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Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Wednesday, February 22, 2017 at 8:13:59 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 (12 articles)
INSIDE THE CHINESE LAB POISED TO STUDY WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS PATHOGENS
Tags: China, laboratory, discovery, environmental
CHEMICAL REACTION CAUSES BILOXI LIBRARY TO BE EVACUATED
Tags: us_MS, transportation, release, response, hydrochloric_acid, waste
6 ADULTS, 1 CHILD TREATED AFTER CHEMICAL SPILL AT FISHERS YMCA
Tags: us_IN, public, release, response, chlorine
STUDENTS BRIEFLY EVACUATED AT FAYETTEVILLE HS AFTER HAZE FOUND INSIDE SCHOOL
Tags: us_AR, laboratory, release, response, unknown_chemical
CLOSE CALL AS FUEL TANKER TRUCK BURNS UP IN DAWSON CITY
Tags: Canada, transportation, fire, response, other_chemical
CHEMICAL PLANT BOOM SPURRED BY FRACKING WILL BRING SMOG, PLASTIC GLUT AND RISKS TO WORKERS' HEALTH
Tags: public, discovery, environmental, petroleum, plastics
HAZMAT INCIDENT UNDER INVESTIGATION, SA
Tags: Australia, public, release, injury, unknown_chemical
30 EVACUATED AFTER THERMOMETER BREAKS IN PENANG HOSPITAL, ASIAONE MALAYSIA NEWS
Tags: Malaysia, public, release, response, mercury
BILL WOULD CREATE 'AMBER ALERTS' FOR CHEMICAL EMERGENCIES
Tags: us_TX, public, follow-up, environmental
CREWS CONTAIN HAZMAT SPILL AT CHEMICAL COMPANY IN SALT LAKE CITY
Tags: us_UT, transportation, release, response, nitric_acid
SEMI OVERTURNS, SPILLS CHEMICAL INHALANT
Tags: us_MO, transportation, release, response, resin
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION EYED AS CAUSE OF MASSIVE MULCH FIRE
Tags: us_KS, industrial, fire, response, other_chemical
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INSIDE THE CHINESE LAB POISED TO STUDY WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS PATHOGENS
Tags: China, laboratory, discovery, environmental
A laboratory in Wuhan is on the cusp of being cleared to work with the world's most dangerous pathogens. The move is part of a plan to build between five and seven biosafety level-4 (BSL-4) labs across the Chinese mainland by 2025, and has generated much excitement, as well as some concerns.
China worry about pathogens escaping, and the addition of a biological dimension to geopolitical tensions between China and other nations. But Chinese microbiologists are celebrating their entrance to the elite cadre empowered to wrestle with the world's greatest biological threats.
'It will offer more opportunities for Chinese researchers, and our contribution on the BSL'4-level pathogens will benefit the world,' says George Gao, director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology in Beijing. There are already two BSL-4 labs in Taiwan, but the National Bio-safety Laboratory, Wuhan, would be the first on the Chinese mainland.
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CHEMICAL REACTION CAUSES BILOXI LIBRARY TO BE EVACUATED
Tags: us_MS, transportation, release, response, hydrochloric_acid, waste
BILOXI
The Margaret Sherry Library on Popp's Ferry Road was evacuated briefly as a precaution after waste in a garbage truck created a chemical reaction during a stop Tuesday.
Biloxi Fire Deputy Chief of Operations Jeff Merrill said a Waste Pro truck was at the library when the incident occurred. Merrill said the Biloxi Fire Department sent a team to investigate and found muriatic acid, a chemical commonly found in household cleaners and other uses.
Merrill said the substance was removed from the truck and was being disposed of safely.
---------------------------------------------
6 ADULTS, 1 CHILD TREATED AFTER CHEMICAL SPILL AT FISHERS YMCA
Tags: us_IN, public, release, response, chlorine
FISHERS, Ind. (WISH) ' Six adults and one child were treated after a chemical spill at a Fishers YMCA Tuesday morning.
A Fishers Fire Department official said those treated were transported with non-life-threatening respiratory issues from the YMCA on 126th Street around 11:30 a.m. An additional 11 people were checked and released at the scene.
Captain John Mehling said the chemical was believed to be a chemical release. Officials on scene said the chlorine spill was in the pool area, but the chemical dissipated quickly.
The building was evacuated while people were treated..
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STUDENTS BRIEFLY EVACUATED AT FAYETTEVILLE HS AFTER HAZE FOUND INSIDE SCHOOL
Tags: us_AR, laboratory, release, response, unknown_chemical
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. '
A Hazmat team was called to Fayetteville High School Tuesday after haze was found inside a building, according to Mauro Campos with the Fayetteville Fire Dept.
The school initially thought the haze was smoke from a science experiment that had been pulled into the school's HVAC system. The fire department called a Hazmat team to the scene.
Crews discovered the haze inside was not necessarily smoke, and the experiment would not have created that haze. Instead, they believe the HVAC system pulled something outside the building to the inside.
Students were sent to the Bulldog Activity & Recreation Center, the alert said. Students were allowed back in class at about 12:15 p.m.
---------------------------------------------
CLOSE CALL AS FUEL TANKER TRUCK BURNS UP IN DAWSON CITY
Tags: Canada, transportation, fire, response, other_chemical
Quick thinking and a daring act may have saved Dawson City from a major disaster in the town's industrial area on Sunday.
A fire broke out in the cab of a fuel truck that was parked in the area. Fire chief Jim Regimbal says the truck was close to a building and three other fuel trucks ' some of them full.
"It could have been a very ugly scene," Regimbal said. "Bulk fuel all over the area and no hydrants in place. So worst case scenario, you've got four fully-involved vehicles, explosions, a workshop with injuries."
People on the scene quickly called 911.
Instead of idly waiting for fire crews, someone leaped into action to contain the damage.
"They actually hooked onto the tanker and pulled it back from the building a few feet," said deputy fire chief Dave Taylor. "It wasn't too far away from the building."
Firefighters arrived shortly after and doused the blaze. Nobody was hurt and damage was restricted to the one vehicle.
"Is it something that I would recommend, that people jump in vehicles and move them away when the vehicle beside them is on fire? No," Regimbal said.
"But fantastic quick thinking probably averted what could have been a much uglier situation."
It's not known yet what caused the fire, but Taylor says fire officials believe it was electrical.
---------------------------------------------
CHEMICAL PLANT BOOM SPURRED BY FRACKING WILL BRING SMOG, PLASTIC GLUT AND RISKS TO WORKERS' HEALTH
Tags: public, discovery, environmental, petroleum, plastics
On the heels of the shale gas rush that's swept the U.S. for the past decade, another wave of fossil fuel-based projects is coming -- a plastic and petrochemical manufacturing rush that environmentalists warn could make smog worse in communities already breathing air pollution from fracking, sicken workers, and expand the plastic trash gyres in the world's oceans.
"Thanks to abundant supplies of natural gas, the U.S. chemical industry is investing in new facilities and expanded production capacity, which tends to attract downstream industries that rely on petrochemical products," the American Chemistry Council's President and CEO, Cal Dooley, said in a January press release. "As of this month, 281 chemical industry projects valued at $170 billion have been announced, about half of which are completed or under construction."
A new Food and Water Watch report, How Fracking Supports the Plastic Industry, calls attention to the dark side of those plans, warning of air and water pollution and the risk to people's health, especially for those taking jobs in the plastics industry.
---------------------------------------------
HAZMAT INCIDENT UNDER INVESTIGATION, SA
Tags: Australia, public, release, injury, unknown_chemical
Police are investigating an incident at Elizabeth early this morning in which a man was exposed to an unknown substance, according to SA Police.
The man was outside the Elizabeth Shopping Centre about 1am (21 February) when he was approached by a man who, after a short conversation, offered him a free ticket.
The man took the ticket but after a short time, he became ill and was taken to Lyell McEwin Hospital for treatment.
Police and MFS crews attended and a section of the hospital was cordoned off as a precaution.
Hospital staff who dealt with the man reported suffering similar symptoms and along with the original patient, were decontaminated by MFS.
Everyone has recovered and services at the hospital have since returned to normal.
Elizabeth CIB are investigating the incident and have seized items for forensic analysis.
There was no threats made and the two men were not known to each other.
The man who offered the ticket is described as being of Caucasian appearance, aged in his late 30's, tall with a slim build, black medium length hair and unshaven. He was wearing long grey pants and a black jacket.
---------------------------------------------
30 EVACUATED AFTER THERMOMETER BREAKS IN PENANG HOSPITAL, ASIAONE MALAYSIA NEWS
Tags: Malaysia, public, release, response, mercury
GEORGE TOWN - Some 20 patients and 10 nurses were evacuated after a thermometer filled with mercury broke at the Penang Hospital's cardiology ward.
Perak Road fire station operation commander Kamarul Ariffin Abd Ghani said they received a distress call from the hospital at 11.50am yesterday and a Hazmat (hazardous materials) team together with firemen were deployed to the scene.
"When we arrived, the patients and nurses were already a distance from where a thermometer broke.
"The hazardous mercury was cleared up within 30 minutes," he said at the scene.
---------------------------------------------
BILL WOULD CREATE 'AMBER ALERTS' FOR CHEMICAL EMERGENCIES
Tags: us_TX, public, follow-up, environmental
If there's a tornado warning or a kidnapped child, your phone might wake you at 3 a.m.
But if there's a cloud of chlorine gas descending on your neighborhood, it's anybody's guess who will let you know, and when.
A state lawmaker has filed a bill to bridge the gap in emergency notification.
It would create a system to push alerts to mobile phones during any chemical mishap that would "substantially endanger human health or the environment."
Chemical fires and releases across Houston in the last year, and the Houston Chronicle's Chemical Breakdown series, have shed light on problems with toxic stockpiles and emergency response. The bill's backers hope the added attention will drive the legislation forward.
The bill would create a statewide "opt-out" system, meaning phone users would get the alerts unless they deliberately choose not to, just as some Amber Alerts and weather warnings are pushed to mobile phones automatically. Currently, decisions about chemical alerts are left up to a patchwork of local agencies, which may release conflicting information or fail to notify the public at all.
---------------------------------------------
CREWS CONTAIN HAZMAT SPILL AT CHEMICAL COMPANY IN SALT LAKE CITY
Tags: us_UT, transportation, release, response, nitric_acid
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Feb. 20, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) ' Crews quickly contained a HazMat spill at a chemical manufacturer and distributor Monday morning.
Salt Lake City Fire Department tweeted at 9:15 a.m. that nitric acid, a highly corrosive mineral acid, spilled from a railcar at the Thatcher Group, Inc., at 1905 W. Fortune Rd. (1230 South).
The spill, the size of which is still to be determined, was quickly contained by fire crews.
---------------------------------------------
SEMI OVERTURNS, SPILLS CHEMICAL INHALANT
Tags: us_MO, transportation, release, response, resin
HANNIBAL, Mo. -- A semi-truck traveling on Mo. 168 just north of Hannibal went off the road and overturned Monday, spilling the chemical it was carrying.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol received the call at about 10:45 a.m.
"The driver said he felt his weight shift. He then traveled off the road," Trooper James Johnson said.
The semi driver, Anid Turan, 25, of St. Louis, was the only occupant in the vehicle and was uninjured, Johnson said.
The chemical that the driver was hauling to BASF Agricultural Products Group in Palmyra was lupranate mio isocyanate, a resin-based iron product, said John Hark, director of Hannibal/Marion County Emergency Management. It is an inhalant that can cause mild eye and nose irritation.
"The best thing about it -- even though it is considered hazardous -- is that the materials do not have to be placarded," Hark said, referring to the diamond-shaped hazardous material sign affixed to vehicles hauling hazardous materials. "They're not that dangerous, and under these circumstances, we do not have to do an evacuation, which I'm very thankful for."
The hazardous materials team assessed the extent and status of the spill before tow trucks pulled the semi upright and removed it.
---------------------------------------------
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION EYED AS CAUSE OF MASSIVE MULCH FIRE
Tags: us_KS, industrial, fire, response, other_chemical
KANSAS CITY, Kan. '
Investigators are working to determine if spontaneous combustion started a massive fire in a huge pile of unfinished mulch at a Kansas City, Kansas mulch manufacturer early Monday morning.
The unfinished mulch at C.S. Carey near 65th Street and Kansas Avenue caught fire at some point overnight, triggering a large, smoldering fire that has been difficult to put out.
Fire crews are using a large ladder and hose to try to douse the flames. Large plumes of smoke continue to rise from the fire.
Workers on scene said the mulch can spontaneously combust if it gets a little wet. The moisture apparently starts a chemical reaction that can cause it to catch fire.
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