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From: DCHAS Membership Chair <membership**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety headlines (15 articles)
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2018 07:25:48 -0400
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Message-ID: FCDCC483-F2F0-44FD-A2A7-2F1FA0D879A3**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
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Table of Contents (15 articles)
AIR, WATER MONITORING CONTINUES AFTER SUPERIOR REFINERY EXPLOSION, FIRES
Tags: us_WI, industrial, follow-up, environmental, hydrofluoric_acid, petroleum, toxics
FIRE PROMPTS EVACUATION OF THE UNIFIED ARTS BUILDING ‰?? THE SAGAMORE
Tags: us_MA, education, fire, response, acetylene, flammables
SIGEL FARMER AIRLIFTED TO HOSPITAL AFTER CONTACT WITH ANHYDROUS AMMONIA
Tags: us_IL, industrial, release, injury, ammonia
FIRE FORCES EVACUATION OF DOW CHEMICAL PLANT IN LOUISIANA
Tags: us_LA, industrial, fire, response, petroleum
GATINEAU HOME DECONTAMINATED AFTER FAMILY SICKENED BY TOXIC CORAL
Tags: Canada, public, release, injury, other_chemical
REPORT: LANL WORK PUT ON HOLD FOLLOWING VIOLATIONS
Tags: us_NM, laboratory, follow-up, response, metals, radiation
RESIDENTS LEARN TO PREPARE FOR CHEMICAL EMERGENCIES
Tags: us_TX, education, discovery, response
HAZMAT CREWS CLEANING UP SPILL NEAR EIA
Tags: canada, release, industrial, response, petroleum
HAZMAT CREWS RESPOND TO SCENE ON GRAND ISLAND
Tags: us_ny, industrial, release, response, chlorine
MASSIVE BLAZE GUTS CHEMICAL FACTORY IN MAHAD, NO ONE HURT
Tags: india, explosion, industrial, response, unknown_chemical
STUDENT BADLY HURT IN LAB EXPLOSION AT TAU
Tags: Israel, explosion, laboratory, injury, unknown_chemical
HYDERABAD: CHEMIST INJURED IN CHEMICAL REACTOR BLAST
Tags: india, explosion, laboratory, injury, acetone
WACKER TO RESUME CHEMICAL OPERATIONS NEARLY 8 MONTHS AFTER EXPLOSION
Tags: us_tn, industrial, follow-up, enviromental
REPORT FAULTS SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY PROTECTION OF STUDENTS, STAFF FROM HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
Tags: us_ca, laboratory, discovery, environmental, unknown_chemical
EXPLOSION, FIRE AT REFINERY NEAR LAKE SUPERIOR FORCES EVACUATIONS
Tags: us_mi, explosion, industrial, injuries, unknown_chemical
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AIR, WATER MONITORING CONTINUES AFTER SUPERIOR REFINERY EXPLOSION, FIRES
https://www.wpr.org/air-water-monitoring-continues-after-superior-refinery-explosion-fires
Tags: us_WI, industrial, follow-up, environmental, hydrofluoric_acid, petroleum, toxics
Environmental monitoring is continuing Sunday after an explosion and series of fires at Husky Energy's oil refinery caused a temporary evacuation last Thursday.
Officials with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the company continue to monitor air and water quality around the refinery. So far, there appear to be no health concerns associated with the incident. As the community recovers, questions are mounting over the refinery‰??s use of hydrogen fluoride, a highly toxic chemical.
The hazardous chemical could have posed devastating health impacts for the port community of 27,000. However, Superior Fire Chief Steve Panger said the tank with hydrogen fluoride had special water systems around it that were immediately activated when the explosion occurred.
"Obviously, once we had a fire, we were concentrating on that area to make sure that didn't get compromised," said Panger.
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FIRE PROMPTS EVACUATION OF THE UNIFIED ARTS BUILDING ‰?? THE SAGAMORE
https://thesagonline.com/31619/news/fire-prompts-evacuation-of-the-unified-arts-building/
Tags: us_MA, education, fire, response, acetylene, flammables
On Wednesday, April 25, there was a minor fire in the Unified Arts Building, requiring the immediate evacuation of all students and teachers.
According to Assistant Headmaster Hal Mason, no one was injured, as the teachers and students in career and technology education teacher Elizabeth Brennan‰??s metalwork and jewelry class followed all proper procedures.
‰??What happens is that you‰??ve got this really hot gas burning, which of course is really scary and bright,‰?? Mason said. ‰??It‰??s a very flammable gas, so you see flames coming out of the hose, and immediately the teachers and the students evacuated the room; they did everything they were supposed to.‰??
Mason explains that the fire was caused by an overnight buildup of acetylene gas in the tubes connected to a blowtorch used for welding in the class, which had been properly emptied the day before. The buildup of gas caused the nozzle to be knocked off and fire was released from the tube.
The fire from the tubes caused minor charring to the floor, but nothing else caught on fire. According to Mason firefighters were quickly on the scene to extinguish the fire.
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SIGEL FARMER AIRLIFTED TO HOSPITAL AFTER CONTACT WITH ANHYDROUS AMMONIA
http://www.effinghamdailynews.com/news/local_news/sigel-farmer-airlifted-to-hospital-after-contact-with-anhydrous-ammonia/article_89bc10ad-cecd-538f-bf8e-b050f04ee92f.html
Tags: us_IL, industrial, release, injury, ammonia
SIGEL ‰?? A farmer working in his field came into contact with anhydrous ammonia on Sunday while switching tanks, authorities said. The incident happened about a half mile North of Sigel, on U.S. Route 45.
Sigel Fire Chief Dave Koester said his department responded to the scene and called in Air Evac air-ambulance, which took the victim to Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana.
The call came in at 12:03 p.m. Sunday. Crews returned to the station at about 1:50 p.m. The highway was blocked on both the north and south ends to allow for the helicopter to land. Traffic was re-routed along county roads for most of that time.
While the fire chief wouldn't release the victim's name, he said the man inhaled some of the chemical's fumes into his lungs and sustained chemical burns on his arms. Emergency personnel treated him on the scene until the air-ambulance arrived.
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FIRE FORCES EVACUATION OF DOW CHEMICAL PLANT IN LOUISIANA
http://www.powderbulksolids.com/news/Fire-Forces-Evacuation-of-Dow-Chemical-Plant-in-Louisiana-04-29-2018
Tags: us_LA, industrial, fire, response, petroleum
A fire last Friday morning at the 2000-acre Dow Chemical petrochemical plant in Hahnville, LA led the company to evacuate ‰??non-essential‰?? personnel and monitor the air surrounding the site, Dow‰??s St. Charles Operations said in a Facebook post.
‰??There was a building fire on site this morning and that fire has been extinguished. We are still managing an event on site. There are no reported injuries and out of an abundance of caution, we have evacuated non-essential personnel,‰?? the company said on the social media platform.
Some 300 workers were issued evacuation orders after a fire started in a storage building that housed old equipment not related to petrochemical production, a Dow Chemical spokesperson said in a report by the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
Dow set up continuous air monitoring equipment around the impacted area following the fire and did not detect a danger to the public.
‰??We‰??re pretty confident in saying that everything was contained on site,‰?? Dow spokesperson Ashley Mendoza told the newspaper.
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GATINEAU HOME DECONTAMINATED AFTER FAMILY SICKENED BY TOXIC CORAL
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/quebec-family-toxic-coral-cleanup-1.4640303
Tags: Canada, public, release, injury, other_chemical
Workers in Hazmat suits and gas masks decontaminated a house in Gatineau, Que., Saturday morning after a family of seven became seriously ill following their exposure to toxic coral from their aquarium.
The dramatic scene on the quiet residential street looked like a scene out of an episode of the TV series Breaking Bad, with a large white trailer parked in their driveway and workers dressed head-to-toe in protective gear, carefully dumping toxic substances into large steel drums.
Last weekend, Jason Laframboise, 31, was transferring live Australian zoanthid coral specimens he bought from a hobbyist into a massive 1,100-litre saltwater aquarium when he started to feel ill.
He went to the hospital suffering from chest pain, breathing difficulties and the shakes. Six other family members were also quarantined in hospital.
A worker from MD-UN disposes one of several corals that's believed to have caused a Gatineau, Que., family to have fallen ill. (Joe Lofaro/CBC)
This type of zoanthid can contain a harmful substance called palytoxin, which was apparently released into the air when Laframboise handled it, causing the family to become sick.
One Toronto coral grower has told CBC News that zoanthids are "one of the most toxic things in the aquarium industry."
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REPORT: LANL WORK PUT ON HOLD FOLLOWING VIOLATIONS
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/report-lanl-work-put-on-hold-following-violations/article_f323c01a-49a4-5857-8139-193ef97026e0.html
Tags: us_NM, laboratory, follow-up, response, metals, radiation
All work with special nuclear materials was put on hold at Los Alamos National Laboratory‰??s plutonium facility in March following two violations of safety requirements meant to prevent a nuclear chain reaction, according to a federal report released Friday.
The site, which handles some of the laboratory‰??s most sensitive nuclear missions ‰?? including production of plutonium pits, the grapefruit-sized plutonium metal shells used to trigger nuclear warheads ‰?? has been plagued for years with recurring safety issues.
According to reports publicly released Friday by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, an independent advisory panel that reports to U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, officials at the facility ordered a review of all procedures within the division that oversees plutonium pits and called for all of the work involving fissile materials to pause from March 23 to March 29.
Seven operations within the plutonium facility remained stalled as of March 30, the date of the panel‰??s most recent report. It was unclear Friday if the work had resumed.
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RESIDENTS LEARN TO PREPARE FOR CHEMICAL EMERGENCIES
http://www.kristv.com/story/38066908/residents-learn-to-prepare-for-chemical-emergencies
Tags: us_TX, education, discovery, response
CORPUS CHRISTI -
If there was a chemical emergency in your neighborhood, would you know what to do? That's the question at the heart of an event that organizers want residents of Nueces County to always have an answer for.
Over at Tuloso-Midway Middle School, the Local Emergency Planning Committee held an event to educate the public on how to react and respond to chemical emergencies.
The LEPC gave information to attendees about how to prepare and create emergency plans in case the worse were to happen. Among their advice: get plenty of supplies in case you have to shelter in place.
"The more that you and your neighbors know how to protect yourselves, the better off we all are," explained Joanne Salge, with LEPC. "Because we always have to remember that events can happen anywhere. We all have chemicals at home, we all have hazards around us that can impact our lives."
Representatives from Corpus Christi Fire Department, Police Department and local refineries were also involved in the event.
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HAZMAT CREWS CLEANING UP SPILL NEAR EIA
https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/hazmat-crews-cleaning-up-spill-near-eia-1.3903313
Tags: canada, release, industrial, response, petroleum
A fluid spill on a road near the Edmonton International Airport caused traffic disruptions in the area Thursday morning.
On Thursday morning, crews were called to Airport Road, west of the Queen Elizabeth II Highway after an unknown fluid started leaking onto the roadway from a vehicle.
Firefighters with Leduc County called in HAZMAT crews from Edmonton Fire Rescue to help with the scene, they took over a short time later.
Edmonton Fire said two units were on scene late Thursday morning, along with a decontamination unit. It was believed about 400 litres of the fluid had leaked, but it wasn‰??t clear what it was.
The fluid was described as flammable and corrosive. Officials said the spill had been contained to a ditch.
Alberta Environment had been called in.
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HAZMAT CREWS RESPOND TO SCENE ON GRAND ISLAND
https://www.wkbw.com/news/hazmat-crews-responding-to-scene-on-grand-island
Tags: us_ny, industrial, release, response, chlorine
GRAND ISLAND, N.Y. (WKBW) - Hazmat crews were dealing with a chlorine leak on Grand Island Thursday afternoon.
This happened at the water treatment facility on Baseline Road around 5 p.m.
According to crews on scene, there was a leak in a chlorine tank, prompting the evacuation of several nearby homes.
The scene has since cleared and people are now back in their homes.
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MASSIVE BLAZE GUTS CHEMICAL FACTORY IN MAHAD, NO ONE HURT
https://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai-news/massive-blaze-guts-chemical-factory-in-mahad-no-one-hurt/story-U0dkVLN6i97KCg4POAhTSO.html
Tags: india, explosion, industrial, response, unknown_chemical
A massive fire broke out at a chemical plant of a private company in the MIDC area of Mahad on Thursday. No one was injured in the incident. However, the fire brigade officials took over seven hours to douse it.
According to the police, the chemical plant belongs to Privi Organics India Limited, which develops custom-made aroma chemicals as per the requirement of their customers.
‰??The fire broke out around 1.10 pm when most of the workers were out for lunch break. The few people who were still working inside it, came out to safety before it was too late,‰?? said Abba Saheb Patil, senior police inspector of Mahad MIDC police station.
‰??The chemical tanks placed in the factory exploded after they caught fire, causing the fire to spread more rapidly. Within a few minutes, it engulfed a huge part of the plant,‰?? another police officer said.
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STUDENT BADLY HURT IN LAB EXPLOSION AT TAU
http://hamodia.com/2018/04/26/student-badly-hurt-lab-explosion-tau/
Tags: Israel, explosion, laboratory, injury, unknown_chemical
YERUSHALAYIM -
A student at Tel Aviv University was severely injured in an explosion during a laboratory experiment.
The 27-year-old was rushed by Magen David Adom ambulance to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv where has was listed in moderate to serious condition. He was reported unconscious and on a ventilator.
He sustained severe injuries to his upper body after chemical material exploded in his hands.
The police said that another person who was apparently injured in the incident was also taken to the hospital.
Tel Aviv University released a statement saying, ‰??During an experiment conducted by a bachelor‰??s degree student in a chemistry laboratory, material exploded in his hands. The student was injured and evacuated to the hospital. An investigation of the incident is underway.‰??
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HYDERABAD: CHEMIST INJURED IN CHEMICAL REACTOR BLAST
https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/270418/hyderabad-chemist-injured-in-chemical-reactor-blast.html
Tags: india, explosion, laboratory, injury, acetone
Hyderabad: A chemist working in a pharma company at Sanathnagar sustained injuries in a chemical reactor explosion on Thursday evening. The incident occurred due to overheating of a chemical and water mixture as a part of regular chemical formulations. The injured has been identified as Varaprasad, 27, employee of Bio-Chemical Synthetics Private Limited located at Jimkalawadi under Sanath Nagar Police Station limits. SI J Venkat said that a case has been booked and the injured has been shifted to hospital. Biochemical & Synthetic Products Limited is a manufacturer, supplier and exporter of bulk drugs and intermediates. Around 150 workers work in the company. At 6.30 pm on Thursday, a loud blast rocked the unit and soon there was smoke all over. It was later found out that a chemical reactor inside the unit had exploded.
Sources from the company said that six workers were working at the reactor. As a regular process, they mixed acetone with water and were heating the mixture. Usually it has to be heated to a maximum of 75 degrees, but due to overheating, the mixture reacted, leading to the blast. All the workers were out on a tea break and escaped.
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WACKER TO RESUME CHEMICAL OPERATIONS NEARLY 8 MONTHS AFTER EXPLOSION
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/breakingnews/story/2018/apr/26/wacker-resume-chemical-operations-more-8-months-after-explosion/469318/
Tags: us_tn, industrial, follow-up, enviromental
The Wacker plant in Charleston, Tenn., will begin polysilicon production in the coming weeks, nearly eight months after an explosion at the site shook the Bradley County community, led to several hospitalizations and temporarily shut down some area schools and roads.
Wacker was tasked with stabilizing the affected area, investigating the incident and completing restoration efforts before it resumed production, according to company spokeswoman Lisa Mantooth. Those efforts took months to complete.
Wacker will use a phase-in approach, according to a release from the company, and expects to reach full capacity in the fourth quarter of this year. Employees already have begun the initial start-up of the site, which involves distillation of the product.
Employees were kept on staff and scheduled throughout the shutdown so they could continue to receive pay. The company held training and continued work in other parts of the plant while investigators tried to determine what caused the explosion and how it could be fixed.
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REPORT FAULTS SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY PROTECTION OF STUDENTS, STAFF FROM HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/8261537-181/report-faults-sonoma-state-university
Tags: us_ca, laboratory, discovery, environmental, unknown_chemical
Sonoma State University and three other California State University schools were cited this week by the state auditor for shortcomings in protecting students and staff members from hazardous materials used on their campuses.
The four campuses ‰??did not completely comply with requirements related to the oversight of health and safety policies, training and the inspection of laboratory safety equipment,‰?? State Auditor Elaine Howle said in a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders in a letter accompanying the 87-page report released Tuesday.
The audit, requested by Assemblyman Jim Wood, D-Santa Rosa, at the behest of a CSU employees union, also faulted the Chancellor‰??s Office that oversees the system of 23 campuses with nearly 480,000 students and 49,000 employees.
The chancellor‰??s failure to provide ‰??strong oversight‰?? led to increased health and safety risks throughout the CSU system, Howle‰??s letter said.
The four schools ‰?? including Sacramento State, San Diego State and Channel Islands state universities ‰?? had not reviewed their chemical safety plans for laboratory workers annually as required, the audit said, noting that Sonoma State‰??s six-year lapse was ‰??especially troubling.‰??
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EXPLOSION, FIRE AT REFINERY NEAR LAKE SUPERIOR FORCES EVACUATIONS
http://www.mlive.com/news/us-world/index.ssf/2018/04/explosion_fire_at_refinery_nea.html
Tags: us_mi, explosion, industrial, injuries, unknown_chemical
An explosion that rocked an oil refinery in Superior, Wisc. on Thursday morning injured at least 11 people and sent a day-long plume of heavy smoke drifting across the northwestern part of that state, according to authorities at the National Weather Service.
By late Thursday, the smoky fire was out at Wisconsin's only refinery, but residents around the plant who had been evacuated during the day were not expected to be let back to their homes until very late this evening, the Associated Press said.
Thick clouds of black smoke billowed from the Husky Energy refinery, forcing people to leave their homes and three schools to evacuate, along with a nearby hospital. The plant produces gasoline and asphalt.
The city of Superior is located on its namesake Great Lake, and shares a shipping port with neighboring Duluth, Minn., the AP said. Freighter fans today were posting pictures to social media of large ships being loaded with cargo while the refinery fire burned in the background.
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