INSTITUTE, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Nine months after an explosion at the Bayer CropScience plant in Institute killed two workers, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board released the results at a news conference Thursday.

Investigators say the explosion on August 28, 2008 was caused by a thermal runaway reaction during the production of an insecticide.

The event likely resulted from significant lapses in chemical process safety management at the plant, U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) investigators said Thursday.

Two operators died as a result of the explosion. Eight other workers reported symptoms of chemical exposure.

"The explosion at Bayer was a very serious and tragic event that could have had additional grave consequences," CSB Board Chairman John Bresland said. "There were significant lapses in the plant's process safety management, including inadequate training on new equipment and the overriding of critical safety systems necessitated by the fact the unit had a heater that could not produce the required temperature for safe operation."

The explosion occurred within 80 feet of a pressure vessel containing more than 13,000 pounds of methyl isocyanate, or MIC, Chairman Bresland said.

MIC is the same chemical that caused death and injury in the Bhopal accident 25 years ago.

"As our investigation continues, we will look further into the issues surrounding the safe placement of the tank and its potential vulnerability," Bresland said. "We note that other chemical companies, notably DuPont, no longer store MIC in their chemical production and we are looking into other systems that make and then immediately use the MIC, eliminating the need for storage."

If you would like to read the entire CSB report, just click on the link below.

Statement from Bill Buckner, President and CEO of Bayer CropScience LP

The safety of our employees, neighbors and community remains our highest priority.

At Bayer CropScience, we are committed to operating facilities that meet or exceed stringent safety standards. Since the tragic accident of August 28th, we have made several improvements to ensure our plant is safe to operate.

We are determined to be great neighbors in our community.

We take our responsibilities seriously and we will continue to meet them.

We will continue to cooperate with our public emergency response officials and remain in active dialogue with our neighbors.

At Bayer CropScience, we are proud of what we do. We produce chemicals essential to sustainable agriculture.

The board plans to discuss the findings at a Thursday morning news conference, followed by a longer presentation at a public hearing at West Virginia State University in the evening.

The news conference is set for 10:00 a.m.

On Tuesday, a congressional committee found that Bayer withheld information from emergency responders immediately after the blast, and has subsequently used a terrorism-related law to keep some documents secret.

The staff report by the House Energy and Commerce Committee also said Bayer provided inaccurate and misleading information to the public after the explosion.

Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV called the findings connected to the Bayer Chemical Explosion an “outrage” and called upon the Chemical Security Board to continue to investigate the Bayer explosion.

Senator Rockefeller urged Bayer to cooperate fully after the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing to investigate the 2008 Bayer Chemical Plant explosion.

“These findings are an outrage. I was expecting bad news, but this is far worse than I could have imagined and very disturbing,” said Senator Rockefeller, who submitted testimony at the hearing. “Bayer Chemical Company owes all West Virginia families a clear explanation for this explosion, the response, and any potential hazards, and should cooperate fully with this investigation. We must make sure this never happens again.”