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Previous by Date: Subject: Chemical Safety Headlines From Google (19 articles) Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:08:44 -0500 Author: "Secretary, ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety" |
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Chemical Safety Headlines From Google Monday, January 16, 2012 7:37:37 AM A service of the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety Connecting Chemistry and Safety at http://www.dchas.org All article summaries and tags are archived at http://pinboard.in/u:dchas Table of Contents (22 articles) FIRE OUT ON MARSHALL COUNTY WELL SITE Tags: us_WV, industrial, fire, response, unknown_chemical MOERDIJK CHEMICAL FIRE WAS DUE TO MANAGEMENT FAILINGS: REPORT Tags: Netherlands, industrial, follow-up, response, unknown_chemical STOWMARKET: SECOND CHEMICAL LEAK IN THREE DAYS AT FACTORY Tags: United_Kingdom, industrial, release, response, unknown_chemical MAIN LAB DEMOLISHED AT POLLUTED ANDERSON SITE Tags: us_SC, laboratory, release, environmental, unknown_chemical THREE JUVENILES ARRESTED FOR VANDALIZING DURANT SCHOOL Tags: us_OK, laboratory, release, response, unknown_chemical OFFICERS DECONTAMINATED AFTER RESPONDING TO PROBLEM HAZE Tags: us_NJ, laboratory, release, injury, unknown_chemical 'CHEMICAL INCIDENT' IN STREATHAM PROMPTS FRIDGE FREEZER WARNING (FROM YOUR LOCAL GUARDIAN) Tags: United_Kingdom, public, release, response, freon INDUSTRIAL FIRE IN SPRINGFIELD TWP. Tags: us_PA, industrial, fire, response, plastics HOMEMADE EXPLOSIVES STILL ILLEGAL Tags: us_ME, public, follow-up, response, explosives, illegal PORTABLES EVACUATED CYPRESS SPRINGS: PORTABLES EVACUATED AT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, HAZMAT TEAM INVESTIGATES SMELL Tags: us_FL, education, release, response, pesticides TRAIN WITH CHEMICAL CAR DERAILS IN GRAND RIDGE Tags: us_FL, transportation, release, environmental, other_chemical FIRE DOUSED AT FACULTY HOME AT LAWRENCEVILLE SCHOOL Tags: us_NJ, education, fire, response, cleaners EXPLOSION IN CHEMISTRY CLASS INJURED SEVERAL OREGON HIGH SCHOOLERS Tags: us_OR, laboratory, explosion, injury, sodium UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA SUSPENDS WORK AT CHEMISTRY PROFESSOR ALAN KATRITZKY'S LAB AFTER EXPLOSIONS Tags: us_FL, laboratory, follow-up, injury, sodium_azide SMELL LEADS POLICE TO METH LAB BUST Tags: us_NM, public, discovery, environmental, meth_lab AIRPORT HAZ MAT: BOTTLE OF PESTICIDE ON PLANE CAUSES HAZMAT RESPONSE Tags: us_FL, transportation, discovery, response, ag_chems CHEMICAL LEAK SHUTS DOWN DR. PEPPER PLANT Tags: us_TX, industrial, release, response, ammonia TWO PEOPLE IN HOSPITAL AFTER CHEMICAL LEAK IN DAVENTRY Tags: United_Kingdom, industrial, release, injury, unknown_chemical CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR, STUDENT EXTINGUISH LAB FIRE IN OAKLAND Tags: us_PA, laboratory, fire, response, unknown_chemical CHEMICAL EXPLOSION AT UF INVOLVES SAME LABORATORY AS OCTOBER INCIDENT IN SISLER HALL Tags: us_FL, laboratory, explosion, injury, sodium_azide UPDATE: FIRE CREWS LEAVE SCENE OF STOWMARKET CHEMICAL SPILL Tags: United_Kingdom, industrial, release, environmental, resin, solvent FOUR INJURED IN CHEMICAL EXPLOSION IN EDMOND Tags: us_OK, industrial, explosion, injury, solvent --------------------------------------------- FIRE OUT ON MARSHALL COUNTY WELL SITE http://www.wtrf.com/story/16524461/fire-now-out-on-well-site Tags: us_WV, industrial, fire, response, unknown_chemical Various crews responded to a fire at the Gastar Energy Simms Pad on Rines Ridge Road in Marshall County Saturday morning. Authorities said it took about two hours to put out the fire. Marshall County EMA Director Tom Hart said he received a call about the fire around 7:30 a.m. Hart said two holding tanks containing drip gas caught fire. --------------------------------------------- MOERDIJK CHEMICAL FIRE WAS DUE TO MANAGEMENT FAILINGS: REPORT http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2012/01/moerdijk_chemical_fire_was_due.php Tags: Netherlands, industrial, follow-up, response, unknown_chemical Management failings are to blame for last year's massive fire at a chemicals packaging company in Moerdijk, near Rotterdam, according to a safety council report on the blaze, Nos television reports. The report, which has not yet been officially published, says Chemie-Pack failed to meet operating permit conditions and did not keep to its own policy or procedures. This led to the company 'failing to take any safety measures to manage the fire,' Nos quoted the report as saying. The report also criticises the local Moerdijk council which was aware the company was not meeting the conditions of its licence but did not sharpen up supervision, let alone close it down. Left-wing green party GroenLinks has called for a debate on the findings and their implications for public safety with justice minister Ivo Opstelten. The cost of the damage and the clean-up operation after the fire is put at •71m. Chemi-Pack was declared bankrupt in August. --------------------------------------------- STOWMARKET: SECOND CHEMICAL LEAK IN THREE DAYS AT FACTORY http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/stowmarket_second_chemical_leak_in_three_days_at_factory_1_1177926 Tags: United_Kingdom, industrial, release, response, unknown_chemical A CORDON set up in Stowmarket as fire crews dealt with a chemical leak at a factory has been lifted. The leak comes three days after a similar incident at PPG Industries, in Needham Road. Police confirmed there had been another leak at the paint factory this afternoon and that firefighters were on scene. A road closure was put in place at Needham Road and police had urged residents in the immediate area to stay indoors. At 7pm the cordon and road closure were lifted. Between 500 and 1,000 litres of hazardous liquid was spilled according to reports from fire crews on scene. --------------------------------------------- MAIN LAB DEMOLISHED AT POLLUTED ANDERSON SITE http://www.independentmail.com/news/2012/jan/14/main-lab-demolished-polluted-anderson-site/ Tags: us_SC, laboratory, release, environmental, unknown_chemical ANDERSON COUNTY ˜ Environmental workers will spend this week sorting the remains of the rundown warehouse where an Anderson man mixed and stockpiled hundreds of chemicals, including some that leaked into the land surrounding Hartwell Lake. The warehouse was the „main lab‰ used on Frontage Road, where a man in his 70s told authorities he was trying to create homemade fuel while storing chemicals for friends. The lab was demolished Friday, reduced to a pile of rubble that will be sorted into stacks of recyclable materials and stacks of trash for a landfill. The building was the last of a collection of leaky warehouses to be torn down. Its demolition marks a milestone in a multimillion-dollar cleanup that has been in progress since June. The property owner, George Smolen, has told authorities he cannot afford to pay for removing the pollution created at the former Flex-A-Form site near Interstate 85. The tab has more than doubled in the last seven months as federal environmental crews have uncovered and tested 946 containers of chemicals, many of them mislabeled and at least two decades old. The cleanup cost stands at $2.5 million. --------------------------------------------- THREE JUVENILES ARRESTED FOR VANDALIZING DURANT SCHOOL http://www.kxii.com/home/headlines/Three_juveniles_arrested_for_vandalizing_Durant_school__137365533.html Tags: us_OK, laboratory, release, response, unknown_chemical DURANT, OK -- Durant officials say three juveniles who broke into the old middle school were arrested and taken into custody today. Emergency Management Director of Bryan County, James Dalton says around 2:00 this afternoon they responded to to the school between 6th street and Cedar where they found the school's laboratory had been vandalized with several bottles of unknown chemicals shattered over the floors and walls. Dalton says the trio was found with the chemicals on them, and the teens along with a contaminated officer were taken to MCSO where they were de-contaminated. Officials say the Region 5 Hazmat Unit was called in where the crew determined the chemicals were of minimal harm. --------------------------------------------- OFFICERS DECONTAMINATED AFTER RESPONDING TO PROBLEM HAZE http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2012/01/officers_decontaminated_after.html Tags: us_NJ, laboratory, release, injury, unknown_chemical EWING ˜ Two township police officers and a security guard were quarantined and decontaminated as a precaution following a Hazmat response to a commercial building early Friday, Trenton fire officials said. Called out on a fire alarm just after 3 a.m., the officers and guard reported finding a mysterious haze inside the FMC Corporation building on Charles Ewing Boulevard. Since the building housing lab and office space also stores a great deal of hazardous chemicals, the Trenton Fire Department‚s Hazmat Team was called along with Ewing firefighters, Trenton Capt. Fred Doura said. There was no fire and no chemical spill in the building. The police and the guard were decontaminated, then taken to a local hospital for observation, Doura said. --------------------------------------------- 'CHEMICAL INCIDENT' IN STREATHAM PROMPTS FRIDGE FREEZER WARNING (FROM YOUR LOCAL GUARDIAN) http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/local/streathamnews/9472760._Chemical_incident__prompts_fridge_freezer_warning/ Tags: United_Kingdom, public, release, response, freon Firefighters have warned residents not to use sharp objects to defrost freezers after being called to a "chemical incident" last night. The fire brigade was called to a home in Rackham Mews, near the Streatham end of Mitcham Lane, at about 9.30pm yesterday, whose occupant became alarmed when he punctured a hole in his freezer. Refridgerators contain a liquid chemical called Freon, which can escape as gas if there is a puncture and settle in the lungs, causing health problems, if inhaled. A spokesman for Tooting fire station said: "We get called out to these kinds of incidents, which are reported as chemical incidents, more often than you would think. "A leak to a fridge can be dangerous and residents are right to call us if they are concerned. "But we would urge anyone defrosting their freezer not to use a sharp knife to scrape off the ice. Just turn it off and wait a couple of hours and that should be enough." --------------------------------------------- INDUSTRIAL FIRE IN SPRINGFIELD TWP. http://www.yorkdispatch.com/news/ci_19745048 Tags: us_PA, industrial, fire, response, plastics Firefighters are on scene of an industrial fire at Bimax Inc., 158 Industrial Road in Springfield Township. The fire was reported around 11:30 a.m. as a chemical fire in a chemical-production area of the company. A second alarm was called, but soon cancelled. Officials on the scene said the fire was extinguished shortly after noon. Loganville Volunteer Fire Co. Chief Rodney Miller said employees were able to extinguish the small amount of chemicals which caught fire for an unknown reason. The fire is still under investigation. He said nobody was injured, though there were about six people working at the time, and workers are able to return to work. He said there was no structural damage from the fire, and minimal damage to the building's interior. According to the company website, the facility develops specialty chemicals for polymer applications. --------------------------------------------- HOMEMADE EXPLOSIVES STILL ILLEGAL http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/homemade-explosivesstill-illegal_2012-01-14.html Tags: us_ME, public, follow-up, response, explosives, illegal FARMINGTON -- Sgt. Ken Grimes is worried a public statement about a homemade explosive detonated recently in Farmington sent the wrong message. It described the explosive as being made of paper products -- consistent with homemade fireworks -- but failed to explain the differences between fireworks and illegal homemade explosives, according to Grimes, of the fire marshal's office. The confusion surfaced just days after a new law made the sale and personal use of fireworks legal in Maine, leaving Grimes questioning what people actually know about the legality of explosives. "Even though the fireworks law passed, it's still illegal to make an explosive device," he said. The initial statement, released in an email from the Department of Public Safety, was based on Grimes' comments about his office's investigation of the incident, in which a homemade explosive was detonated on a remote farm road two weeks ago in Farmington. --------------------------------------------- PORTABLES EVACUATED CYPRESS SPRINGS: PORTABLES EVACUATED AT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, HAZMAT TEAM INVESTIGATES SMELL http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-01-13/news/os-portables-evacuated-cypress-springs-20120113_1_portable-classrooms-smell-pond Tags: us_FL, education, release, response, pesticides The apparent source of the smell was a pond located off school property, in an adjacent subdivision behind the portables. When it got worse, the principal called authorities. Seven portables nearest to the pond were evacuated, Marsh said, and the students relocated to other classrooms. An Orange County Fire Rescue Hazmat team investigated. According to a Fire Rescue spokeswoman, Hazmat determined the cause of smell was a chemical fungicide/algaecide that had been sprayed into the pond recently. County Roads & Drainage officials confirmed the chemical, which prevents algae blooms, is non-toxic. Hazmat cleared the area after determining chemical levels were not dangerous. According to OCPS, two students initially reported nausea, but soon recovered. A third student reported asthma-like symptoms and was treated with an inhaler and sent home. jeweiner**At_Symbol_Here**tribune.com or 407-420-5171 --------------------------------------------- TRAIN WITH CHEMICAL CAR DERAILS IN GRAND RIDGE http://www2.jcfloridan.com/news/2012/jan/14/train-chemical-car-ar-3046013/ Tags: us_FL, transportation, release, environmental, other_chemical Eight cars on a CSX train derailed in Grand Ridge before 7:30 a.m. on Saturday. No one was injured. The train contained several chemical shipments, bringing the Jackson County Sheriff‚s Office, Jackson County Emergency Management, Grand Ridge Fire Department, Jackson County Fire Rescue, Marianna Fire Department, Sneads Fire Department and several other first responders to assess the scene. As of noon on Saturday, the only chemical that spilled was PVC pellets. Jackson County Sheriff Lou Roberts said the pellets would be vacuumed up by environmental services. --------------------------------------------- FIRE DOUSED AT FACULTY HOME AT LAWRENCEVILLE SCHOOL http://lawrenceville.patch.com/articles/fire-doused-at-faculty-home-at-lawrenceville-school Tags: us_NJ, education, fire, response, cleaners A fire that broke out in the garage of a house on the campus of The Lawrenceville School was extinguished before it could cause any significant damage this afternoon, Friday, Jan. 13. Spontaneous combustion of rags soaked with a chemical cleaner started the fire in the two-car garage attached to a faculty members‚ residence on Woods Drive on the private school‚s campus, according to Lawrence Township Fire Inspector Rich Soltis, who investigated the blaze. The fire, which spread from the rags to the contents of a plastic storage tote and a vacuum, generated a decent amount of smoke and activated a heat detector connected to the home‚s fire alarm system, Soltis said. --------------------------------------------- EXPLOSION IN CHEMISTRY CLASS INJURED SEVERAL OREGON HIGH SCHOOLERS http://www.nwcn.com/news/oregon/Explosion-in-chemistry-class-injured-several-Oregon-high-schoolers-137304193.html Tags: us_OR, laboratory, explosion, injury, sodium PORTLAND -- Several people were injured and the science wing was evacuated after an explosion at David Douglas High School Friday morning, officials said. Portland firefighters were called in to the school, at 1001 SE 135th Avenue, just before 11 a.m., according to Tommy Schroeder with Portland Fire and Rescue. When a student turned on the faucet of a sink in the chemistry lab, the water mixed with a sodium metal compound and caused the explosion, Schroeder said. Twelve people were taken to nearby hospitals and treated for respiratory discomfort, according to Paul Corah with Portland Fire and Rescue. He said several more people were evaluated at the school. He estimated a total of 25 people were exposed to the chemicals. Fire crews were ventilating the area to clear out the chemical residue, Schroeder said. The affected area was closed for the remainder of the day. --------------------------------------------- UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA SUSPENDS WORK AT CHEMISTRY PROFESSOR ALAN KATRITZKY'S LAB AFTER EXPLOSIONS http://www.gainesville.com/article/20120113/ARTICLES/120119764/1109/sports?Title=UF-suspends-work-at-chemistry-lab-where-blasts-occurred Tags: us_FL, laboratory, follow-up, injury, sodium_azide The University of Florida has suspended chemistry work in a laboratory where explosions injured graduate research assistants this week and about three months ago. Paul D'Anieri, dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, said such work in UF chemistry professor Alan Katritzky's lab is suspended indefinitely as procedures and research done there are reviewed. William Properzio, UF's director of environmental health and safety, said use of the chemical involved in both the explosion this week and one in October also is being suspended. "We're going to stop that now and may stop it forever, I don't know," Properzio said. The second floor of Sisler Hall, where the laboratory is located, remained closed Friday, but the other three floors of the building were reopened to faculty and students for the first time since the blast. Properzio said some of chemical involved in the explosion, sodium azide, remained in the area where the explosion happened. An outside contractor is expected to remove the chemical Monday, he said, which coincides with UF's Martin Luther King Day holiday and would allow the building to reopen when classes resume Tuesday. Properzio said the small amount of the substance means there is no risk for others to return in the meantime to the building's other floors, which house labs and offices. --------------------------------------------- SMELL LEADS POLICE TO METH LAB BUST http://www.kasa.com/dpps/news/crime/smell-leads-police-to-meth-lab-bust_4038112 Tags: us_NM, public, discovery, environmental, meth_lab ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Police have arrested three people they say were in the Arayan brotherhood, accusing them of running a meth lab in Albuquerque Wednesday night officers responded to an apartment near San Pedro Drive and Kathryn Avenue, after neighbors complained that something smelled so bad it made some of them sick. Police say they found a man and a woman cleaning up what looked like a meth lab. They also caught another man they say was involved and called in a hazmat team to clean up the chemicals. --------------------------------------------- AIRPORT HAZ MAT: BOTTLE OF PESTICIDE ON PLANE CAUSES HAZMAT RESPONSE http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-01-11/news/fl-ftl-airport-hazmat-20120111_1_hazmat-terminal-four-fort-lauderdale-hollywood-international-airport Tags: us_FL, transportation, discovery, response, ag_chems Operations at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport returned to normal following a Wednesday night hazmat incident that delayed passengers aboard some international flights. About 8 p.m. a Broward Sheriff's Fire Rescue hazardous materials team responded a flight that arrived at the airport from Haiti, the Broward Sheriff's Office said. A passenger on that flight was carrying a container of liquid that prompted the response, sheriff's spokeswoman Dani Moschella said. "Hazmat came as a precaution," she said. "A passenger had some sort of insecticide in his luggage." Several fire engines arrived at Terminal Four near the U.S. Customs area and passengers were not allowed off the commercial aircraft for about two hours. Greeters waited inside the airport for the travelers to deplane. No terminals were evacuated and nobody was injured, Moschella said. "It was, again, a very small amount of this substance," she added. The passenger with the suspicious luggage reportedly told officials that the substance was fertilizer. --------------------------------------------- CHEMICAL LEAK SHUTS DOWN DR. PEPPER PLANT http://www.click2houston.com/news/Chemical-leak-shuts-down-Dr-Pepper-plant/-/1735978/7870410/-/vi33dd/-/ Tags: us_TX, industrial, release, response, ammonia HOUSTON - Workers at a Dr. Pepper Bottling Plant in southwest Houston had to be evacuated after a chemical leak, according to Houston firefighters. The hazmat team responded to a call for help at the plant on Holly Hall Street and Almeda Road just after 11:30 p.m. Wednesday. Crews found a piece of machinery that was leaking ammonia. air in the bottling area. After three hours, workers were able to return to their stations. No one was hurt. --------------------------------------------- TWO PEOPLE IN HOSPITAL AFTER CHEMICAL LEAK IN DAVENTRY http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-16532510 Tags: United_Kingdom, industrial, release, injury, unknown_chemical The company at the centre of a chemical leak in Northamptonshire has said it is a "mystery" why two workers collapsed while working with "non-hazardous chemicals". AmegA Sciences based on the Royal Oak Estate in Daventry said the staff were taken to Northampton General Hospital. John Walton, a director at AmegA, said "The two employees were diagnosed with low haemoglobin levels." The two men are under observation but are expected to make a full recovery. Both Northamptonshire Fire Service and the company's laboratory are investigating what happened. --------------------------------------------- CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR, STUDENT EXTINGUISH LAB FIRE IN OAKLAND http://www.fireengineering.com/news/2012/01/1581745225/carnegie-mellon-university-professor-student-extinguish-lab-fire-in-oakland.html Tags: us_PA, laboratory, fire, response, unknown_chemical There were no injuries and minimal damage in a small fire on Wednesday evening in an eighth-floor chemistry lab in the Mellon Institute on Fifth Avenue in Oakland, Pittsburgh firefighters said. Acting deputy fire chief Larry Yakich said a Carnegie Mellon University professor and student had completed some tests, cleaned up, put a chemical inside a container and placed the container in a plastic-lined cardboard box. There apparently was some chemical residual on the container and it reacted with the liner or the cardboard to start the box on fire shortly after 7 p.m., Yakich said. The professor and student used an extinguisher to put out the fire that burned the top of the cardboard box, Yakich said. --------------------------------------------- CHEMICAL EXPLOSION AT UF INVOLVES SAME LABORATORY AS OCTOBER INCIDENT IN SISLER HALL http://www.gainesville.com/article/20120112/ARTICLES/120119832/1109/sports?Title=Explosion-injures-student-same-UF-lab-and-chemical-as-Oct-blast Tags: us_FL, laboratory, explosion, injury, sodium_azide An explosion at the University of Florida that injured a graduate student and firefighter Wednesday involved the same laboratory and chemical as a similar incident in October. The student, 27-year-old Khanh Ha, was working with sodium azide in a Sisler Hall lab when the explosion happened. He suffered serious injuries to his face, hand and body. He remained hospitalized in stable condition Thursday, according to UF. A firefighter who responded to the scene, Andrew Marsh, received minor chemical burns to his face and eyes but was reported by Gainesville Fire Rescue to be in good condition. Sisler Hall was closed Thursday as UF's Environmental Health and Safety department investigated the incident. The hall houses labs and offices, so no classes were affected. --------------------------------------------- UPDATE: FIRE CREWS LEAVE SCENE OF STOWMARKET CHEMICAL SPILL http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/update_fire_crews_leave_scene_of_stowmarket_chemical_spill_1_1176012 Tags: United_Kingdom, industrial, release, environmental, resin, solvent FIREFIGHTERS have left the scene of a chemical spill at a paint company‚s premises. Comments Email Print Got a story? Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service sent nine appliances and 45 firefighters to PPG Industries UK Ltd based in Needham Road, Stowmarket, just after 2pm to deal with the solvent leak which was caused by a mechanical failure on the water cooling system in the resin plant. The service‚s group commander Ian Bowell said: „This incident has been contained on site thanks to the work of the on site staff at PPG and Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service. „During the incident we worked closely with the Environment Agency and are pleased to say that all internal drainage systems have done their job containing any contaminated water on site for removal at a later date. --------------------------------------------- FOUR INJURED IN CHEMICAL EXPLOSION IN EDMOND http://www.newson6.com/story/16505465/chemical-explosion-in-edmond Tags: us_OK, industrial, explosion, injury, solvent Investigators are trying to determine what caused an explosion that injured four people Thursday morning at a company near W. 33rd Street and N. Kelly in Edmond. Firefighters said just before 9 a.m., something started a fire at Tuboscope, a pipeline company based out of Houston. The fire then sparked a chemical explosion that injured four men. One man received third-degree burns. He's listed in serious condition. The other three men are listed in good condition with first-degree burns. Firefighters said by the time they arrived, the fire was out. They have reopened traffic in the area while they investigate what started the fire. The fire may have had contact with a chemical called MEK, or Methyl Ethyl Ketone, and that may have caused the explosion. MEK is a liquid solvent used in several products. ---------------------------------------------
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