Rafael Moure-Eraso
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Rafael Moure-Eraso (born May 2, 1946) is a former chairman and chief executive of the
U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (USCSB), generally referred to as the Chemical Safety Board (CSB), is an independent U.S. federal agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents. Headquartered in Washingto ...
(CSB).


Early life

Moure-Eraso was born in
Cali Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,280,522 residents estimate by National Administrative Department of Statistics, DANE in 2023. The city span ...
,
Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
, in 1946. He grew up in
Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...
where he was educated by Augustinian friars and at the University of Los Andes.


Education

He received his B.Sc. in chemical engineering from the
University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...
in 1967 and M.Sc. in chemical engineering from
Bucknell University Bucknell University is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal-arts college in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1846 as the University at Lewisburg, it now consists of the College of Arts a ...
in 1970. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the
University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...
in Environmental Health-Industrial Hygiene in 1974 and 1982.


Career

For over 30 years, Moure-Eraso has been involved in workplace safety issues. Prior to joining the CSB Moure-Eraso served as a member of the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Health (NACOSH) for the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA; ) is a regulatory agency of the United States Department of Labor that originally had federal visitorial powers to inspect and examine workplaces. The United States Congress established ...
(OSHA) and as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH, ) is the List of United States federal agencies, United States federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related occ ...
(NIOSH). Moure-Eraso has also worked as a chemical engineer for
Rohm and Haas Rohm and Haas Company is a US manufacturer of specialty chemicals for end use markets such as building and construction, electronic devices, packaging, household and personal care products. Headquartered in Philadelphia, the company is organiz ...
and the
Dow Chemical Company The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. The company was among the three largest chemical producers in the world in 2021. It is the operating subsidiary of Dow Inc., ...
. He was a faculty member at the
University of Massachusetts Lowell The University of Massachusetts Lowell (UMass Lowell and UML) is a Public university, public research university in Lowell, Massachusetts, with a satellite campus in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It is the northernmost member of the University of M ...
for 22 years and chairman of the university's Department of Work Environment for 5 years. He has also served as an industrial hygienist engineer with the national offices of the
United Automobile Workers The United Auto Workers (UAW), fully named International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States (including Puerto Rico) and sou ...
union and the
Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union The Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW) was a trade union in the United States which existed between 1917 and 1999. At the time of its dissolution and merger, the International represented 80,000 workers and was affiliated with the AFL†...
.


Chemical Safety Board

Moure-Eraso was nominated by President Barack Obama to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board in March 2010 and confirmed by the Senate in June 2010. In March 2015, he was called to testify in front of the House Oversight Committee regarding the management of the Chemical Safety Board. Following that testimony fourteen members of the committee issued a letter to the White House calling on the president to use his statutory authority to remove Moure-Eraso from his position as chairman of the CSB. The letter cited a pattern of retaliation against whistleblowers, disenfranchisement of fellow board members, low morale in the organization, and possible violations of the Federal Records Act by using personal email accounts for official business. Moure-Eraso told the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'': "A lot of it is political. The mission of the organization is to produce good reports that make a difference for safety. We are doing that. I can show that we are producing the best reports ever produced in the agency. I stand by that. All of this other talk is peripheral... There have been a lot of accusations, but none of those have ever ended in any findings. The Office of Special Counsel has made no recommendations. Anybody can claim actions against whistleblowers, but there’s no evidence of this. To just say it is not enough. What I would like to be judged for is the quality of the product and the fulfillment of our mission. There will always be people complaining. But they are all rumors." He resigned his post on March 26, 2015.


Further reading

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moure-Eraso, Rafael 1946 births Swanson School of Engineering alumni Living people University of Los Andes (Colombia) alumni Bucknell University alumni University of Cincinnati alumni University of Massachusetts Lowell faculty United States Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board