| About This Archive | | DCHAS-L 2018 Index | | DCHAS-L Yearly Index | |
Check out Safety Emporium for your N95, N99, and face shield needs.
|
Previous by Date: Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Gold pentafluoride safety and recycling Date: Wednesday, April 4, 2018 at 6:42:07 AM Author: mail**At_Symbol_Here**ECHELONENVIRONMENTAL.NET |
Next by Date: Subject: [DCHAS-L] CFAT standards Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2018 10:34:24 -0500 Author: Zabel Panosyan |
Article summaries are also available at http://pinboard.in/u:dchas
Table of Contents (9 articles)
BUFFALO COUNTY HAZMAT TEAM RESPONDS TO CONTAINER LEAK AT BROWN TRANSFER
Tags: us_NE, transportation, release, response, unknown_chemical
CHILDHOOD EXPOSURE TO FLAME RETARDANT CHEMICALS DECLINES FOLLOWING PHASE-OUT
Tags: us_NY, public, discovery, environmental, other_chemical
FAMILY CONTINUES SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS ONE YEAR AFTER DEADLY SOU
Tags: us_MO, industrial, follow-up, environmental
CHEMICAL SPILL STILL UNDER INVESTIGATION, CLEANUP ONGOING
Tags: us_GA, industrial, follow-up, environmental, ferric_chloride
WFD INVESTIGATING ACID TANK RUPTURE AT PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY
Tags: us_NC, laboratory, release, response, pharmaceutical, waste
RU LAB GUTTED IN FIRE, LOSS ESTIMATED OF TK 5 MILLION
Tags: Bangladesh, laboratory, fire, response, other_chemical
LANL SENT WASTE TO WRONG FACILITY AFTER MISLABELING ISSUE LAST NOVEMBER
Tags: us_NM, laboratory, follow-up, response, radiation, waste
LIQUID HELIUM IN OPEN TOP DEWAR FORMS ICE DAM AND PRESSURIZES DEWAR
Tags: us_CA, laboratory, release, response, other_chemical
DR ABDUL QADEER KHAN CALLS FOR ADOPTING SAFETY MEASURES AT LABORATORIES
Tags: Pakistan, laboratory, discovery, environmental
---------------------------------------------
BUFFALO COUNTY HAZMAT TEAM RESPONDS TO CONTAINER LEAK AT BROWN TRANSFER
http://nebraska.tv/news/local/buffalo-county-hazmat-team-responds-to-container-leak-at-brown-transfer
Tags: us_NE, transportation, release, response, unknown_chemical
KEARNEY, Neb. ‰?? The Buffalo County Hazmat Team responded to a local business Tuesday afternoon following reports of a strong-smelling odor coming from a truck. It happened around 11 a.m.
Brown Transfer Company called emergency services after they noticed a container leaking in one of the trucks. The hazmat team coordinator told NTV the chemical leaking was a hazardous product, but wouldn't specify what chemical it was.
---------------------------------------------
CHILDHOOD EXPOSURE TO FLAME RETARDANT CHEMICALS DECLINES FOLLOWING PHASE-OUT
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-04-childhood-exposure-flame-retardant-chemicals.html
Tags: us_NY, public, discovery, environmental, other_chemical
Exposure to flame retardants once widely used in consumer products has been falling, according to a new study by researchers at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health. The researchers are the first to show that levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) measured in children significantly decreased over a 15-year period between 1998 and 2013, although the chemicals were present in all children tested. The Center previously linked exposure to PBDEs with attention problems and lower scores on tests of mental and physical development in children.
Results appear in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology.
Manufacturers used PBDEs as the primary flame retardant chemical in furniture between 1975 and 2004 to comply with fire safety standards, with the highest use of these chemicals occurring in North America. Due to their persistence in the environment and evidence of human health effects, pentaBDE, a specific technical mixture of PBDEs was phased out of use in couches, mattresses, carpet padding, and other upholstered products beginning in 2004. Since PBDE chemicals are stable, they tend to build up indoors and are found in house dust; humans are mainly exposed through ingestion of dust and have some exposure through dietary sources.
Researchers followed 334 mother-child pairs, a subset of CCCEH's ongoing urban birth cohort study in New York City, from prenatal life through adolescence. Researchers collected umbilical cord blood at birth and blood from the children at ages 2, 3, 5, 7 and 9. Over time, levels of BDE-47, the most frequently detected component of the pentaBDE mixture in humans, decreased by about 5 percent per year from 1998 to 2013. When examining only blood samples collected postnatally, researchers observed a 13 percent decrease per year between 2000 and 2013.
---------------------------------------------
FAMILY CONTINUES SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS ONE YEAR AFTER DEADLY SOU
http://www.kmov.com/story/37866325/family-continues-searching-for-answers-one-year-after-deadly-soulard-explosion
Tags: us_MO, industrial, follow-up, environmental
ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) ‰?? It‰??s been a year since an explosion killed four people in Soulard and one family is continuing to search for answers.
On April 3, 2017, a large industrial boiler exploded at the Loy-Lange Box Company on Russell Boulevard. A substantial piece of the boiler then traveled around 500 feet and crashed through the roof of the Faultless Healthcare Linen building.
Watch: Surveillance video shows Soulard boiler explosion
Fifty-nine-year-old Kenneth Trentham was killed in the initial explosion at the box company. When the equipment crashed into the Faultless Healthcare Linen building it struck two employees, 43-year-old Tonya Gonzalez-Suarez and 46-year-old Christopher Watkins, killing them. A fourth person, Clifford Lee, 53, was trapped under the hot boiler after it crashed into Faultless Healthcare Linen. He later died as a result of his injuries.
Following the deadly explosion, a News 4 investigation revealed the company had not held its own inspection of the facility for six years.
About a month after the explosion, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board said the equipment had been operating under an emergency repair for nearly five years, calling it ‰??uniquely vulnerable‰?? to catastrophic failure due to severe corrosion.
---------------------------------------------
CHEMICAL SPILL STILL UNDER INVESTIGATION, CLEANUP ONGOING
https://www.dawsonnews.com/local/chemical-spill-still-under-investigation-cleanup-ongoing/
Tags: us_GA, industrial, follow-up, environmental, ferric_chloride
Officials with Gold Creek Foods and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources say that the cleanup of Flat Creek in Dawsonville is ongoing after a chemical spill two weeks ago killed the majority of the wildlife in the stream.
On March 20, a Gold Creek Foods employee accidentally punctured a 55-gallon drum of ferric chloride, which ran into the stream behind the chicken processing plant. The spill created highly acidic water, killing fish and other species in the creek, which is a tributary to Shoal Creek and the Etowah River.
The water is now testing at a normal pH, according to Kevin Chambers, communications director with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.
‰??The water samples are now back to acceptable levels,‰?? Chambers said Tuesday.
---------------------------------------------
WFD INVESTIGATING ACID TANK RUPTURE AT PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY
http://www.wect.com/story/37865509/wfd-investigating-acid-tank-rupture-at-pharmaceutical-company
Tags: us_NC, laboratory, release, response, pharmaceutical, waste
WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) -
The Wilmington Fire Department and hazmat teams are investigating an acid tank rupture at Alcmai Corporation, a pharmaceutical company in Wilmington.
The call came in shortly after 2 a.m. Tuesday morning.
Acid in a waste tank in a laboratory reacted negatively and ruptured, according to Battallion Chief Patrick Campbell with the Wilmington Fire Department.
Chief Campbell says there were employees inside the lab at the time. They evacuated the building; no one was hurt.
Between five to seven gallons of the waste material is estimated to have spilled.
Hazmat crews are on scene assessing the situation.
At approximately 5:30 a.m., the WFD reported that an entry team had removed the "failed tank into another storage container and mitigated leaked acid," and that the first entry team had been decontaminated while a second team was performing a final sweep of the building.
---------------------------------------------
RU LAB GUTTED IN FIRE, LOSS ESTIMATED OF TK 5 MILLION
http://unb.com.bd/bangladesh-news/RU-lab-gutted-in-fire-loss-estimated-of-Tk-5-million/67207
Tags: Bangladesh, laboratory, fire, response, other_chemical
Rajshahi, Apr 2 (UNB) - A fire broke out in the laboratory of the Genetic Engineering and Bio-technology Department of Rajshahi University on Monday evening, burning down valuables worth around TK 5 million (50 lakh).
The fire ensued after a spirit lamp and alcohol came in touch around 6 pm while four masters‰?? students of the department were carrying out their research works, department sources said.
Later, fire-fighters rushed in and doused the flame around 7:25pm.
However, no casualty was reported in the fire incident.
The sources said the gutted valuables included computers, freezers, spirit lamps, and micro-bioscopes are estimated to be worth of TK 50 lakhs.
---------------------------------------------
LANL SENT WASTE TO WRONG FACILITY AFTER MISLABELING ISSUE LAST NOVEMBER
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/lanl-sent-waste-to-wrong-facility-after-mislabeling-issue-last/article_0ab55e57-9d56-5b26-aa70-1399f255b2da.html
Tags: us_NM, laboratory, follow-up, response, radiation, waste
Los Alamos National Laboratory last December paused all shipments of hazardous and mixed, low-level radioactive waste for nearly three months after lab officials realized they had transported the dangerous refuse with incorrect labels to a facility near Denver.
The labeling incident, which apparently occurred in November 2017, is the third time in 13 months that the Henderson, Colo., facility, Veolia ES Technical Solutions, received waste from Los Alamos with incorrect information about the chemicals inside ‰?? information that is used to ensure materials are handled and stored in a safe manner.
It also set into motion a series of events that could cause the lab to incur up to $1 million in state penalties.
‰??In November, we caught numbering errors on two hazardous waste drums that we self-reported,‰?? lab spokesman Peter Hyde said in a phone call Monday. ‰??In the interests of safety, we took the precautionary measure of pausing certain shipping until we were confident that we had fully addressed the issue. We are working closely with the state to evaluate our processes and procedures to make sure that our shipping program is in compliance with all regulations.‰??
---------------------------------------------
LIQUID HELIUM IN OPEN TOP DEWAR FORMS ICE DAM AND PRESSURIZES DEWAR
https://opexshare.doe.gov/lesson.cfm/2018/3/29/20245/Liquid-Helium-in-Open-Top-Dewar-Forms-Ice-Damn-and-Pressurizes-Dewar
Tags: us_CA, laboratory, release, response, other_chemical
On March 22nd, 2018, a SLAC researcher transferred liquid helium from a 500-liter closed dewar to a 5-liter open top dewar as part of an operation to calibrate a cryogenic liquid level sensor. He performed the calibration and set the open top dewar aside. The foam plug that is normally inserted into the neck (to prevent particulate contamination) was also set aside.
The next day, a second researcher noticed that the smaller dewar had an ice blockage in the open neck. Small wisps of vapor could be seen coming from the center of the ice blockage. The researcher recognized that this was likely frozen water or air, and called his safety coordinator for advice. Brief discussion concluded that the amount of pressure inside of the dewar was unknown, and there was no pressure relief device for the interior volume (open-top dewars are not designed to be completely closed, and hence will always be at one atmosphere during normal use). Therefore, it was unadvisable to chip away at the ice blockage or drill through it, as that would put the operator in proximity of the dewar, posing injury potential if the dewar failed due to overpressure.
---------------------------------------------
DR ABDUL QADEER KHAN CALLS FOR ADOPTING SAFETY MEASURES AT LABORATORIES
https://tribune.com.pk/story/1674974/1-dr-abdul-qadeer-khan-calls-adopting-safety-measures-laboratories/
Tags: Pakistan, laboratory, discovery, environmental
It is very important for scientists to be proficient in using their laboratory equipment as when young scientists go abroad, they are not provided assistants or helpers and have to operate their equipment themselves.
Nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan said this while addressing the concluding ceremony of a workshop on safety and precautions at laboratories, organised by the Dr AQ Khan Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (KIBGE) at the University of Karachi (KU).
Dr Khan was of the view that once scientists learnt how to use each and every piece of laboratory equipment, their careers were likely to progress. He advised young scientists not to depend on assistants and laboratory staff to operate equipment.
He said that safety should be the highest priority of those who worked in laboratories. Safety precautions taken in the laboratory could actually save lives, he said, adding that they could pave the way for a safer society.
When safety procedures are not followed in laboratories, people can get hurt, Dr Khan said, adding that lab equipment and chemicals could even result in deaths if they were not handled properly. Chemical spills, toxic fumes, needle pricks, and fire can harm lab workers, he explained.
---------------------------------------------
---
For more information about the DCHAS-L e-mail list, contact the Divisional membership chair at membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Follow us on Twitter **At_Symbol_Here**acsdchas
Previous post | Top of Page | Next post