As I write, news is unfolding on what has already been dubbed “the deadliest industrial tragedy in modern State history”, with the confirmed death of two people and crews searching for nine others who are presumed dead. Several people have been hospitalised, too, including one firefighter, following the rupture on Tuesday of a 900,000-gallon tank containing corrosive chemicals. The chemicals, known as ‘white liquor’ are used at the plant - Nippon Dynawave Packaging in Longview, Washington, to break wood chips into pulp as part of the papermaking process. The rupture caused tens of thousands of gallons of the stuff to escape, with the remaining 25,000 gallons still in the tank slowly leaking out, so as well as searching for those who are missing, crews are working to stabilise the plant.

 

According to media outlet OPB, the mill employs around 1,000 people, some 550 in pulp & paper operations, with the other 450 at the liquid packaging plant, making cardboard milk cartons and other packaging. It reports that the US Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board has opened an investigation and the state Department of Ecology, which regulates air and water quality at the mill, is investigating potential environmental consequences. Seehttps://www.opb.org/article/2026/05/27/longview-paper-mill-chemical-tank-death-toll/for more.

 

John Austen and I have been producing Cleanzine for some 25 years, and – working over the Internet rather than relying on press releases, visits and interviews like I did when editing my previous three cleaning industry publications, my eyes have really been opened up to the various dangers cleaners all over the world face as they strive to provide the services so many of us take for granted. While I was aware of potential physical health issues through cleaners sometimes working in hazardous environments, or using dangerous chemicals, or having to cope with badly designed machinery – and let’s not forget the dangers of lone working, I’d had no idea about people in India cleaning sewers by hand, for example, and the accidents involved – and just how dangerous it can be doing something as simple as working on a waste sorting site, for example. I’ve covered some of these stories over the years, but it’s been the tip of the iceberg.

 

My thoughts are with all those affected by this week’s terrible incident in Washington, and they’re also with those, everywhere, whose lives are damaged when their friends and loved ones, who clean for a living, are injured or lose their lives at work.