From: "Secretary, ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety" <secretary**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety headlines from Google (13 articles)
Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2015 08:00:36 -0400
Reply-To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Message-ID: 55B01343-CCDF-494B-875A-586E3DE92BA4**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org


Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Friday, July 3, 2015 at 8:00:21 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 (13 articles)

FIRST RESPONDERS DECONTAMINATED AFTER CONTACT WITH TOXIC CHEMICAL IN MARYVILLE TRAIN FIRE
Tags: us_TN, transportation, follow-up, injury, flammables

LEXINGTON POLICE, FIRE EVACUATE SEVERAL HOMES AFTER DISCOVERING METH LAB
Tags: us_KY, public, discovery, response, meth_lab

SHOPPERS, EMPLOYEES AT KIRKLAND COSTCO EVACUATED WHEN REFRIGERATION PIPE BURSTS
Tags: us_WA, public, release, response, hvac_chemicals

UPDATE: CHEMICAL SPILL AT KIDDERMINSTER INDUSTRIAL ESTATE (FROM KIDDERMINSTER SHUTTLE)
Tags: United_Kingdom, industrial, release, injury, nitric_acid

CONEWAGO CREEK RESTRICTIONS LIFTED AFTER CHEMICAL PLANT FIRE
Tags: us_PA, public, follow-up, environmental, ag_chems

EXPLOSION AT CHEMICAL PLANT IN SOUTH KOREA KILLS 6 WORKERS
Tags: Republic_of_Korea, industrial, explosion, death, waste

TANK CAR FIRE OUT, BUT THOUSANDS REMAIN EVACUATED IN BLOUNT COUNTY
Tags: us_TN, transportation, fire, response, acrylonitrile

POLITICS AND SCIENCE: WHAT AMERICANS THINK
Tags: public, discovery, environmental

CHEMICAL SPILL ON I-40 CAUSING LANE CLOSURES, TRAFFIC PROBLEMS
Tags: us_NC, transportation, release, response, other_chemical

TRAIN TANK CARS COLLIDE, CAUSING CHEMICAL LEAK IN NORTHEAST HOUSTON
Tags: us_TX, transportation, release, injury, other_chemical

TANKER FIRE: DRIVER IDENTIFIED, CITED FOR CRASH
Tags: us_OH, transportation, explosion, response, ethanol

MASSIVE TRUCK EXPLOSION IN HISTORIC SAVANNAH, HUNDREDS EVACUATED
Tags: us_GA, transportation, explosion, response, acetylene, propane

US TRAIN WITH TOXIC CHEMICALS DERAILS, CATCHES FIRE
Tags: us_TN, transportation, fire, response, acrylonitrile, petroleum


---------------------------------------------

FIRST RESPONDERS DECONTAMINATED AFTER CONTACT WITH TOXIC CHEMICAL IN MARYVILLE TRAIN FIRE
Tags: us_TN, transportation, follow-up, injury, flammables

MARYVILLE (WATE) ‰?? Ten first responders were brought to Blount Memorial Hospital after the early morning train derailment and fire that exposed them to the flammable and poisonous liquid inside those train cars.

Anyone who came into direct contact with that liquid had to be decontaminated at Blount Memorial Hospital.

Previous story: Thousands evacuated after train carrying toxic, flammable liquid catches fire in Blount County

‰??That sounds kind of scary, but it‰??s really not. What it is, is a series of four showers with hot water and soap, and we do a real thorough cleansing. All your clothing is taken off and is placed in a bag because your clothing could potentially be contaminated as well,‰?? said Dr. Hal Naramore, Chief Medical Officer

---------------------------------------------

LEXINGTON POLICE, FIRE EVACUATE SEVERAL HOMES AFTER DISCOVERING METH LAB
Tags: us_KY, public, discovery, response, meth_lab

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Lexington Police and firefighters had Crosby Drive between Trent Boulevard and Dale Drive shut down for hours while a hazmat team decontaminated a duplex.

Police said they went to a duplex to pick up a person who had an active warrant around 11:30 Thursday morning. They said when they went inside, they noticed materials that made them suspect that there might be a meth lab. They said a fire department and narcotics team found an active meth lab inside shortly after. A hazmat team decontaminated the duplex and 4 people as well as a dog that were all inside. They also evacuated the other half of the duplex and the houses on either side as a precaution.

Several people gathered along Crosby Drive to watch police and firefighters work.

"I look out and there's about five or six fire trucks, I see the hazmat truck, makes you wonder what's going on," said Scott Whitson.

Cynthia Lawson said she was upset about the situation.

"Very mad. It's a quiet neighborhood. Let's keep it that way," she said.

---------------------------------------------

SHOPPERS, EMPLOYEES AT KIRKLAND COSTCO EVACUATED WHEN REFRIGERATION PIPE BURSTS
Tags: us_WA, public, release, response, hvac_chemicals

KIRKLAND, Wash. ‰?? Shoppers and workers at the Costco store in Kirkland were evacuated Thursday when a refrigeration pipe exploded, spewing coolant in gas form, the Kirkland Fire Department said.

The accident occurred in the warehouse area near the loading dock. All of the coolant in the refrigeration system drained out of the six-inch pipe and turned into gas.

A HazMat team was called, but levels of the gas were nowhere near hazardous levels, said Kirkland Fire spokesman Ken Henderson.

---------------------------------------------

UPDATE: CHEMICAL SPILL AT KIDDERMINSTER INDUSTRIAL ESTATE (FROM KIDDERMINSTER SHUTTLE)
Tags: United_Kingdom, industrial, release, injury, nitric_acid

TWO men were injured and around 30 people evacuated from a Kidderminster factory today (July 2) following a chemical spillage.

Firefighters were called to Hard Anodising Ltd, in Firs Industrial Estate, Kidderminster at around 12.10pm this afternoon, where a plastic tank carrying around 1,000 litres of nitric acid split.

The 30 employees who were in the factory at the time were evacuated for around two hours as a precaution while the spillage was dealt with.

Staff at neighbouring businesses were also ordered to stay indoors while the incident was ongoing while police placed a 50 metre cordon around the area to prevent access to the site.

One worker suffering nausea was treated by paramedics before being taken to Worcestershire Royal Hospital as a precaution. He has since been released.

Another man was splashed with the acid and was treated at the scene by ambulance crews.

---------------------------------------------

CONEWAGO CREEK RESTRICTIONS LIFTED AFTER CHEMICAL PLANT FIRE
Tags: us_PA, public, follow-up, environmental, ag_chems

The York County Board of Commissioners has lifted the fishing, boating and swimming restrictions set in place last month following a fire at a Hanover-based chemical company.

The June 8 fire at the Miller Chemical and Fertilizer plant in Adams County led to contaminated water, which was used to fight the fire, entering the waterways that feed into the Conewago Creek. Authorities, in turn, issued mandatory water restrictions.

Environmental experts, a state-certified remediation firm and the Department of Environmental Protection coordinated efforts to prevent additional runoff in the days following the contamination.

The recommended restrictions were lifted based on the testing results of samples taken from the creek.

---------------------------------------------

EXPLOSION AT CHEMICAL PLANT IN SOUTH KOREA KILLS 6 WORKERS
Tags: Republic_of_Korea, industrial, explosion, death, waste

An explosion at a chemical plant in South Korea killed six workers on Friday, fire officials said.

The victims were doing welding work when the blast tore down a waste storage facility at a chemical plant run by Hanwha Chemical Co. in the southeastern city of Ulsan, according to the officials.

The exact cause of the explosion wasn't immediately known. But fire officer Kim Jung-sik said that gas trapped inside the storage might have triggered the blast.

South Korean media reported the six workers were on top of the storage at the time of the explosion, but fire officials said they couldn't immediately confirm the reports.

---------------------------------------------

TANK CAR FIRE OUT, BUT THOUSANDS REMAIN EVACUATED IN BLOUNT COUNTY
Tags: us_TN, transportation, fire, response, acrylonitrile

UPDATE: (WBIR - MARYVILLE) - After burning for hours, the fire in a rail car containing a hazardous liquid finally has been extinguished on a Blount County rail track, according to CSX.


7/2/15. 6 pm coverage of the train derailment in Blount County that caused the evacuation of 5,000 people.

The rail operator said the fire was out by 7 p.m. Thursday. The car carried about 24,000 gallons of Acrylonitrile, a flammable liquid used in various industrial processes including plastic manufacturing.

Thirty-five of the train's 57 cars had been removed as of Thursday night. Twenty-one will be removed once track repairs are made, according to CSX.

---------------------------------------------

POLITICS AND SCIENCE: WHAT AMERICANS THINK
Tags: public, discovery, environmental

One of the key trends in public opinion over the past few decades has been a growing divide among Republicans and Democrats into ideologically uniform ‰??silos.‰?? A larger share of the American public expresses issue positions that are either consistently liberal or conservative today than did so two decades ago, and there is more alignment between ideological orientation and party leanings.1

Against this broader backdrop, some have come to worry that many ‰?? if not all ‰?? the issues connected to science are viewed by the public through a political lens. However, the Pew Research Center finds in a new analysis of public opinion on a broad set of science-related topics that the role of party and ideological differences is not uniform. Americans‰?? political leanings are a strong factor in their views about issues such as climate change and energy policy, but much less of a factor when it comes to issues such as food safety, space travel and biomedicine. At the same time, there are factors other than political party and ideology that shape the public‰??s often-complex views on science matters. For instance there are notable issues on which racial and generational differences are pronounced, separate and apart from politics.

To better understand the multiple influences on people‰??s attitudes and beliefs, this report uses statistical modeling to characterize the factors most strongly associated with people‰??s opinions on these topics. These techniques parse the independent effect of multiple factors at the same time, allowing us to understand with more clarity where traits such as political party, age and race ‰?? three important factors in opinion that overlap in meaningful ways in the United States ‰??individually matter.

---------------------------------------------

CHEMICAL SPILL ON I-40 CAUSING LANE CLOSURES, TRAFFIC PROBLEMS
Tags: us_NC, transportation, release, response, other_chemical

RALEIGH, NC (WNCN) ‰?? A chemical spill on I-40 on Wednesday has reduced travel lanes down to just one for several hours ‰?? and traffic is backed up about a mile.

A truck spilled iron oxide around 4:30 pm Wednesday approximately one-half mile of I-40 Eastbound in the vicinity of Gorman Street.

As of 9:15 pm, the chemical remains on the roadway, Raleigh Police said.

‰??Crews have responded and plans are being finalized to remove the chemical. When the cleanup takes place tonight, plans call for eastbound I-40 to be reduced temporarily to one lane in the Gorman Street vicinity of the spill,‰?? officials said.

A exact start time and timetable for the cleanup has not been set.

---------------------------------------------

TRAIN TANK CARS COLLIDE, CAUSING CHEMICAL LEAK IN NORTHEAST HOUSTON
Tags: us_TX, transportation, release, injury, other_chemical

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Houston fire crews responded to a chemical leak that started when an empty Union Pacific tank car struck another tank car on Kirkpatrick near the North Loop Wednesday morning.

The Houston Fire Department says tank car struck started leaking sodium hydro sulfide. They add that the leak was contained as of 8:38am.

One person was taken to Northeast Medical Hospital for evaluation.

---------------------------------------------

TANKER FIRE: DRIVER IDENTIFIED, CITED FOR CRASH
Tags: us_OH, transportation, explosion, response, ethanol

WEST COLUMBUS (Mike McCarthy/Kate Murphy/Sean Rowe) -- One lane of I-70 westbound near I-270 on the west side will remain closed as Ohio Department of Transportation crews clean up watered down ethanol and the charred body of a tanker, ODOT reports.

They're what's left after a tanker explosion on I-270 at I-70 about 6 a.m. Wednesday sent flames shooting into the morning sky. Reporter Mike Kilburn says metal from traffic girders melted from the heat of major flames.
As of mid-afternoon on Wednesday, ODOT officials said they were continuing with the clean up on the interchange from I-270 south to I-70 east as their engineers and inspectors are waiting to make a thorough inspection o of the bridges to see what needs repaired or replaced. Once the assessment is made, ODOT will determine the timelines forgetting I-70 east and westbound traffic moving at the interchange.

The tanker was hauling 8-10,000 gallons of ethanol, according to the Columbus Division of Police. Due to the liquid's flammable material, firefighters are using a dry chemical to attempt extinguish the fire

---------------------------------------------

MASSIVE TRUCK EXPLOSION IN HISTORIC SAVANNAH, HUNDREDS EVACUATED
Tags: us_GA, transportation, explosion, response, acetylene, propane

SAVANNAH (WNCN) ‰?? Authorities are investigating a chemical explosion from a pick-up truck in Downtown Savannah in Franklin Square on Wednesday night.

Hundreds of people have already been evacuated from the area.

Fortunately, no one was hurt, and right now the driver of the pick-up truck is being checked out by Emergency Medical Services.

According to Metro Police, chemical tanks on the back of the truck may not have been properly locked down and when the driver stopped, a valve was knocked off leading to the explosion around 9 pm.

The driver was able to quickly get out of truck, he was unhurt. No one else was hurt by flying debris.

The FBI came to scene as precaution.

Some of the chemicals involved were propane and acetylene which are normal chemicals used for everyday work.

Right now, Broughton Street to Bay Street and Jefferson and Montgomery Streets are all blocked off and the FBI is on scene investigating.

So far, there does not appear to be any foul play involved, officials say.

---------------------------------------------

US TRAIN WITH TOXIC CHEMICALS DERAILS, CATCHES FIRE
Tags: us_TN, transportation, fire, response, acrylonitrile, petroleum

Washington (AFP) - A train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in Tennessee and caught fire, prompting a large-scale evacuation, firefighters said Thursday.

The train derailed near Maryville, close to the city of Knoxville, carrying acrylonitrile, a flammable, toxic compound that poses respiratory risks, firefighter Kermit Easterling said.

Some 5,000 residents are being evacuated, and firefighters are going door to door wearing breathing equipment to get people away from the fire, he said.

Firefighters are not battling the flames because of the dangers of acrylonitrile, and hazmat -- hazardous material -- teams have been called in to access the situation.

The train, which is also carrying containers of liquid petroleum gas, derailed just before midnight Wednesday, Easterling said.

There have been no reports of injuries, and a shelter has been set up at a local school for evacuated residents, the firefighter said.

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Ralph Stuart
secretary**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Secretary
Division of Chemical Health and Safety
American Chemical Society

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