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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 (16 articles)
Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2016 07:11:32 -0400
Reply-To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Message-ID: E7D8C924-CDE8-4069-8974-90A7D8FA5F25**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Wednesday, April 27, 2016 at 7:10:50 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=2DZdHCNEEKuNvFwgCFN5ZNAn9c9fMQdjMad3kCNSmsY&s=nQlv7ZeHc0gwJXAqOnehXtWv_tyMCNlAqGrdH4v5zVs&e=
Table of Contents (16 articles)
SPOKANE FIRE AIMS TO USE DRONES FOR EMERGENCIES
Tags: us_WA, public, discovery, response
BUSINESS STANDARD-MAJOR FIRE AT BIO-DIESEL CO AT VISAKHAPATNAM, NO CASUALTIES: OFFICIALS
Tags: India, industrial, fire, response, biodiesel
COBRA DISCOVERED IN SCIENCE LAB
Tags: Malaysia, laboratory, discovery, response
5,600 FISH KILLED IN BIG THOMPSON FROM CHEMICAL RUNOFF
Tags: us_CO, public, discovery, environmental, runoff
CHEMICAL SPILL CLOSES ARKANSAS WAL-MART
Tags: us_AR, transportation, release, response, chlorine
CHEMICAL LEAK CONTAINED AT DUPONT FACILITY IN CHESTERFIELD
Tags: us_VA, industrial, release, response, unknown_chemical
BREAKING: KC FIRE RESPONDING TO CHEMICAL SPILL SOUTH OF
Tags: us_CA, industrial, release, response, unknown_chemical
SEARCH FINDS SUPER-EMITTERS OF METHANE AND HYDROCARBONS
Tags: public, discovery, environmental, methane
THE PEMEX VINYL CHLORIDE PLANT EXPLOSION
Tags: Mexico, industrial, follow-up, death, flammables
CONCERN GROWS OVER TAINTED DRINKING WATER
Tags: us_NY, industrial, discovery, environmental, toxics
FLAMES ENGULF TYRE FACTORY GODOWN
Tags: India, industrial, fire, response, unknown_chemical
TWO TAKEN TO HOSPITAL AFTER CHEMICAL REACTION IN SUN PRAIRIE
Tags: us_WI, industrial, release, injury, unknown_chemical
WATER AUTHORITY UNDER FIRE FOR SWAPPING LEAD PREVENTATIVE CHEMICALS WITHOUT DEP PERMISSION
Tags: us_PA, public, discovery, environmental, sodium_carbonate, sodium_hydroxide
HAZMAT CLEANS UP ACID SPILL IN HOLLY HILL POOL SUPPLY WAREHOUSE
Tags: us_FL, public, release, response, hydrochloric_acid
2 CHARGED WITH PLACING EXPLOSIVE DEVICES IN WESTFIELD YARDS; HAZMAT SCENE CLEAR
Tags: us_MA, public, discovery, response, bomb
FIREFIGHTERS SEEK NEW LAW TO BAN FLAME RETARDANTS
Tags: us_MA, public, fire, environmental, other_chemical
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SPOKANE FIRE AIMS TO USE DRONES FOR EMERGENCIES
Tags: us_WA, public, discovery, response
SPOKANE, Wash. " Spokane firefighters have asked City Council to create an exception that would allow them to use drones in the event of an emergency.
If city leaders approve the vote, fire administrators said the drones will respond mostly to hazmat calls, where firefighters come into contact with dangerous chemicals.
By sending a drone into a contaminated area, Spokane Fire said the benefits are twofold. First off, they said it will save precious time because workers will not have to get suited up to deal with chemicals " something that can take several minutes to do.
On top of that, officials said fewer firefighters will be exposed to dangerous materials, possibly saving lives in the process.
Spokane Fire said the cost for a drone is somewhere between $8,000 and $20,000 and most of the costs would come from training the drone"s pilots.
A recent example that officials gave where a drone could have been used was during the chlorine leak at Pacific Steel and Recycling in the summer of 2015.
Had firefighters used a drone in that case, they said the overall investigation would have been much faster.
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BUSINESS STANDARD-MAJOR FIRE AT BIO-DIESEL CO AT VISAKHAPATNAM, NO CASUALTIES: OFFICIALS
Tags: India, industrial, fire, response, biodiesel
A massive fire broke out at Biomax Fuels Limited (BFL), a bio-diesel manufacturing unit in the Visakhapatnam Special Economic Zone (VSEZ), Duvvada area in the city, on Tuesday night, officials said.
No casualties were reported in the incident, they said.
Biomax Fuels Ltd has a manufacturing capacity of five lakh tonnes of bio-diesel from multi-feedstock at VSEZ. There are about 15 storage tanks and the blaze spread to the 11 of them.
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"Eight fire engines reached the spot and two fire engines with chemical foam were requisitioned from HPCL and Eastern Naval Command to put off the fire," District Fire Officer J M Rao said.
The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained and the fire tenders were unable to reach the storage area, Rao said.
District Collector N Yuvaraj and other rushed to the spot and examined the operations.
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COBRA DISCOVERED IN SCIENCE LAB
Tags: Malaysia, laboratory, discovery, response
LABUAN: Hundreds of students of a secondary school here went into panic when a cobra was discovered in the school"s laboratory at about 11am today.
The two-meter long grayish snake was found by the SMK Pantai students who were studying in the laboratory and immediately alerted the teacher.
Labuan Fire and Rescue Department director Zainal Madasin told Bernama the department"s operations room received a call from the school teacher at about 11.25am and immediately dispatched a team to the school.
"Our team sped to the scene before the snake could go somewhere else. It could have been very dangerous if the cobra got onto the school grounds.
"We took extra precaution when dealing with the cobra, as it can be dangerous. Fortunately, no student was hurt," he said.
He said the team of personnel managed to catch the snake within minutes and the reptile had been surrendered to the Wildlife Department. --Bernama
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5,600 FISH KILLED IN BIG THOMPSON FROM CHEMICAL RUNOFF
Tags: us_CO, public, discovery, environmental, runoff
More than 5,600 fish were killed last month in the Big Thompson River, the result of a chemical runoff from a bridge reconstruction project, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
The agency announced Tuesday that the fish, including rainbow and brown trout, suckers and dace, died March 7 in the Big Thompson and its North Fork, in an 8.3-mile section of the river from Drake to West Loveland.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife is blaming the massive fish kill incident on the Storm Mountain Road Bridge reconstruction project along Larimer County Road 43, a project that's part of the state's reconstruction plan following the devastating September 2013 floods.
The incident was initially reported by a citizen, who noticed dead fish and gray water in a side creek of the river, according to High Country News, which first reported the fish kill on Tuesday.
CPW waited to to confirm the kill "until data had been thoroughly analyzed."
The loss of the fish is a big blow to the Big Thompson, a premier fly-fishing destination. Prior to the 2013 floods, the river's fishing recreation generated $4.3 million for the local economy.
While details of the fish kill are still being analyzed, CPW said it appears the event was associated with concrete work being performed in building and securing rock walls along Larimer County Road 43 and replacement of the nearby Storm Mountain Road Bridge which spans the lower North Fork.
In Tuesday's release, CPW said site conditions and other factors at the Storm Mountain Bridge allowed chemicals from the concrete to enter the stream, causing a dramatic increase in the acidity of the water which sickened or killed fish in its path.
Since the event, CPW said wildlife officials are working to minimize the chance of another similar fish kill during the County Road 43 project, which is slated for completion late this summer.
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CHEMICAL SPILL CLOSES ARKANSAS WAL-MART
Tags: us_AR, transportation, release, response, chlorine
Shoppers were being told to stay away from the Wal-Mart in Lonoke on Tuesday afternoon after a box being unloaded from a truck in the parking lot tipped, spilling chemicals, the county sheriff said.
Sheriff John Staley said there was no immediate danger, but patrons were being shuttled to their cars and not allowed into the store about 2 p.m.
He identified the chemical as chlorine and said the store at 322 Brownsville Loop would be reopened once the spill is cleaned up.
It wasn't known how long the cleanup would take, Staley said.
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CHEMICAL LEAK CONTAINED AT DUPONT FACILITY IN CHESTERFIELD
Tags: us_VA, industrial, release, response, unknown_chemical
CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. " The clean-up process has begun after a chemical leak occurred at 2:18 p.m. Tuesday, inside the DuPont Spruance facility in Chesterfield.
The material that leaked was hazardous, according to Chesterfield Fire and EMS spokesman Lt. Jason Elmore, but the leak had been contained. It dissipated before leaving the plant.
The amount released was such that it is not considered a reportable incident to environmental regulators.
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BREAKING: KC FIRE RESPONDING TO CHEMICAL SPILL SOUTH OF
Tags: us_CA, industrial, release, response, unknown_chemical
Kern County Fire Department crews are on the scene of a chemical spill into a canal south of Bakersfield. A Hazmat crew is also on scene.
This is on Toro Court between South Union Avenue and Highway 99.
It appears there are a few homes in the area.
Fire officials say they think the chemical is Amber Guard 215 which is used in drilling.
The southbound lanes of South Union Avenue are closed just south of Bear Mountain Boulevard to the 99 interchange, however, the northbound lanes are open.
Fire officials say there is no threat from the spill to the public by air. No homes or people are threatened at this time.
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SEARCH FINDS SUPER-EMITTERS OF METHANE AND HYDROCARBONS
Tags: public, discovery, environmental, methane
Certain oil and natural gas sites are known super-emitters of methane and hydrocarbons. Now, using helicopters and infrared cameras, researchers have better characterized these sites and pinpointed the major source of their emissions: leakage from field storage tanks and their hatches (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2016, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.6b00705). These leaks could be easily controlled with the appropriate equipment, the researchers say.
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 100-year time span, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Controlling methane emissions is critical to curbing climate change. About 30% of U.S. methane emissions come from the oil and gas sector, according to the EPA.
In the new study, a team headed by scientists at the Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit advocacy group, hired a firm to survey more than 8,000 oil and gas well pads in seven regions of the U.S., using helicopters equipped with IR gas-imaging instruments to detect methane and hydrocarbon leakage. These IR cameras can detect gas plumes emanating from individual pieces of equipment at the facilities, such as tanks and pipes.
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THE PEMEX VINYL CHLORIDE PLANT EXPLOSION
Tags: Mexico, industrial, follow-up, death, flammables
Unless you work in the petrochemical industry, you have probably never been near the substance called vinyl chloride. It is a chlorinated hydrocarbon that is made when one of the four hydrogen atoms in the compound called ethylene is replaced by a chlorine atom.
On the other hand, unless you live in a house whose plumbing is all more than forty or so years old, you probably use products made with vinyl chloride every day.
Polyvinylchloride (PVC) pipes are used in the plumbing of nearly all new residential and business construction, and about 40 million metric tons (units of 1,000 kg) of PVC plastic were made in 2013.
But all PVC pipes were once the toxic, flammable liquid called vinyl chloride, and that is what may have got loose at the Pemex chlorinate 3 plant in the Gulf Coast city of Coatzacoalcos, Mexico last Wednesday, Apr. 20. The resulting explosion and fire killed at least 28 people and injured over a hundred, with more still missing as of today.
Besides the immediate human tragedy, this accident raises important questions about the safety record of the state-owned petroleum company Pemex.
At this writing, little is known about the cause of the blast. Coatzacoalcos is a town at the very southernmost tip of the Gulf of Mexico, in the Mexican state of Veracruz between central Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula.
It is one of the main export terminals for Mexican oil and is a logical location for a vinyl-chloride plant, since its manufacture requires large quantities of the petrochemical ethylene. The chlorinate 3 plant is a joint venture between Pemex and a PVC-pipe manufacturer called Mexichem.
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CONCERN GROWS OVER TAINTED DRINKING WATER
Tags: us_NY, industrial, discovery, environmental, toxics
Officials in Vermont, New Hampshire and New York are expanding their efforts to find out how much of a potentially toxic chemical ended up in drinking water, from private wells to public water systems.
Factories for decades used the chemical, perfluorooctanoic acid or PFOA, as a plastic coating and to make consumer products such as Teflon nonstick pans, waterproof jackets and pizza boxes.
Former large manufacturers or users of PFOA, including 3M Co. and DuPont Co., agreed in 2006 to phase out PFOA production and use by December 2015.
Public concern over PFOA has spread through upstate New York and New England since August 2014, when a resident of Hoosick Falls, N.Y., near the Vermont border, tested his drinking water and found high levels of the acid. The man was concerned because his father, a former employee of the town"s plastics plant that used PFOA, died of cancer.
Earlier this month, roughly 200 people crowded into a high school auditorium in Litchfield, N.H., to hear from New Hampshire environmental officials. Attendees voiced concerns about PFOA"s possible effects on children, pets and garden produce.
The worry stems from a Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp. plant in neighboring Merrimack, which New Hampshire officials are investigating as a possible source of PFOA contamination. The state in March sampled PFOA levels up to 620 parts per trillion in private Litchfield wells, well above the 100-parts-per-trillion level at which New Hampshire officials start to consider the amount unsafe. Tests in Merrimack measured as high as 1,600 parts per trillion.
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FLAMES ENGULF TYRE FACTORY GODOWN
Tags: India, industrial, fire, response, unknown_chemical
Poddar Tyres Limited, a factory situated in Jugiana, three km from here, was gutted after a major fire broke out this afternoon.
It took five-six hours for five fire brigade teams to bring the fire under control. No loss of life has been reported.
As per information, the fire spread within no time and engulfed the entire raw material godown of the factory.
Kanaganwal chowki in-charge Kulwant Singh said, "Fire brigade teams from Ludhiana were busy extinguishing the fire till evening. The reason behind the fire is yet to be ascertained. The fire brigade teams had a hard time extinguishing the fire as it had engulfed a major part of the godown."
Factory manager Joginder Singh said short circuit or sudden chemical heating may have lead to the fire.
When questioned about the loss he said, "It is too difficult to assess the exact loss at this stage but according to rough estimates, damage to the tune of Rs 1.5 crore has been done. The labourers, however, are safe."
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TWO TAKEN TO HOSPITAL AFTER CHEMICAL REACTION IN SUN PRAIRIE
Tags: us_WI, industrial, release, injury, unknown_chemical
UPDATE (WKOW) -- Sun Prairie fire officials say they are looking into the cause of a chemical reaction that forced the evacuation of a business this morning.
Sun Prairie firefighters responded to 450 Progress Way around 9:30. That address is associated with Imperial Blades, a company that makes power tool blades and accessories.
Fire officials believe two chemicals used in the manufacturing process were accidentally combined and they contaminated an area of the building.
Three employees were treated and released at a local hospital.
Madison's hazmat team was called in to help.
After mitigation of the chemicals, officials say the building was turned back over to the owners.
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WATER AUTHORITY UNDER FIRE FOR SWAPPING LEAD PREVENTATIVE CHEMICALS WITHOUT DEP PERMISSION
Tags: us_PA, public, discovery, environmental, sodium_carbonate, sodium_hydroxide
The city's water authority got a slap on the wrist Monday from the Wolf administration two years after making a critical change to the chemicals added to Pittsburgh drinking water.
State Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Quigley said Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority should have gotten approval from the state before switching from soda ash to caustic soda for corrosion control.
Analysis Friday showed extremely low levels -- one part per billion -- of both lead and copper at PWSA, he said, but regulators hadn't conducted similar tests since September 2013, well before PWSA deployed the new chemical from April 2014 to January 2015.
Based on those results, there is no current threat to the public, he said.
"But we are taking swift action to ensure that this is the case and to begin the process of determining if any threat existed during the time the modifications were in effect," he said.
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HAZMAT CLEANS UP ACID SPILL IN HOLLY HILL POOL SUPPLY WAREHOUSE
Tags: us_FL, public, release, response, hydrochloric_acid
HOLLY HILL " A hazmat team cleaned up a muriatic acid spill Monday afternoon that was discovered inside a pool supply warehouse at the corner of State Avenue and Flomich Street.
Employees tried to clean the spill, which apparently happened over the weekend, when they came into work and saw it. They called the fire department after they realized they couldn't do the job themselves, said Holly Hill Fire Chief Jim Bland.
The chemical's fumes are toxic and in liquid form it can weaken metals and eat through fabric.
The employees at Horner Xpress used sodium bicarbonate, a powdery chemical they had on site. The hazmat team called into the warehouse was going to use the same substance to neutralize what was left of the spill, rescue officials said.
"That initial mitigation helped us tremendously," said Bland, who was astonished at how long the employees worked on the spill.
"I'm glad they did it. ... I sure wouldn't have done it," he said. "They spent about two hours in there before they called (us)."
None of the employees showed any symptoms and no medical assistance was needed. One Horner Xpress employee who was still on site Monday afternoon declined to speak to a reporter.
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2 CHARGED WITH PLACING EXPLOSIVE DEVICES IN WESTFIELD YARDS; HAZMAT SCENE CLEAR
Tags: us_MA, public, discovery, response, bomb
WESTFIELD - Two men are charged with placing explosive devices in yards on Woodmont Street, prompting a multi-agency hazmat and bomb squad response Monday evening.
Sean Barrett, 18, and Patrick Baker, 19, were arrested after police found four plastic bottles that were foaming and appeared to contain pieces of metal, according to Westfield police Lt. Jerome Pitoniak.
At around 5 p.m., a woman reported finding one of the devices in the front yard of 83 Woodmont St. Authorities found three more in the yard of number 88, where Barrett and Baker live.
Pitoniak said the substances in the bottles have not been identified yet, but he said they were comparable to Drano bombs that can be seen in numerous YouTube videos. The devices will be sent for testing. Massachusetts State Police is assisting in the investigation.
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FIREFIGHTERS SEEK NEW LAW TO BAN FLAME RETARDANTS
Tags: us_MA, public, fire, environmental, other_chemical
Amid growing concern that flame retardants are responsible for elevated cancer rates in firefighters, Massachusetts lawmakers are pushing legislation that would go further than any other state"s in banning the use of chemicals meant to slow the spread of fires.
Fire officials and environmental advocates, who have joined forces to support the restrictions, contend that at least 10 chemicals used in flame retardants endanger firefighters, while doing little to stop fires. They support two bills that would prohibit manufacturers and retailers from using the chemicals in children"s products and upholstered furniture and authorize state environmental officials to ban other retardants they designate as health risks.
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