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Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Monday, October 17, 2016 at 7:31:32 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 (14 articles)
SOUTH KOREA BEGINS INVESTIGATING CAUSE OF GALAXY NOTE 7 FIRES WITH SAMSUNG
Tags: Republic_of_Korea, laboratory, follow-up, environmental, batteries
CLEAN UP TO RESUME MONDAY AT SITE OF LAUREL CHEMICAL SPILL
Tags: us_MS, industrial, release, environmental, hydrochloric_acid
WORK TO START ON PUBLIC WATER PROJECT AFTER CHEMICAL FOUND
Tags: us_NH, public, follow-up, response, plastics
HOW THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY JOINED THE FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
Tags: us_DC, industrial, discovery, environmental, hvac_chemicals
GOOD AND BAD EXAMPLES OF SITING AND BUILDING BIOSAFETY LEVEL 4 LABORATORIES: A STUDY OF WINNIPEG, GALVESTON AND ETOBICOKE.
Tags: laboratory, discovery, environmental
MERCURY FROM WWII SUBMARINE WRECK POLLUTES SEDIMENTS OFF NORWAY
Tags: Norway, transportation, discovery, environmental, mercury
MANY HANDS REQUIRED FOR METH LAB CLEANUP, YORK COUNTY DRUG OFFICIAL SAYS
Tags: us_SC, public, discovery, response, meth_lab
SERIOUS CRASH NEAR CANNINGTON CAUSES MASSIVE FUEL SPILL
Tags: Canada, transportation, release, injury, other_chemical
COUNTRIES AGREE TO LIMIT A/C & REFRIGERATOR CHEMICAL HARMFUL TO ENVIRONMENT: GOTHAMIST
Tags: public, discovery, environmental, carbon_dioxide, ozone
SECOND CONTROLLED BLAST CARRIED OUT AT CLIFTON COLLEGE BRISTOL AFTER MORE EXPLOSIVE CHEMICALS FOUND
Tags: United_Kingdom, laboratory, discovery, response, picric_acid
CHEMICAL SPILL CLOSES SOUTH AUCKLAND ROAD
Tags: New_Zealand, transportation, release, response, other_chemical
STAFF, 3 STUDENTS OF SEBERANG PERAI POLYTECHNIC EXPOSED TO MERCURY
Tags: Malaysia, education, release, response, mercury
CHEMICAL SPILL ON INDUSTRIAL PARKWAY
Tags: us_MS, industrial, release, response, hydrochloric_acid
HEALTH CHIEF: NO APPARENT DANGER FROM SMOKE RELEASE
Tags: us_CO, industrial, release, environmental, unknown_chemical
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SOUTH KOREA BEGINS INVESTIGATING CAUSE OF GALAXY NOTE 7 FIRES WITH SAMSUNG
Tags: Republic_of_Korea, laboratory, follow-up, environmental, batteries
Samsung and the South Korean government launched separate investigations last week to find the cause of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone that caught fire in several instances across the globe.
Yonhap News reported state-run Korea Testing Laboratory (KTL) was provided from Samsung five Galaxy Note 7 units that had caught fire in the country. KTL will use X-ray and computerized tomography to try and determine the exact cause of the explosion.
Samsung recalled the Galaxy Note 7 in September and finally ended production last week after repeated fires. It has yet to determine the cause and is working to recall the handset from across the globe.
"We have handed over the phones (that caught fire) to KTL and will cooperate with their investigation, but we can't just sit and wait for its result," a Samsung Electronics official told Yonhap News. "We have been mobilizing all possible resources to find the exact cause of the problems as soon as possible."
---------------------------------------------
CLEAN UP TO RESUME MONDAY AT SITE OF LAUREL CHEMICAL SPILL
Tags: us_MS, industrial, release, environmental, hydrochloric_acid
LAUREL, MS (WDAM) -
Clean-up will continue Monday morning at the site of a chemical spill which happened Friday night at a business on the Laurel Industrial Parkway.
Crews from a Jackson-based environmental services company temporarily suspended operations Saturday at around 4 p.m., after spending several hours cleaning up more than 5,000 gallons of hydrochloric acid, which leaked from a container at Baker Hughes.
Jones County Emergency Management officials said there is no off-site contamination and no threat to the public.
They also said the company, which provides oil field services, will re-open for business Monday morning.
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WORK TO START ON PUBLIC WATER PROJECT AFTER CHEMICAL FOUND
Tags: us_NH, public, follow-up, response, plastics
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - New Hampshire environmental officials say work will start soon to connect 360 homes in Litchfield to a public water system after their private wells contained elevated levels of the chemical PFOA, which has been linked to cancer and other illnesses.
More than 170 are expected to be connected by the end of the year.
PFOA, used in non-stick coatings, was first found in wells in towns surrounding the Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics facility in Merrimack, New Hampshire.
In May, Saint-Gobain agreed to fund the engineering design work by Pennichuck Corp. for the potential expansion of the existing public water system in Litchfield, in addition to funding bottled water for homes in the area.
---------------------------------------------
HOW THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY JOINED THE FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
Tags: us_DC, industrial, discovery, environmental, hvac_chemicals
It might seem surprising to find the world‰??s chemical companies on the front lines of preventing climate change, fighting to disrupt their own industries.
But in a sweeping accord reached on Saturday in Kigali, Rwanda, companies including Honeywell and DuPont were among the most active backers of a move away from a profitable chemical that has long been the foundation for the fast-growing air-conditioning and refrigeration business.
The companies were driven less by idealism than by intense competition, and a bet that they could create more environmentally friendly alternatives.
Still, some environmentalists say the aggressive move away from hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, provides a template for other industries to follow.
‰??They learned that without a rule change, their new products couldn‰??t compete,‰?? said David Doniger, director of the Climate and Clean Air Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, based in Washington, D.C. ‰??They woke up and said, ‰??The science is real.‰??‰??
---------------------------------------------
GOOD AND BAD EXAMPLES OF SITING AND BUILDING BIOSAFETY LEVEL 4 LABORATORIES: A STUDY OF WINNIPEG, GALVESTON AND ETOBICOKE.
Tags: laboratory, discovery, environmental
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate successful and unsuccessful examples of siting and building biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) facilities in North America. The paper shows that well thought-out risk communication strategies, that are proactive in nature, are needed to counteract both public trust and negative media amplification. The paper suggests that such strategies, which combine communication tools including media briefings, public fora, focus groups, tours of the proposed facility, open and frequent communication with the public as much as possible do work.
---------------------------------------------
MERCURY FROM WWII SUBMARINE WRECK POLLUTES SEDIMENTS OFF NORWAY
Tags: Norway, transportation, discovery, environmental, mercury
The German submarine U-864 was sunk in World War II off the Norwegian island of Fedje, loaded with 67 tons of metallic mercury. When the wreck was discovered in 2003, some of the mercury was found leaking from broken containers. Now, researchers show that this material has contaminated sediments surrounding the wreck. But surprisingly, the scientists think the marine food web may not be substantially affected by the pollution, based on their analysis of crabs sampled near the sub (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2016, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.6b02128).
Crabs and other seafood are often contaminated with neurotoxic mercury from industrial pollution and fossil fuel burning that is deposited from the air onto the ocean surface, making its way into the food chain. So when the mercury-laden vessel was discovered at a relatively shallow depth of 150 m, scientists, fishermen, and government officials were concerned. To determine the wreck‰??s impact, Norway‰??s Coastal Administration sampled sediments, and the National Institute of Nutrition & Seafood Research collected crabs near the site. Frank Vanhaecke of Ghent University and his colleagues then analyzed the samples with a variety of methods, including measuring mercury isotope ratios using multicollector inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry.
‰??In some sediment samples we could see small droplets of mercury,‰?? Vanhaecke says. The wet sediments had 60 to 24,000 mg/kg of mercury‰??in comparison, background levels in ocean sediments are 0.02 to 0.1 mg/kg. The isotopic composition of mercury in the submarine was similar to that in the sediments. Notably, crabs collected within a four-nautical-mile radius of the wreck did not have significantly different mercury concentrations than those collected from other areas along the Norwegian coast. However, the isotopic results indicate that crabs in the immediate vicinity of the submarine did take on some mercury from the wreck in their brown meat.
---------------------------------------------
MANY HANDS REQUIRED FOR METH LAB CLEANUP, YORK COUNTY DRUG OFFICIAL SAYS
Tags: us_SC, public, discovery, response, meth_lab
ROCK HILL
Making methamphetamine may be a small-scale operation today, thanks to newer, more compact methods.
However, the response by law enforcement and health officials to remove those labs ‰?? like the one busted this week across from Winthrop University ‰?? is much larger and more expensive.
Older, more obselete forms of making meth involved items like pots and hoses, and the drug was actually cooked on a stovetop or hot surface, according to Marvin Brown, commander of the York County Multijurisdictional Drug Enforcement Unit. The newer ‰??one-pot‰?? or ‰??shake and bake‰?? method involves mixing the ingredients in a plastic 20-ounce bottle, causing a chemical reaction that makes methamphetamine.
---------------------------------------------
SERIOUS CRASH NEAR CANNINGTON CAUSES MASSIVE FUEL SPILL
Tags: Canada, transportation, release, injury, other_chemical
BROCK TWP. -- Hazmat crews remain at the scene of a horrendous crash on Simcoe Street near Cannington last night that involved a tanker trailer hauling 55,000 litres of fuel and a car.
According to Brock Township Fire Chief Rick Harrison, both of the drivers were trapped in their vehicles following the accident, which occurred shortly after 8 p.m.
‰??The driver of the car suffered critical injuries and has been taken to a hospital in Toronto,‰?? he said.
‰??The truck driver was OK but we was covered in fuel. The truck was hauling 30,000 litres of fuel in one tank, 25,000 in the other.‰??
---------------------------------------------
COUNTRIES AGREE TO LIMIT A/C & REFRIGERATOR CHEMICAL HARMFUL TO ENVIRONMENT: GOTHAMIST
Tags: public, discovery, environmental, carbon_dioxide, ozone
Over 170 countries have agreed to limit global emissions from a powerful chemical used in air-conditioners and refrigerators, following a climate change summit in Kigali, Rwanda this week.
Hydrofluorocarbons‰??or HFCs‰??are chemical coolants that trap heat in the atmosphere, making them thousands of times more potent and harmful than greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. Air-conditioners, which typically employ HFCs, have been determined as the chemical's biggest disseminators‰??HFCs previously replaced chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which contributed to the erosion of the ozone layer.
Still, HFCs do their own damage, and the deal reached early this morning will require developed countries to reduce HFC emissions by 10 percent by 2019, and then by 85 percent by 2036. Less developed countries like China and some African nations will begin phasing out HFCs by 2024, and further developing countries like India, Pakistan, and Iran will begin the process in 2028, eventually reducing HFCs by 85 percent by 2047.
Over the last seven years, negotiators have had trouble convincing underdeveloped countries like India to reduce HFCs, since the chemical has made air-conditioning cheaper and more attainable for poorer nations. India has argued that swapping out HFCs for less harmful coolants will hurt them. "There are issues of cost, there are issues of technology, there are issues of finances," Ajay Narayan Jha of India's environment and climate change ministry said, before the deal was announced. "We would like to emphasize that any agreement will have to be flexible from all sides concerned. It can't be flexible from one side and not from the other."
---------------------------------------------
SECOND CONTROLLED BLAST CARRIED OUT AT CLIFTON COLLEGE BRISTOL AFTER MORE EXPLOSIVE CHEMICALS FOUND
Tags: United_Kingdom, laboratory, discovery, response, picric_acid
A second controlled explosion has been carried out following the discovery of more dangerous chemicals at Clifton College in Bristol.
Safety teams from Avon Fire and Rescue carried out a controlled blast on the playing fields this afternoon.
It comes after an earlier controlled explosion at about 7.30am this morning, after a small amount of the volatile chemical picric acid was found in a school science lab.
Picric acid is safe in its liquid form, but if it dries out it becomes hazardous.
A witness said the substance was 'covered in sandbags to reduce the effects of the explosion' on the playing fields.
"The explosion resulted in one large bang and a cloud of smoke," the witness said.
The chemical was covered in sandbags and destroyed on the school's playing field
A spokeswoman for the college said the incident has 'concluded safely' and no more picric acid is inside the school. The school has said it will carry out a full investigation into how the chemical came to be inside the school.
---------------------------------------------
CHEMICAL SPILL CLOSES SOUTH AUCKLAND ROAD
Tags: New_Zealand, transportation, release, response, other_chemical
A portion of a main road in the south Auckland suburb of Penrose has been shut off after a chemical spill in the area.
Emergency services were called to the scene at about 6:50pm after a suspected carbide spill, Fire Service shift manager Paul Radden said.
"Upon getting wet, carbide can turn into a very flammable acetylene-type substance," Mr Radden explained.
---------------------------------------------
STAFF, 3 STUDENTS OF SEBERANG PERAI POLYTECHNIC EXPOSED TO MERCURY
Tags: Malaysia, education, release, response, mercury
BUKIT MERTAJAM: A staff and three students of Seberang Perai Polytechnic, were exposed to mercury pollution after a blood pressure testing equipment broke in a lecture room at the polytechnic today.
The male staff in his 30s and three 20-year-old female students were sent to Seberang Jaya Hospital and their conditions were reported to be stable.
Penang Fire and Rescue Department media relations officer Mohd Azman Hussin said they received a report on the incident at about 8.37am.
‰??The device fell on the floor before breaking causing the mercury to spill,‰?? he said here today.
Eight members of the Hazardous Materials Unit (HAZMAT) cleaned the mercury spill using sulfur and bleach, he said.
---------------------------------------------
CHEMICAL SPILL ON INDUSTRIAL PARKWAY
Tags: us_MS, industrial, release, response, hydrochloric_acid
LAUREL, MS (WDAM) -
Hazmat crews are still on the scene of a chemical spill on Industrial Parkway in Laurel, but has now been contained to one area.
According to Caleb Worrell, Public Information Officer for the Jones County Fire Council, the chemical spill scene has been secured to just the property of Baker Hughes. Fire sources have been released and the roads are now open.
Worrell said 6,000 gallons of hydrochloric acid leaked into the air at the corner of Indian Springs Road and Boots Smith Road near Howard Industries.
The first report of the spill came in around 9 p.m. on Friday.
According to Worrell, units from Calhoun Volunteer Fire Department were the first to respond, followed by several other emergency services from across the state.
---------------------------------------------
HEALTH CHIEF: NO APPARENT DANGER FROM SMOKE RELEASE
Tags: us_CO, industrial, release, environmental, unknown_chemical
COMMERCE CITY - Colorado's public health director says officials don't know enough yet about what was in the smoke released from a Denver-area refinery after a power failure to determine if it was hazardous.
However, Dr. Larry Wolk says authorities are reassured that Friday's release from the Suncor Energy, Inc. refinery was brief. He says it doesn't appear to pose any immediate threat to people nearby.
Heavy smoke was seen coming from the Suncor Refinery in Commerce City on Friday. The Denver Fire Department responded to assist Adams County with a hazmat incident in the 5600 block of Brighton Boulevard.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Xcel Energy was working on repairs at the plant. An incident occurred causing a power outage at the refinery around 12 p.m.
The refinery went into automatic shutdown. The orange and black smoke clouds seen around the metro area were the result of a "type of clay" used in processes at the refinery.
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