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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 (10 articles)
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2016 07:55:35 -0400
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Message-ID: 967AE4F6-A2D1-449A-B033-93C2C98164AA**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Monday, September 19, 2016 at 7:55:17 AM
A membership benefit of the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety
All article summaries and tags are archived at http://pinboard.in/u:dchas
Table of Contents (10 articles)
CHEMICAL PLANT BLAST KILLS 6 IN NORTHWEST CHINA
Tags: China, industrial, explosion, death, chlorine
MILK SILO COLLAPSE, CHEMICAL SPILL LEAD TO INVESTIGATION
Tags: New_Zealand, industrial, release, response, nitric_acid, sodium_hydroxide
PLANT EMPLOYEE STILL IN ICU
Tags: Malaysia, industrial, release, injury, chlorine
SIX FIREMEN, TWO FACTORY WORKERS SICK AFTER INHALING TOXIC FUMES AT MENGLEMBU LEAK SITE
Tags: Malaysia, industrial, release, injury, acids
A DANGEROUS JOB MADE MORE DANGEROUS
Tags: us_TX, industrial, follow-up, environmental, unknown_chemical
PARTS OF THE TOWN OF CALUMET EVACUATED DUE TO CHEMICAL REACTION FROM GRAIN BIN
Tags: us_OK, public, release, response, pesticides
WOMAN DROPS OFF CHEMICALS AT WEST VALLEY FIRE STATION PROMPTING HAZMAT SITUATION
Tags: us_AZ, public, release, environmental, unknown_chemical
MAN MANUFACTURING BUTANE HASH STARTS HOUSE FIRE
Tags: us_FL, public, explosion, response, butane, drugs
HAZMAT TEAM RESPONDING TO CHEMICAL SPILL AT DEXTER BUSINESS
Tags: us_MI, transportation, release, injury, flammables
$90 BILLION WHISTLEBLOWER SUIT FILED AGAINST FOUR OF THE NATION'S LARGEST CHEMICAL COMPANIES
Tags: us_CA, public, discovery, response, isocyanates
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CHEMICAL PLANT BLAST KILLS 6 IN NORTHWEST CHINA
Tags: China, industrial, explosion, death, chlorine
At least six people were killed in a blast at a chemical plant in China‰??s northwest Qinghai province, local media reported.
BEIJING (Sputnik) ‰?? According to the Xinhua news agency, the incident took place on Sunday at a cement production line belonging to Qinghai Salt Lake Haina Chemical Company. As many as 26 people were present at the site during the explosion.
Two workers were killed immediately while 12 were injured, the media outlet reported. Four of those died later in the hospital, while eight are being treated for their injuries.
---------------------------------------------
MILK SILO COLLAPSE, CHEMICAL SPILL LEAD TO INVESTIGATION
Tags: New_Zealand, industrial, release, response, nitric_acid, sodium_hydroxide
A 15m-high milk silo collapsed at the Southland plant last Friday, rupturing pipes and shutting down part of the factory.
A month earlier, 5000 litres of nitric acid and caustic soda, which were used there as cleaning chemicals, spilled from storage tanks.
The government's health and safety regulator said its staff had visited the Edendale site about the spill, and were in contact with the company again now about the silo collapse.
WorkSafe said Fonterra was fully cooperating with its investigations.
Southland District Council, which holds the building consents for the Fonterra factory, said it had no reason to question the plant's maintenance record.
---------------------------------------------
PLANT EMPLOYEE STILL IN ICU
Tags: Malaysia, industrial, release, injury, chlorine
IPOH: A worker of a chemical plant in Menglembu where a gas leak occurred remains at the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Raja Permaiå-suri Bainun Hospital here.
State Health director Datuk Dr Juita Ghazalie said the worker sufferå-ed from lung inflammation as a result of chlorine gas inhalation on Saturday.
‰??He is on ventilator support. We have given him muscle relaxants to help him sleep.
‰??His other vital signs such as his blood pressure level and pulse rate are normal,‰?? she said, adding that the worker was getting the best of care at the ICU.
Another patient, a Fire and Rescue Department personnel who was deployed to the scene, was being treated at the general ward, she said.
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SIX FIREMEN, TWO FACTORY WORKERS SICK AFTER INHALING TOXIC FUMES AT MENGLEMBU LEAK SITE
Tags: Malaysia, industrial, release, injury, acids
IPOH: Six firemen and two factory workers were rushed to the hospital and private clinic here after they inhaled the toxic fumes from a leaked ferric acid tank in Kampung Bukit Merah, Menglembu here today.
The hazardous material (Hazmat) team members were being treated at Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun (HRPB) after they showed symptoms related to toxic gas inhalation such as breathing difficulty, red eyes and stomach ache.
State Health Committee chairman Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon said the affected factory workers also sought treatment at a nearby clinic after they showed similar symptoms.
He said the firemen involved were also experiencing fatigue as they had to carry about five tonnes of soda ash on their back to help neutralised the spilled acid.
"They can't wait for the forklift as they had to stop the acid and its vapour from spreading further," he said after visiting the firemen at HRPB today.
State Fire and Rescue Department operations commander Mohd Khairul Jamil said 24 firemen, including 12 from the Hazmat team, were involved in the operation which ended at 3pm.
---------------------------------------------
A DANGEROUS JOB MADE MORE DANGEROUS
Tags: us_TX, industrial, follow-up, environmental, unknown_chemical
A black plume big enough to show up on weather radar touched the sky that Thursday morning in May. Explosions echoed through Spring Branch. Students fled a nearby school. A substance like tar coated cars in the neighborhood. Blood-red fluids spilled into a creek, choking fish and turtles.
More than 400 firefighters responded over two days, and when they were done, piles of torched barrels and melted plastic tanks lay in a snow-white blanket of fire-fighting foam.
Days later, they still didn't know what they'd been fighting. No city inspector had been inside the place for years, and the owner's records burned up in the blaze. The firefighters didn't even know there was a chemical facility in the neighborhood, one surrounded by houses and apartments, a nursing home and a gun shop full of ammunition.
The problems encountered at Spring Branch weren't unique.
The fire department in the nation's fourth-largest city has no idea where most hazardous chemicals are, forgetting lessons learned in a near-disaster 21 years ago, a Houston Chronicle investigation has found.
Less than a quarter of hazardous materials facilities with permits have been inspected.
Little effort is made to find the ones skirting the rules or to help businesses that don't know what the rules are.
---------------------------------------------
PARTS OF THE TOWN OF CALUMET EVACUATED DUE TO CHEMICAL REACTION FROM GRAIN BIN
Tags: us_OK, public, release, response, pesticides
Parts of the Town of Calumet is being evacuated due to a chemical reaction of pesticides Saturday evening.
A freight elevator was sprayed for pesticides, Canadian County Emergency Management Director Timothy J. Smith said.
The elevator got wet causing a chemical reaction. Parts of the Town of the Calumet were evacuated, Smith said.
Initial reports of a grain bin fire proved to be untrue, Smith said.
Currently there are no reported injuries.
---------------------------------------------
WOMAN DROPS OFF CHEMICALS AT WEST VALLEY FIRE STATION PROMPTING HAZMAT SITUATION
Tags: us_AZ, public, release, environmental, unknown_chemical
PHOENIX - A West Valley fire station halted operations on Friday morning after a community member dropped off chemicals in attempts of disposing of the liquids.
According to a Phoenix Fire Department spokesperson, a woman had dropped off a large amount of chemicals at the fire station near 71st Avenue and McDowell Road around 9 a.m.
Officials said the woman's husband had just passed away and she was trying to get rid of some of the man's belongings.
Fire officials said the chemicals posed no hazards to the environment, no evacuations were needed and there were the nearby community was not in any danger.
Hazardous material trucks were brought in to research what some of the chemicals were. Officials said some of the chemicals have been identified and they are working on properly disposing of them.
Phoenix fire officials strongly recommend people search how to properly dispose of chemicals and suggest not just dropping them off at a fire station.
---------------------------------------------
MAN MANUFACTURING BUTANE HASH STARTS HOUSE FIRE
Tags: us_FL, public, explosion, response, butane, drugs
PASCO COUNTY, Fla. -- Pasco Sheriff's deputies are searching for a Port Richey man that started a large fire in his own house. After making butane hash oil (BHO), the flammable chemical reaction exploded.
Pasco County Sheriff's Office reported that Steven Brown, 24, and "other accomplices" were manufacturing BHO, also called marijuana wax, at his residence at 6912 Alta Vista Street on September 3. Following the explosion, the house caught fire, forcing Brown to save himself and the drugs on the property.
Steven Brown tried to make butane hash oil but started a fire that nearly destroyed his home and killed two dogs. He remains at large. Pasco Sheriff's Office photos
Harold Cope watched his neighbors home burn.
‰??The whole sky was lit up,‰?? says Cope.
BHO is a potent concentrated form of marijuana that is used for the purpose of "dabbing," according to Complex. Making BHO requires marijuana to be combined with highly flammable butane to extract THC from the plant material. What is left behind is a substance that resembles ear wax.
---------------------------------------------
HAZMAT TEAM RESPONDING TO CHEMICAL SPILL AT DEXTER BUSINESS
Tags: us_MI, transportation, release, injury, flammables
DEXTER, MI ‰?? The Washtenaw County Hazardous Materials Response Team is cleaning 30 gallons of a hazardous chemical that spilled at a Dexter business.
At approximately 10:15 a.m. Friday, Sept. 16, the team and Dexter Area Fire responded to the Alpha Metal Finishing Co. at 8155 Huron Street, Dexter Area Fire confirmed.
A truck carrying a 55-gallon drum carrying dimethyl carbonate pierced the container and spilled about 30 gallons of the colorless, flammable liquid, said Benjamin Pinette, Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office emergency planning coordinator.
The spill is contained and crews are cleaning the area, he said.
The chemical is hazardous, Pinette said, and the building was evacuated. The spill does not pose a threat to nearby residents or businesses, and no one reported injuries.
---------------------------------------------
$90 BILLION WHISTLEBLOWER SUIT FILED AGAINST FOUR OF THE NATION'S LARGEST CHEMICAL COMPANIES
Tags: us_CA, public, discovery, response, isocyanates
Kasowitz brought this action on behalf of itself and the federal government to recover more than $90 billion in damages and penalties under the FCA, which imposes penalties for concealing obligations to the government.
According to a copy of the lawsuit seen by EcoWatch, "Each of these companies is separately liable to the United States Government for billions of dollars in civil reporting penalties, which continue to accumulate by tens of thousands of dollars daily, and for billions of dollars in similarly increasing breach of contract damages."
In the suit, the law firm said that the defendants manufacture and sell isocyanate chemicals such as methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI), polymeric MDI (PMDI) and toluene diisocyanate (TDI). These raw materials make up polyurethane products such as liquid coatings, paints and adhesives; flexible foam used in mattresses and cushions; rigid foam used as insulation; and elastomers used to make automotive interiors.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) states that exposure to isocyanate can irritate the skin and mucous membranes, cause chest tightness and difficult breathing. Isocyanates also include compounds classified as potential human carcinogens and is known to cause cancer in animals.
As alleged in the complaint, the defendants, the isocyanate industry and the EPA have long known that inhalation of isocyanates, including MDI, PMDI and TDI, can cause harm to human health.
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