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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 (12 articles)
Date: Fri, 8 May 2015 08:02:16 -0400
Reply-To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Message-ID: 4806376B-A1A0-4500-948C-D270D5A92D08**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Friday, May 8, 2015 at 8:01:57 AM
A membership benefit 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 (12 articles)
CHEMICAL FACTORY FINED FOR TENGGER DESERT DUMPING
Tags: China, industrial, discovery, environmental, dye, waste
FIREFIGHTERS RECOVERING FROM HAMILTON HAZMAT SITUATION
Tags: us_NJ, public, fire, injury, chlorine
TWO UT BUILDINGS EVACUATED FOLLOWING HAZMAT SITUATION
Tags: us_OH, laboratory, fire, response, unknown_chemical
EDMONDS COMMUNITY COLLEGE BUILDING EVACUATED DUE TO ODOR
Tags: us_WA, education, release, response, unknown_chemical
2 WORKERS KILLED WHEN OIL TANK EXPLODES AT HOME NEAR WESTCHESTER SCHOOL: OFFICIAL
Tags: us_NY, public, explosion, death, unknown_chemical
HOLCOMB HIGH SCHOOL EVACUATED FOLLOWING CHEMICAL REACTION, FLASH FIRE
Tags: us_KS, laboratory, fire, response, unknown_chemical
GUANGDONG‰??S ENVIRONMENTAL BODY KICKS OFF ASSESSMENTS ON CHEMICAL PROJECTS
Tags: China, public, follow-up, environmental, xylene
UNDER PRESSURE, UNIVERSITIES TAKE A RENEWED SHOT AT IMPROVING LAB SAFETY
Tags: laboratory, discovery, response
13 FIREFIGHTERS HOSPITALIZED AFTER FIGHTING FIRE IN HAMILTON GARAGE CONTAINING CHLORINE
Tags: us_NJ, public, fire, injury, chlorine
DENMARK ACCUSES TOTAL OF USING UNAUTHORIZED CHEMICAL, HALTS FRACKING
Tags: Denmark, public, discovery, environmental, other_chemical
CSX ANNOUNCES CHEMICAL SAFETY EXCELLENCE AWARDS
Tags: transportation, discovery, environmental
NITRATES FROM AGRICULTURE A 'GROWING THREAT' TO MINNESOTA DRINKING WATER
Tags: us_MN, industrial, discovery, environmental, other_chemical
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CHEMICAL FACTORY FINED FOR TENGGER DESERT DUMPING
Tags: China, industrial, discovery, environmental, dye, waste
A chemical factory and its legal representative in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region have been punished for dumping untreated waste in the Tengger Desert, according to state media reports.
According to the report, Mingsheng Dye Chemical has been fined over $US800,000, while the company‰??s legal representative was given an 18 month sentence with a two-year reprieve and a 50,000 yuan fine.
The company had already been shut down in September after it was discovered it had been illegally dumping industrial waste for the past 8 years, threatening the local groundwater supply.
The Tengger Desert is the fourth-largest desert in China, located in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and central Gansu province.
The decision follows the suspension of a chemical factory in the northwest Chinese province of Gansu in April. Ronghua Industry & Trade was fined around $US48 million and had its operations suspended after it was found illegally discharging waste water into the desert.
A number of top environmental officials were also suspended in the province after it was found they had failed to properly monitor the polluting companies.
China‰??s Ministry of Environmental Protection has stepped up its watchdog role of late, launching 73,000 investigations last year, an increase of 10.5 per cent on the previous year.
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FIREFIGHTERS RECOVERING FROM HAMILTON HAZMAT SITUATION
Tags: us_NJ, public, fire, injury, chlorine
HAMILTON TWP., N.J. (WPVI) -- Dozens of firefighters are still recovering after being sickened while battling a blaze in Hamilton Township.
On Wednesday afternoon on South Broad Street, a backyard fire raged, consuming two garages, a workshop and a shed.
....
A container of chlorine for homeowner Karin Weaver's pool was inside the shed where the fire was roaring.
She was on the way to Newark Airport when police called to tell her about the fire.
"He said 'when the firefighters hit it with the water the chlorine went into the air and now we have a hazmat situation,'" Weaver said.
The chlorine sickened some first responders.
In all, 45 firefighters, police officers, and EMTs were taken to area hospitals to be checked out.
Hamilton Fire Chief Tom Gribbin was admitted overnight with respiratory issues.
"Like a bad sore throat at first and then my chest just kind of felt like, not on fire, but it was a burning sensation in my chest," Gribbin said.
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TWO UT BUILDINGS EVACUATED FOLLOWING HAZMAT SITUATION
Tags: us_OH, laboratory, fire, response, unknown_chemical
TOLEDO ‰?? Two buildings on the University of Toledo campus have been evacuated following a report of a chemical reaction in a lab.
The two buildings evacuated are Wolfe Hall and Bowman-Oddy Laboratories. The chemical reaction is said to have occurred at 1:30 p.m. in the lab of the second floor of Wolfe Hall.
According to authorities, two students were cleaning cabinets when two chemicals mixed causing a reaction and a small fire. The fire was contained to one room and a vapor cloud developed.
The incident was reported to university police who decided to evacuate both buildings. It is not known how many students were in the buildings at the time. No injuries have been reported.
The university says Wolfe Hall will remain closed for the remainder of the day but scheduled to re-open Friday morning.
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EDMONDS COMMUNITY COLLEGE BUILDING EVACUATED DUE TO ODOR
Tags: us_WA, education, release, response, unknown_chemical
LYNNWOOD, Wash. - A building on the Edmonds Community College campus was evacuated Thursday morning due to a strong odor, fire officials said.
A hazmat team responded to the campus at around 6 a.m. after receiving reports that a noxious smell in Snohomish Hall was making people sick. Everyone was evacuated from the hall as hazmat responders began ventilating the building.
Two or three people told firefighters they experienced "symptoms" from the odor, but quickly recovered after getting outside in the fresh air.
A Lynnwood Fire Department spokesperson said the source of the smell was found to be a new chemical used by overnight workers.
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2 WORKERS KILLED WHEN OIL TANK EXPLODES AT HOME NEAR WESTCHESTER SCHOOL: OFFICIAL
Tags: us_NY, public, explosion, death, unknown_chemical
Two workers died when the oil tank they were digging up at a home not far from a school in Westchester exploded Thursday, according to officials.
It's not clear what caused the blast at the home at Hillside Avenue and School Street in Hastings-on-Hudson at about 11:30 a.m., the mayor of the town told NBC 4 New York.
Hastings on Hudson Police Chief Anthony Visalli said when the tank exploded, it sailed 75 feet into the air, killing both workers.
Neither the supervisor nor any of the home's tenants were hurt.
Django Morrison, who lives in the home near where the tank exploded, was outside with the two workers moments before the blast.
"They had just unburied it and were getting the excavator here, and the guy who was running it asked him to cut it open so they could clean it out and I decided at that point I was going inside because I didn't want to be around if anything went wrong. And 30 seconds later, there was a huge explosion," said Morrison.
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HOLCOMB HIGH SCHOOL EVACUATED FOLLOWING CHEMICAL REACTION, FLASH FIRE
Tags: us_KS, laboratory, fire, response, unknown_chemical
HOLCOMB ‰?? Holcomb High School students were evacuated for about an hour Thursday morning following a flash fire caused by a chemical reaction during a chemistry class.
No one was injured in the incident, which occurred at 10:20 a.m. in the science wing of the building.
HHS Principal Rob Schneeberger said the chemical reaction occurred while students were performing an experiment with a non-toxic chemical. Students and school staff used a fire extinguisher to immediately put out a small fire.
‰??The kids did a good job of putting the fire out,‰?? Schneeberger said.
Schneeberger said students and staff were evacuated to the football field bleachers and waited until getting permission from fire officials to re-enter the building.
‰??Students and staff did a great job of evacuating the building as per the drills we go through,‰?? he said.
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GUANGDONG‰??S ENVIRONMENTAL BODY KICKS OFF ASSESSMENTS ON CHEMICAL PROJECTS
Tags: China, public, follow-up, environmental, xylene
The Guangdong Department of Environmental Protection (GDEP) has started conducting environmental impact assessments (EIA) on chemical projects such as those involving p-Xylene (PX) amid speculations of possible pollution threats.
According to authorities, the EIA are aimed at streamlining the operations of GDEP, which was tasked by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) in March to assess and monitor projects like national expressways, thermal power stations, and the construction of PX to lower levels.
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The projects, as how the officials put it, have modern production technology as well as more developed environmental protection capacities and manageable risks (from city to country levels).
Peng Yingdeng, a senior EIA engineer affiliated with a Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau's research center, told the Global Times: "Delegating authority to low levels could improve the efficiency of EIA, as local governments are more familiar with local projects, and those projects will start construction faster."
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UNDER PRESSURE, UNIVERSITIES TAKE A RENEWED SHOT AT IMPROVING LAB SAFETY
Tags: laboratory, discovery, response
Motivated by the fear of possible new federal regulations, university leaders gathered in Washington on Wednesday as part of a national study commission seeking strategies to improve lab-safety conditions.
It was the third straight year a commission has convened to scrutinize the issue, motivated by a series of high-profile accidents that illustrated the much poorer safety record of university labs compared with their corporate counterparts. This year‰??s panel, assembled by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, will emphasize ways of expanding upon and carrying out some of the ideas raised by the previous two commissions, its leaders said.
"We view ourselves as sort of enabling the recommendations from those two efforts," said a co-chairman of the effort, T. Taylor Eighmy, vice chancellor for research and engagement at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
The 13-member Task Force on Laboratory Safety, consisting of officials from universities that belong to the association, spent the day behind closed doors with expert advisers from industry, the government, and academe.
The session was confidential to allow for a "candid and open" exchange, Mr. Eighmy said. Afterward, he and other leaders of the newest task force acknowledged feeling indirect pressure from federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, that appear to be considering ways the federal government might force safety improvements on university labs.
Universities, especially public ones, are already under considerable financial stress and are therefore eager to avoid new rules, said Howard J. Gobstein, the association‰??s executive vice president. A key objective of the new commission is to help universities "create the best system possible without causing us a lot of undue regulation and increased costs," Mr. Gobstein said.
The earlier study commissions were led by the American Chemical Society and the National Academies, both of which also offered universities advice in strategy and cultural acceptance of safety procedures.
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13 FIREFIGHTERS HOSPITALIZED AFTER FIGHTING FIRE IN HAMILTON GARAGE CONTAINING CHLORINE
Tags: us_NJ, public, fire, injury, chlorine
HAMILTON ‰?? Thirteen firefighters were taken to area hospitals for treatment Wednesday after fighting a garage fire in Hamilton that contained chlorine, fire officials said.
The 2:45 p.m. fire ripped through two large garages in the 2000 block of South Broad Street, gutting the buildings and at destroying two vehicles parked inside one of the garages, firefighters and witnesses said.
One of the garages contained a container of chlorine, the kind used in backyard pools, and when it burned it caused a gas that caused several firefighters to suffer respiratory injuries, fire officials said.
At about 3:15 p.m., as an odor of a chemical hung in the air, fire officials and Hamilton police officers moved onlookers out of the immediate block, saying the fumes from the chlorine would be harmful to inhale.
And the numerous firefighters who responded were moved a block away and emergency medical officials started setting up a decontamination process for the firefighters, so they could then be taken to local emergency rooms for evaluation.
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DENMARK ACCUSES TOTAL OF USING UNAUTHORIZED CHEMICAL, HALTS FRACKING
Tags: Denmark, public, discovery, environmental, other_chemical
COPENHAGEN --Denmark said Wednesday that it had stopped the first exploratory drilling for shale gas in the country a day after it began, accusing French company Total of using an unauthorized chemical.
"They used a product that was not part of those authorized" for the procedure, Ture Falbe-Hansen, a Danish Energy Agency spokesman said.
According to Danish public broadcaster DR, the product known as Null Foam -- used in the so-called fracking process to extract shale gas -- was considered to be an environmental hazard.
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CSX ANNOUNCES CHEMICAL SAFETY EXCELLENCE AWARDS
Tags: transportation, discovery, environmental
CSX on May 4, 2015 announced the winners of its 21st annual Chemical Safety Excellence Award, recognizing 70 customers for their commitment to the safe transportation of hazardous materials by rail in 2014
CSX‰??s Chemical Safety Excellence Awards are presented to customers from a wide variety of industries that ship more than 600 carloads of hazardous materials during the year without a release due to controllable factors.
CSX said it works with its customers ‰??to ensure that hazardous materials move in the safest equipment and employees are trained on safe loading and handling procedures. Many of the 2014 recipients are repeat winners, demonstrating an ongoing commitment to safety as well as their lasting partnership. ‰??
CSX recognized those companies that have made the list for 10 years: AkzoNobel Chemicals, Inc., International Chemical Company and Westlake Chemical. CSX also acknowledged companies who have been listed for five years: Ascend Performance Materials, Aux Sable Liquid Products, Cargill, Dow Corning, MarkWest Hydrocarbon, Inc., SABIC Americas, Inc. and United Refining Company.
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NITRATES FROM AGRICULTURE A 'GROWING THREAT' TO MINNESOTA DRINKING WATER
Tags: us_MN, industrial, discovery, environmental, other_chemical
Farm-related nitrate pollution represents a ‰??growing chemical threat to Minnesota‰??s drinking water,‰?? according to a new Health Department report that could spark action on clean-water legislation in the final days of the 2015 Legislature.
Community water supplies, overall, are safe and closely monitored, according to the agency‰??s Drinking Water Annual Report for 2014. But the report, released Wednesday, highlights widespread and often costly efforts to prevent or reverse nitrate pollution in well water drawn by municipal and quasi-public water systems ‰?? those used by schools, businesses, resorts, restaurants and other places.
‰??I think this underscores again that we have a widespread problem with water quality in Minnesota,‰?? Gov. Mark Dayton said Wednesday at a news conference with Health Commissioner Dr. Ed Ehlinger and other high-ranking health department officials in St. Paul.
The unusual formality surrounding the report‰??s release signaled the importance the Dayton administration has placed on cleaning up Minnesota‰??s lakes, rivers, streams and aquifers. Dayton said the state urgently needs antipollution legislation this year because ‰??bad water threatens our health, our economy, and our future.‰??
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