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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 (11 articles)
Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2016 06:20:44 -0500
Reply-To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Message-ID: 95F2A52C-32D6-4434-B88E-9E6424F730C2**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Wednesday, March 2, 2016 at 6:20:30 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=FlPVEEZFDNR6QdQYQCj_NycNEmlW6kF1c1BHZaoGKKI&s=Rr5vOXtoiNy7TZ6mLuZIavmv7gi2Wio0ZPt8jApg_94&e=
Table of Contents (11 articles)
BASSETT HEALTHCARE HERKIMER EVACUATED DUE TO LEAK
Tags: us_NY, public, release, response, other_chemical
HOVERBOARD EXPLODES INSIDE BOULDER APARTMENT
Tags: us_CO, public, explosion, response, batteries
HOT PLATE SPILL CAUSES HAZMAT RESPONSE AT CHILDREN"S HOSPITAL
Tags: us_MA, laboratory, release, response, other_chemical
WHY ORGANIZATIONS FORGET WHAT THEY LEARN FROM FAILURES
Tags: public, discovery, environmental
U OF R GRAD STUDENT INJURED IN CHEMISTRY LAB EXPLOSION
Tags: us_NY, laboratory, explosion, injury, unknown_chemical
TWO HOSPITALIZED AFTER CHEMICAL RELEASE DURING CLASSROOM EXPERIMENT AT GLENDALE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Tags: us_CA, laboratory, release, injury, unknown_chemical
MONSANTO GIVEN LEGAL SHIELD IN A CHEMICAL SAFETY BILL
Tags: industrial, discovery, environmental, toxics
DRONE-CURIOUS? HERE"S HOW TO FLY SCIENCE MISSIONS LEGALLY
Tags: industrial, discovery, environmental
TOWARD MORE JUDICIOUS SOLVENT SELECTION
Tags: laboratory, discovery, environmental, solvent
BROKEN METAL HALIDE LAMP BULB CAUSES SMALL FIRE AND BUILDING EVACUATION AT TA-46-0025
Tags: industrial, fire, response, metals
AFTER FIRE, BOULDER WOMAN SPREADS CAUTIONARY WORD ON MASSAGE SHEETS
Tags: us_CO, public, fire, response, oils
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BASSETT HEALTHCARE HERKIMER EVACUATED DUE TO LEAK
Tags: us_NY, public, release, response, other_chemical
HERKIMER " Firefighters and police evacuated Bassett Healthcare Herkimer and called in the Utica Hazmat Team Monday afternoon due to a break in a line that caused the release of a cleansing agent, according to Herkimer Fire Chief John Spanfelner.
Spanfelner said while only a small amount of the agent, a peracetic acid, was released, it is considered a hazardous substance that could be explosive.
Shortly before 4 p.m., emergency crews were awaiting the arrival of the Hazmat team, while staff members and patients exited the building.
In addition to Spanfelner, Ilion Fire Chief James Trevett and Herkimer County Emergency Services Director Robert Vandawalker were among those on the scene.
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HOVERBOARD EXPLODES INSIDE BOULDER APARTMENT
Tags: us_CO, public, explosion, response, batteries
BOULDER, Colo. -- Hoverboards are supposed to be about fun for kids and adults.
But yet another, in a long line of hoverboards, is to blame for catching fire and burning inside a Boulder apartment Monday night.
The electronic gadget exploded while charging, as several CU students sat feet away playing video games.
Now, those students are counting themselves lucky nobody was hurt -- or worse.
CU sophomore Mohamed Almansoori cleaned up Tuesday after what looked like the aftermath of a raucous party.
"I was pretty scared. It all happened really, really fast. So there wasn't much time to process it," he said.
But the mess, including singed carpet with several batteries melted into it, is courtesy of an exploding hoverboard.
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HOT PLATE SPILL CAUSES HAZMAT RESPONSE AT CHILDREN"S HOSPITAL
Tags: us_MA, laboratory, release, response, other_chemical
A handful of workers were briefly evacuated from a research lab at Boston Children"s Hospital on Monday night after a chemical spill drew a significant response from city firefighters.
No patients were affected by the spill and the incident was ultimately deemed "non-hazardous," District Fire Chief Paul Miller told reporters at the scene.
According to fire officials, the spill occurred shortly after 8:30 p.m. on the 10th floor of the John F. Enders Pediatric Research Laboratories building.
No patients are housed there.
Miller said a hot plate was left on a low setting in the room, causing a nearby plastic container to become smoky and leak a chemical called eosin, which researchers use for staining and cell work, onto the floor.
Firefighters noticed the reddish liquid on the floor and briefly evacuated about five workers while hazmat investigators worked to determine the nature of the chemical, Miller said.
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WHY ORGANIZATIONS FORGET WHAT THEY LEARN FROM FAILURES
Tags: public, discovery, environmental
We hope that with these insights about why organizations eventually forget what they learn from big mistakes, leaders can better learn to manage the tension between innovation and safety, and counter their organization"s natural tendency to forget. An important step is to avoid the complacency trap " a lull in the occurrence of serious, high-visibility mistakes should not be taken as signal that a focus on safety is no longer necessary. Instead, organizations should remain vigilant and react to signals of potential danger before these are manifested in the next big mistake.
Further, managers should remain especially vigilant in the promotion of a culture of safety. Safety should not remain a primary concern for only a few individuals or a dedicated unit of the organization. Legitimate concerns about safety risks will go unheard unless communication channels within the organization are regularly and rigorously nurtured.
While it may be tempting to shift safety concerns to the background due to urgent pressures to launch new products, increase sales, or cut costs, remember that a big mistake can defeat those goals " it may force managers to put plans on hold, cause customers to stay away from the company"s products, and inflict additional costs as the organization seeks to correct the failure. Remembering these far-reaching consequences should help managers strike a balance between safety and competing priorities.
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U OF R GRAD STUDENT INJURED IN CHEMISTRY LAB EXPLOSION
Tags: us_NY, laboratory, explosion, injury, unknown_chemical
Rochester, N.Y. - A graduate student at the University of Rochester was taken to the hospital Monday after a small explosion.
According to Sara Miller at the University of Rochester, Rochester firefighters and Public Safety responded to the reported explosion around 12:40 p.m. at Gavett Hall.
Gavett Hall houses the chemical engineering building. The graduate student was transported to the hospital with what were described as "non life-threatening injuries."
HAZMAT crews are on scene cleaning up the lab.
The types of chemicals involved were not confirmed while crews were on scene. However, Miller did say there should be no danger to anyone else at the university.
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TWO HOSPITALIZED AFTER CHEMICAL RELEASE DURING CLASSROOM EXPERIMENT AT GLENDALE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Tags: us_CA, laboratory, release, injury, unknown_chemical
Two people were hospitalized with minor injuries Monday following a vent malfunction during a classroom chemistry experiment at Glendale Community College, officials said.
Multiple classrooms were evacuated from a campus building just after 11 a.m. as Glendale and Burbank hazardous materials crews responded to the school, according to Glendale Fire Department spokeswoman Brandy Villanueva.
NEWSLETTER: Stay up to date with what's going on in the 818 >>
Paramedics treated three additional patients at the scene for minor injuries.
Around 1:20 p.m., the building was deemed safe and students were returning to class.
It was not immediately known which chemicals were used during the experiment.
Further details were not immediately available.
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MONSANTO GIVEN LEGAL SHIELD IN A CHEMICAL SAFETY BILL
Tags: industrial, discovery, environmental, toxics
WASHINGTON " Facing hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuits, the giant biotechnology company Monsanto last year received a legislative gift from the House of Representatives, a one-paragraph addition to a sweeping chemical safety bill that could help shield it from legal liability for a toxic chemical only it made.
Monsanto insists it did not ask for the addition. House aides deny it is a gift at all. But the provision would benefit the only manufacturer in the United States of now-banned polychlorinated biphenyls, chemicals known as PCBs, a mainstay of Monsanto sales for decades. The PCB provision is one of several sticking points that negotiators must finesse before Congress can pass a law to revamp the way thousands of chemicals are regulated in the United States.
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DRONE-CURIOUS? HERE"S HOW TO FLY SCIENCE MISSIONS LEGALLY
Tags: industrial, discovery, environmental
Scientists hoping to use drones in airborne research legally in the U.S. face complex regulatory hurdles. Most scientists C&EN interviewed described the regulatory process with exactly the same word: onerous.
"But the bottom line is regulations are regulations," says Virginia Tech"s David G. Schmale III. "You have to obey them."
In fact, if scientists want to get funding for drone research or be able to publish drone research, they"d be wise to follow the rules, which, in the U.S., are set by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). An increasing number of journals won"t publish studies carried out with drones if the scientists can"t prove the work was done legally, Schmale explains. The same applies to funding applications. "You"d be surprised how many grant proposals I"ve seen where the researchers don"t have the legal means to do the experiments," he adds.
In the U.S., the moment drones are used for a commercial activity"including taking photos that get published by media outlets"rather than as a hobby, the flyer must apply for a Section 333 exemption. Meanwhile, scientists flying drones for research purposes, including for a proof-of-principle experiment, need to apply to FAA for a so-called Certificate of Waiver or Authorization.
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TOWARD MORE JUDICIOUS SOLVENT SELECTION
Tags: laboratory, discovery, environmental, solvent
Scientists at AstraZeneca have taken solvent selection guides to a new level by developing an interactive software tool. Several pharma companies have created tabular guides over the years for their internal use to aid scientists in considering safety, human health, environmental impact, and regulatory concerns when choosing a solvent for a process. The ACS Green Chemistry Institute"s Pharmaceutical Roundtable offers a solvent guide based on those efforts on its website and as a mobile app. As AstraZeneca"s Louis J. Diorazio, David R. J. Hose, and Neil K. Adlington point out, the limitation of these guides is that they are static and tend to be prescriptive, focusing on avoiding certain solvents and barely considering the main purpose of a solvent, which is to help facilitate a chemical process (Org. Process Res. Dev. 2016, DOI: 10.1021/acs.oprd.6b00015). In developing the new guide, the AstraZeneca team started with 272 solvents and experimental and computational data. !
Using Microsoft Excel, the researchers developed a system to create statistical maps that allow researchers to still focus on safety and environmental impact while selecting reaction parameters to zoom in on the best solvent options to increase reaction rates, reduce reaction steps, steer product selectivity, and improve yields. To make the approach user-friendly, they built a data manipulation tool using the software package Spotfire. AstraZeneca is using the new software tool internally and plans to make it available through the Pharmaceutical Roundtable.
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BROKEN METAL HALIDE LAMP BULB CAUSES SMALL FIRE AND BUILDING EVACUATION AT TA-46-0025
Tags: industrial, fire, response, metals
Discussion: A small fire started on October 16, 2015, at the Los Alamos National Laboratoryñ3 Technical Area-46, Building 0025, when the hot particles from a ruptured metal halide lamp and its melted diffuser dropped onto a chair and other items located under the fixture. The arc tube in a 400W metal halide (MH) lamp shattered and broke the outside glass envelope of the lamp inside of an enclosed fixture that had a polymeric prismatic lens diffuser. The small fire started when the hot particles of the ruptured lamp melted the diffuser and hot particles from the ruptured lamp and melted lens material dropped onto a small section of a chair and the other items that were located under the fixture. The fire alarm was pulled and the building was evacuated. The fire was then extinguished with a local fire extinguisher before the Los Alamos Fire Department arrived. It was later determined that the type of lamp installed in the fixture was incorrect, which could have possibly contri!
buted to the non-passive failure of the lamp.
Analysis: The lamp was a Sylvania MS400/BU ONLY ANSI Code M59/S. The "BU ONLY" designation indicated the lamp was a "base-up" style lamp that was intended to be installed only in a fixture with the screw base facing up in a vertical configuration. The fixture in which the lamp was installed was intended for horizontally installed lamps. The age of the lamp or its service life may have also been a factor in the lampñ3 non-passive failure. It is understood within the lighting industry that non-passive MH lamp failures can occur and possibly cause property damage and/or fire. Manufacturers of metal halide fixtures and lamps now provide installation instructions and warnings such as not locating open fixtures or enclosed fixtures that incorporate polymeric lens diffusers above combustible material. The instructions should be taken into consideration to reduce the risk of such property damage/fire.
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AFTER FIRE, BOULDER WOMAN SPREADS CAUTIONARY WORD ON MASSAGE SHEETS
Tags: us_CO, public, fire, response, oils
One Boulder woman is hoping to warn others about the fire dangers of an unlikely source: Massage sheets.
Alison Rothman, a massage therapist in Boulder, found out the hard way when a laundry basket of massage sheets ignited in her home earlier this year and smoke destroyed the inside of her home.
"I've done massage for 15 years and never in my life thought that would have happened," Rothman said. "I wish I had that remotely in my brain as a possibility."
Rothman said that she had just taken a load of massage sheets out of her dryer at her home in the 4500 block of Eighth Street on Jan. 14 when she put them in her laundry basket. Rothman said normally she lets the sheets air out a bit on her furniture, but she said this time she had to leave them in the basket to leave the house.
She left the basket in her kitchen, and returned later to find the sheets had ignited.
"I came home to my house on fire," Rothman said. "The combination of heat from the dryer and being in my hot, sunny kitchen caused the sheets to spontaneously combust."
Boulder fire Marshal Dave Lowrey said the oils used in massages that then get into the sheets are the reason they can ignite.
"It's the oils that are used, like sesame oil, that can spontaneously heat when it is basically drying," Lowrey said. "If the sheets are wadded up and that heat can't dissipate, it heats until it heats the sheets to basically their ignition temperature, then they catch fire."
Lowrey said it is a chemical version of what happens with grass clippings or hay bales.
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