.

The report comes after several high-profile emergencies. In May, MSI reported that a malfunctioning chemical tank at a GKN Aerospace facility in Garden Grove, California, caused the evacuation of more than 40,000 residents. The same month, a chemical tank collapse at a Nippon paper mill in Longview, Washington, killed 11 workers.

Under the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency’s risk management program (RMP) requires more than 12,500 high-risk facilities to develop protocols for preventing catastrophes or limiting their fallout. The program was designed largely to protect workers, first responders, and fence-line communities. The Biden administration strengthened those protections in 2024.

The Trump administration is continuing its push to roll back risk-management program requirements despite the increase in accidents, according to the report. The EPA has already eliminated a public website that informed communities and first responders which chemicals are in use at facilities in their areas. The White House has also targeted the CSB by proposing to zero out its $14 million budget.

The CSB is a non-regulatory board that reviews accidents and develops recommendations to avoid repeats. According to Ruch, industry adopts about 90% of its safety recommendations. He said the administration “wants to take credit for eliminating another agency” despite the CSB being highly effective for a low cost.

The Trump administration’s actions amid the rise in accidents were “simply appalling,” said Tim Whitehouse, PEER’s executive director and a former EPA enforcement attorney. “Like our public infrastructure, America’s industrial infrastructure is ageing, making disastrous failures increasingly likely,” Whitehouse said. “Serious chemical accidents are becoming an almost daily occurrence.”

The 2024 rules that the administration is targeting require hazardous facilities to install newer technology to prevent disasters, implement backup measures in case a first line of defense fails, and replace hazardous chemicals with safer alternatives. Measures include kill switches accessible to employees and automatic shut-offs that would activate if a worker is incapacitated. The rules also require facilities to develop plans for handling “double disasters” — simultaneous emergencies such as hurricanes, earthquakes, or wildfires hitting a chemical facility, as occurred with Hurricane Harvey at the Arkema plant in Houston in 2017.

Marc Boom, a former EPA policy adviser and senior director with the Environmental Protection Network, said the report highlights the need for stronger regulations. “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 said there is limited recourse currently to halt the administration’s regulatory rollback because it is pursuing changes through the formal rule-making process, which will likely be finalized by fall. About 40% of Americans live within three miles of at least one of the more than 12,000 high-risk chemical facilities in the United States, according to the analysis.

“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.