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From: DCHAS Membership Chair <membership**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety headlines (9 articles)
Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2018 08:02:53 -0400
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Message-ID: 7868851F-37AA-46C9-8BAE-A662C29B3EA6**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Wednesday, September 5, 2018 at 8:02:41 AM
A service of the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety
Connecting Chemistry and Safety at http://www.dchas.org
All article summaries and tags are archived at http://pinboard.in/u:dchas
Table of Contents (9 articles)
FUEL SPILL COVERS MICHIGAN LAKE LABOR DAY WEEKEND
Tags: us_MI, public, release, response, diesel, petroleum
CAN A WOMAN WHO LOST HER ARM IN A LAB EXPLOSION SUE UH?
Tags: us_HI, laboratory, follow-up, injury, other_chemical
NATURAL 'BREAKDOWN' OF CHEMICALS PREDICTS LUNG DAMAGE IN 9/11 FIREFIGHTERS -- SCIENCEDAILY
Tags: us_NY, public, discovery, environmental, toxics
FIRE AT CHEMICAL FACTORY KILLS TWO, INJURES EIGHT
Tags: India, industrial, explosion, death, flammables, natural_gas
CANCER RISK AND EMISSIONS: DEMS SPEAK OUT, CALL FOR EPA FUNDING
Tags: us_IL, public, release, response, other_chemical
THE EPA SUGGESTED WE CHANGE OUR RATING ON AN ASBESTOS STORY. HERE‰??S WHY WE DECLINED.
Tags: public, discovery, environmental, asbestos
HAZMAT SCENE REPORTED AT DORCHESTER SCHOOL
Tags: us_MA, education, release, response, unknown_chemical
TRUCK CARRYING HUGE SHIPMENT OF AXE DEODORANT CATCHES ON FIRE AND EXPLODES NEAR SMALL TEXAS TOWN
Tags: us_TX, transportation, explosion, response, other_chemical
TO FIND HACKS FOR GREENING YOUR LAB, START WITH THE FREEZER
Tags: us_MA, laboratory, discovery, environmental
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FUEL SPILL COVERS MICHIGAN LAKE LABOR DAY WEEKEND
https://patch.com/michigan/rochester/fuel-spill-covers-michigan-lake-labor-day-weekend
Tags: us_MI, public, release, response, diesel, petroleum
SYLVAN LAKE, MI ‰?? A fuel spill covered a Michigan lake over Labor Day Weekend, prompting local authorities, hazmat teams and state officials to investigate. The emergency situation unfolded at Sylvan Lake in Oakland County on Sept. 1, when a team assembled to investigate a strong odor of diesel fuel and a portion of the lake covered in an oily substance.
The origin of the fuel spill has been determined as the Mobil Gas Station on South Telegraph Road in Sylvan Lake, based on the preliminary investigations.
The Oakland County Sheriff's Office Marine Unit, Oakway Hazmat Team, the Department of Natural Resources, local fire departments and several other agencies responded to the scene, closed down the Mill Pond Dam to prevent further contamination of the Oakland County waterways. The agencies determined there was also fuel inside the storm drain systems in the area, which is a public hazard.
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CAN A WOMAN WHO LOST HER ARM IN A LAB EXPLOSION SUE UH?
https://www.civilbeat.org/2018/09/can-a-woman-who-lost-her-arm-in-a-lab-explosion-sue-uh/
Tags: us_HI, laboratory, follow-up, injury, other_chemical
The fate of a lawsuit filed by a researcher severely injured in a lab accident may come down to what her employment status was at the University of Hawaii Manoa.
Thea Ekins-Coward was a postdoctoral fellow when the explosion occurred in 2016; she filed a lawsuit against UH claiming negligence in 2017.
The question about her employment status may elevate the case to the Hawaii Supreme Court after attorneys for Ekins-Coward filed a petition to the state‰??s high court last month, contending she was never a UH employee.
UH lawyers, who declined to comment for this report, argue in court documents that Ekins-Coward cannot pursue restitution in court. They say her only recourse is workers‰?? compensation.
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NATURAL 'BREAKDOWN' OF CHEMICALS PREDICTS LUNG DAMAGE IN 9/11 FIREFIGHTERS -- SCIENCEDAILY
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180904082034.htm
Tags: us_NY, public, discovery, environmental, toxics
Abnormal levels of more than two dozen metabolites -- chemicals produced in the body as it breaks down fats, proteins and carbohydrates -- can reliably predict which Sept. 11 firefighters developed lung disease and which did not, a new analysis shows.
Researchers say the results, published by NYU School of Medicine researchers in the journal BMJ Open Respiratory Research online Sept. 4, could lead to metabolic tests for early detection of lung damage in all disaster victims exposed to fine particles from fire, smoke, and toxic chemicals, not just 9/11 firefighters.
The study, researchers say, offers the first evidence that metabolite blood tests conducted within months of the disaster could still help in the detection of obstructive airway disease, or OAD. Such analysis could aid in diagnosing OAD in the roughly 9,000 firefighters exposed to toxic chemicals at the World Trade Center (WTC) on Sept. 11, 2001, or during the cleanup that followed.
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FIRE AT CHEMICAL FACTORY KILLS TWO, INJURES EIGHT
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/fire-at-chemical-factory-kills-two-injures-eight/articleshow/65677388.cms
Tags: India, industrial, explosion, death, flammables, natural_gas
NEW DELHI: Two men were killed and eight injured when a major fire gutted a warehouse in outer Delhi‰??s Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar on Tuesday evening. The factory, operating out of a three-storey building, had among stored items highly inflammable chemicals. The fire started when the compressed natural gas kit installed in a mini truck exploded. Two men who were unloading chemical compounds from the truck died on the spot, while eight men working on the first floor suffered injuries.
Police said the warehouse was running illegally as its owner failed to provide any valid documents of the property.
The fire service and police were informed about the blaze at 4.20 pm. Ten fire tenders were sent to the site, but when the inferno could not be controlled even after over an hour, seven more tenders were pressed into service. It took two more hours before the flames were doused.
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CANCER RISK AND EMISSIONS: DEMS SPEAK OUT, CALL FOR EPA FUNDING
https://patch.com/illinois/burrridge/cancer-risk-emissions-dems-speak-out-call-epa-funding
Tags: us_IL, public, release, response, other_chemical
WILLOWBROOK, IL ‰?? Several political leaders and candidates gathered outside Sterigenics International Inc., on Tuesday morning after reports that emissions from the facility could contribute to an increased risk of cancer in the area. A recent report from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which is a division of the CDC, stated, "If measured and modeled data represent typical EtO ambient concentrations in ambient air, an elevated cancer risk exists for residents and off-site workers in the Willowbrook community surrounding the Sterigenics facility. These evaluated risks present a public health hazard to these populations."
Now, political leaders are demanding that President Donald Trump and Congress support the Environmental Protection Agency, according to a release. Some local leaders and opponents are also blasting 6th District Congressional Rep. Peter Roskam, accusing him of staying silent on the issue.
Rep. Bill Foster (D-11), along with Roskam's Democratic opponent Sean Casten, 17th District Cook County Board candidate Abdelnasser Rashid, 41st District State Senate candidate Bridget Fitzgerald, 82nd District State Representative candidate Tom Chlystek and others called for the president and Roskam to fully fund and protect the EPA so it can monitor and address incidents like the one at Sterigenics in Willowbrook.
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THE EPA SUGGESTED WE CHANGE OUR RATING ON AN ASBESTOS STORY. HERE‰??S WHY WE DECLINED.
https://www.snopes.com/news/2018/09/01/epa-suggested-change-rating-asbestos-story-heres-declined/
Tags: public, discovery, environmental, asbestos
On 11 June 2018, Snopes.com published a fact check titled ‰??Is the EPA Allowing for the Approval of New Asbestos-Containing Products?‰?? In that article, we rated the claim that ‰??the Environmental Protection Agency will allow new asbestos products to enter the market‰?? as ‰??mostly true,‰?? based on the fact that the EPA had proposed a new rule for asbestos that would (at first) block some currently unregulated but inactive uses of asbestos while (later) providing a framework for those unregulated uses‰?? formal approval should they pass a safety review.
Their proposed methodology for assessing that safety, many scientists have argued, may not accurately account for the health risks of those potential uses, increasing the likelihood that the safety review currently being undertaken by the EPA could end in these unregulated uses‰?? official approval. This logic informed our rating. On 24 August 2018, the EPA Office of Media Relations reached out to Snopes to suggest that this conclusion was in error and that the rating of ‰??mostly true‰?? should in fact be ‰??false.‰?? The agency‰??s objections generally center on two factual assertions:
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HAZMAT SCENE REPORTED AT DORCHESTER SCHOOL
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/Hazmat-Scene-at-Dorchester-School-492344341.html
Tags: us_MA, education, release, response, unknown_chemical
A hazmat scene at a Boston school has been resolved.
Authorities established a level 3 hazmat scene at Henderson Inclusion Upper School in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood at approximately 3:47 p.m. Monday.
According to Boston fire, they responded to a report of a minor spill of an uknown chemical. The hazmat team was able to mitigate the spill upon arrival. The spill was contained to a third floor classroom.
No injuries or damages were reported, officials said.
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TRUCK CARRYING HUGE SHIPMENT OF AXE DEODORANT CATCHES ON FIRE AND EXPLODES NEAR SMALL TEXAS TOWN
https://cw39.com/2018/09/03/truck-carrying-huge-shipment-of-axe-deodorant-catches-on-fire-and-explodes-near-small-texas-town/
Tags: us_TX, transportation, explosion, response, other_chemical
BELTON, Texas- Talk about getting the Axe! A smelly problem became explosive after a semi-trailer truck hauling a shipment of Axe Body Spray caught on fire near I-35 in Belton, Texas on Friday morning.
The truck driver didn't exactly 'find his magic' since the fire caused cans of the deodorant to explode and spray all across the interstate!
It didn't take long for the aerosol cans to set off one massive blaze as the Bell County Sheriff's Department got the call about the burning truck at 3:39 a.m.
The flames were so intense, the asphalt highway was reduced to just gravel after the truck exploded.
Fortunately, no one was injured, but it wasn't exactly 'love at first sniff.'
The interstate had to be shut down for hours since both the northbound and southbound lanes became covered with burned Axe cans.
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TO FIND HACKS FOR GREENING YOUR LAB, START WITH THE FREEZER
https://cen.acs.org/environment/sustainability/find-hacks-greening-lab-start/96/i35
Tags: us_MA, laboratory, discovery, environmental
Not many nightmare scenarios grip Kristala Jones Prather‰??s imagination. But one that haunted her for a long time involved the ‰??80 å¡C freezer in her Massachusetts Institute of Technology lab. Freezer temperatures can vary by a degree or two, especially when researchers constantly open and close doors to pull out or store precious samples. But what if the freezer warmed up over a long weekend because of a mechanical failure or power outage?
Prather and her team need ultralow temperatures to stash microbes they have engineered to make biofuels and other valuable chemicals. A warmed, suboptimal freezer might ruin work, thwart grant proposals, and delay thesis defenses. Little wonder that the idea of the Prather lab‰??s freezer temperature hitting ‰??70 å¡C felt, she says, ‰??like the end of times was coming.‰??
Until Prather had what she calls her revelation. Her lab became a pilot case for MIT‰??s Green Labs Program in April 2016. During the certification process, she learned that setting the freezer to ‰??80 å¡C was overkill for her lab‰??s cultures and a waste of energy besides. ‰??We call them minus-80 freezers, but you can set them to whatever you want,‰?? she says. She chuckles at the thought that since summer 2016, her freezer has been set to ‰??70 å¡C, the very temperature that used to trigger panic.
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