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Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Wednesday, April 20, 2016 at 6:49:54 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=CwIFaQ&c=lb62iw4YL4RFalcE2hQUQealT9-RXrryqt9KZX2qu2s&r=meWM1Buqv4IQ27AlK1OJRjcQl09S1Zta6YXKalY_Io0&m=PZkbh-tClh3OdnkqAYWXh1c8YPBbdHrMZX_nRL7NyaE&s=m6evRusOj7QPIuuDpXwtmzoQB0xsgb1CPXBhQSeHfLg&e=
Table of Contents (14 articles)
OIL, NATURAL GAS OPERATIONS ARE NOW TOP U.S. METHANE EMITTERS
Tags: industrial, discovery, environmental, methane
CHEMICAL FIRE IN NORTH BRUNSWICK TUESDAY MORNING
Tags: us_NJ, industrial, fire, response, unknown_chemical
CHEMICAL PLANTS FEARED TO HAVE MADE CHILDREN ILL AT ANOTHER SCHOOL IN EASTERN CHINESE PROVINCE
Tags: China, industrial, release, injury, unknown_chemical
OBAMA"S "TIMID" LEGACY ON CHEMICAL SAFETY
Tags: us_TX, industrial, follow-up, environmental, ag_chems, ammonium_nitrate
METH-IN-A-BOTTLE SUPERMARKET EXPLOSION REMAINS UNDER INVESTIGATION
Tags: us_MI, public, explosion, injury, meth_lab
ONTARIO BOY, 7, SUFFERS CHEMICAL BURNS USING SCHOOL BATHROOM
Tags: Canada, education, release, injury, cleaners
CHEMICAL CANISTER SET OFF IN MCDONALD'S
Tags: United_Kingdom, public, release, injury, unknown_chemical
MULTIPLE PATIENTS TREATED FOR CHEMICAL EXPOSURE
Tags: us_CA, industrial, release, injury, ag_chems
THE CONSUMER GAME OF WHACK-A-MOLE WITH CHEMICAL DANGERS " OPINION " BANGOR DAILY NEWS " BDN MAINE
Tags: us_ME, public, discovery, environmental, metals, plastics
FIRE DEPARTMENT CALLS HAWAII LAB EXPLOSION AN ACCIDENT
Tags: us_HI, laboratory, follow-up, response, gas_cylinders
HFD RELEASES INVESTIGATION REPORT INTO UH MANOA LAB EXPLOSION
Tags: us_HI, laboratory, follow-up, injury, other_chemical
A TALE OF TWO EXPLOSIONS
Tags: us_TX, laboratory, follow-up, environmental
FACTORY OWNER OFFERS $4M FOR PFOA RESPONSE; STATE SEEKS MORE
Tags: us_VT, industrial, release, response, plastics
A SIMPLE WAY TO TRACK YOUR EVERYDAY EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS
Tags: us_OR, laboratory, discovery, environmental, other_chemical
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OIL, NATURAL GAS OPERATIONS ARE NOW TOP U.S. METHANE EMITTERS
Tags: industrial, discovery, environmental, methane
U.S. greenhouse gases emissions held nearly steady from 2013 to 2014, increasingly a mere 1%, according to a newly released annual inventory by the Environmental Protection Agency. But in a key change from previous years, EPA"s report raised methane emissions figures for oil and natural gas drilling and production by 34%. For oil production alone, methane emissions more than doubled.
The agency attributed the increase in methane to new data and more accurate calculations. This sector now accounts for one-third of U.S. methane emission, outpacing landfills and livestock production.
Methane makes up 10.6% by mass of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions but is a crucial compound because it has 25 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas emitted in largest amounts.
The U.S. is experiencing a drilling and production bonanza in oil and natural gas, the latter of which is composed primarily of methane. As a result, natural gas prices have plummeted and supplies have exploded.
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CHEMICAL FIRE IN NORTH BRUNSWICK TUESDAY MORNING
Tags: us_NJ, industrial, fire, response, unknown_chemical
North Brunswick, NJ - A two-alarm fire broke out at a paint factory early Tuesday morning in North Brunswick township, firefighters there reported.
The call of the fire came in at 3:35 a.m. to 1999 Elizabeth Street, a factory just off Rt. 1 for a company that produces paint for trucks.
The fire had originated in the paint and chemical mixing room, and some pallets with chemicals on them had also caught on fire, fire crews said. The chemical mixing room where the fire started is pictured, in this photo provided by North Brunswick Fire Dept. Station 3.
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CHEMICAL PLANTS FEARED TO HAVE MADE CHILDREN ILL AT ANOTHER SCHOOL IN EASTERN CHINESE PROVINCE
Tags: China, industrial, release, injury, unknown_chemical
An industrial park that is home to dozens of chemical plants in eastern China were ordered to suspend operations early on Wednesday after children at a nearby school began to complain of nosebleeds and itching, according to a news website.
The report comes amid a public outcry in China after nearly 500 pupils at a school not far away were reported to have fallen ill, allegedly due to industrial pollution.
Chemical plants near a primary school in Hainan county in Jiangsu province were ordered to temporarily close down by the local authorities after some pupils suffered nosebleeds and severe itching of the skin, ThePaper.cn reported.
The school is a little more than 100km from the Changzhou Foreign Languages School where 493 pupils have fallen ill, according to a report by state television.
Some are suffering from cancer and parents blame soil pollution from a toxic waste dump on an adjacent field, which formerly housed several chemical plants, CCTV said on Sunday.
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OBAMA"S "TIMID" LEGACY ON CHEMICAL SAFETY
Tags: us_TX, industrial, follow-up, environmental, ag_chems, ammonium_nitrate
This past weekend marked three years since the massive fire and explosion that killed 15 people at the West Fertilizer Co. in West, Texas. Yet despite this disaster and the time that"s gone by, the Dallas Morning News reports:
On the one hand, many of the ag-supply and feed stores that used to stock a lot of the fertilizer have stopped selling it, a Dallas Morning News investigation found. Others have beefed up safeguards, such as moving the chemical out of dilapidated buildings and into fire-resistant concrete structures. Fire officials now have the power to inspect sites, and fire departments are more likely to have had training to handle the hazardous material.
But many of the recommendations made by safety investigators have gone unheeded. None of the sites that responded to News inquiries said they had installed sprinklers systems. The state does not require them, but the U.S. Chemical Safety Board has said such a system could have stopped the West accident before it became a fatal explosion.
And despite calls for keeping stockpiles of ammonium nitrate away from populated areas, in up to eight communities tons of the chemical still sit near schools, houses, nursing homes and even a hospital, according to a News analysis of state data.
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METH-IN-A-BOTTLE SUPERMARKET EXPLOSION REMAINS UNDER INVESTIGATION
Tags: us_MI, public, explosion, injury, meth_lab
COLUMBIA TWP., MI -- Police cleared a father and his young son of involvement in an explosion at a supermarket in Jackson County's Columbia Township last week that investigators say was caused by a plastic bottle containing ingredients used to make methamphetamine.
Surveillance video shows the father and son placing bottles into a return machine about 11 am Monday, April 11 at Country Market, 11301 Brooklyn Road in Columbia Township when the blast occurred.
They appear startled and take a step back from the machine, but soon return to inserting bottles to collect deposit, says Columbia Township Police Chief David Elwell.
Elwell doesn't believe they brought in the bottle responsible for the explosion and said he "can't fathom" anyone would have intentionally. It's more likely someone collecting bottles for their deposit value unknowingly grabbed one -- possibly along a ditch -- used in a meth production operation.
The explosion caused the release of caustic gasses that burned the skin and eyes of employees working in the grocery store's bottle room, Jackson Narcotic Enforcement Team Detective Lt. Lisa Gee-Cram said. They were treated and released from the hospital.
Meth "cooks" sometimes use the "shake-and-bake method" -- what narcotics police call the "one-pot" vessel method -- to produce the addictive street drug also known as "crystal meth."
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ONTARIO BOY, 7, SUFFERS CHEMICAL BURNS USING SCHOOL BATHROOM
Tags: Canada, education, release, injury, cleaners
A southern Ontario mother says her child suffered painful second-degree chemical burns after he used a school toilet seat cleaned with a harsh disinfectant.
The seven-year-old boy was unable to wear pants for 11 days due to the pain and missed nearly two weeks of school, his mother says. She is now speaking out in hopes that a similar incident doesn"t happen to other children.
....
The incident happened March 31 when the child went to the washroom at Stewart Avenue Public School in Cambridge, Ont.
Later that day, the boy noticed a red rash similar to a sunburn on his legs. Shortly after, the rash began to ooze and bubble.
"It had progressed to a second-degree burn," the boy"s mother said.
The mother has since launched a $250,000 lawsuit against the school board.
....In response, the school sent a letter home on April 1 warning parents that some students suffered "varying levels of skin reaction" after using a bathroom.
The affected bathroom was thoroughly cleaned and all the school"s cleaning products were inspected.
The mother says the school provided her with a material safety data sheet describing the cleaner, ED Everyday Disinfectant, which can be "harmful in contact with skin," according to the sheet.
The school board says the situation was taken very seriously.
---------------------------------------------
CHEMICAL CANISTER SET OFF IN MCDONALD'S
Tags: United_Kingdom, public, release, injury, unknown_chemical
Twelve people have been assessed by paramedics after a chemical canister was set off in McDonald's.
Emergency services were called to the McDonald's, on Eccleshall Road in Stafford shortly after 8.30pm tonight.
A total of 12 people, who were inside at the time, were scene by paramedics at the scene - with two expected to be taken to hospital with breathing difficulties.
Staffordshire Police, Staffordshire Fire and Rescue and West Midlands Ambulance service all attended the scene.
Staffordshire Police said they were looking to speak to three people in connection with the incident.
---------------------------------------------
MULTIPLE PATIENTS TREATED FOR CHEMICAL EXPOSURE
Tags: us_CA, industrial, release, injury, ag_chems
Crews responded to a hazardous material situation near Five Points in Fresno County late Monday morning.
According to a statement by the Fresno County Sheriff's Office, 12 workers building a solar farm in the area of Mt. Whitney and Siskiyou Avenues were exposed to chemicals. According to the statement, a tractor operator spraying on a neighboring field got close to the workers, and wind blew the chemicals onto them.
According to officials, Cal Fire crews rinsed off the exposed workers, and they were taken to the hospital for further evaluation.
---------------------------------------------
THE CONSUMER GAME OF WHACK-A-MOLE WITH CHEMICAL DANGERS " OPINION " BANGOR DAILY NEWS " BDN MAINE
Tags: us_ME, public, discovery, environmental, metals, plastics
An announcement last month by the Campbell Soup Co. that it would stop using BPA in the lining of cans containing its soup and other food products again focused attention on the chemical that studies suggest is harmful to humans. Campbell said it began using an alternative lining in March and would phase out BPA in all its cans by the middle of next year.
This is a welcome announcement, but it inadvertently highlights the shortcomings of U.S. chemical regulations.
In 2011, Maine was hailed as a national leader for passing a law that banned BPA in some containers. BPA is an endocrine disruptor that can interfere with the reproductive, immune and developmental systems. The National Toxicology Program"s Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction has " some concern for effects on the brain, behavior, and prostate gland in fetuses, infants, and children at current human exposures to bisphenol A." "Some concern" is midrange on the program"s hierarchy from "negligible" to "serious" concern.
Maine"s BPA ban was the first prohibition to stem from the 2008 Kid-Safe Product Act, a state law that directed the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to develop a list of chemicals used in children"s products that were of high concern. BPA, or bisphenol-A, which is used to harden plastics and coat the inside of metal food containers, was the first chemical identified.
Now, it turns out, some of the chemicals used in place of BPA also are dangerous. This highlights a major shortcoming in U.S. policy regarding chemical safety. Essentially, chemicals are presumed safe until they are proven not to be. BPA has been the subject of extensive study. Its alternatives have not.
The European Commission, on the other hand, relies on the precautionary principle: If a risk to human health is suspected, then chemicals must be proven not to cause harm before they are approved for use.
---------------------------------------------
FIRE DEPARTMENT CALLS HAWAII LAB EXPLOSION AN ACCIDENT
Tags: us_HI, laboratory, follow-up, response, gas_cylinders
HONOLULU (AP) " A visiting researcher who lost an arm last month in a laboratory explosion at the University of Hawaii told fire investigators the blast occurred after she turned off a digital pressure gauge she was using to check the pressure in a gas cylinder.
A report released by the Honolulu Fire Department on Monday said the researcher told investigators she didn't hear gas leaking before the explosion. Photos in the report showed torn pieces of a metal gas cylinder sitting on a floor strewn with debris.
Compressed hydrogen, carbon dioxide and oxygen detonated inside an air tank in the laboratory, fire investigators said in their report. Fire investigators concluded the blast was an accident.
The school has hired the University of California Center for Laboratory Safety to investigate. School spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said more details about the explosion would become known when this probe is completed, which he said was expected by the end of the month.
Fire investigators say the body of the gauge is missing, but Meisenzahl said the school knows the make and model of the gauge. He said it's not a question of whether this particular gauge was faulty but whether the gauge was being appropriately used.
The researcher told fire investigators a small internal explosion occurred earlier in the same week when she conducted a similar experiment using a smaller air tank assembly nearly identical to the one that failed. This experiment also used similar components, the fire department's report said.
Fire Battalion Chief Terry Seelig said that explosion was not reported to the university.
---------------------------------------------
HFD RELEASES INVESTIGATION REPORT INTO UH MANOA LAB EXPLOSION
Tags: us_HI, laboratory, follow-up, injury, other_chemical
The Honolulu Fire Department released Monday the investigation report into the cause and origin of a laboratory explosion at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
The explosion occurred on March 16 in a Hawaii Natural Energy Institute biofuels research laboratory in the Pacific Ocean Science and Technology (POST) building.
A visiting researcher, identified in the report as Thea Ekins-Coward, was injured. The report confirms she lost an arm in the explosion.
---------------------------------------------
A TALE OF TWO EXPLOSIONS
Tags: us_TX, laboratory, follow-up, environmental
In January 2010, an explosion in a chemistry lab at Texas Tech University (TTU) in Lubbock seriously injured a graduate student and touched off an investigation by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board that led to a groundbreaking report on laboratory safety. In response, TTU undertook a number of administrative and procedural changes to improve its safety performance and ability to learn from mistakes. Now, a 10 March 2016 TTU lab explosion"which fortunately produced only "superficial" injuries, according to a report issued by the university"s Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR)"highlights some of those changes in action.
The report on the 2010 explosion explained the factors that contributed to the catastrophe in illuminating detail. It described deficiencies, including lack of clear procedures for carrying out experiments and of hazard analysis before beginning work, and analyzed what had gone wrong at the lab bench and at many levels of the university as a whole, from inadequate oral communication between the grad student and the principal investigator to deficient training and administrative organization. The research group had experienced other dangerous incidents but had repeatedly failed to learn from them because it had not effectively communicated the lessons that emerged either within the lab or with the larger community. Beyond this, the grad student scaled up a reaction despite a lab policy"which he was not adequately aware of"to make only small quantities of the potentially explosive material he was working on, used improper technique to handle it, and failed to wear protecti!
ve goggles.
The report on the recent incident, which an undergraduate student apparently brought on by skipping a step while carrying out a reaction and using a metal tool rather than a safer plastic one, illustrates notable improvement. "The student was, appropriately, not working alone and all personnel in the laboratory were wearing appropriate personal protective equipment including lab coats, safety goggles and gloves," OVPR"s report states. Other good news is that, following a 2-week clean up and investigation, university Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) staffers developed recommendations for preventing similar events. They emphasize the importance of keeping the "regular hazard analyses [now routinely] conducted at the outset of experimental work" up to date, the report states. Next, "EH&S staff met with the Institutional Laboratory Safety Committee and the Principal Investigator involved to convey these recommendations and review updated procedures." !
The lessons learned have also been disseminated to the university community and beyond.
---------------------------------------------
FACTORY OWNER OFFERS $4M FOR PFOA RESPONSE; STATE SEEKS MORE
Tags: us_VT, industrial, release, response, plastics
he company that owns the factory believed to have contaminated in North Bennington residential wells has pledged more than $4 million for water testing, bottled water and filtration, a state official said Thursday.
The state is asking the company for at least an estimated $10 million more to pay for new municipal water lines to replace the polluted wells.
The company, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, has not accepted responsibility for the contamination, which affects more than 100 households in the Bennington area, said Environmental Conservation Commissioner Alyssa Schuren.
Saint-Gobain owns the former Chemfab factory in North Bennington and operated it between 2000 and 2002 before moving operations to New Hampshire.
This factory and the original Chemfab factory in Bennington are believed to be sources of the perfluorooctanoic acid contaminating residents" wells, according to state experts.
PFOA was used in the manufacture of Teflon products before the industry voluntarily phased it out by 2015.
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A SIMPLE WAY TO TRACK YOUR EVERYDAY EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS
Tags: us_OR, laboratory, discovery, environmental, other_chemical
For one week, 92 preschool-aged children in Oregon sported colorful silicone wristbands provided by researchers from Oregon State University. The children"s parents then returned the bands, which the researchers analyzed to determine whether the youngsters had been exposed to flame retardants. The scientists were surprised to find that the kids were exposed to many polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), chemicals that are no longer produced in the U.S., as well as to organophosphate flame retardants, which are widely used as substitutes for PBDEs.
The results from that wristband study (Environ. Res. 2016, DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2016.02.034) remain qualitative"they tell parents whether their child has been exposed to a particular chemical but don"t provide information regarding the amount of exposure. The researchers, led by environmental chemist Kim Anderson, are now working on ways to extract quantitative exposure data from the bands.
The work by Anderson"s team is one of several projects evaluating the effectiveness of silicone wristbands to record exposure to organic chemicals in air, water, and personal care products. Interest in using the bands as personal exposure monitors has been growing since Anderson"s team described the technology in a 2014 Environmental Science & Technology study (DOI: 10.1021/es405022f). Increasing demand for the wristbands recently led Anderson to cofound MyExposome, a company that hopes to put the tool into the hands of the public.
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