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Previous by Date: Subject: [DCHAS-L] Nickel Nanoparticles: A Case of Sensitization Associated with Occupational Exposure Date: Monday, June 2, 2014 7:14:13 AM Author: Ralph Stuart <rstuartcih**At_Symbol_Here**me.com> |
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**At_Symbol_Here**ACSDCHAS and **At_Symbol_Here**LabSustain tweets and Chemical Safety Headlines
Links to the headlines below can be found at the http://www.dchas.org/newsflash
Table of Contents (10 articles)
CHEMICAL SAFETY BOARD IS DOWN TO TWO MEMBERS
Tags: industrial, follow-up, environmental
HONEY OIL LAB CAUSED EXPLOSION AND FIRE; TWO TAKEN TO UC DAVIS WITH BURNS
Tags: us_CA, public, explosion, injury, butane
FIRE OFFICIALS SAY MARIETTA CHEMICAL WAREHOUSE SHOWS PROBLEMS
Tags: us_GA, industrial, follow-up, environmental, unknown_chemical
NIOSH SCIENCE BLOG ? NICKEL NANOPARTICLES: A CASE OF SENSITIZATION ASSOCIATED WITH OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE
Tags: laboratory, release, response, dust, nanotech
EXPLOSION IN OWASSO LEADS POLICE TO HUGE CACHE OF BOMB MAKING MAT
Tags: us_OK, public, explosion, injury, bomb, explosives
INDUSTRY GROUPS LOBBYING PORTIONS OF WEST VIRGINIA SPILL BILL DURING RULEMAKING PROCESS
Tags: us_WV, industrial, follow-up, environmental
POSSIBLE CHEMICAL EXPOSURE IN FAYETTE COUNTY WATER SYSTEM
Tags: us_WV, public, release, injury, unknown_chemical
FIRE CREWS INVESTIGATE CHEMICAL SPILL IN HUMBER RIVER
Tags: Canada, public, release, response, solvent
ISU?S SWEENEY HALL CLOSED AFTER FIRE
Tags: us_IA, education, fire, response, unknown_chemical
POLICE: CHEMICAL SPILL IN SWANTON WAS AN INSIDE JOB
Tags: us_VT, public, follow-up, injury, unknown_chemical
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CHEMICAL SAFETY BOARD IS DOWN TO TWO MEMBERS
Tags: industrial, follow-up, environmental
After serving a little more than a year, Beth Rosenberg has resigned from the Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) and will return to Tufts University School of Medicine to resume her career as a professor. The five-member board?when fully occupied?is now down to two people: Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso, previously a faculty member in the School of Health & Environment at the University of Massachusetts, and Mark Griffon, a chemist who has worked in the private and public sectors.
Rosenberg says she will be more effective in promoting worker safety issues at Tufts than at CSB. She tells C&EN she will work on demonstrating that worker fatigue and lack of maintenance often contribute to industrial accidents. CSB investigations have pointed out these problems, she says, but the board, in her view, did not emphasize them adequately.
Earlier this year, Rosenberg and Griffon split from Moure-Eraso over a controversial recommendation for a ?safety case? approach to industrial regulation, thus exposing a deep rift on the board.
The safety case system is used in the U.K. and other countries and is based on input from industry, labor unions, and government. Rosenberg says that application of the system in the U.S. would be a gift to corporations because the labor movement and government enforcement are too weak to provide an effective counterbalance to industry.
?It is important to me to have open debate,? Rosenberg says, ?and the safety case disagreement is an example of what is wrong.? The board has too little dialogue among members, she says, and ?no meeting of the minds as how to proceed.?
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HONEY OIL LAB CAUSED EXPLOSION AND FIRE; TWO TAKEN TO UC DAVIS WITH BURNS
Tags: us_CA, public, explosion, injury, butane
OROVILLE >> An explosion that blew out windows and started an apartment fire Saturday was started by a butane honey oil laboratory, police say.
Brandon Allen Clark, 20, suffered third-degree burns when the lab blew up in Clark's apartment at 54 Grand Ave. shortly after noon, said Sgt. John Bruschi of the Oroville Police Department. Clark and a 19-year-old man were taken by helicopter to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento with third-degree burns.
Police are still investigating the 19-year-old's involvement in the explosion and the lab, but police think he was in the apartment at the time of the explosion, Bruschi said. Neither Clark nor the other injured man have been charged.
There were small children living next door and children playing in the neighborhood, Bruschi said. Clark and the 19-year-old are lucky to be alive.
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FIRE OFFICIALS SAY MARIETTA CHEMICAL WAREHOUSE SHOWS PROBLEMS
Tags: us_GA, industrial, follow-up, environmental, unknown_chemical
June 01--As flames and explosions consumed a Marietta chemical warehouse days ago, authorities assured the public that nothing toxic was being spewed into the night sky.
But they didn't really know.
The fire burned for at least two hours before anyone checked for dangerous emissions. And it took about four hours for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to begin more extensive air testing that might have detected chemicals kept at the warehouse.
That delay was crucial. It could have left time for a witch's brew of chemicals to billow out to surrounding neighborhoods, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution examination found.
While officials say they didn't detect toxic fumes, experts say that chemicals are most likely to escape in the beginning stages of a fire. Once a building is fully engulfed, as happened at the Amrep warehouse a week ago, the chemicals have been incinerated.
"We honestly don't know what chemicals were released," said Battalion Chief Scott Demkowski, who coordinated the Cobb County fire department's hazmat team during the May 23 fire.
The blaze exposed a vulnerability in protecting populations against catastrophes at industrial sites, where it is imperative not only to fight the fire but also to quickly assess the threat from emissions.
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NIOSH SCIENCE BLOG ? NICKEL NANOPARTICLES: A CASE OF SENSITIZATION ASSOCIATED WITH OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE
Tags: laboratory, release, response, dust, nanotech
In an article published online May 8, 2014 by the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, researchers W. Shane Journeay, Ph.D., M.D., and Rose H. Goldman, M.D., MPH, report the case of a worker who developed sensitization to nickel when working with nickel nanoparticle powder.
According to the details of the case presented by Journeay and Goldman: ?A 26-year-old female chemist formulated polymers and coatings usually using silver ink particles. When she later began working with nickel nanoparticle powder weighed out and handled on a lab bench with no protective measures, she developed throat irritation, nasal congestion, ?post nasal drip,? facial flushing, and new skin reactions to her earrings and belt buckle which were temporally related to working with the nanoparticles.?The abstract continues, ?Subsequently she was found to have a positive reaction to nickel on the T.R.U.E. patch test, and a normal range FEV1 that increased by 16% post bronchodilator.?1
Journeay and Goldman add valuable new scientific evidence to the ongoing base of knowledge about the need for a proactive approach to addressing potential occupational health and safety implications of nanomaterials in the burgeoning global nanotechnology industry. Case studies by alert clinicians are important to NIOSH and its partners in assessing risks posed by occupational exposure to nanomaterials, and in making recommendations for appropriate risk-management practices.
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EXPLOSION IN OWASSO LEADS POLICE TO HUGE CACHE OF BOMB MAKING MAT
Tags: us_OK, public, explosion, injury, bomb, explosives
?At approximately 1030 hours on Saturday, May 31st, 2014 Owasso Police and Fire Departments responded to a disturbance/explosion at a private residence in the 11500 block North of 131st East Avenue in the Falls at Garrett Creek housing addition of Owasso, where a male party was reported by nearby residents to be severely injured.
Upon arrival Officers located 2 subjects, one with severe trauma to his hands and arms outside the home and indications of a fire coming from inside. Officers initially attempted to enter the home to search for further victims but were quickly overcome by chemical fumes and retreated back outside the residence. Upon the Fire Departments arrival, 2 victims were rushed to a Tulsa hospital. Fire Officials issued an evacuation order of nearby homes due to the strong chemical smell in the area, which Owasso Police carried out.
Due to the circumstances Officers of the Owasso Police Clandestine Laboratory Team, specially trained and equipped to deal with chemical incidents, quickly entered the home to evaluate the scene. These Officers reported no chemical lab present in the home, but reported the presence of commercial grade mortar tubes, large amounts of gunpowder and metal cylindrical devices suggesting homemade explosive devices were being manufactured, all in plain view.
Further, the overwhelming chemical smell in the area was attributed to burnt sulphur from the explosion. In order to ensure the safety of nearby residents and homes the Tulsa Bomb Squad was summoned to handle the explosive devices.
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INDUSTRY GROUPS LOBBYING PORTIONS OF WEST VIRGINIA SPILL BILL DURING RULEMAKING PROCESS
Tags: us_WV, industrial, follow-up, environmental
CHARLESTON, West Virginia ? Months after state officials approved a law to safeguard against chemical spills, West Virginia industry groups want some requirements delayed and some of their storage tanks shielded from added oversight.
Though the new 95-page law becomes effective next week, stakeholders are still lobbying to shape how aboveground storage tank regulations will apply. The wide-spanning law has a variety of deadlines.
Officials scrambled to craft the protective law when a January spill coincided with their state legislative session. A leaky Freedom Industries tank contaminated the water supply with a little-known coal-cleaning chemical, prompting a water-use ban for 300,000 people for days.
Environmental regulators now have to craft a slew of tank rules, including specifics on inspections, fees, monitoring, reporting and last-resort containment wall requirements.
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POSSIBLE CHEMICAL EXPOSURE IN FAYETTE COUNTY WATER SYSTEM
Tags: us_WV, public, release, injury, unknown_chemical
FAYETTEVILLE -
Crews responded to a possible Hazmat exposure call around 5:30 on Saturday in Fayette County.
The chemical exposure happened at the Hill Manor apartments in Fayetteville 911 Dispatchers say the exposure originated in the apartment's water system.
A woman was exposed, but she is now in stable condition. The Fayettville Fire department and Jan Care responded.
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FIRE CREWS INVESTIGATE CHEMICAL SPILL IN HUMBER RIVER
Tags: Canada, public, release, response, solvent
Fire crews are investigating a chemical spill in the Humber River in Toronto?s west end.
More than 40 firefighters were called to the scene near Albion and Weston roads around 7 p.m. Saturday evening after a man passing by the river spotted a slick on the water.
Fire crews traced the substance to a storm drain near Islington Road.
Toronto Fire Service district chief John Zovak told CP24 that crews were able to isolate the spill, and that the substance appeared to dissipate in the water.
Zovak said crews were working to identify the substance and its origin.
?We believe it?s a polar solvent that was dumped into one of the storm drains in the city,? he said.
---------------------------------------------
ISU?S SWEENEY HALL CLOSED AFTER FIRE
Tags: us_IA, education, fire, response, unknown_chemical
Officials are still working to find the cause of a fire that started in the mechanical penthouse on the roof of Iowa State University?s Sweeney Hall early Friday morning.
The fire damaged a 100-foot by 50-foot section of the roof and caused extensive smoke and water damage, officials said.
The Ames Fire and ISU Police departments responded to the fire shortly after 5 a.m. when an automatic fire alarm went off in the building, said ISU spokeswoman Annette Hacker. No one was injured in the fire.
A portion of Bissell Road was closed for a period of time while firefighters worked on the building.
By 8:30 a.m., firefighters, except for investigators, had cleared the scene, said Ames Fire Cmdr. Tom Hackett.
Sweeney Hall houses ISU?s Chemical and Biological Engineering Department.
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POLICE: CHEMICAL SPILL IN SWANTON WAS AN INSIDE JOB
Tags: us_VT, public, follow-up, injury, unknown_chemical
SWANTON, Vt. -
Police say last week's chemical spill in Swanton was an inside job.
State police arrested Neal Burgoyne in connection to the suspicious chemical spill.
The 31-year-old is accused of mixing chemicals in a garbage can at the Tractor Supply Store in Swanton where he worked.
It created a toxic gas that forced the store to be evacuated and sent multiple people to the hospital.
Burgoyne's been charged with Reckless Endangerment and Disorderly Conduct.
He was cited and released. He's due in court in July.
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