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Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Friday, October 31, 2014 at 7:25:45 AM
A service of the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety
All article summaries and tags are archived at http://pinboard.in/u:dchas
Table of Contents (15 articles)
EPA BILL GROWS IN KNOXVILLE COLLEGE CLEANUP
Tags: us_TN, laboratory, discovery, response, unknown_chemical
FIRST HUMAN CLINICAL TRIAL OF 'C DOTS' HIGHLIGHTS THEIR SAFETY
Tags: us_NY, public, discovery, response, drugs, nanotech, radiation
REPORT: DANGEROUS LAB FIRES SHOW LACK OF TRAINING
Tags: us_CO, education, follow-up, injury, flammables, methanol
HAZMAT TEAM CALLED TO MALL AFTER WOMAN SCREAMS SHE HAS EBOLA
Tags: us_MD, public, discovery, environmental, biococern
MORATORIUM HURTS IMPORTANT RESEARCH
Tags: laboratory, follow-up, environmental, biotech
CABINET APPROVES RATIFICATION OF BIO-SAFETY PROTOCOL ‰?? TIMES OF INDIA
Tags: India, public, discovery, environmental, biotech
WARREN ANDERSON WANTED IN BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY DIES
Tags: public, discovery, environmental
STUDY: HANFORD WORKERS NEED PROTECTION FROM BRIEF, INTENSE CHEMICAL EXPOSURES
Tags: us_WA, industrial, follow-up, response, waste
PLANE DUMPS CHEMICAL ON FLORIDA MAN'S CAR, LAWN
Tags: us_FL, public, release, response, unknown_chemical, ag_chems, pesticides
U.S. CHEMICAL SAFETY BOARD
Tags: laboratory, follow-up, injury, flammables, methanol
UEA DISPOSE OF CHEMICALS TO PREVENT REPEAT OF LABORATORY FIRE
Tags: United_Kingdom, laboratory, follow-up, injury, waste
SUPREME COURT REJECTS CHINESE APPEALS OVER DEADLY CHEMICAL ARMS LEAKS
Tags: Japan, public, follow-up, death, unknown_chemical
SEVENTY FIREFIGHTERS TACKLE HADLEIGH CHEMICAL WAREHOUSE BLAZE
Tags: United_Kingdom, industrial, fire, response, unknown_chemical
HAZMAT CALLED TO COLTON DIESEL SPILL
Tags: us_OR, transportation, release, injury, diesel
DON'T TOUCH DEBRIS! ANTARES EXPLOSION LEAVES HIGHLY TOXIC ELEMENTS BEYOND HAZARD AREA ‰?? RT USA
Tags: us_VA, transportation, explosion, response, unknown_chemical
---------------------------------------------
EPA BILL GROWS IN KNOXVILLE COLLEGE CLEANUP
Tags: us_TN, laboratory, discovery, response, unknown_chemical
It has cost the federal government $425,776 so far to clean up the thousands of chemicals abandoned in a vacant science building on the Knoxville College campus.
---------------------------------------------
FIRST HUMAN CLINICAL TRIAL OF 'C DOTS' HIGHLIGHTS THEIR SAFETY
Tags: us_NY, public, discovery, response, drugs, nanotech, radiation
Nanoparticles designed to adhere to and light up cancer cells have reached a major milestone in their bench-to-bedside journey. A first clinical trial of these ultrasmall, multifunctional particles has deemed them safe for humans and cleared easily by the body.
The particles, called ‰??C dots‰?? (Cornell dots), were invented more than a decade ago by Uli Wiesner, the Spencer T. Olin Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. They have been undergoing a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Investigational New Drug (IND) human clinical trial since 2010. The results of that study, which involved five patients with melanoma, were published Oct. 29 in Science Translational Medicine and featured on the journal‰??s cover.
For the trial, which has been conducted at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York City, the 7-nanometer particles were labeled with radioactive iodine and injected into patients with metastatic melanoma. The iodine allowed the particles to be tracked with positron emission tomography (PET). Administered under the FDA‰??s IND guidelines, the study showed that the particles are safe for human use and leave no trace after renal excretion ‰?? an important benchmark for any substance undergoing IND approval. The trial has been amended to include patients with brain tumors, and those patients are being recruited now.
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REPORT: DANGEROUS LAB FIRES SHOW LACK OF TRAINING
Tags: us_CO, education, follow-up, injury, flammables, methanol
DENVER (AP) ‰?? Science teachers need more safety training before running dazzling chemical experiments that can result in dangerous flash fires, according to a recommendation Thursday from a federal board charged with investigating such accidents.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board reviewed three fires stemming from science demonstrations during the last two months. The incidents in Nevada, Colorado and Illinois inflicted burns on students and adults when methanol caught fire while an educator was attempting a demonstration.
Federal investigators say the fires had common problems: The demonstrators lacked proper safety training, and they used flammable chemicals in greater quantities than necessary. No safety barriers such as a clear shield were used between the experiment and the audience.
The fires caused painful injuries but no deaths.
---------------------------------------------
HAZMAT TEAM CALLED TO MALL AFTER WOMAN SCREAMS SHE HAS EBOLA
Tags: us_MD, public, discovery, environmental, biococern
Hazmat teams responded to at Maryland mall Thursday evening when a woman yelled she had Ebola as police were trying to arrest her.
Local police were trying to serve a warrant on her at the Westfield Wheaton Mall, when she screamed she had the deadly disease.
Officials say the woman has no symptoms and had not been on any Ebola watch lists.
A Hazmat team responded as a precaution, and it's unknown whether the woman will face additional charges.
---------------------------------------------
MORATORIUM HURTS IMPORTANT RESEARCH
Tags: laboratory, follow-up, environmental, biotech
In response to safety incidents at federal laboratories, the White House recently announced that it will temporarily stop funding new experiments that attempt to increase the infectiousness of disease-causing agents, referred to as ‰??gain-of-function‰?? research. The announcement urged similar ongoing projects working with influenza, SARS and MERS viruses to pause their research while the White House deliberates. This moratorium will be in effect until the adoption of an official policy regarding this type of research, which is not expected until 2015. The publication of specific mutations that increase pathogenicity has been controversial in the past but, whether published or not, this type of next-generation research should be pursued.
Several significant biosafety accidents have provoked censure of safety practices in labs handling these pathogens. Earlier this month, vials of smallpox, a disease thought to be entirely eradicated besides the known and secure samples, were found in a National Institutes of Health lab after being for- gotten for 60 years. Several months ago, a separate Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention lab potentially exposed dozens of employees to anthrax, a deadly bacteria known for use in bioterrorism. These were not isolated incidents, and they have prompted due criticism. At- tempts to increase pathogenicity of the H5N1 avian flu strain have also received heavy criticism, citing the potential of gain-of-function re- search for use in bioterrorism and the current breaches in biosafety as risks for human infection.
When dealing with matters of public safety, caution is necessary and safety violations are inexcus- able. As such, the moratorium has been considered by many a very sensible decision that will even- tually produce a better system of oversight. The government may also decide to permanently halt funding for the risky, but important, gain-of-function studies, how- ever. This is a condemnable course of action.
---------------------------------------------
CABINET APPROVES RATIFICATION OF BIO-SAFETY PROTOCOL ‰?? TIMES OF INDIA
Tags: India, public, discovery, environmental, biotech
NEW DELHI: India will ratify a protocol which promotes innovation in agricultural and healthcare research and development that is safe for the environment, bio-diversity and human beings.The Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave its approval for ratification of the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur supplementary protocol on liability and redress to the Cartagena protocol on bio-safety.The protocol provides international rules and procedure on liability and redress for damage to biodiversity resulting from living modified organisms.It would promote sound application of biotechnology making it possible to accrue benefits arising from modern biotechnology while minimizing the risk to the environment and human health. ‰??The proposal will protect the interests of all Indians without distinction or differentiation,‰?? said an official statement.The proposal is based on the principles of the Convention on Biological Diversity and Cartagena Protocol on Bio-safety, both internationally negotiated and b!
inding legal instruments.The objective of the supplementary protocol is to contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, taking also into account risks to human health, by providing international rules and procedures in the field of liability and redress relating to living modified organisms.http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/followceleb.cms?alias=bio-safety">http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/followceleb.cms?alias=bio-safety protocol,Nagoya-Kuala LumpurStay updated on the go with The Times of India‰??s mobile apps. Click here to download it for your device.
---------------------------------------------
WARREN ANDERSON WANTED IN BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY DIES
Tags: public, discovery, environmental
Former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson, wanted in India in connection with the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy has died aged 92.
Anderson died on September 29 at a nursing home in Vero Beach, Florida but his death was not announced by his family and was confirmed from public records, the New York Times reported.
The Indian government made multiple requests to extradite him, and officially labelled him a fugitive. A judge also called him an ‰??absconder‰??.
Anderson reached Bhopal four days after the accident, where he was immediately arrested. But after quickly paying bail, he never returned to face trial.
The Bhopal horror began around midnight on December 2-3, 1984, when a chemical reaction in a plant that made insecticides caused a leak of toxic gases that swept through the surrounding community.
---------------------------------------------
STUDY: HANFORD WORKERS NEED PROTECTION FROM BRIEF, INTENSE CHEMICAL EXPOSURES
Tags: us_WA, industrial, follow-up, response, waste
Hanford‰??s tank farm contractor can do more to protect workers from brief exposures to high concentrations of chemicals, according to the just-released Hanford Tank Vapor Assessment Report.
‰??The current program is not designed to detect and is incapable of detecting and quantifying this type of transient exposure event,‰?? the report said.
Since this spring 54 workers have received medical evaluations for possible exposure to chemical vapors released from Hanford waste and all have been released to return to work.
The study team made 40 recommendations for improvements to the Hanford contractor‰??s program to monitor for vapors that are difficult to measure and document and protect workers. That includes setting exposure limits for brief exposures, as well as for eight-hour shifts.
---------------------------------------------
PLANE DUMPS CHEMICAL ON FLORIDA MAN'S CAR, LAWN
Tags: us_FL, public, release, response, unknown_chemical, ag_chems, pesticides
BROOKSVILLE, Fla. -- A crop duster plane accidentally sprayed chemicals on a Florida man's car and lawn.
The Hernando County Sheriff's Office says a homeowner came outside after hearing a plane flying overhead. When he went to investigate he noticed his car covered in an unknown substance that possibly came from the aircraft.
Deputies reported a light-blue substance that covered approximately 1,000 square feet of the man's yard, including a vehicle that was parked in the front driveway.
Herando County Fire Rescue's hazmat team was sent to investigate the substance. The homeowner was evaluated and medically cleared on scene.
Hazmat did a thorough washdown of the man's vehicle and property.
It was later determined that a crop duster dropped a non-poisonous substance which contained copper, a fungicide and algaecide after a mishap.
The plane was en route to spray near-by blueberry farm and a bird struck the plane's spraying mechanism causing it to expel prematurely, according to Sheriff's officials.
The plane's owner contacted the homeowner and planned to visit the residence to pressure wash the driveway and cleanup any mess that remained.
---------------------------------------------
U.S. CHEMICAL SAFETY BOARD
Tags: laboratory, follow-up, injury, flammables, methanol
October 30, 2014, Denver, CO ‰?? Today the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) released a safety bulletin called ‰??Key Lessons for Preventing Incidents from Flammable Chemicals in Educational Demonstrations‰?? based on three recent serious incidents in Nevada, Colorado, and Illinois where children were burned while observing laboratory demonstrations involving flammable liquid methanol.
The first incident described in the CSB safety bulletin is the September 3, 2014, accident at the Terry Lee Wells Discovery Museum, known as ‰??The Discovery,‰?? in Reno, Nevada, where thirteen people, most of them children, were injured. Two CSB investigators were deployed to the site and interviewed personnel who were directly involved.
Just 12 days after the fire in Nevada, a second similar accident occurred on September 15th at the SMART Academy in Denver, Colorado, severely burning a 16-year-old high school student. Most recently, on October 20, 2014, less than five weeks after the incident at SMART, three Cub Scouts and one adult were injured during a demonstration using methanol at a Cub Scout event in Raymond, Illinois.
---------------------------------------------
UEA DISPOSE OF CHEMICALS TO PREVENT REPEAT OF LABORATORY FIRE
Tags: United_Kingdom, laboratory, follow-up, injury, waste
A UEA spokesman said: ‰??Following the incident in the Chemistry Building at UEA last week and as part of the university‰??s ongoing housekeeping in ensuring safety for all, the Science faculty is taking steps to minimise its holdings of certain chemicals and materials.
‰??The University frequently disposes of waste and unwanted chemicals using specialist contractors. Part of this process involved the disposal by specialists of some substances on campus grounds, early today (Wednesday 29 October) at a safe distance from buildings. This is a routine procedure for the specialist company, but exceptional for UEA due to the nature of chemical being disposed of.
‰??The relevant authorities were alerted ahead of the disposal as were staff and students.‰??
The disposal was carried out ‰??a safe distance from buildings‰??.
As previously reported nine fire crews were called to tackle a fire at the chemistry lab.
They were called at 10.24am on Tuesday, October 21 and the building, on the main campus off Earlham Road, was evacuated.
A cordon was put up around the building. The fire is understood to have broken out on the third floor.
Fire crews from Carrow, Earlham, Sprowston, Hethersett, Wymondham, Wroxham, Long Stratton and Attleborough were called to the scene.
Two ambulances were called as a precaution but there are not believed to be any casualties.
---------------------------------------------
SUPREME COURT REJECTS CHINESE APPEALS OVER DEADLY CHEMICAL ARMS LEAKS
Tags: Japan, public, follow-up, death, unknown_chemical
The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Chinese plaintiffs seeking damages from Japan over a fatal poison gas leak caused when a cache of chemical weapons abandoned by the Imperial Japanese Army during the war was unearthed during construction in 2003.
The top court‰??s third petty bench, which made the decision Tuesday, rejected an appeal filed by 50 Chinese ‰?? including relatives of those involved ‰?? seeking to overturn a high court ruling that dismissed their claim.
The accident occurred at a construction site in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang province, in August 2003, when poison gas leaked from old drums unearthed at the site, killing one person and injuring 43 others.
Also Tuesday, the third petty bench rejected a separate appeal filed against a high court decision that denied Japanese government redress sought by two men who were injured by poison gas leaked from abandoned chemical weapons in Dunhua, Jilin province, in 2004.
---------------------------------------------
SEVENTY FIREFIGHTERS TACKLE HADLEIGH CHEMICAL WAREHOUSE BLAZE
Tags: United_Kingdom, industrial, fire, response, unknown_chemical
A fire has ripped through a warehouse containing household chemicals on an industrial estate in Suffolk.
A Suffolk Police spokeswoman said the force was called to the Lady Lane industrial estate in Hadleigh at 05:50 GMT. At its height, 70 firefighters were in attendance.
Earlier advice about keeping windows closed because of chemical smoke has been withdrawn, the spokeswoman said.
An investigation has been started to find out what caused the blaze.
One of the warehouses which was alight, owned by a company called Challs International, contained household cleaning products.
---------------------------------------------
HAZMAT CALLED TO COLTON DIESEL SPILL
Tags: us_OR, transportation, release, injury, diesel
COLTON, Ore. (KOIN 6) ‰?? About 190 gallons of diesel fuel seeped into a creek following a semi-truck crash in Colton Wednesday, prompting HazMat and firefighters to respond to the accident and contain the spill.
Oregon State Police say truck driver David Tucker was attempting to pass a car on Highway 211 late Tuesday afternoon. That car, driven by Silverton woman Marlene Muhs, herself attempted to pass a slower-moving car and collide into the side of the semi in the process.
Muhs‰?? car then swerved back and into the road‰??s shoulder while Tucker‰??s semi was forced off the road and into a drainage ditch. Tucker sustained minor injuries and was treated at a nearby medical center and released; Muhs was not hurt.
Emergency responders surmised the truck had ruptured its fuel tanks upon hitting a concrete culvert.
---------------------------------------------
DON'T TOUCH DEBRIS! ANTARES EXPLOSION LEAVES HIGHLY TOXIC ELEMENTS BEYOND HAZARD AREA ‰?? RT USA
Tags: us_VA, transportation, explosion, response, unknown_chemical
‰??The explosion late Tuesday of the Antares rocket, on a mission from Virginia to deliver 5,000 pounds of supplies to the International Space Station, scattered toxic wreckage beyond a protected ‰??hazard area‰?? that should be avoided, NASA has warned.
An unmanned Antares rocket exploded shortly after takeoff late Tuesday from Wallops Island, on Virginia‰??s eastern shore. Private company Orbital Science Corp.‰??s rocket was carrying the Cygnus cargo spacecraft, which held about 5,000 pounds (2,200 kilograms) of food, supplies, and other equipment, all of which were destroyed within a fireball just above NASA‰??s Wallop‰??s Flight Facility.
NASA officials said any debris found near the crash site should be reported to the space agency, as the items may be contaminated with rocket fuel or other hazardous material.
---------------------------------------------
Ralph Stuart
secretary**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Secretary
Division of Chemical Health and Safety
American Chemical Society
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