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From: DCHAS Secretary <secretary**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety headlines from Google (8 articles)
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2017 07:42:42 -0500
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Message-ID: 875D88DE-568D-4335-A41C-084E913D3626**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Monday, January 23, 2017 at 7:42:20 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 (8 articles)
PEERING INTO CHINA'S THICK HAZE OF AIR POLLUTION
Tags: China, public, discovery, environmental, toxics
TESTING DRINKING WATER FOR TOXIC CHEMICAL C8 URGED FARTHER DOWN OHIO RIVER
Tags: us_OH, industrial, discovery, environmental, toxics
CREWS CLEARING CHEMICAL TRUCK CRASH
Tags: us_AL, transportation, release, response, hydrogen_peroxide
HAZMAT TEAM CONTAINING SPILL IN CENTRAL FRESNO
Tags: us_CA, public, release, response, paints
CUTTING COAL HAS REDUCED ATMOSPHERIC MERCURY IN NORTHEASTERN U.S.
Tags: us_VT, public, discovery, environmental, mercury
MAINE BLUEBERRY PROCESSOR, EPA REACH SETTLEMENT OVER HANDLING OF CHEMICAL
Tags: us_ME, industrial, follow-up, environmental, ammonia
CHEMICAL LEAK IN ASCENSION PARISH CONTAINED
Tags: us_LA, transportation, release, response, hydrochloric_acid
MACHINERY CAUSED FIRE AT SUN CHEMICAL IN SPRING GROVE VILLAGE
Tags: us_OH, industrial, fire, response, unknown_chemical
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PEERING INTO CHINA'S THICK HAZE OF AIR POLLUTION
Tags: China, public, discovery, environmental, toxics
As 2016 gave way to 2017, residents of Beijing, Tianjin, and many other northern Chinese cities suffered through the longest stretch of stifling air pollution ever recorded in the country. They choked through eight continuous days of thick, light-blocking haze, starting Dec. 30, 2016. This stretch of bad air began only a week after people in 70 northern Chinese cities were enveloped by similar days of haze composed of high concentrations of particles less than 2.5 ë1Ú4m in diameter (PM2.5).
Also known as ultrafine particulates, PM2.5 consists of solids and liquids. Its sources include carbon black from incomplete combustion as well as sulfates and nitrates. Levels of such ultrafine particles surpassed 500 ë1Ú4g per cubic meter of air in both of the recent incidents in China.
That level is twice the daily concentration of 250 ë1Ú4g/m3 that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers hazardous to human health. In contrast, few U.S. cities recorded an air quality index of above 50, which can be translated to a PM2.5 concentration of 12 ug/m3, during the recent days that northern China's air was filled with haze, according to EPA data.
The recent bouts of toxic smog sent tens of thousands of residents fleeing Beijing and other northern Chinese cities for cleaner air abroad or in southern China. Angry protests and bitter jokes flooded WeChat and Weibo, China's most popular social media. The complaints about the government's failure to deal with dangerous air pollution, however, fail to take into account the complicated haze situation and the largely unknown mechanisms that create the pollution.
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TESTING DRINKING WATER FOR TOXIC CHEMICAL C8 URGED FARTHER DOWN OHIO RIVER
Tags: us_OH, industrial, discovery, environmental, toxics
There is no measurable amount of C8 flowing from taps in the six Ohio River water districts that settled a lawsuit with DuPont over the toxic chemical that the company used to make Teflon.
Along 75 miles of the Ohio River - from Parkersburg, West Virginia, to Pomeroy, Ohio - water from wells contaminated with C8, or perfluorooctanoic acid, is being filtered through granulated activated carbon before reaching taps in homes and businesses.
That's good. The chemical has been tied to a number of cancers and health disorders.
But what about the homes and businesses downriver from DuPont's Washington Works plant south of Parkersburg? For more than 50 years, the plant spewed tons of the chemical directly into the river or into the air through its smokestacks.
Some water-district managers along those 230 river miles say they will wait to see what regulations are added, or cut, by the Trump administration. Other managers say they don't think their water is contaminated, or they have more important things to worry about.
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CREWS CLEARING CHEMICAL TRUCK CRASH
Tags: us_AL, transportation, release, response, hydrogen_peroxide
At least one lane of I-10 Eastbound is open this morning at the one-mile marker near the state line with Mississippi in Alabama. That's where officials say a truck carrying a mixture of hydrogen peroxide crashed just before 11 Saturday night. Mobile Fire Rescue's Hazmat team along with members of the Grand Bay Fire Department have been on the scene.
No word on what caused the accident or if anyone was hurt. The truck was the only vehicle involved in the accident. These images were sent by a viewer passing by the wreck.
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HAZMAT TEAM CONTAINING SPILL IN CENTRAL FRESNO
Tags: us_CA, public, release, response, paints
Two hazardous materials teams, the fire department and police were called out to investigate a strange opaque substance found in a storm drain in Fresno on Sunday.
A call came in from a man around 11 a.m. Sunday about the whitish-blue matter in a puddle outside a drain on Wishon and Cambridge avenues, said Fresno Fire Battalion Chief Lawrence French.
Crews tried three different tests to figure out what the substance was but have not been successful. They do say it does not pose any danger and is not toxic. French describes it as similar to water, 'as if you washed a paintbrush or a roller in the sink with water-based paint,' he said.
The substance flowed south to the drain on Normal Street but did not go any further.
Any of the substance that did get through the drain will end up in a ponding basin where Fresno Metropolitan Flood Control District and the Fresno County Environmental Health agency will discuss how to remove it, said French.
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CUTTING COAL HAS REDUCED ATMOSPHERIC MERCURY IN NORTHEASTERN U.S.
Tags: us_VT, public, discovery, environmental, mercury
Mercury concentrations in the air in the northeastern U.S. have fallen within the past two decades as a result of closing and regulating regional coal-fired power plants, a new study shows (Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett. 2016, DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.6b00452). The study confirms that regional mercury concentrations are mainly affected by regional changes and are not overwhelmed by global mercury pollution, something researchers were not certain of before the study.
Coal-fired power plants are the largest human-generated source of the neurotoxin mercury to the atmosphere. Some of this mercury'in its oxidized form or bound to particles'reaches waterways, where it builds up in ecosystems and concentrates in fish, threatening environmental and human health. Elemental mercury can stay in the atmosphere for a year or more, so it's challenging to figure out how much mercury measured in the air in one place comes from local versus global sources'and to evaluate the effectiveness of regulations to lower regional mercury emissions.
To answer this question, Thomas M. Holsen of Clarkson University and his colleagues analyzed atmospheric mercury levels measured in Underhill, Vt., from 1992 to 2014'representing the longest U.S. record of atmospheric mercury data'and in Huntington Forest, N.Y., from 2005 to 2014. They used global and U.S. inventories of mercury and sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants and other sources to determine what influenced these levels.
The team found that mercury in various forms declined between 2 and 8% per year. Prior to 2000, mercury decreases were primarily attributable to decreasing emissions from waste incineration, whereas falling regional power plant emissions were behind decreases since then.
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MAINE BLUEBERRY PROCESSOR, EPA REACH SETTLEMENT OVER HANDLING OF CHEMICAL
Tags: us_ME, industrial, follow-up, environmental, ammonia
BOSTON ' Hancock Foods has agreed to pay a $103,613 settlement to resolve federal concerns over its handling of a chemical used in refrigeration.
The settlement agreed upon by the company and the Environmental Protection Agency resolves questions surrounding the blueberry processor's handling of anhydrous ammonia and its failure to timely report a release of the chemical.
Anhydrous ammonia, which is used in refrigeration, is flammable, and potentially explosive, in some situations. It's also corrosive to the skin, eye and lungs.
The company didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
---------------------------------------------
CHEMICAL LEAK IN ASCENSION PARISH CONTAINED
Tags: us_LA, transportation, release, response, hydrochloric_acid
BATON ROUGE - Hazmart crews have contained a hydrochloric acid leak in Ascension Parish, and emergency responders have been working to neutralize the chemical.
A hazmat team was called to the scene on Ashland Road near Highway 30. Someone working along the railroad reported the leak coming from a rail car.
Officials with the Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office said the Lamar Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales, and everything within a one-mile radius, was evacuated as a precaution. Ashland Road was also shut down for some time.
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MACHINERY CAUSED FIRE AT SUN CHEMICAL IN SPRING GROVE VILLAGE
Tags: us_OH, industrial, fire, response, unknown_chemical
SPRING GROVE VILLAGE, OH (FOX19) -
Dozens of emergency crews spent Thursday evening in Spring Grove Village at a chemical company after a fire broke out.
The Cincinnati Fire Department was sent to Sun Chemical around 7 p.m. after a heavy piece of machinery caught on fire.
Firefighters said the fire was in a large industrial vat.
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