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From: "Secretary, ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety" <secretary**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety Headlines From Google 10 articles
Date: July 2, 2012 3:57:36 PM EDT
Reply-To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
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Chemical Safety Headlines =46rom Google Monday, July 2, 2012 10:22:37 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 (10 articles)
HAZMAT INCIDENTS AT PHILA, N.J. POOLS, 9 PEOPLE HOSPITALIZED Tags: us_NJ, public, release, injury, chlorine, pool_chemicals
TEPID BATHS EVACUATED AFTER CHEMICAL LEAK Tags: New_Zealand, public, release, environmental, chlorine
WAS IT BLAST OR MERE CHEMICAL REACTION? Tags: india, explosion, public, response, unknown_chemical
TEXAS TECH RECEIVES FAVORABLE REPORT FROM CHEMICAL SAFETY BOARD :: TEXAS TECH TODAY Tags: us_TX, laboratory, follow-up, response, unknown_chemical
CREWS BATTLE SOUTH MPLS BUSINESS FIRE; 1 FIREFIGHTER HOSPITALIZED Tags: us_MN, industrial, explosion, response, propane
CHEMICAL SPILL BELIEVED TO HAVE KILLED PIGS Tags: New_Zealand, public, release, response, unknown_chemical
CHEMICAL LEAK PROMPTS WINNIPEG SCHOOL EVACUATION Tags: Canada, education, release, injury, hvac_chemicals
SPONTANEOUS FIRE IN CHEMICAL YARD Tags: us_TX, industrial, fire, response, ammonium_persulfate
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY LAB EVACUATED AFTER HAZARDOUS GAS ALARM Tags: us_NJ, laboratory, release, response, unknown_chemical
18 INJURED IN ANDHRA AGROCHEMICAL PLANT FIRE Tags: India, industrial, explosion, injury, unknown_chemical
GLOUCESTER COUNTY, N.J. - June 30, 2012 (WPVI) -- At least four people have been taken to area hospitals sickened by a chlorine release at a Gloucester County swimming pool.
The injured were transported by ambulances to Underwood and Kennedy Hospitals. There is no word on conditions.
The incident is under investigation. And in Philadelphia, five people, including two children hospitalized in a similar incident at a pool in Northeast Philadelphia.
Two children and three adults were taken to Hahnemann Hospital. They are listed in stable condition.
Officials say initial investigation revealed the incident occurred at a private pool where someone had mixed pool chemicals together causing hazardous material to be released.
Calcutta, June 30: A "tin can" exploded at the Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital as a sweeper's broom hit it this morning, smashing windowpanes 10ft away in a portion of the facility that would have been teeming with outpatients in two hours.
The sweeper has been admitted to the hospital with injuries in the eye and all over his body.
The hospital authorities tried to downplay the 7am explosion, suggesting a chemical reaction involving waste may have triggered it.
"Police are yet to tell us what caused the blast. We have formed a five-member inquiry committee of doctors," said Partha Pradhan, medical superintendent of the hospital.
Health department spokesperson Asit Biswas said: "We are reviewing how to upgrade security at the hospital.."
Amit Raut, the injured sweeper, said he saw a tin can among the garbage in a corner of the outpatient department. He said the explosion occurred the moment it hit the wall after being brushed aside.
"I was clearing garbage piled in front of an electric room when the blast happened," he said.
Doctors said Raut suffered minor abrasions all over his body. "His eye injury was caused by smoke and dust," Pradhan said.
He skirted the question whether Raut had suffered splinter injuries. "The police have not found any splinters."
A forensic expert corroborated that a team that visited the hospital had "not found any splinter activity in the place of occurrence". He said the blast "appeared" to be caused by a chemical reaction.
Hospital sources dismissed suggestions that the can was a crude bomb.
"No signs of explosives have been found. Some chemical must have been dumped in the corridor and it reacted with some other chemical, resulting in the explosion," a hospital official said.
The status of the investigation into the 2010 incident at the Texas Tech University Chemistry Building that injured a graduate student has been changed to "Open-Acceptable Response" by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB).
The status change came in a letter from the CSB. In the letter, Rafael Moure-Eraso, chairperson of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, informs Texas Tech officials that "-the status change reflects the Board's determination that TTU has planned and initiated actions that appear consistent with the intent of the recommendations. We appreciate that TTU's newly established Institutional Laboratory Safety Committee is working to both revise the university's chemical hygiene plan and to develop an incident and near-miss reporting system.
Please continue to keep us abreast of TTU's efforts to implement the CSB's recommendations. We look forward to seeing TTU's revised CHP and incident and near-miss reporting system."
At least one explosion brought firefighters and hazmat crews to a south Minneapolis businessFriday night.
Authorities say the incident began shortly after 9 p.m. near the intersection of East 28th Street and Longfellow Avenue South at a business that makes asphalt.
Witnesses reported multiple explosions and a police officer told 5 EYEWITNESS News he saw flames shooting from the top of the building when he arrived on the scene.
Fire officials say stacks of wood pallets had apparently caught fire, causing several propane tanks to explode.
Firefighters were able to get the fire under control just before 11 p.m. Streets in the area were closed and buses were re-routed. The streets have since reopened.
WINNIPEG - A chemical leak at a Winnipeg elementary school prompted an evacuation and medical treatment on Friday for close to 40 staff and students following a fire in an air-conditioner.
The refrigerant fumes emitted from Victor Mager School's ventilation system caused coughing and breathing problems for dozens throughout the building on the children's last day of classes until September.
Paramedics and firefighters responded to a 911 call at about 11:20 a.m.
After 17 students were treated and released by paramedics outside the elementary school, more than 20 staff and kids were taken on two fire-paramedic major incident response vehicles to hospital in stable condition.
MIDLAND COUNTY - The West Texas summer heat turned into a deadly fire starter on Friday.
Chemplex chemical yard in Midland County was thrown into chaos just before three in the afternoon, when a nearly 30,000 lb. container holding ammonium persulfate suddenly burst into flames.
"These 100-degree temperatures and if there's a little bit of moisture and they came in contact with that moisture, it would have caused it to oxidize and catch on fire," Midland Fire Marshal, Jeff Meiner, said.
Soon another container caught fire, threatening three more bigger containers holding more dangerous chemicals like sodium persulfate.
All workers were evacuated and a quarter-mile ring around the yard was shut down with toxic smoke leaking into the air.
"The smoke from this fire is toxic," Meiner said. "It does create some chemicals. You do not want to be in the smoke."
Firefighters did get some help from Mother Nature with wind blowing the toxic smoke over to a vacant field next to the chemical yard, so that no neighboring businesses had to be evacuated.
PRINCETON BOROUGH - Approximately 100 people have been removed from a Princeton University engineering building due to a reported leak of a potentially hazardous gas, a university spokesman confirmed this evening. A Hazmat team from the Trenton Fire Department is inside at this hour, with fire and police units from the university and borough also standing by. "Right now, we are trying to determine the condition in the building," said Martin Mbugua, the university spokesman. The hazmat situation is inside the engineering quadrangle building on the first block of Olden Street, which houses the university=E2=80™s school of Engineering and Applied Science. An alarm for the gas sounded around 5:40 p.m., Mbugua said. A graduate student was working inside the fourth-floor laboratory where the alarm was triggered, but no injuries were reported to the student.
Hyderabad, June 30 - Eighteen workers of an agrochemical company were injured in a fire following an explosion at the plant in Andhra Pradesh's Srikakulam district Saturday morning, police said.
Fire broke out at Nagarjuna Agrichem Limited following an explosion in a chemical reactor in the fifth block of the plant, which produces agrochemicals. The plant is located at Chilkapalem in the Srikakulam district of north coastal Andhra, about 700 km from here.
Srikakulam district collector Vankatrami Reddy said 15 of the injured were shifted to the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) at Srikakulam while three critically injured were taken to Visakhapatnam.
About 200 employees were reportedly working at the plant at the time of the incident. The workers ran in panic after the chemical reactor exploded. Company officials said the fire broke out during tea break which saved many lives.
Dense black smoke engulfed the entire area including nearby villages and the national highway. Some villages were evacuated as a precautionary measure. Fire tenders from neighbouring districts rushed to the scene and prevented the flames from spreading to other blocks.
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