Chemical Safety Headlines =46rom Google
Friday, December 2, 2011 7:56:25 AM
A service of the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety
Table of Contents (22 articles)
BIOTECH, PHARMACEUTICAL, FACULTY, POSTDOC JOBS ON SCIENCE CAREERS
Tags: laboratory, explosion, response, follow-up
MYSTERIOUS BOX THAT PROMPTED HAZMAT RESPONSE CONTAINED HARMLESS ROCKS
Tags: us_MA, public, discovery, response, radiation, follow-up
TEN HOSPITALIZED IN CORAL SPRINGS HAZMAT INCIDENT
Tags: us_FL, transportation, release, injury, water_treatment
CRUSHED BULBS FOUND IN BARRELS AT MESA HOSPITAL
Tags: us_AZ, public, discovery, response, waste
JFE SAYS EXPLOSION HAS NO IMPACT ON STEEL OUTPUT AT CHIBA PLANT
Tags: Japan, industrial, explosion, injury, sulfuric_acid
EXTENSIVE DAMAGE REPORTED IN LOWER VALLEY SHOP FIRE
Tags: us_WA, industrial, fire, response, gasoline
MAN WOUNDED BY BARREL EXPLOSION IN MELBOURNE
Tags: us_FL, public, explosion, injury, ethanol
TOXIC SPILL CLEANUP CONTINUES NEAR COLORADO REFINERY
Tags: us_CO, industrial, release, environmental, petroleum
SAFD: SOUTHEAST-SIDE REFINERY FIRE UNDER CONTROL, NO INJURIES
Tags: us_TX, industrial, explosion, response, petroleum
METH LABS IN WEBSTER COUNTY: FROM SUSPICION TO CLEAN UP
Tags: public, discovery, response, meth_lab
AMMONIA LEAK HALTS CITY CENTRE PARK
Tags: Canada, public, release, response, ammonia
FIRE DEPARTMENT SAYS RADIATION FROM BOX FOUND IN ROXBURY WAS WITHIN LIMITS
Tags: us_MA, public, discovery, response, radiation
UPDATE: OFFICIALS CLEANING UP HAZARDOUS MERCURY SPILL IN ABILENE
Tags: us_TX, public, release, environmental, mercury
HAZMAT INCIDENT AT ECPI CLEARED
Tags: us_VA, education, release, response, mercury
WORKERS BURNED WHEN CLEANING PRODUCT CATCHES FIRE
Tags: us_CA, industrial, fire, injury, unknown_chemical
CHEMICAL LEAK FORCES SHELTER IN PLACE BRIEFLY THIS MORNING
Tags: us_TX, industrial, release, response, sulfur_dioxide
DEEP: AMMONIA, BLEACH LIKELY CAUSE OF FUMES AT LAWRENCE & MEMORIAL
Tags: us_CT, public, release, injury, ammonia, bleach
FARIDABAD FACTORY BLAZE KILLS 2, 11 INJURED
Tags: India, industrial, fire, death, flammables, solvent
FIRE TAKES HOLD IN UNIVERSITY LAB
Tags: Austria, laboratory, fire, response, metals
NEWS DETAILS
Tags: Malta, industrial, explosion, death, fireworks, follow-up
HOME EXPLOSION LAWSUIT BEING HEARD
Tags: us_IA, public, explosion, injury, propane, follow-up
LOWER MACUNGIE TOWNSHIP EXPLOSION CAUSED BY DRANO, TIN FOIL MIXTURE, POLICE SAY
Tags: us_PA, public, explosion, response, bomb
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BIOTECH, PHARMACEUTICAL, FACULTY, POSTDOC JOBS ON SCIENCE CAREERS
Tags: laboratory, explosion, response, follow-up
As the hideous revelations from Pennsylvania State University reverberate across the country, another scandal involving willful inattention and bureaucratic power continues to endanger vulnerable young people on campuses nationwide. This second scandal lacks a sickening sexual component, but the resulting deaths and injuries are every bit as real. And many of those deaths and injuries were every bit as preventable had university officials fulfilled their responsibility to those entrusted to their care.
A groundbreaking document from the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) has removed the excuse that academic officials do not know about the risks that students, postdocs, and others face when working in academic laboratories or how institutions can protect them better. Issued in October, a CSB report entitled Texas Tech University: Laboratory Explosion lays out in 23 pages of straightforward, nontechnical language what went wrong in a near-fatal 2010 incident on the Lubbock campus and what needs to be done to prevent anything like it from happening again.
The report goes far beyond the usual accident investigation=92s list of technical mishaps. It views the maiming of Texas Tech University (TTU) graduate student Preston Brown not as an isolated series of individual errors but as the predictable outcome of a culture, set of values, and system of organization prevalent not only at TTU but also at many other campuses. Having collected at least =93preliminary information=94 on 120 other such incidents, CSB declares itself =93greatly concerned about the frequency of academic laboratory incidents in the United States.=94
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MYSTERIOUS BOX THAT PROMPTED HAZMAT RESPONSE CONTAINED HARMLESS ROCKS
Tags: us_MA, public, discovery, response, radiation, follow-up
The mysterious box with radiation hazard labels on it that caused some alarm when it was found Wednesday in a Dorchester basement was opened this morning by a federal expert at a Boston Fire Department training facility.
It turned out to contain nothing but rocks.
=93It was just someone=92s collection that they left in the basement of this house,=94 said Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald.
He said a federal inspector with a nuclear incident response team opened the box. The rocks are =93perfectly safe,=94 he said.
MacDonald said fire officials would see if a local college with a geography department might want the rocks.
The box was found shortly before 2 p.m. at 64 Julian St. A hazardous materials response was initiated, but tests soon found that the radiation emitted by the box was within acceptable limits.
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TEN HOSPITALIZED IN CORAL SPRINGS HAZMAT INCIDENT
Tags: us_FL, transportation, release, injury, water_treatment
Ten people were hospitalized after a mixture of chemicals made them sick at the water plant in Coral Springs Thursday morning.
The incident happened shortly before 9 a.m. at the plant at 3800 Northwest 85th Avenue, according to Coral Springs Fire Department Capt. Richard Antonini.
Antonini said a man was delivering a tanker truck filled with chlorine and when he transferred the chemicals into a tank, they mixed with some fluorine which was left in the tank.
The mixture created a potentially toxic gas, which caused the truck driver to be overcome with fumes.
The driver and nine others were taken to Coral Springs Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries, Antonini said.
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CRUSHED BULBS FOUND IN BARRELS AT MESA HOSPITAL
Tags: us_AZ, public, discovery, response, waste
MESA, AZ (KPHO) -
Mesa firefighters found seven 55-gallon drums filled with crushed fluorescent light bulbs in a garage on property owned by Banner Desert Hospital on Wednesday morning.
A fire department spokesman said a police K-9 and officer deemed the barrels safe, but at a hazard material level. Mesa Fire HAZMAT crews later opened the barrels and discovered the crushed light bulbs.
The barrels were labeled "HONEY" and found in the garage on the hospital grounds, though the garage is not owned by the hospital.
Officials said they did not know how the barrels got into the garage.
A private disposal company was used to transport them away, according to Forrest Smith of Mesa Fire.
He said police did evacuate the area near the garage as a precaution.
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JFE SAYS EXPLOSION HAS NO IMPACT ON STEEL OUTPUT AT CHIBA PLANT
Tags: Japan, industrial, explosion, injury, sulfuric_acid
JFE Holdings Inc., Japan=92s second- largest steelmaker, said its steel mill in Chiba, near Tokyo, is operating normally after four workers were injured by an explosion at JFE Chemical Co.=92s sulfuric acid tank.
The explosion, which occurred within the site of JFE=92s steel works at 9:55 a.m., Japan time, didn=92t cause a fire and hasn=92t impacted steel production, spokesman Seiji Iwashita said today by telephone.
JFE is investigating the cause of the accident, he said. JFE Chemical is a wholly owned unit of JFE.
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EXTENSIVE DAMAGE REPORTED IN LOWER VALLEY SHOP FIRE
Tags: us_WA, industrial, fire, response, gasoline
TOPPENISH, Wash. =97 Nearly a half million dollars worth of losses are estimated from a farm shop fire about 6 miles west of Toppenish.
The fire, reported about 2:20 p.m. Monday, took place at the Green Acres Farm at 6080 Campbell Road.
It started when gasoline from a vehicle being repaired came into contact with a work lamp, according to a press release issued this morning by Yakima County Fire District. No. 5.
The light bulb exploded causing additional gasoline to catch fire, which quickly spread to the rest of the shop, which measured about 40-by-60 feet, according to firefighters.
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MAN WOUNDED BY BARREL EXPLOSION IN MELBOURNE
Tags: us_FL, public, explosion, injury, ethanol
A man was injured Tuesday when a barrel he was working on exploded in the 2200 Wickham Business Park in Melbourne.
The man had minor burns around his eyes and face and was taken to a hospital, said assistant chief Joe Sunday of the Melbourne Fire Department.
The explosion was heard more than a mile away at a Melbourne fire station on Croton Road, Sunday said.
Using a circular saw, the man was cutting a 55-gallon steel drum to make a fire pit when a spark may have ignited denatured ethanol inside the barrel, according to Sunday.
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TOXIC SPILL CLEANUP CONTINUES NEAR COLORADO REFINERY
Tags: us_CO, industrial, release, environmental, petroleum
COMMERCE CITY (AP) =97 Environmental Protection Agency officials say small dams erected on a bank overnight appear to be containing an oily muck that's seeping into a Denver-area creek. Officials are trying to keep it from reaching the South Platte River, which is a major source of drinking water, wildlife habitat and agricultural water for Colorado and the Midwest.
EPA spokeswoman Karen Edson said Wednesday that the dams seem to be containing most of the substance. Workers are vacuuming the heaving muck out of the isolated area created by the dams but a sheen remains on the creek.
State health department spokesman Warren Smith says the toxic spill is believed to be coming from Suncor's refinery. He says further tests could identify the chemicals and the source as early as Wednesday.
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SAFD: SOUTHEAST-SIDE REFINERY FIRE UNDER CONTROL, NO INJURIES
Tags: us_TX, industrial, explosion, response, petroleum
SAN ANTONIO -- Firefighters scrambled to cut off the fuel supply following a "large explosion" at a southeast-side refinery, SAFD spokeswoman Melissa Sparks said Wednesday afternoon.
The NuStar San Antonio Refinery at South Presa Street and Southeast Military Drive was evacuated around 12:50 p.m.
Nustar spokesman Greg Matula said about 60 workers and contractors were evacuated from the refinery following a brief fire, lasting about five to 10 minutes. The cause is unknown, he said, adding that the company invested in new safety equipment when they purchased the plant earlier this year.
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METH LABS IN WEBSTER COUNTY: FROM SUSPICION TO CLEAN UP
According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, nationwide, there=92s been 6,186 meth lab incidents (including seizures of operational labs, chemical or equipment seizures and dumpsites) reported through September of this year. Of those, 1,574 have been in Missouri. That=92s 25.4 percent of all meth labs reported in the nation.
In second place behind Missouri=92s 1,574 is Indiana with 632.
Statewide through September, Jefferson County near St. Louis has had the most reported meth labs with 192, followed by St. Charles County with 94, then neighboring Greene County with 86.
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AMMONIA LEAK HALTS CITY CENTRE PARK
Tags: Canada, public, release, response, ammonia
An ammonia leak consumed emergency crews on Wednesday morning.
The leak occurred in the newly opened Westhills Arena at City Centre Park. It was discovered around 8 a.m.
Witnesses saw a large visible cloud of ammonia hovering over City Centre Park shortly after the leak was detected.
=93We are asking that people stay away from the area,=94 said West Shore RCMP Cpl. Kathy Rochlitz while manning a road block on Langford Parkway.
All roads and pathways leading to City Centre Park were blocked off until shortly before 11:30 a.m.
Businesses in the area were evacuated.
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FIRE DEPARTMENT SAYS RADIATION FROM BOX FOUND IN ROXBURY WAS WITHIN LIMITS
Tags: us_MA, public, discovery, response, radiation
A radioactive box was found in the basement of a building in Roxbury this afternoon, but the radiation it emitted was within acceptable limits, and the fire department will dispose of it, authorities said.
The padlocked wooden box was found at 64 Julian St. in the basement of a three-story building, shortly before 2 p.m., officials said. Boston police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said the bomb squad and the fire department=92s hazardous materials unit were called in to investigate.
Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald said low levels of radiation were detected but they posed no apparent threat. No injuries were reported.
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UPDATE: OFFICIALS CLEANING UP HAZARDOUS MERCURY SPILL IN ABILENE
Tags: us_TX, public, release, environmental, mercury
ABILENE, Texas -- The Abilene Fire Department has responded to a contamination spill in Abilene.
Abilene Fire Chief Ken Dozier said that a blood pressure machine was leaking mercury at Cardiology Consultants, 1201 N. 18th St.
Dozier said the contaminated area has been sealed off and that officials were working to clean up the spill.
Dozier said there were no injuries.
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HAZMAT INCIDENT AT ECPI CLEARED
Tags: us_VA, education, release, response, mercury
Today a HAZMAT incident occurred at the ECPI in Chesterfield county, confirmed Lt. Jason Elmore with the Chesterfield Fire Department.
A thermometer broke inside a classroom and spilled out onto a desk and the floor.
There were 10 students that had to be isolated and examined for exposure. All of the students were reported to be fine, and there was no need to transport them for further medical help, said Elmore.
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WORKERS BURNED WHEN CLEANING PRODUCT CATCHES FIRE
Tags: us_CA, industrial, fire, injury, unknown_chemical
Two workers were hospitalized when a flash fire erupted Wednesday night at Bocchi Laboratories, a chemical plant across the street from the Santa Clarita Aquatics Center.
Bocchi is a contractor that mixes the chemicals that go into the soaps and conditioners offered by hair care product manufacturers including neighbor Paul Mitchell Systems.
About 50 workers were in the parking lot when firefighters arrived.
=93We got inside (the two-story building) and found that there was a flash fire of some sort prior to our arrival,=94 said Capt. Mark Savage of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
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CHEMICAL LEAK FORCES SHELTER IN PLACE BRIEFLY THIS MORNING
Tags: us_TX, industrial, release, response, sulfur_dioxide
12Newsnow.com has learned that a shelter in place was established for 3 area schools and area neighborhoods near a plant in Port Arthur due to a chemical leak. The leak was at the Total Refinery Plant in Port Arthur. The leak occurred at approximately 9:53 AM this morning at the Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit.
A visual plume was seen. The refinery is conducting joint air quality with local fire departments.
Sulfur dioxide was released into the air at the plant forcing the shelter in place. The shelter in place has since been canceled. An alert was also released through the STAN (Southeast Texas Alert Network).
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DEEP: AMMONIA, BLEACH LIKELY CAUSE OF FUMES AT LAWRENCE & MEMORIAL
Tags: us_CT, public, release, injury, ammonia, bleach
New London =97 The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said the chemical reaction reported at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital this afternoon was likely the result of an ammonia and bleach mixture, according to hospital spokesman Michael O=92Farrell.
A hazardous materials team and the city fire department responded to the call, but O=92Farrell said no one was injured and no evacuation was necessary. Most of the personnel who responded to the scene left by about 2:40 p.m.
O=92Farrell said workers were renovating a walk-in cooler and used bleach to try to clean up an odor under a layer of flooring in the work area. Once the bleach was applied, O=92Farrell said a =93haze=94 rose from the floor and the work crew alerted hospital staff, who in turn called the New London Fire Department.
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FARIDABAD FACTORY BLAZE KILLS 2, 11 INJURED
Tags: India, industrial, fire, death, flammables, solvent
FARIDABAD: Two people died and around twenty were injured when a fire broke out in a factory on Wednesday. The blaze was reported from Imperial Auto Industries in sector 25 at around 11am, police said.
According to eyewitnesses, the factory workers were heating some chemicals on stove when it backfired. The fire then spread to the nearby drums that were containing thinner and since it is a highly inflammable chemical, the blaze became out of control. Fire brigades were immediately called and the fire was taken into control.
Thirteen persons have received burns and were rushed to Sarvoday Hospital in Sector-8, Faridabad. Two persons, Dinanath and Ranjeet, succumbed to the fire and were declared dead, the medical superintendent said. One of the injured with 90% burns is struggling in the ICU of Sarvoday Hospital. Four people with minor burns are also being treated in the Hospital. Six of the injured with more than 15% burns have been referred to Safdarjang Hospital in Delhi.
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FIRE TAKES HOLD IN UNIVERSITY LAB
A chemical blaze took hold in the Technical University in Graz, Austria yesterday (Tues), causing almost 80,000 Euros worth of damage. According to the fire department, the metal initially set alight could be extinguished with water.
The emergency services were automatically alerted to the fire in the "New Chemistry" building at the university on Tuesday afternoon. During an experiment in the laboratory some lithium caught fire and was in real danger of exploding. Once alight however the metal could not be extinguished with water and the fire began to spread. By the time the fire brigade had arrived, the majority of the lab was on fire.
The entire institute was evacuated whilst 28 firemen worked to get the blaze under control. It was eventually extinguished after two hours but work continued through the night to secure the laboratory and ensure its safety. The damage caused is predicted to cost the university between 60,000 and 80,000 Euros.
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NEWS DETAILS
Tags: Malta, industrial, explosion, death, fireworks, follow-up
On September 07, 2010, the Gharb firework factory exploded, four died on the spot, two others succumbed to injuries in hospital some days later.
Investigations into the cause of that explosion and a number of others that occurred over the last 30 years have brought to light a multitude of facts from =93improper use of volatile chemical mixtures=94 to human error.
The inquiry board chaired by Alfred Vella from the Chemistry Department at the University of Malta handed its report to the Home Affairs Minister on Wednesday. The other board members were chemist Servolo Delicata, biologist Victor Axiak and fireworks enthusiast Joe Theuma.
The quality of chemicals used in the manufacture of fireworks was deemed to be safe, yet the use of potassium chlorate, (instead of potassium perchlorate) mixed with metals is producing fireworks which are unstable and can easily denote.
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HOME EXPLOSION LAWSUIT BEING HEARD
Tags: us_IA, public, explosion, injury, propane, follow-up
WATERLOO, Iowa --- Trial started Tuesday in a Hudson woman's lawsuit against a propane provider in connection with a 2008 explosion that destroyed her home and left her with severe burns.
...
In particular, New Century didn't warn the Firgards the odor injected into the normally odorless gas could fail, allowing a room to fill up without residents knowing, Beattie said. He also said the company failed to recommend purchasing gas detectors to warn of leaks.
...Beattie said the leak started in the underground line between the outside storage tank and the house, and the dirt filtered out the ethyl mercaptan, the chemical that gives propane its distinct odor.
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LOWER MACUNGIE TOWNSHIP EXPLOSION CAUSED BY DRANO, TIN FOIL MIXTURE, POLICE SAY
Pennsylvania State Police are looking for whoever set off a homemade explosive device Friday in Lower Macungie Township.
State police at Fogelsville said someone placed the device outside Susan I. Sherry's home in the Spring Creek Apartments complex, in the 6600 block of Hauser Road.
The device was a plastic container filled with Drano and tin foil; mixing the materials caused a chemical reaction that led to an explosion at 5:24 p.m., police said. Authorities are calling the incident arson.
The contents of the container sprayed the victim's door and sidewalk, police said.
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