John Astad, Director and Research Analyst of the Combustible Dust Policy Institute, located in
Santa Fe, Texas, researches global combustible dust related fires and explosions in the industrial sector. John has presented the results of his combustible dust research work internationally at numerous trade, professional, and governmental conferences so as to assist stakeholders in understanding the fire and explosion hazards of combustible dust.
Most recently Mr. Astad’s incident data was utilized in OSHA’s proposed combustible dust rulemaking (ANPRM), so stakeholders can understand the probability of occurrence in the industrial sector.
In addition to speaking at conferences, John writes extensively on the subject using the infinite resources of Web 2.0. As a guest author to the OSHA Underground blog, he and several others was selected for their contributions as LexisNexis Top 25 Blogs - 2009 for Workers’ Compensation and Workplace Issues.
When John is not writing, researching, or speaking at conferences on combustible dust issues, he works as a dock operator transferring refined petroleum products in marine transfer operations between the refinery, barges, and tanker ships. In 2002 he completed his undergraduate work at the University of Houston - Clear Lake with a B.S. Business and Public Administration, majoring in Environmental Management, Cum Laude.