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Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Monday, February 27, 2012 8:42:42 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 (16 articles)
SEMISSOURIAN.COM: LOCAL NEWS: BLACK SMOKE LEADS OFFICER TO POPLAR BLUFF METH LAB (02/27/12)
Tags: us_MO, public, fire, response, meth_lab
METH LAB BUSTS SOAR ACROSS N.C.
Tags: us_NC, public, follow-up, response, meth_lab
MAN TAKEN TO HOSPITAL AFTER CHLORINE EXPOSURE IN WESTMINSTER
Tags: us_CO, public, release, injury, pool_chemicals
TINDERBOX FIRE SINGES SAFE PLEDGE
Tags: India, public, fire, response, fire_extinguisher
COMPLAINTS OF BAD SMELL LEAD RCMP TO DRUG LAB
Tags: Canada, laboratory, discovery, response, drugs
LIQUID NITROGEN LEAK AT REDDITCH ENGINEERING COMPANY (FROM REDDITCH ADVERTISER)
Tags: United_Kingdom, industrial, release, response, liquid_nitrogen
HAZMAT CALLED TO MISSION VALLEY RESTAURANT
Tags: us_CA, public, release, response, pepper_spray
CONTAMINATION HAUNTS HOLLEY 10 YEARS LATER
Tags: us_NY, industrial, follow-up, environmental, drugs, pharmaceutical
METH LAB EXPLOSION SHAKES GREENFIELD, METH HAS LASTING EFFECTS ON PEOPLE AND TOWNS
Tags: us_MO, public, explosion, response, meth_lab
CHLORINE CAUSES EVACUATION OF SEYMOUR HIGH SCHOOL (VIDEO)- THE NEW HAVEN REGISTER
Tags: us_CT, education, discovery, response, pool_chemicals
FREON LEAK CAUSES EVACUATION OF SACRAMENTO SAFEWAY
Tags: us_CA, public, release, injury, freon
SCIENCE BLOG: A "LESSON LEARNED"--BUT THIS TIME, THANKFULLY, NOT THE HARD WAY
Tags: us_CA, laboratory, explosion, response
BOTTLING PLANT, BAKERY EVACUATED FOR AMMONIA LEAK
Tags: us_TX, industrial, release, response, ammonia
5 INJURED IN PROPANE EXPLOSION
Tags: us_WA, transportation, explosion, injury, propane
OIL TANK BLAST SHAKES GALVESTON, TEXAS
Tags: us_TX, industrial, explosion, injury, biodiesel
6-MILLION-GALLON OIL SPILL IN NJ SENDS ODOR TO DEL., MD.
Tags: us_NJ, industrial, release, response, oils
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SEMISSOURIAN.COM: LOCAL NEWS: BLACK SMOKE LEADS OFFICER TO POPLAR BLUFF METH LAB (02/27/12)
http://www.semissourian.com/story/1819974.html
Tags: us_MO, public, fire, response, meth_lab
POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Black smoke filling the sky Thursday morning led a police officer to finding not only a fire, but a suspected shake-and-bake methamphetamine lab.
Poplar Bluff police detective Corey Mitchell was driving when he saw black smoke, which he thought was a house fire. He found the source of the smoke to be a fire in the front yard of a garage and approached Nathan Montgomery who was near the fire.
"Whenever I made contact with him, his demeanor instantly changed when he realized I was law enforcement," Mitchell said.
As he was talking to Montgomery, Mitchell said he saw a man and a woman enter a nearby garage and close its doors.
Mitchell said he could smell a chemical odor he associated with the manufacturing of methamphetamine coming from the garage.
---------------------------------------------
METH LAB BUSTS SOAR ACROSS N.C.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/02/27/3049244/meth-lab-busts-soar-in-nc.html
Tags: us_NC, public, follow-up, response, meth_lab
Methamphetamine busts in North Carolina reached a record high last year due to new methods of cooking the drug and more organized efforts to access it, according to state Attorney General Roy Cooper and county sheriffs.
Meth lab busts totaled 344 in 2011 - a 57 percent increase from 2006, when new state laws restricted the purchase of pseudoephedrine, meth's key ingredient.
Cooper said the laws are working because the number of large-scale meth operations is down, but busts have risen with the popularity of the simpler and cheaper "one pot," or "shake and bake" method.
"It has escalated to the point where it accounts for about half of the labs we bust," Cooper said, noting that the state's first one-pot lab bust occurred in 2009.
---------------------------------------------
MAN TAKEN TO HOSPITAL AFTER CHLORINE EXPOSURE IN WESTMINSTER
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_20049517
Tags: us_CO, public, release, injury, pool_chemicals
A Hazmat unit was called out and one man taken to a hospital this morning after two workers at a Hampton Inn in Westminster were exposed to chlorine.
At 8:25 a.m. a caller reported a man at the hotel in the 5000 block of 88th Place was having difficulty breathing, said Westminster Fire Department spokeswoman Diana Allen.
"When they arrived they saw he had been exposed to chlorine in a pool chemical room," Allen said.
A second man who was also exposed, was treated at the scene.
The chlorine powder wasn't mixed with other chemicals and there was no need to evacuate the hotel.
"It isn't clear how they were exposed," Allen said. "It just looks like chlorine power, we're not sure if they spilled it."
---------------------------------------------
TINDERBOX FIRE SINGES SAFE PLEDGE
http://telegraphindia.com/1120227/jsp/jharkhand/story_15183807.jsp
Tags: India, public, fire, response, fire_extinguisher
A storeroom on the first floor of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) caught fire early on Sunday morning once again exposing glaring lapses in the state-run hospital's blaze preparedness.
An unattended mangle of wires led to the short-circuit in the storeroom, which was stocked with inflammable material like broken doors and oxidising agents like bleaching powder, around 6am.
Hospital sources have pegged the loss Ñ in terms of disinfectants, plastic buckets, drums, doors etc. Ñ at Rs 8 lakh.
Though the affected room is right next to the tuberculosis OPD, the early morning incident on a no-rush Sunday prevented a mishap of greater proportions.
The RIMS morning guard who raised the alarm said the corridors had been blurred by dense smoke, a grim reminder of the tragedy at AMRI Hospitals in Calcutta where some 90 patients suffocated to death in December last year.
"I was coming out of the toilet on the ground floor when I noticed smoke on the first floor. Within no time, the corridor in front of me was engulfed by dense smoke. I alerted everyone," he said. "Had it not been Sunday, there would have been a stampede at the OPD," he added.
According to an eyewitness, hospital employees tried to battle the blaze with outdated gear, wasting an hour in the process. A fire tender arrived around 7.30am and doused the fire in half an hour.
"Two guards brought a fire extinguisher from near the director's chamber (200 metres away). But the handheld equipment only aggravated the fire," the witness said.
Fire officials said the same was possible if the chemical in the extinguisher had expired. Further probe revealed that the fire extinguisher used by the guards had expired two years ago and the RIMS management had never bothered to refill the chemical solution.
---------------------------------------------
COMPLAINTS OF BAD SMELL LEAD RCMP TO DRUG LAB
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Complaints+smell+lead+RCMP+drug/6213006/story.html
Tags: Canada, laboratory, discovery, response, drugs
Officials began dismantling a crude residential ecstasy lab in Burnaby on the weekend after neighbours' complaints about chemical smells led to a police raid on the operation.
Three people were arrested early Saturday when the RCMP's Burnaby Drug Section and federal officers raided a home in the 100-block of Ellesmere Avenue, in Burnaby's Capitol Hill area.
A specialized cleanup team in haz-mat suits was dismantling the lab, a job that could take up to three days to complete, police said.
---------------------------------------------
LIQUID NITROGEN LEAK AT REDDITCH ENGINEERING COMPANY (FROM REDDITCH ADVERTISER)
http://www.redditchadvertiser.co.uk/news/9555702.Liquid_nitrogen_leak_at_Redditch_engineering_company/
Tags: United_Kingdom, industrial, release, response, liquid_nitrogen
A ROAD was closed and a cordon put in place after a chemical leak at an engineering company in Lakeside, Redditch.
The incident happened just after 6pm on Sunday night.
Concerned residents living near Samuel Taylor Ltd in Arthur Street had reported the incident, which involved a leak of liquid nitrogen from a large tank at the premises. Two fire crews attended along with a Hazmat (Hazardous Materials) officer, the Incident Response Unit from Droitwich and the Environmental Protection Unit from Stourport. Police also attended.
Station commander Steve Fox from Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service said: "We arrived to find a large liquid nitrogen tank venting at the base, with the liquefied gas producing a fog or vapour cloud in the cold night air.
"We liaised closely with the owners of the factory as we assessed the level of risk, and set up a road closure and a cordon around the premises as a precautionary measure.
---------------------------------------------
HAZMAT CALLED TO MISSION VALLEY RESTAURANT
http://www.10news.com/news/30544081/detail.html
Tags: us_CA, public, release, response, pepper_spray
It turned out, it wasn't just an odor. There was something else in the restroom.
"They described a yellow spray pattern on the wall, something that looks like it got sprayed all over the wall and the toilet," said San Diego Fire & Rescue Captain Chuck Adams.
The Hazmat team conducted tests, and determined that the substance was pepper spray.
---------------------------------------------
CONTAMINATION HAUNTS HOLLEY 10 YEARS LATER
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120225/NEWS01/302250032
Tags: us_NY, industrial, follow-up, environmental, drugs, pharmaceutical
Wearing pajamas and holding their breath against the gagging stench of a spill at the chemical plant two doors down, Victor and Theresa Flow fled their Jackson Street home on Jan. 5, 2002, and headed to the fresh air and shelter of a nearby hotel.
It wasn't the first time a potentially toxic release from the Diaz Chemical Corp., a manufacturer of specialty chemicals for pharmaceutical and other industries, forced the elderly couple out of their house in the dead of night.
But it was the last.
More than a decade after the spill Ñ and more than $10 million in federal toxic cleanup program money spent so far removing chemicals from the site Ñ it is still unclear what, if any, long-term health hazards the company's decades-long history of air and water pollution might pose to Holley residents.
---------------------------------------------
METH LAB EXPLOSION SHAKES GREENFIELD, METH HAS LASTING EFFECTS ON PEOPLE AND TOWNS
http://ozarksfirst.com/fulltext?nxd_id=609262
Tags: us_MO, public, explosion, response, meth_lab
Springfield) -- Dade County authorities are still looking for two people escaping from a meth lab explosion last night in Greenfield.
The Greenfield Police Department responded to a 911 call from a home on Maple Street.
Neighbors say they saw two people leaving the scene after the explosion.
Neighbors also say the explosion shook their homes last night.
Now, the aftermath could mean long term effects for a small town west of Springfield.Greenfield resident Heather White grew up in this small town with just over a thousand people, it's rural and a quiet community, but the house explosion shocked neighbors. "I ran out the door and there was nothing going on until all of a sudden every light and cameras it seemed like, but it was devastating to know it was the neighbors house," said White.
---------------------------------------------
CHLORINE CAUSES EVACUATION OF SEYMOUR HIGH SCHOOL (VIDEO)- THE NEW HAVEN REGISTER
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2012/02/24/news/valley/doc4f47ba6abc164002044326.txt
Tags: us_CT, education, discovery, response, pool_chemicals
SEYMOUR Ñ A bulging bottle of chlorine used to clean Seymour High School's swimming pool forced the evacuation of students and staff Friday, and ultimately an early dismissal.
School had opened two hours late Friday because of the morning snow, and then closed after a custodian noticed one of the chlorine bottles delivered Friday morning was defective.
There were no injuries during the incident.
According to Director of Security Richard Kearns, the school went into lockdown at around 10:45 a.m. Students and staff then were sent into the steel track and field shed near DeBarber Field for shelter and warmth. Eventually, they went into the school gym, where they waited for the buses to take them home.
---------------------------------------------
FREON LEAK CAUSES EVACUATION OF SACRAMENTO SAFEWAY
http://www.news10.net/news/local/article/180644/2/9-people-sick-after-explosion-at-Sacramento-Safeway
Tags: us_CA, public, release, injury, freon
SACRAMENTO, CA - A Freon leak inside a Sacramento Safeway on 19th and R streets caused an evacuation of the store Friday around 7:45 p.m.
Safeway employees in the deli section reported smelling something strange and seeing a foggy air near the refrigerator, Sacramento City Fire Capt. Robin Davis said.
PHOTOS: Explosion heard at Sacramento Safeway
A Hazmat team tested 19 people who reported smelling the Freon and released them when no sickness was detected.
"They were just feeling ill like diziness or nausia. Each of them had different complaints," Davis said. "All of them were checked out by our medical units on scene and released."
---------------------------------------------
SCIENCE BLOG: A "LESSON LEARNED"--BUT THIS TIME, THANKFULLY, NOT THE HARD WAY
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/sciencecareers/2012/02/a-lesson-learne.html
Tags: us_CA, laboratory, explosion, response
Failure to maintain equipment properly has apparently resulted in another academic lab safety incident, but one that, fortunately, caused no injuries, reports Jyllian Kemsley at Chemical & Engineering News. On 23 January, undergraduates in a physical chemistry class at the University of California, Davis, were working with a piece of equipment called a bomb calorimeter when it exploded. (Despite its name, that is not supposed to happen.) The lid of the metal instrument was "forcibly propelled upward" until it hit the ceiling and other metal fragments and pieces of a mercury thermometer were sprayed into the room, according to a report on the event by a university chemical hygiene officer.
Entitled "Lesson Learned, UC Davis Chemistry Event, Oxygen Bomb Calorimeter Failure," the report attributes the explosion most probably to the failure of a valve seat within the calorimeter. The manufacturer, the report states, "recommends that all O-rings and valve seats be replaced annually or after 5000 firings....With proper maintenance, these particular calorimeters can operate safely and accurately for decades." The machine's serial number "indicates that it was manufactured in 1985," but "there are no records of routine maintenance" of the device however.
---------------------------------------------
BOTTLING PLANT, BAKERY EVACUATED FOR AMMONIA LEAK
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Bottling-plant-bakery-evacuated-for-ammonia-leak-3357234.php
Tags: us_TX, industrial, release, response, ammonia
No one was injured Thursday when an ammonia leak at the Pepsi bottling plant on the Northeast Side caused the evacuation of two businesses.
San Antonio Fire Department Captain Troy Teague said the leak was called in around 3 p.m. and hazardous materials teams walked through the Pepsi facility and the neighboring Butter Krust Bakery to monitor the air quality.
By about 4:30 p.m., the scene was cleared and the evacuated employees were allowed to return.
A safety valve on a tank released the poisonous gas at the Pepsi plant but the plant's ventilation system moved it outside near the air conditioning intake for the bakery, Teague said.
---------------------------------------------
5 INJURED IN PROPANE EXPLOSION
http://www.theolympian.com/2012/02/23/2002354/5-injured-in-propane-explosion.html
Tags: us_WA, transportation, explosion, injury, propane
MUKILTEO, Wash. - A propane tank has exploded near a construction site near Mukilteo, injuring five people.
Snohomish County Fire District spokesman Leslie Hynes said a 1,000 gallon tank was being loaded on a truck to be taken from the construction site when it blew up Thursday. Five people were being transported to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Witnesses reported hearing explosions about 11 a.m. that rattled windows.
Mukilteo School District officials say the explosion was about a mile from Picnic Point Elementary. Authorities warned those at the school that debris may still be in the air nearby. Students would not be allowed outside onto the playfields.
---------------------------------------------
OIL TANK BLAST SHAKES GALVESTON, TEXAS
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/24/10493807-oil-tank-blast-shakes-galveston-texas
Tags: us_TX, industrial, explosion, injury, biodiesel
GALVESTON, Texas -- A crude oil tank exploded and burned at a biodiesel plant on the waterfront docks in Galveston, Texas, rattling the island city Thursday.
KPRC reported that about 35 firefighters were called in to tackle the three-alarm blaze.
A worker was treated for smoke inhalation but no other injuries were reported, city spokeswoman Alicia Cahill told The Associated Press.
Cahill said one tank burned after the 7:30 p.m. (8:30 p.m. ET) Thursday explosion, but firefighters worked to keep neighboring tanks cool.
Speaking to KPRC, Cahill said boiling crude oil fed the flames -- which made the fire difficult to contain.
A shelter-in-place order for nearby Texas A&M University at Galveston was lifted after two hours, and the nearby traffic arteries and bridge to Pelican Island were opened by midnight.
---------------------------------------------
6-MILLION-GALLON OIL SPILL IN NJ SENDS ODOR TO DEL., MD.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20120224/NEWS/120224015/6-million-gallon-oil-spill-NJ-sends-odor-Del-Md-?gcheck=1&nclick_check=1
Tags: us_NJ, industrial, release, response, oils
Workers at a New Jersey refinery are busy cleaning up a 6-million-gallon oil spill that is producing odors as far away as Delaware and Maryland, officials say.
The oil spilled from a 12-million-gallon tank at the PBF Energy-owned Paulsboro Refining Co. at Greenwich, N.J., across the Delaware River from Philadelphia Airport.
A company spokesman says the tank sprung a leak around 1:30 p.m. Thursday but it all was contained in a dike on site and did not make it into the Delaware River.
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