Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2010 07:32:21 -0400
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From: Ralph Stuart <secretary**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
Subject: Chemical Safety headlines from Google

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HAZMAT TEAMS RESPOND TO HUNTINGTON SPILL - WOWK-TV - WOWKTV.COM, http://wowktv.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&amp;storyid=88731

HUNTINGTON  -- Authorities said a Hazmat team is dealing with a spill near the 1700 block of Harveytown Road in Harveytown Park's parking lot.
Dispatchers said Sunday night they were dealing with a mercury spill.

Authorities at the scene said there is about 5-6 ounces of mercury that needed cleaned up.

Officials with Hazmat were called to dispose of the element and said it may take about six hours.

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PARMA THEATER LOCKED DOWN AFTER CHEMICAL IN AREA SENDS PEOPLE TO HOSPITAL | IDAHO NEWS FROM KTVB.COM | BOISE NEWS, IDAHO WEATHER, SPORTS, TRAFFIC &AMP; EVENTS | HOME, http://www.ktvb.com/home/Parma-theater-locked-down-Saturda y-night-106409004.html

PARMA, Idaho - A Parma movie theater was put on lockdown Saturday night after several people began complaining of a burning sensation in their eyes.
It happened around 7:45 p.m. at the Motor Vu drive-in theater. The theater offered a Trunk-or-Treat event and then played a monster movie.
An EMS crew was on scene as part of the festivities and some people walked over to the ambulance, saying they felt a burning sensation in their eyes.
Many more people followed with a similar complaint and even the EMS crew was affected.
According to Parma Fire District Fire Chief James Cook, several fire and EMS crews were called onto the scene and the theater was locked down.
"Our idea was to keep control of the situation," Cook said.

Cook said it became apparent once they were on scene what the irritant was and called the lockdown so as not to create a panic.

That irritant was chloropicrin fumigant, which was used Friday in a field south of the drive-in. The fumigant is designed to kill bugs in the soil and is trenched into the soil about 6 to 10 inches. Occasionally, pockets of the fumigant get released into the air, which is what caused the reaction in the people at the theater.

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CAUSE OF HAZMAT READING DETERMINED AT ST. LOUIS PARK APARTMENT | KSTP TV - MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL, http://kstp.c om/news/stories/S1816447.shtml?cat=1

The Hazardous Materials Chemical Assessment Team from Hopkins says paint products are to blame for the false nerve agent reading that sparked an investigation in St. Louis Park.

The St. Louis Park Fire Department was called to Park Village Apartments on Shelard Parkway just before 10 a.m. Sunday for a chemical smell in a second floor hallway.

The Hazardous Materials team found several household substances spilled or spattered in the hallway and determined them not to be a threat.

However, according to the report, during a check of the rest of the building, the team received a reading on its monitoring device indicating the presence of a possible nerve agent.

Authorities said no residents or responders showed symptoms consistent with the actual presence of such an agent, but Hazmat crews weren't taking any chances and began investigating the cause of the reading.

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LAB BLAZE: RUSH TO RECOVER LOST WORK - THE TIMES OF INDIA, http://timesofindia.indiatimes .com/city/kolkata-/Lab-blaze-Rush-to-recover-lost-work/articleshow/6844043 .cms

KOLKATA: After a day of anguish, a couple of research scholars gathered at the portico of Presidency University's Derozio Building, a faint glimmer of hope in their eyes. They hoped to recover at least a few pages of their research work carried out over the last two years. But the interiors of the organic chemistry laboratory remained strictly out of bounds. The fire department and PWD officials have sealed the room. 

Some other rooms, which suffered less damage, were opened. A few research scholars rushed inside to recover partially charred journals and documents some of them yet to be published. 

"We were able to partially recover some documents and files of research from the almirahs," said Dipak Mondal, head of the department, chemistry. 

A team of forensic experts visited the campus on Saturday afternoon and collected items for analysis. The report will be completed in a month. The amount of destruction and loss, however, immediately hit the research scholars and teachers, as many of them went on a recce on the third floor of the building. 

Gandhi Kar, one of the professors whose laboratory of synthetic organic chemistry was completely gutted, was still in a state of shock. He stayed away from the university on Saturday, although he elaborately detailed the instruments that were lost to the fire.

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METH LAB DISCOVERED AT CHARLESTON MOTEL - CHARLESTON, SC NEWS - LIVE 5 WCSC BREAKING NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS, http://www .live5news.com/Global/story.asp?S=13415669

CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) - The Charleston County Sheriff's Office responded to a meth lab near Old Peter Millers Saturday morning at 4213 Savannah Highway.

Deputies say 39-year-old John Phillips of North Charleston is in custody after a meth lab was discovered at the Budget Inn Motel.

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REFRIGERANT LEAK PROMPTS EARLY MORNING EVACUATION OF PALO ALTO MARKET - SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, http://www.mercu rynews.com/peninsula/ci_16474476

A report of smoke and a chemical odor at Piazza's Fine Foods in Palo Alto on Friday morning prompted an evacuation of the market and kept it closed for much of the day.
The fire department responded to the store on the 3900 block of Middlefield Road at about 6:20 a.m. and determined the smoke was caused by a refrigerant leak in the mechanical room at the back of the building. A refrigerator technician quickly stopped the leak, according to the fire department.
Dennis McClellan, the store director, said he was the first person to see the smoke and that a co-worker alerted the fire department.
"I didn't know what it was," McClellan said. "We knew it was some kind of chemical because we could kind of breathe it."
McClellan described the smoke as a "big puff of Freon."
The store was closed at the time, and the employees were evacuated as a precaution, he said. No one was injured.

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CHEMICAL ODOR IN MAKIKI SHUTS DOWN PART OF KEEAMOKU | KHON2 HAWAII'S NEWS LEADER, http://www.khon2.com/news/loca l/story/Chemical-odor-in-Makiki-shuts-down-part-of/zRyLV3MZM0eZVoHRoRfrtQ. cspx

Police closed Keeamoku Street from Kinau Street to Wilder Avenue form more than two hours Saturday morning while Hazmat crews searched for the source of a chemical odor in the pool room at Makiki District Park.

Fire crews were called to the area around 8:30 a.m. to extinguish a fire that broke out in the pool room.

Officials determined the fire was caused by a malfunction on a pool pump that caused it to burnout. During that time they also discovered a chlorine odor.

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PROBE ON CHEMICAL SCARE AT CITY PLANT - CITY NEWS, NATIONAL NEWS - HERALD.IE, http://www.herald.ie/national-news/city-new s/probe-on-chemical-scare-at-city-plant-2400896.html

Investigations are under way after a "serious incident" involving the possible release of toxic chemicals at a Dublin plant.

An emergency containment plan was put in place at the Arch Chemical plant on Watery Lane in Swords, Co Dublin, shortly after 5pm last night.

Investigations involving the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Health and Safety Authority, the gardai and Dublin Fire Brigade are now in operation.

Some 13 units of the Dublin Fire Brigade were dispatched to the scene along with a hazardous material unit.

ORGANISMS

They were alerted after an anti-fungal material called copper pyrithione or copper omadine was discharged at the plant after a boiler overheated.

The powder is considered to be highly toxic. It can be fatal if inhaled and can also burn the eyes. After a thorough sweep of the plant it was declared safe by 8.30pm last night.

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CHEMICAL SPILL AT MEN'S PRISON SENDS GUARDS, INMATE TO HOSPITAL - CONTRACOSTATIMES.COM, http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_16472136?nclick_check =1

CHINO - A chemical spill inside a laundry facility in a yard at the California Institution for Men sent one inmate to the hospital with chemical burns and caused minor injuries to six corrections officers.
Two other inmates were treated at the prison.
About seven inmates in the facility were medically evaluated and decontaminated, but did not receive any other injuries, said Lt. Mark Hargrove, spokesman for CIM.
Hargrove said an investigation is ongoing, but the spill would likely be determined an accident.
Inmates, he said, accidentally dropped a 55-gallon drum containing a liquid cleaning agent that had been approved for use by the state.

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SOUTH CAROLINA RESEARCHERS TO STUDY EFFECTS OF CHEMICAL ACCIDENT ON LUNGS - SACRAMENTO LIVING - SACRAMENTO FOOD AND WINE, HOME, HEALTH | SACRAMENTO BEE, http://www.sacbee.com/2010/10/22/3125385/south-carolina-researc hers-to.html

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The long-term health effects of a catastrophic chemical accident at Graniteville five years ago will be studied by University of South Carolina researchers who recently won a nearly $3 million federal grant for the work.

South Carolina's study, headed by epidemiologist Erik Svendsen, will look at whether chlorine exposure is causing people's lungs to age prematurely.

Previous research by Svendsen found that, in the first year after the train wreck and chemical leak, the lungs of some people who breathed chlorine were aging at about four times the rate that they were before the 2005 accident.

The new, five-year study will follow up on that research. The $2.9 million grant will fund the first long-term chlorine health study of its kind, according to USC.

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PRESIDENCY FIRE DESTROYS LABS, YEARS OF RESEARCH - THE TIMES OF INDIA, http://timesofindi a.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Presidency-fire-destroys-labs-years-of-rese arch/articleshow/6839490.cms

KOLKATA: A fire raged through the hallowed corridors of Presidency University's Derozio Building before dawn on Friday, leaving in its wake gutted laboratories in the chemistry and biochemistry departments, heaps of ash and rubble that once documented years of toil by our brightest brains and an indelible scar on the city's academic face that has symbolized excellence for 193 years. 

There were no deaths or injuries in the blaze that was detected at 4am by guards at the gate, thanks to the fact that the building was locked and there was nobody inside. 

The flames, believed to have been sparked by a short circuit from a refrigerator in the organic chemistry laboratory on the third floor, singed all its three sections before leaping up vertically and destroying three lecture theatres on the fourth floor. As the tandava of destruction raged above, the heat generated partially damaged the physical and inorganic laboratories on the second floor. 

Instruments and chemicals worth lakhs of rupees were destroyed along with research material and thesis papers ready for submission by more than a dozen scholars working on various projects. But firefighters who doused the blaze said the damage could have been worse because the laboratories were stocked with combustible material.The building has been closed down by the KMC.

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HAZMAT TEAM STOPS AMMONIA LEAK, http://www.molallapioneer.com/news/2 010/October/29/Local.News/hazmat.team.stops.ammonia.leak/news.aspx

Firefighters and a hazardous materials team contained an ammonia leak at a berry plant between Molalla and Canby on Macksburg Road early Friday afternoon.

About 3,000 pounds of ammonia leaked from an indoor tank before a hazmat team shut off the valve at Santiam River Inc., a cold storage berry packing plant.

 


Molalla Fire District received mutual aid from Canby, Clackamas and Gresham Fire Districts, including Gresham=92s hazmat team - one of the few in the area, said Lt. Denise Everhart, spokeswoman for MFD.

When MFD=92s first engine arrived on the scene shortly after 12 p.m., firefighters entered the building and immediately felt burning in their necks and throat, Everhart said.

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KU BUILDING EVACUATED BECAUSE OF POSSIBLE AMMONIA LEAK, http://www.shawneedispatch.com/news/201 0/oct/29/ku-building-evacuated-because-possible-ammonia-lea/

Hazmat crews are investigating a possible ammonia leak at Kansas University's Malott Hall. The building was evacuated shortly after the report was made at about 2:20 p.m.

According to the reporting party, the spill was made in a classroom in the seven-story building and could be smelled outside the building.

The physics and chemistry departments are housed at Malott Hall, 1251 Wescoe Hall Drive.

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APARTMENT BUILDING EVACUATED IN DALY CITY DUE TO CHEMICAL SMELL - SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county/ci_16469848?nclick_che ck=1

Hazardous materials crews were unable to find the source of a strong chemical smell that forced the evacuation of a 114-unit apartment building Friday afternoon, and residents were allowed to return to their homes, a fire official said.
After air tests failed to turn up anything out of the ordinary, as many as 90 people who had been evacuated from the Westlake Village apartment building at 20 Poncetta Drive in Daly City were given the OK to return by about 4 p.m., said Matt Lucett, spokesman for the North County Fire Authority.
Apart from two residents who complained of throat irritation, no one was injured. Those two residents were examined at the scene and were not taken to the hospital.
Crews went to the building around 11:15 a.m. to investigate reports of a chemical odor, Lucett said. When they arrived, they found a man who complained of throat irritation.
Firefighters went into the building to investigate but turned back after getting a "caustic taste in the back of their throats," Lucett said.

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FORKLIFE MISHAP CAUSES CHEMICAL SPILL - NATIONAL - NZ HERALD NEWS, http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&a mp;amp;objectid=10683962

Firefighters spent most of the day cleaning up over 600 litres of hydrogen peroxide spilled in Hamilton this morning after workers at a chemicals factory pierced a 1000-litre drum with a forklift.

About 40 firefighters were called to the spill at the Ecolab plant in Te Rapa, in northern Hamilton, just before 10am.

Workers spilled some of the chemical inside the factory, and while trying to clean up took the rest of it outside which also had to be dealt with, Fire Service Waikato assistant area manager Darryl Papesch told NZPA.

Ecolab workers put absorbent material on the chemical, which started reacting with the hydrogen peroxide. They then called the Fire Service, which evacuated the area and neutralised the spill with caustic soda. There were about 20 workers at the site.

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ACTION PLAN TO PREVENT ANOTHER CHEMICAL SPILL - WESTLOTHIAN COURIER, http://www.westlothiancourier.co.uk/west-lothian-n ews/west-lothian-news/west-lothian-news/2010/10/28/action-plan-to-prevent- another-chemical-spill-62405-27552770/

AN ACTION plan is being put together to stop pollution at a popular nature spot.
Dedridge Burn was badly affected by chemicals that escaped following the massive fire at nearby Amcor Flexibles in September.
Environmental experts discovered higher levels of chronium in the burn following the fire and locals complained of a foul smell and a film covering the water.
While a clean-up operation has helped to reduce these problems since the fire, council bosses have been pressured by people in Dedridge and Bellsquarry to take action to prevent pollution from another spill.
As a first step, a meeting will be held with representatives from the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), Scottish Water, community councils and Brucefield Industrial Estate.

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EPA PROBES CHEMICAL SPILL - ABC NEWS (AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION), http:// www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/10/29/3051960.htm

The Environment Protection Authority is investigating a toxic chemical spill in South Australia's mid-north yesterday.

Police say a farmer saw a man in a white ute emptying a drum on the side of the track near his farm yesterday.

Country Fire Service workers have cleared the area successfully.

The chemical is still unknown and samples will be analysed next week.

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NEW LEED MATERIALS CREDIT ADDRESSES CHEMICALS OF CONCERN =B7 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT &AMP; ENERGY NEWS =B7 ENVIRONMENTAL LEADER, http://www.environmentalleader.com/ 2010/10/29/new-leed-materials-credit-addresses-chemicals-of-concern/

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has added a new LEED materials credit for =93Chemical Avoidance in Building Materials=94 to its LEED Pilot Credit Library, reports Healthy Building News.

Together, with an earlier credit for =93PBT Source Reduction: Dioxins and Halogenated Organic Compounds=94 marks the beginning of a three-step approach the USGBC is undertaking to address =93chemicals of concern=94 in building materials, according to the article.

The new pilot credit =93acknowledges and supports contemporary and accepted knowledge about specific chemicals of concern that should be avoided,=94 according to the Pilot Credit documentation, which can be met by screening interior finish products to avoid the use of phthalates and halogenated flame retardants.

USGBC says these chemicals are listed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency=92s Existing Chemicals Program, as well as California=92s list of Chemicals Known to the State to Cause Cancer or Reproductive Toxicity, which is also known as Proposition 65, reports Healthy Building News.

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AIR-QUALITY SCIENTISTS REPORT AIR PROBLEMS IN THEIR RTP BUILDING :: WRAL.COM, h ttp://www.wral.com/news/local/wral_investigates/story/8526966/< /div>

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. =97 Scientists who work at the Environmental Protection Agency=92s sprawling campus in Research Triangle Park are at the forefront of research into air quality, but some have become the test subjects in an air-quality mystery that has left them so sick that they work outside the building whenever possible.

WRAL Investigates started asking questions weeks ago about work-related illnesses at the campus after workers said they felt the agency wasn't acting aggressively enough to solve the problem. On Thursday, more than seven years after the complaints first started, the EPA sent out a memo to its employees, promising change. 

Thursday's memo also mentions "visible mold growth." Yet, facilities manager Alex Montilla downplayed the mold concerns in an interview with WRAL Investigates last Friday.

Many EPA employees, who did not want to be identified for fear of losing their jobs, said they face a stigma because not everyone inside the building is affected. Some co-workers doubt the illnesses are real, they said.

Opened in November 2002, the EPA campus was touted as a state-of-the-art facility. The agency even dedicated a section of its website to discuss the extreme measures taken to protect the air quality at the facility. Inside those buildings, however, particularly inside the B wing, there's trouble in the air.

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