Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2010 07:28:06 -0400
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From: Ralph Stuart <secretary**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
Subject: Chemical Safety headlines from Google

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US_MO: HAZMAT SCARE SHUTS DOWN WARRENTON POOL, http://www.fox2now.com/news/ktvi-hazmat-wentzville-062310,0,20476 92.story

Wentzville, Missouri - A hazmat crisis shuts down a community pool and forces nearby Warrenton residents to evacuate their homes. A chemical worker made a dangerous mistake that could have cost him his life.

A neighbor to the community pool first spotted the worker struggling to breath. Susie Busekrus was sitting across the street from where the worker described a burst of chemical smoke. She said she watched him run out, yell something and cough continuously.

The third party contractor was topping off liquid chlorine when he accidentally poured some into a different chemical bucket. Warrenton Police Chief Greg Houdyshell said emergency responders faced two immediate problems. They didn't know what the other chemical was and they didn't know how much was involved.

Chief Houdyshell said, "The Hazmat teams are doing an excellent job of monitoring air quality in the surrounding area. Right now we've been fortunate the winds haven't shifted at all."

Busekrus called for help when she saw the worker wasn't going to recover on his own. She said, "And we had the street lined with trucks and ambulances after that."

Medics worked on the victim right in Susie's front yard before a medical helicopter flew him to St. John's in Creve Coeur. The medics didn't see any external burns but they were worried about possible internal chemical burns.

Reporter Chris Hayes asked the witness who called for help, "Do you wonder what would've happened if you weren't here to see it?" Busekrus responded, "That's a good question. I don't know what he was going to do, because he wasn't doing anything."

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US_CT: CREWS EXTINGUISH 3-ALARM BLAZE AT FACTORY, http://www.wfsb.com /news/24019948/detail.html

NEW HAVEN, Conn -- Crews were called to a three-alarm blaze at a New Haven chemical factory Thursday morning.
Flames broke out at the Von Roll Isola Chemical Factory on Chapel Street at about 8:45 a.m. Fire officials said the blaze was under control in about 30 minutes.
Fire officials said no chemicals in the building had a reaction to the flames, and that the fire broke out on the side of the building away from the chemicals. Nearly three dozen workers were evacuated from the factory because of the fire.
"Because they used solvents were very careful about the tactics that we used here ... our lines were strategically placed between the solvents and fire burning in the front of the structure," said Assistant New Haven Fire Chief Ralph Black.
Fire officials said they believe the blaze may have been sparked by an incinerator near a boiler. Crews were investigating whether the boiler was malfunctioning.

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US_OK: PRYOR CHEMICAL RELEASE POSES NO DANGER TO PUBLIC, http://www.n ewson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=12703881

PRYOR, OK -- An accidental release of anhydrous ammonia late Thursday morning did not pose any hazards to the public, and residents do not need to stay inside their homes, authorities state.

Assistant Pryor Fire Chief Sherman Weaver said that despite some news reports to the contrary, there was never any danger to the community from the leak at a chemical plant at the Mid-America Industrial Park.

The Pryor Fire Department and mutual aid responders stood by as a precaution after they were called to the site at 10:45 Thursday morning, he said.  Plant employees took care of the leak themselves, and the chemical was contained to the property.

It did not spread to any surrounding residential areas, and residents can feel free to leave their homes as usual, he stressed.

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UK: BLEACH CLOSES OXFORD STREET IN 'CHEMICAL' SCARE, http://new s.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/england/london/10409580.stm

A chemical alert disrupted thousands of shoppers after a bleach and water solution was thrown out of a hotel window on London's Oxford Street.

Seven people were hit by the liquid, thought to have been thrown from the Radisson Edwardian Hotel by a cleaner.

After a woman complained of skin irritation, 10 fire engines were sent to the scene at 1813 BST and officers in chemical suits moved in.

Police closed the street and held shoppers inside department stores.

The road was closed for more than an hour and led to heavy disruption for traffic in nearby streets.

A police spokesman said: "It was a combination of bleach and water.

"It was probably a cleaner who threw it out of the window."

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US: CONCERNS GROW OVER LONG-TERM HEALTH EFFECTS OF OIL SPILL, http://www.fox news.com/story/0,2933,595243,00.html

More than two months after the April 20 BP oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, experts are still trying to determine what the health effects will be on the workers who are struggling to clean up the biggest oil spill in American history.

There are concerns that some workers could suffer lung, kidney and liver damage from exposure to the volatile organic compounds found in the oil.

As of Wednesday, 407 oil exposure complaints had been reported to the American Association of Poison Control Centers. In Louisiana, more than 100 oil spill-related illnesses were reported, 74 of them from workers hired by BP.

=93We've seen a total of 11 patients that have come through our ER since May 26, and most of them stayed for about two to three days,=94 Taslin Alfonzo, spokeswoman for West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero, La., told FoxNews.com. =93They all complained of similar symptoms, which were nausea, dizziness, severe headaches, skin irritation and shortness of breath, which is an indication =97 our doctors believe =97 there was some kind of chemical exposure or chemical irritant that caused them to come in.=94

But exposure to toxic chemicals isn=92t the only thing causing workers to seek medical attention. With the heat index in the Gulf hovering around 110 degrees during the steamy summer months, one of the main short-term health concerns is heat exhaustion.

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1 HOSPITALIZED, 2 ARRESTED AFTER METH LAB EXPLOSION - NEWS9.COM - OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - NEWS, WEATHER, VIDEO AND SPORTS |, http://www.new s9.com/Global/story.asp?S=12705209

LUTHER, Oklahoma - One man is in critical condition and two people have been arrested after a meth lab explosion in eastern Oklahoma County.

Emergency crews were called to the home in the 15000 block of N. Pottwatomie Road around 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Firefighters found Nathan L. Knapp, 48, with third degree burns. He was transported to helicopter to an Oklahoma City hospital where he remained in critical condition Thursday afternoon.

Knapp's son, Nathan C. Knapp told firefighters that his father had been burning trash outside the trailer using gasoline when the flames got out of control. 

Doctor's at the hospital determined that the burns were chemical burns that were not caused by gasoline. Doctors contacted Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office and deputies began investigating the fire. They found signs that a meth lab had been inside the trailer.

Investigators were told that Knapp Sr. had been cooking methamphetamine inside a small bathroom when the chemicals exploded. He then jumped out of a small window to the outside of the trailer and ran back inside the front door seeking help to put the flames out on his body, deputies said. 

The people inside were able to put the flames out and before calling 911 Knapp Jr. attempted to destroy all the evidence of the meth lab by setting fire to the evidence outside of the trailer, investigators said.

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GHANA?: HAZMAT TEAM AT GAS LEAK SITE, http://for eign.peacefmonline.com/news/201006/51138.php

A deaf man was killed and at least 200 people evacuated after a gas leak at a Vereeniging meat market on Thursday, emergency services said.

They arrived shortly after 10:30 to find people leaving the building and immediately set up a triage area upwind to assess people, ER24 spokesperson Werner Vermaak said.

A hazardous materials unit searched the building and found a man lying under a table, but he had died.

Colleagues suggested he may have become confused during the evacuation, or was overcome by the fumes.

It was believed that construction work to the roof led to the rupture of an ammonia gas line.

Five paramedics had also been taken to hospital for treatment as they began showing symptoms of exposure to the gas.

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US_MI: AMMONIA TANK ROLLS OVER, HAZMAT TEAM CALLED OUT TO SCENE, http://www.heritage.com/articles/2010/06/23/ belleville_view/news/doc4c22d21310d12690939678.txt

On June 18, at 5:49 p.m., the Van Buren Fire Department responded to the call of a possible hazardous material spill when an overturned tank was smoking near the intersection of Ecorse and Beck Roads.

Fire Personnel arrived and discovered a 1,000 gallon tank of Anhydrous Ammonia secured to a trailer was resting on its side and the product was venting from a broken valve. There was a group of people gathering near the tank inspecting the scene that had to be evacuated from the hazardous material using the public address system mounted on the fire truck.

Anhydrous Ammonia has the potential to cause long-term breathing problems to those that inhale the gas without protection and it also has the capability of catching fire under certain conditions so roads in the immediate area were blocked keeping the area safe.

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US_MS: COUPLE HELD ON HAZMAT CHARGE, http://www.sunherald.com/2010/06/22/2282316/couple-held-on-ha zmat-charge.html

HARRISON COUNTY =97 A couple who lives on Wolf River Road remains in custody today on charges of generating hazardous waste from the production of meth.
Sheriff Melvin Brisolara said deputies arrested Brian Kenneth Saucier, 37, and Stephanie Renee Poulos, 36, after a search of their property on Tuesday. They live in the 13000 block of Wolf River Road.
Both are held on bonds of $20,000 each.

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US_MD: CONSOLIDATED PHARMACEUTICAL FINED FOR HAZMAT STORAGE | PRESS RELEASE, http://news.topwirenews.com/2 010/06/24/consolidated-pharmaceutical-fined-for-hazmat-storage_20100624745 6.html

Brooklyn Park, MD - A pharmaceutical plant that has been dormant since 1999 agreed to a series of penalties and fines for abandoning a facility and leaving toxic chemicals out and leaking on Monday June 21, 2010, as reported by The Baltimore Sun. Consolidated Pharmaceutical Group pleaded guilty to 50 charges with regards to abandoning the plant.
Consolidated Pharmaceutical Group and its owner agreed to pay $250,000 in fines, sell the site where the facility once ran and never again own a business in Maryland.
According to an assistant attorney general, when the company ended production in 1999, it =93shut the door and just left,=94 leaving behind over 50,000 gallons of hazardous chemicals. Some of those chemicals posed the possibility of combining to form cyanide gas.
An investigation by federal, state and local officials in 2007 found chemicals such as hydrochloric acid, acetone, liquid nitrogen and solvents that were left behind in drums and other containers. Fire officials reported the fire alarm did not work and the sprinkler system was questionable.
Authorities demanded a cleanup. An attorney for Consolidated Pharmaceutical Group said all areas of the facility were cleaned.
The owner of the company, Mehmet Tunc Turgut of Lutherville, agreed to three years=92 probation, during which the company must try to sell the site. If probationary terms are not met, the company faces a second $250,000 fine.
While the company is not operating, it still exists on paper. The site has prior history of hazardous material issues as well. Before Consolidated Pharmaceutical took over the facility from Kanasco Ltd. in 1994, Kanasco Ltd. faced indictments for illegal storage of hazardous materials and a spill. The indictment was dropped when Consolidated took over.

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US_PA: WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP TRANSFER STATION REOPENS, http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaysto ry&amp;story_id=247803&amp;format=html

WAYNESBORO, Pa. =97 The Washington Township Transfer Station has reopened and resumed its normal business hours, according to a news release from the township.

The transfer station, 12721 Buchanan Trail East, was shut down Tuesday afternoon when nine employees were exposed to a chemical. The employees were treated late at Waynesboro Hospital for nonlife-threatening injuries and released. Hazmat teams responded to the incident.

The recycling center portion of the facility, which is where the incident occurred, will remain closed until further notice, Washington Township Manager Michael Christopher said in the news release issued late Wednesday morning.

Normal business hours for the transfer station are 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.

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US_NY: PROPANE EXPLOSION KILLS MAINTENANCE WORKER - GOTHAMIST, http://gothamist.com/2010/06/23/propane_explosion_kills_maintenance .php

A Bronx senior center worker was killed yesterday after a barbecue grill he was cleaning exploded with a blast powerful enough to shatter nearby windows. Joseph McLendon, an employee of the Comprehensive Care Management Center in Bronxdale, reportedly set off a chemical explosion after using the wrong kind of cleaning agents on the propane grill. Deputy Fire Chief Kevin Scanlon told the Daily News, "It was a huge, huge blast...It's a miracle more people were not hurt."
McLendon, a father of five, was pronounced dead after being rushed to Jacobi Medical Center. His mother said, "It's the most terrible thing to have to bury your child. I'm devastated. I'm just devastated." But locals wanted to know why such a seemingly dangerous task was being conducted so close to residential buildings. Neighbor Denise Rodriguez said, "Why would anyone leave a propane tank next to a senior center? Why would they do that? It puts people in danger."

The FDNY recommends that propane grills be cleaned at least once a year with soapy water, after making sure the gas tank is turned off. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says 20 injuries occur every year from gas grill fires and explosions.

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UK: DEESIDE: CHEMICAL LEAK CAUSES INJURIES TO FOURTEEN PEOPLE WITH THREE BEING TAKEN TO HOSPITAL |
http://news.sky.com/skynews/ Home/UK-News/Deeside-Chemical-Leak-Causes-Injuries-To-Fourteen-People-With -Three-Being-Taken-To-Hospital/Article/201006415653671?lpos=UK_News_Firs t_Home_Article_Teaser_Region_0&amp;lid=ARTICLE_15653671_Deeside%3A_C hemical_Leak_Causes_Injuries_To_Fourteen_People_With_Three_Being_Taken_To_ Hospital

Three people had to be taken to hospital while 11 received further treatment.
Emergency services were called to Deeside industrial estate in Flintshire just before 5am.
Justin Evans, from North Wales Fire and Rescue, said: "There was an uncontrolled mixture of chemicals released which produced chlorine gas.
"Three casualties were taken to hospital by ambulance and there were a further 11 people treated at the scene.
"Crews from the service are trained to deal with this type of incident and we have the necessary resources to ensure that the incident was dealt with professionally."
The incident has been brought under control and was not near a residential area.
Local firms had been advised to close doors and windows as a precaution.

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