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Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Wednesday, November 25, 2015 at 8:04:48 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=mkrR-seo7qS3Fy2Y_M3Flz3vDqP3BoSr3On6x7QWUjA&s=3tF0u8xOO08yuRQbk0ibAD0_bN9raYWYBncSf3C87FI&e=
Table of Contents (9 articles)
CHEMICAL SAFETY BOARD MOVES TO FIRE TWO TOP STAFF
Tags: us_WA, industrial, discovery, environmental
SCHOOL CLOSED FOR TESTING DECADES AFTER CHEMICAL LEAK
Tags: us_CA, industrial, release, response, benzene, toxics
HAZMAT CREWS CONTAIN NITRIC ACID LEAK AT PLANT IN SOUTH PHOENIX
Tags: us_AZ, industrial, release, response, nitric_acid
STATE PROBING MANCHESTER PROPANE LEAK
Tags: us_VT, transportation, follow-up, injury, propane
7 ON YOUR SIDE INVESTIGATES POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS RAINBOW EXPERIMENT
Tags: education, follow-up, environmental, flammables
FIRE BREAKS OUT IN JNU LABORATORY
Tags: India, laboratory, fire, response, unknown_chemical
US ENVOY: CHEMICAL ATTACKS 'BECOMING ROUTINE' IN SYRIA
Tags: Netherlands, public, follow-up, environmental, chlorine, mustard_gas, sulphur
2 MANAGERS PLEAD GUILTY IN EXPLOSION AT CALIFORNIA PLANT
Tags: us_CA, industrial, follow-up, response, waste
NO ONE HURT IN CHEMICAL EXPLOSION IN CHESTNUT RIDGE
Tags: us_NY, public, explosion, response, pool_chemicals
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CHEMICAL SAFETY BOARD MOVES TO FIRE TWO TOP STAFF
Tags: us_WA, industrial, discovery, environmental
Turmoil at the Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board continues as CSB is poised to fire its top two staff members who have been on paid leave since June.
In a Nov. 16 letter, CSB member Kristen Kulinowski, a chemist, recommends terminating Daniel Horowitz, CSB managing director. His firing is called for because of misconduct and ‰??conduct unbecoming a federal employee,‰?? she writes in the letter to Horowitz, citing allegations made by CSB employees.
The letter was released by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a watchdog group that is representing Horowitz, a 15-year CSB staffer. The board would not provide C&EN with details about the possible firing of Horowitz and Richard Loeb, CSB general counsel. Loeb and his attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
CSB Chair Vanessa Allen Sutherland will make the final decision regarding their terminations after mid-December.
Members of Congress have sought the firing of Horowitz and Loeb after lengthy investigations by an oversight committee and the Environmental Protection Agency‰??s Office of Inspector General, which alleged that the two mismanaged the agency and retaliated against CSB employees. Lawmakers and the inspector general lodged similar criticisms against former CSB chair Rafael Moure-Eraso, which led to his forced resignation in March.
If Sutherland fires the two, she will be free to fill the positions. However, PEER argues that the allegations are groundless and is preparing to challenge them.
Meanwhile, CSB has not investigated a chemical accident since last February, its longest inactive period. Over this time, the U.S. has had some 19 chemically related industrial accidents with 16 fatalities, PEER says.
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SCHOOL CLOSED FOR TESTING DECADES AFTER CHEMICAL LEAK
Tags: us_CA, industrial, release, response, benzene, toxics
EL CAJON ‰?? Usually the hub of its working-class community, Magnolia Elementary School sits vacant while scientists conduct tests commissioned to ease concerns over a toxic groundwater plume that stretches beneath campus decades after a chemical leak at the neighboring aerospace plant.
All but three of the school‰??s 21 teachers and 500 of the 700 students packed up and moved into temporary accommodations two miles away at the Bostonia Language Academy for the school year ‰?? at a cost of about $800,000 (largely for school bus transportation and portable classrooms) to be picked up by Ametek, the plant‰??s former owner.
The company will also foot the bill for a new campus ventilation system, and tests ‰?? estimated to cost $300 a day ‰?? overseen by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control.
State regulators, Ametek and the Cajon Valley Union School District-hired specialists have done considerable testing of ambient classroom air and soil gases over the years, with both showing the levels of toxins (including trichloroethylene and benzene) at the school are safe under federal and state guidelines. Air and soil monitoring was conducted annually until August 2012, when Ametek started quarterly tests after the state directed the plant to increase the frequency of air sampling because of new regulations.
The school board decided to shutter Magnolia this school year while longer-term tests are conducted in every space ‰?? from the cafeteria to classrooms to offices ‰?? to put to rest any speculation that the campus might be unsafe.
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HAZMAT CREWS CONTAIN NITRIC ACID LEAK AT PLANT IN SOUTH PHOENIX
Tags: us_AZ, industrial, release, response, nitric_acid
PHOENIX - Hazmat crews gained quick control of a nitric acid leak Tuesday evening at a plant in south Phoenix.
Phoenix firefighters say 70 gallons of the acid reacted when it got too hot at the QuantumClean facility near 40th Street and University.
QuantumClean specializes in parts cleaning and tool restoration. The facility also cleans copper with nitric acid.
There are no injuries reported at this time.
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STATE PROBING MANCHESTER PROPANE LEAK
Tags: us_VT, transportation, follow-up, injury, propane
MANCHESTER >> Two state agencies are probing the Nov. 12 propane leak that led to one man suffering severe burns.
The state's Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) and the Division of Fire Safety (DFS) are jointly investigating the incident, according to Bruce Martin, regional director of the DFS's Springfield office and deputy chief of the Vermont HAZMAT Response Team (VHMRT).
"We are investigating the incident jointly to determine what happened and how a similar situation may be prevented in the future," Martin wrote in an email Monday afternoon.
....
The DFS and VHMRT are two state agencies which oversee above-ground storage tanks, such as those that hold propane, heating oil or used oil.
Just after 8 a.m. on Nov. 12, emergency personnel responded to the large cloud of propane from an above-ground storage tank at a propane bulk storage tank facility, which is located off of Depot Street (Route 30) on Taconic Business Park Road.
According to the Manchester Fire Department, a truck driver, reportedly with Suburban Propane, may have left a valve open during a propane transfer at the depot. An estimated 200 gallons of propane leaked out into the air.
A second truck driver, John Matala, 42, of Cambridge, N.Y. suffered bad "cold burns" when he turned off a valve at the depot. He was taken to a Burlington hospital with burns on nearly 30 percent of his body.
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7 ON YOUR SIDE INVESTIGATES POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS RAINBOW EXPERIMENT
Tags: education, follow-up, environmental, flammables
WASHINGTON (ABC7) ‰?? It's an experiment done in classrooms across the country. But as students and teachers discovered three weeks ago at a Fairfax County high school, it can have devastating results. The 7 ON YOUR SIDE I-Team found W.T. Woodson High School isn't the only place to experience the dark side of the so-called "Rainbow Experiment."
It is a spectacle of science, meant to engage students. You can see it in YouTube videos like this one: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.youtube.com_watch-3Fv-3DNY-2DbnY0yjWw&d=BQIFaQ&c=lb62iw4YL4RFalcE2hQUQealT9-RXrryqt9KZX2qu2s&r=meWM1Buqv4IQ27AlK1OJRjcQl09S1Zta6YXKalY_Io0&m=mkrR-seo7qS3Fy2Y_M3Flz3vDqP3BoSr3On6x7QWUjA&s=H0WxJsDfItSTW4alJBflMCoh_ZxkeX1z98d_Z5lK4e4&e= ">https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.youtube.com_watch-3Fv-3DNY-2DbnY0yjWw&d=BQIFaQ&c=lb62iw4YL4RFalcE2hQUQealT9-RXrryqt9KZX2qu2s&r=meWM1Buqv4IQ27AlK1OJRjcQl09S1Zta6YXKalY_Io0&m=mkrR-seo7qS3Fy2Y_M3Flz3vDqP3BoSr3On6x7QWUjA&s=H0WxJsDfItSTW4alJBflMCoh_ZxkeX1z98d_Z5lK4e4&e= .
Kristin Kulinowski with the U.S. Chemical Safety Board says, "It's pretty dramatic. It's colorful. And it's beautiful."
But she and other experts say the Rainbow Experiment is also extremely dangerous if it's done using flammable chemicals and an open flame. Kim Duncan, Professional Learning Associate with American Chemical Society, tells 7 ON YOUR SIDE, "They can cause really serious injury if they're not handled properly."
That's what happened last month at W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax. Sophomore Nick Dache was in the classroom October 30th, when the experiment went out of control. He chased a burning classmate down the hall to put out her flaming body.
---------------------------------------------
FIRE BREAKS OUT IN JNU LABORATORY
Tags: India, laboratory, fire, response, unknown_chemical
NEW DELHI: A fire broke out in a laboratory at the Jawahar Lal Nehru University on Sunday evening. Though none of the students were injured in the incident, university authorities suspect that some important documents including a few theses of students might have been lost in the blaze.
The incident was reported around 4.50pm when a guard noticed smoke coming out of the laboratory at the school of environmental studies and informed the fire department. Four fire engines were rushed to the spot and the blaze was doused within half an hour. Fire officials suspect that the fire was caused due to a short circuit in one of the power units at the laboratory .
A team from the local police station was also rushed to the spot along with a crime team to lift evidences. Police officers have also launched a separate probe to find out the cause of fire.
Senior officers from the university said that a probe has been initiated to find out the extent of loss. Officials said that a few copies of thesis were kept in the room where the fire broke out.
---------------------------------------------
US ENVOY: CHEMICAL ATTACKS 'BECOMING ROUTINE' IN SYRIA
Tags: Netherlands, public, follow-up, environmental, chlorine, mustard_gas, sulphur
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) ‰?? The U.S. envoy to the international chemical weapons watchdog warned Monday that the use of such toxic arms is "becoming routine in the Syrian civil war."
Rafael Foley was speaking at a closed meeting of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons' Executive Council, which was called to discuss recent reports by a fact-finding mission, including that a "non-state actor" likely used the chemical agent sulfur mustard in August during fighting in the Syrian town of Marea, killing a baby.
Foley said Syrian opposition forces were fighting the Islamic State group in the town close to the Turkish border. The text of his speech was posted on The Hague-based watchdog's website.
The fact-finding mission, which took and tested samples and interviewed witnesses, also said that chlorine likely was used as a weapon between March and May in Idlib, leaving six people dead.
After the meeting, attended by representatives of 38 member states, the executive council issued a statement "expressing grave concern" about the fact-finding mission's conclusions that "chemical weapons have once again been used in" Syria and saying that those responsible should be held accountable.
A special investigation team has been set up by the United Nations and OPCW to identify who is responsible for chemical attacks in Syria.
---------------------------------------------
2 MANAGERS PLEAD GUILTY IN EXPLOSION AT CALIFORNIA PLANT
Tags: us_CA, industrial, follow-up, response, waste
SANTA PAULA, Calif. (AP) - Two managers have pleaded guilty in connection with an explosion at a Southern California waste treatment plant last year.
Mark Avila and Brock Baker pleaded guilty Friday to failing to warn of a serious concealed danger and charges related to the storage of hazardous substances and repeated failures to communicate with employees about hazardous substances.
The Ventura County Star reports (https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__bit.ly_21aL81m&d=BQIFaQ&c=lb62iw4YL4RFalcE2hQUQealT9-RXrryqt9KZX2qu2s&r=meWM1Buqv4IQ27AlK1OJRjcQl09S1Zta6YXKalY_Io0&m=mkrR-seo7qS3Fy2Y_M3Flz3vDqP3BoSr3On6x7QWUjA&s=AuZNiG-HC4jOSUUcUrwNaSDPS4zDT6JJkkhNKaDnXm4&e= ">https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__bit.ly_21aL81m&d=BQIFaQ&c=lb62iw4YL4RFalcE2hQUQealT9-RXrryqt9KZX2qu2s&r=meWM1Buqv4IQ27AlK1OJRjcQl09S1Zta6YXKalY_Io0&m=mkrR-seo7qS3Fy2Y_M3Flz3vDqP3BoSr3On6x7QWUjA&s=AuZNiG-HC4jOSUUcUrwNaSDPS4zDT6JJkkhNKaDnXm4&e= ) that they face up to three years in county jail at their sentencing June 1.
The November 2014 blast at Santa Clara Wastewater in Ventura County sent 52 people to hospitals, including 10 firefighters. All but two were quickly treated and released. No injuries were life-threatening.
An investigation found the explosion was a chemical reaction between sodium chlorite and sewage.
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NO ONE HURT IN CHEMICAL EXPLOSION IN CHESTNUT RIDGE
Tags: us_NY, public, explosion, response, pool_chemicals
A bin containing pool chemicals and other combustible items exploded on the deck of a home in the Village of Chestnut Ridge early Sunday afternoon, Ramapo Police reported.
Ramapo Police responded to an address in the Village of Chestnut Ridge after receiving report of an explosion of a plastic bin containing the chemicals. Upon arrival, officers were informed that a plastic storage bin located on the homeowner‰??s deck had exploded.
Damage was contained to the bin and the immediate area of the deck, police said. There were no injuries as a result of the incident, Baruch Hashem.
Ramapo detectives, Rockland County Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Monsey Fire Department responded to the scene and assisted with the investigation.
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