It can
cost thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars to homeowners,
landlords and motel and hotel operators when it comes to ridding the
toxins left behind by meth cooks.
The Tennessee Meth Task
Force reported 2010 was a record year for clandestine methamphetamine
seizures in Tennessee, according to figures provided by TMTF Director
Tommy Farmer. The 2,082 cases in 2010 surpassed the previous record of
1,559 in 2004.
=93The prior record was achieved in 2004, before the
Meth Free Tennessee Act and Combat Meth Act were passed on state and
federal levels,=94 Farmer said.
-----------------------
UCLA has created the
University of California Center for Laboratory Safety to support
research in this emerging field and facilitate the translation of
results into best practices on the campus, as well as at other
universities and research organizations.
The new
center =97 believed to be the first of its kind in the country =97 aims
to serve as a resource for other institutions, as UCLA emerges as a
leader in developing programs intended to ensure safety in research
labs. In recent months, dozens of universities, regulatory agencies,
private research operations and trade organizations have sought detailed
information about UCLA's lab safety programs and have requested
presentations by campus personnel.
"At UCLA, our goal is
nothing less than laboratory safety programs that are emulated by other
major research universities, and the UC Center for Laboratory Safety is
an important step forward on that path," Chancellor Gene Block said. "By
developing and sharing best practices, we aid not only our own efforts
but those of other University of California campuses and other
institutions across the country."
One example of research to
be conducted is an analysis of the effects of enhanced inspection,
training and regulatory efforts on accidents and injuries at UCLA and
other campuses, utilizing before-and-after data from multiple
campuses.
-----------------------
A Pine Street woman=92s arrest marked the first meth
lab bust in the city since the federal fund dedicated to cleaning up the
noxious chemicals ran dry in February, leaving local agencies to foot
the decontamination bill.
Jessica B. McCall, 29, was alone at her parents=92
Pine Street house on Tuesday afternoon when the Bristol Virginia Police
Department arrived on a tip. The house smelled strongly of chemicals,
police said, and McCall apparently told officers they could search the
home.
Police said they unzipped a purse hidden in a closet
and chemical steam from a cooking one-pot meth lab rolled out. Police
found six more =93cook bottles,=94 along with Sudafed, Coleman fuel and
cold packs - all ingredients of methamphetamine, according to court
records.
-----------------------
PORT
ARTHUR, Texas - One person was killed and three others injured in a
flash fire and explosion at a chemical processing plant in Port Arthur
Thursday afternoon.
It
happened at the KMTEX plant near the Intracoastal Canal Bridge to Sabine
Pass around 2 p.m.
Emergency
personnel said two of the victims were flown to UTMB - one with head
trauma and another with lower-extremity fractures and
burns.
A third victim was taken via
ground ambulance to St. Mary=92s Hospital with a
concussion.
The fourth victim died at
the scene.
According to witnesses, a
worker was welding on a pipeline that held coal tar solvent when the
explosion occurred.
-----------------------
(New Braunfels, TX) -- What appeared to passersby to
be the start of a major fire in downtown New Braunfels yesterday
afternoon was quickly brought under control before any major damages to
the structure, after a bag of garbage caught fire on the front porch of
a home. New Braunfels Firefighters were called out to the corner of
Castell and Jahn Streets in downtown New Braunfels, where they found the
garbage bag on fire near the front porch of the structure. Those
firefighters made the quick decision that they could put the fire out
without even having to use a hose, so instead they used 2 chemical fire
extinguishers, and were able to stop the fire from spreading to the
house itself. Only the porch railing suffered a little damage. Now,
garbage bags generally don=92t spontaneously combust, but in this case,
that=92s exactly what investigators believe happened. On Saturday a
painter was painting the house and threw away their used brushes and
other painting supplies into a plastic garbage bag, which they tied off
and left near the porch. But the heat inside the bag, combined with the
flammable gases given off by the paint chemicals, combined to start the
fire inside the bag. No injuries were reported in that
incident.
-----------------------
A hazardous material spill on U.S. 101 stalled
rush-hour traffic for about six hours Tuesday.
Police
responded to a medical call from the driver of a 1998 International
big-rig on the northbound side of the freeway about 1:34 p.m., according
to California Highway Patrol officer Jaime Rios.
Upon
arrival, officers discovered the driver was having difficulty breathing,
and found that his truck was leaking an unknown chemical onto the
shoulder of U.S. 101 between Dunne and Tennant avenues, where the
vehicle was stopped, police said.
Police
called the Santa Clara County Fire Department to the scene, and the
leaking chemical was later determined to be sodium hydroxide, or lye, a
common ingredient in soap and detergent. About five gallons of the
chemical spilled out of the truck onto the freeway.
-----------------------
One person was injured in a flash fire Tuesday
afternoon at Hoeganaes Corporation on Airport Road in Gallatin, a plant
that produces powdered metal products, according to the Gallatin Fire
Department.
This is the second such flash fire at the facility
since January. First responders were dispatched to the scene at 2
p.m.
One person sustained burns in the accident and was
transported to a nearby hospital, according to fire department
officials. The injuries sustained were not significant, according to
Fire Chief Billy Crook.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board, a federal agency
tasked with investigating industrial incidents, is investigating both
incidents, according to the board=92s website.
On Wednesday, March 30, the board announced it will
send a team back into Gallatin to investigate the new
incident.
-----------------------
Sheena West thought the odor permeating her home was
roach spray. Renee Grimes' husband told her he smelled something rotten
in the apartment.
They were among the more than two dozen people
evacuated Wednesday after several people in the Hays Manor housing
complex in McKees Rocks were sickened by fumes from a herbicide a worker
was spraying on the lawn, said Alvin Henderson Jr., acting chief of the
Allegheny County Department of Emergency Services.
Ten
people -- four of them children -- were taken to hospitals where they
were treated and released, said Charles Maritz, a battalion chief for
the McKees Rocks Volunteer Fire Department.
"The
worker said he sprayed about 9:15 a.m. He said he was an old farmer and
that he mixed the herbicide with kerosene so it would stick (to the
lawn)," Maritz said.
-----------------------
A big rig
fire shut down two lanes of Interstate Five, north of Laval Road last
night, but I-5 has since reopened. Officials say the tractor
trailer carrying 45 thousand pounds of a copper-based chemical caught
fire. The chemical is most often used as a fungicide. A
hazmat crew was on scene to inspect the load and make sure it doesn't
pose any environmental or human health threat. The driver of the
truck did not suffer any injuries.
-----------------------
Authorities discovered a suspected methamphetamine lab
in a homeless camp under a viaduct north of 47th Street and Valmont
Road, according to Boulder County sheriff's Cmdr. Tommy
Sloan.
Boulder police officers responding to a complaint from
a neighbor discovered the homeless camp Tuesday evening
on
Emergency
crews approach the scene of a suspected meth lab under an overpass of
Foothills Parkway just north of the Valmont Road intersection in Boulder
on Wednesday. (Paul Aiken / Camera)
a ledge
under the bridge that carries Foothills Parkway over a railroad. They
also found chemicals at the site that are commonly used to make meth,
Sloan said.
Though they said there was
no danger to the public, Boulder police and firefighters and the Boulder
County Drug Task Force set up their staging area upwind of the camp, on
the southeast side of the overpass.
-----------------------
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