This is a tremendous service, Ralph. Thank you (and your helpers) for doing this. -- Pete Reinhardt

On Jan 1, 2012, at 1:31 PM, "Secretary, ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety"  wrote:

I've put together a statistical overview of the hazmat events that I've sent to the list over the year (1869 items). The percentages generated for location, economic sector, type of event, extent of event and chemical identity are similar to those previous summaries I've sent to the list.

The biggest difference is that I've agglomerated a variety of smaller sectors into "public", including home events, hospital responses, retail settings, illegal activities, etc, because these events were the most ambiguous to determine and their numbers are small enough that maintaining those distinctions didn't add much value to the breakdowns. What they have in common is that they are non-transportation settings where the general public is likely to be present.

In addition to the general overview, I've done a similar breakdown for lab events (148 items); the general percentages in the lab events are remarkably similar to the larger hazmat response universe.

If anyone would like Excel spreadsheets with a list of the individual headlines, let me know. You can still review the information available about the events at
http://pinboard.in/u:dchas

Let me know if you have any questions about this.

- Ralph

Ralph Stuart
secretary**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Secretary
Division of Chemical Health and Safety
American Chemical Society

Breakdown of 2011 HAZMAT events collected by Google:

Country    Count
us    1406    75%
india    79    4%
canada    69    4%
australia    68    4%
uk    64    3%
united_kingdom    41    2%
nz    29    2%
china    26    1%
ireland    17    1%
south_africa    5    0%
Other    65    3%
Total    1869    100%

Sector    Count
industrial    636    34%
public    634    34%
transportation    353    19%
laboratory    151    8%
education    95    5%
Total    1869    100%

Type    Count
release    994    53%
explosion    349    19%
fire    342    18%
discovery    178    10%
followup    6    0%
Total    1869    100%

Extent    Count
response    1143    61%
injury    516    28%
death    121    6%
environmental    89    5%
Total    1869    100%

Chemicals    Count
unknown_chemical    460    25%
meth_lab    125    7%
ammonia    81    4%
petroleum    72    4%
chlorine    59    3%
hydrochloric_acid    46    2%
solvent    40    2%
waste    39    2%
ag_chems    37    2%
pool_chemicals    33    2%
acids    33    2%
bomb    31    2%
flammables    28    1%
diesel    27    1%
gasoline    26    1%
nitric_acid    24    1%
pesticides    22    1%
cleaners    22    1%
mercury    21    1%
propane    19    1%
carbon_monoxide    19    1%
corrosives    18    1%
batteries    18    1%
metals    17    1%
sulfuric_acid    16    1%
dust    16    1%
picric_acid    15    1%
Other    505    27%
Total    1869    100%

Breakdown of 2011 Laboratory Hazmat Event Headlines

Country    Count    Percent
us    108    73%
india    9    6%
united_kingdom    7    5%
ireland    7    5%
canada    6    4%
uk    2    1%
nz    2    1%
new_zealand    2    1%
australia    2    1%
oman    1    1%
denmark    1    1%
austria    1    1%
Total    148    100%

Lab sector    Count
Research (higher ed)    66    45%
Secondary school    35    24%
Industry    30    20%
Teaching (higher ed)    17    11%
Total    148    100%

Type    Count
release    67    45%
explosion    34    23%
fire    30    20%
discovery    17    11%
Total    148    100%

Extent    Count
response    90    61%
injury    53    36%
death    4    3%
environmental    1    1%
Total    148    100%

Chemicals    Count
unknown_chemical    63    43%
acids    15    10%
solvent    8    5%
flammables    5    3%
picric_acid    5    3%
Other    52    35%
Total    148    100%

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