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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 (9 articles)
Date: Mon, 2 Nov 2015 06:36:33 -0500
Reply-To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Message-ID: 34833628-1FBE-41C4-9D1C-50C8B9259F87**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Monday, November 2, 2015 at 6:36:02 AM
A membership benefit of the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety
All article summaries and tags are archived at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__pinboard.in_u-3Adchas&d=BQIFaQ&c=lb62iw4YL4RFalcE2hQUQealT9-RXrryqt9KZX2qu2s&r=meWM1Buqv4IQ27AlK1OJRjcQl09S1Zta6YXKalY_Io0&m=Ax183EeiugvbX6OZ0Vd9wkwGAFOB11VYASAkYPxfcoo&s=CBs5_U_LGyocQJoBWsVAdDv98JmJl7HgMnFZiBJUBtw&e=
Table of Contents (9 articles)
EXPERTS ADVOCATE CHANGES AFTER WOODSON H.S. CHEMISTRY CLASS ACCIDENT
Tags: us_VA, education, follow-up, injury, methanol
VALHALLA: HAZMAT CREWS CLEAN UP AFTER CRASH, 15 GALLON FUEL SPILL
Tags: us_NY, transportation, release, response, diesel
FIRE AT BOSE INSTITUTE IN WB
Tags: India, laboratory, fire, response, unknown_chemical
NSTA: CHEMISTRY ACCIDENT VA. HIGH SCHOOL IS REMINDER ABOUT CLASSROOM SAFETY
Tags: us_VA, laboratory, follow-up, environmental, other_chemical
SAFETY IN SULFURIC ACID STORAGE TANKS
Tags: industrial, discovery, environmental, sulfuric_acid
71 CHILDREN HOSPITALIZED AFTER CARBON MONOXIDE FUMES RELEASED AT CHICAGO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Tags: us_IL, education, release, injury, carbon_monoxide
WHITE HOUSE ISSUES RECOMMENDATIONS ON IMPROVING BIOSAFETY AT FEDERAL LABS
Tags: laboratory, discovery, response
CHEMISTRY EXPERIMENT SPARKED EXPLOSION IN VA. HIGH SCHOOL THAT HURT STUDENTS
Tags: us_VA, education, fire, injury, other_chemical
954 GALLONS OF TOLUENE SPILLS, CAUSES SHURTAPE TECHNOLOGIES EVACUATION
Tags: us_NC, industrial, release, response, toluene
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EXPERTS ADVOCATE CHANGES AFTER WOODSON H.S. CHEMISTRY CLASS ACCIDENT
Tags: us_VA, education, follow-up, injury, methanol
WASHINGTON ‰?? The cleanup and healing continues after during a chemistry classroom demonstration accident at W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax County left five students and a teacher hurt Friday.
But now, experts want more done to prevent an accident like the one seen at W.T. Woodson High School from happening again.
‰??Any time you have hands-on learning there is a potential for some accident happening,‰?? former Virginia State Superintendent for Public Instruction Dr. Jo Lynne DeMary told WTOP. ‰??Schools have the responsibility to maintain a safe environment for students.‰??
Fairfax County Fire Chief Richard Bowers said Friday that the demonstration the teacher was performing involved different color flames. It‰??s a common demonstration called the rainbow experiment.
‰??The rainbow experiment is designed to demonstrate to students that different metals will burn with different colors,‰?? U.S. Chemical Safety Board member Kristen Kulinowski said. ‰??This is the same phenomenon that gives fireworks its different colors.‰??
Unfortunately, it‰??s an experiment the agency has seen turn wrong too often.
‰??Typically, a small amount of metal powder is put into some kind of small bowl,‰?? she told WTOP. Then methanol, or some other flammable liquid, is placed on top of it and then ignited.‰??
The demonstration runs as expected and then the flames start to die down.
‰??When the flame starts to die down, in order to keep the demonstration going, additional solvent is added to the bowl to reignite the flame,‰?? Kulinowski continued.
‰??The problem is that causes what‰??s called a flashback in which the flame travels through air basically, through the vapor that‰??s being released by the larger bottle, into the larger bottle. As that liquid vaporizes from the fire, a large pressure is built up in from within the receptacle and it has to go somewhere. So, it goes out the narrow opening at the top of the bottle and effectively causes a flaming jet, which then results in the larger injuries.‰??
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VALHALLA: HAZMAT CREWS CLEAN UP AFTER CRASH, 15 GALLON FUEL SPILL
Tags: us_NY, transportation, release, response, diesel
VALHALLA - Hazmat crews were called out Sunday night to mop up a major fuel spill on North Broadway.
Mt. Pleasant police said it happened at the Lukoil gas station on 34 Broadway near the Taconic State Parkway around 7 p.m.
According to officials, a tanker truck was making a delivery at the time, spilling an estimated 15 gallons of diesel fuel.
Most of the fuel went into a storm drain, officials said.
In addition to Hazmat crews, the Department of Environmental Conservation is also at the scene.
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FIRE AT BOSE INSTITUTE IN WB
Tags: India, laboratory, fire, response, unknown_chemical
Fire broke out in a laboratory on the third floor of the Bose Institute at Raja Bazar in the eastern part of the city this morning.
According to officials at the Fire Department, the fire broke out at the Microbiology laboratory of the Institute on Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road in the Manicktala police station area at around 11.20 AM today from the AC duct.
Three fire-tenders after an hour-long effort managed to douse the flames which destroyed the laboratory completely, they said.
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NSTA: CHEMISTRY ACCIDENT VA. HIGH SCHOOL IS REMINDER ABOUT CLASSROOM SAFETY
Tags: us_VA, laboratory, follow-up, environmental, other_chemical
WASHINGTON ‰?? A chemistry class accident that left five local students and a teacher injured Friday is an unfortunate reminder about classroom safety, the National Science Teachers Association tells WTOP.
‰??It‰??s very, very important, indeed critical for students to be able to actually experience the real thing,‰?? Dr. David Evans, National Science Teachers Association‰??s executive director. Evans says that‰??s also the reason it‰??s important for experiments to be conducted safely.
‰??There are OSHA regulations for safety procedures,‰?? Evans said. ‰??The EPA has regulations for how hazardous materials are handled.‰??
Friday morning, a fire broke out during a teacher-led chemistry exercise W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax County, Virginia. The students and the teacher were hospitalized with chemical burns and are expected to be OK. Half of the lab was damaged by the fire, smoke and water, WTOP reported.
Evans says the National Science Teachers Association has safety guidelines for working with chemicals in the classroom. ‰??One would expect to see goggles, gloves, aprons,‰?? Evens says.
And where the experiment is being done is also very important.
‰??If the experiment were being done with a volatile chemical like alcohol or something like that, we‰??d expect an experiment like that being done under a closed fume hood and not on an open bench,‰?? Evans says.
But these safety reminders shouldn‰??t deter students and teachers from being hands-on in the classroom.
‰??It‰??s important for students to be able to conduct experiments and plan experiments,‰?? Evans says. ‰??And that‰??s true in chemistry or physics or biology.‰??
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SAFETY IN SULFURIC ACID STORAGE TANKS
Tags: industrial, discovery, environmental, sulfuric_acid
Sulfuric acid, sometimes called the ‰??king of all chemicals,‰?? is widely used in the chemical process industries (CPI) for the manufacture of various fertilizers and other chemicals. Sulfuric acid (H2SO4) is typically stored and handled in steel storage tanks in tank farms (Figure 1) located at ports, sulfuric acid plants, fertilizer plants and so on. Numerous incidents involving explosions and spills in sulfuric acid storage tanks have been reported worldwide. All too often, a lack of understanding regarding the proper safety aspects required for handling and storing sulfuric acid leads to catastrophic accidents. These incidents can result in environmental pollution, as well as injuries and fatalities.
For example, in 2001 at a petroleum refinery in Delaware, a crew of contractors was repairing grating on a catwalk in a sulfuric acid storage-tank farm when a spark from their hot work ignited flammable vapors in one of the storage tanks. One of the acid storage tanks separated from its floor, instantaneously releasing its contents. Other tanks in the tank farm also released their contents. A fire burned for approximately 30 min, and sulfuric acid reached a nearby river, resulting in significant environmental damage. One worker was killed and eight were injured [ 1 ].
Such incidents draw attention to the vulnerability of sulfuric acid storage tanks to fires and explosions, in addition to accidental spillage. These occurrences can be avoided by understanding the various aspects of corrosion in storage tanks, inspection and venting requirements, spillage-containment systems, instrumentation, proper materials of construction, various governing codes and standards, guidelines for hot work and so on. This article describes various problems faced in sulfuric acid tanks and the efforts needed to mitigate them.
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71 CHILDREN HOSPITALIZED AFTER CARBON MONOXIDE FUMES RELEASED AT CHICAGO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Tags: us_IL, education, release, injury, carbon_monoxide
Dozens of children were transported to area hospitals Friday after a malfunctioning boiler apparently released carbon monoxide fumes into an elementary school on Chicago's Northwest Side.
Fire department officials said 71 children and eight adults were treated for signs of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Ernst Prussing Elementary School was evacuated for "abnormally high" carbon monoxide levels after several kids complained of feeling ill.
Fire officials responded to a level one Hazmat situation at 4650 N. Menard. The school self-evacuated and 12 ambulances were called to the scene, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.
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WHITE HOUSE ISSUES RECOMMENDATIONS ON IMPROVING BIOSAFETY AT FEDERAL LABS
Tags: laboratory, discovery, response
The White House issued a 187-page report on Thursday designed to improve biosafety following a series of safety breaches at federal laboratories charged with handling dangerous pathogens such as anthrax, bird flu and smallpox.
The report follows a sweeping review of the government's biosafety and biosecurity practices, and includes specific recommendations and deadlines for laboratories to improve their practices.
It was addressed to top officials at 16 federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Defense, which this past July was criticized for repeated mishandling of anthrax at a U.S. Army laboratory in Utah.
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CHEMISTRY EXPERIMENT SPARKED EXPLOSION IN VA. HIGH SCHOOL THAT HURT STUDENTS
Tags: us_VA, education, fire, injury, other_chemical
Two students are in fair condition with burns after a demonstration in a chemistry classroom in Northern Virginia sparked an explosion on Friday.
The blast Friday morning at W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax, Virginia, was accidental and occurred as a teacher performed an experiment, Fairfax County Fire Chief Richard Bowers said.
"It was a demonstration of fire in the different colors," Bowers said. "The students were observing the experiment when the explosion occurred."
The exact nature of the experiment performed at Woodson wasn't known immediately.
An exercise often known as "the rainbow experiment" has previously left students with serious injuries and should not be performed in classrooms, according to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board and the American Chemical Society.
"These demonstrations present an unacceptable risk of flash fires and deflagrations that can cause serious injuries to students and teachers," the ACS said.
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954 GALLONS OF TOLUENE SPILLS, CAUSES SHURTAPE TECHNOLOGIES EVACUATION
Tags: us_NC, industrial, release, response, toluene
HICKORY ‰?? More than 950 gallons of toluene leaked out of a broken pipe at the Hickory Shurtape Technologies plant Thursday afternoon, officials said.
Firefighters were dispatched to the Shurtape Technologies plant on Highland Avenue NE in Hickory at 11:53 a.m. Thursday in response to a chemical leak, Hickory Fire Department spokesperson Terri Byers said.
They arrived at the scene two minutes later, Byers said. A strong smell similar to nail polish was present around 1:15 p.m. at the scene.
As firefighters headed into the plant, Shurtape Technologies evacuated all of their employees from the area.
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