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Previous by Date: Subject: [DCHAS-L] Fancy nails in the lab Date: Sunday, February 17, 2019 at 7:50:46 PM Author: Dra. Clara Rosal’a çlvarez Ch‡vez <pissa_unison**At_Symbol_Here**HOTMAIL.COM> |
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Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Monday, February 18, 2019 at 7:59:31 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 (12 articles)
INADEQUATE WASTE EVALUATION FOR SILVER COATED CANISTER SEALS
Tags: us_WA, public, discovery, environmental, waste, silver
20 YEARS AGO, A THUNDEROUS EXPLOSION AT CONCEPT SCIENCES SHOOK THE LEHIGH VALLEY AND SHATTERED LIVES
Tags: us_PA, laboratory, follow-up, environmental, other_chemical
PDFS DRAGGED INTO DIGITAL AGE WITH 3D INTERACTIVE CHEMICAL STRUCTURES
Tags: Europe, education, discovery, environmental
A FIRE BROKE OUT AT TESLA'S FREMONT FACTORY, BUT WAS QUICKLY CONTAINED WITH NO ONE INJURED
Tags: us_CA, industrial, fire, response, waste
CHEMICAL LEAK AT EAST BENDIGO LINKED WITH SUBSTANCE FOUND IN BENDIGO CREEK
Tags: Australia, public, release, injury, unknown_chemical
'BOOBY-TRAPPED' SAFE PROMPTS HAZMAT RESPONSE IN AMESBURY
Tags: us_MA, public, discovery, response, irritant
UPDATE: MARSHFIELD APARTMENT BUILDING EVACUATED AFTER HOUSEHOLD CHEMICAL SPILL
Tags: us_WI, public, release, injury, acetone, bleach
TECHNICIAN SUFFERS CHEMICAL BURNS AT MILFORD RESEARCH COMPANY
Tags: us_MA, industrial, release, injury, acids
PANEL TO REVIEW POTENTIAL OSHA EMERGENCY RESPONSE STANDARD
Tags: industrial, follow-up, environmental
HASSAN, SHAHEEN TAKE AIM AT EPA OVER DRINKING WATER STANDARDS
Tags: us_NH, public, follow-up, environmental, other_chemical
ECO-FRIENDLY TECHNIQUE SELECTIVELY RECOVERS COPPER FROM CIRCUIT BOARD WASTE
Tags: China, industrial, discovery, environmental, waste, copper
US EPA CITES CHEMOURS FOR RELEASES OF GENX-RELATED CHEMICALS
Tags: us_NC, industrial, follow-up, environmental, other_chemical, plastics, illegal
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INADEQUATE WASTE EVALUATION FOR SILVER COATED CANISTER SEALS
https://opexshare.doe.gov/lesson.cfm/2019/2/14/25825/Inadequate-Waste-Evaluation-for-Silver-Coated-Canister-Seals
Tags: us_WA, public, discovery, environmental, waste, silver
While creating a new Waste Planning Checklist for the Engineered Container Retrieval and Transfer System Sludge Transport and Storage Container inerting process, a Waste Management Representative discovered that the metal seals that are used on the Sludge Transport and Storage Cask are coated with silver. The Waste Planning Checklist did not initially identify this waste component. Silver is potentially a regulated material, and must be evaluated to ensure it is below waste acceptance limits.
Lesson Learned: Personnel documenting initial waste planning information did not have sufficient information to recognize that the silver coating on the seals was potentially a regulated material. Training and administrative controls had not been established to provide necessary prompts for key information.
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20 YEARS AGO, A THUNDEROUS EXPLOSION AT CONCEPT SCIENCES SHOOK THE LEHIGH VALLEY AND SHATTERED LIVES
https://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-nws-concept-sciences-explosion-anniversary-20190122-htmlstory.html
Tags: us_PA, laboratory, follow-up, environmental, other_chemical
The 20,000-square-foot plant was housed in one of those nondescript industrial parks that line Route 22 between Bethlehem and Allentown. Besides Heller, the workers on hand included the Mondellos, Anthony, 55, of Pen Argyl, and Paul, 25, of Palmer Township; Wanamaker, 42; Soto, 52, of Bethlehem; and Deliang ‰??Dave‰?? Ding, 40, a lab technician from Wescosville.
Everything seemed fine. Until it wasn‰??t.
Amy Heller, who was inside Concept Sciences at the time of the blast
In an office next door to Concept Sciences was 48-year-old Terry Bowers, who lived in Hanover Township, Lehigh County, not far from the industrial park. He managed Sugarloaf Mid-Atlantic, a manufacturer of toy vending machines.
The distillation process at Concept Sciences involved mixing several hundred pounds of hydroxylamine ‰?? described in chemical industry literature as ‰??thermally unstable‰?? and capable of spontaneously igniting in the air or on contact with copper or other metals ‰?? with potassium sulfate.
Earlier in the week, the process had been shut down because of a water leak. Now, another problem had cropped up ‰?? crystals had formed in the distillation still, indicating the mix had grown unstable. That's what prompted the call to Wanamaker.
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PDFS DRAGGED INTO DIGITAL AGE WITH 3D INTERACTIVE CHEMICAL STRUCTURES
https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/pdfs-dragged-into-digital-age-with-3d-interactive-chemical-structures/3010126.article
Tags: Europe, education, discovery, environmental
PDFs are finally entering the digital age for the chemical sciences with static, 2D chemical structures being given a major upgrade.
Fed up with the limited information 2D figures can convey about complex molecular structures, a team led by Kerry Gilmore at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Germany and Nabyl Merbouh at Simon Fraser University in Canada has developed interactive 3D images that can be easily embedded into PDFs.
Their illustrations can be rotated, zoomed in on and manipulated in an ordinary PDF opened with Adobe reader. The researchers published their own manuscript featuring several examples on the preprint server ChemRxiv, which shows how structures be easily viewed at any angle, giving ‰?? for example ‰?? a better sense of the shape of an enzyme‰??s active site, or what a twisted molecule looks like in 3D space. The team points out that it is a more space-efficient way to convey chemical information, as it removes the need to produce several figures to represent a structure. (A selection of interactive 3D chemical structures can be road-tested in the sample pdf below.)
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A FIRE BROKE OUT AT TESLA'S FREMONT FACTORY, BUT WAS QUICKLY CONTAINED WITH NO ONE INJURED
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/tesla-factory-fire-contained-with-no-injuries-2019-2-1027958668
Tags: us_CA, industrial, fire, response, waste
A fire broke out at Tesla's car production plant in Fremont, California Saturday night, but was contained and did not impact vehicle production.
According to The Mercury News, citing Fremont Deputy Fire Chief Amiel Thurston, the fire broke out at around 8.25 p.m. PT (11.25 p.m. ET) and started in "a 10 foot by 10 foot area containing hazardous waste in an exterior storage area." The fire was quickly contained, Thurston said.
"There‰??s no threat to the public at this time. The hazmat team is monitoring both the atmosphere conditions and the fire," Thurston said.
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CHEMICAL LEAK AT EAST BENDIGO LINKED WITH SUBSTANCE FOUND IN BENDIGO CREEK
https://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/5907753/chemical-leak-linked-with-substance-found-in-bendigo-creek/
Tags: Australia, public, release, injury, unknown_chemical
THE Country Fire Authority has confirmed last night‰??s chemical leak in East Bendigo was linked with the recovery of a substance at the Bendigo Creek the night prior.
A container filled with an unknown substance was found at the creek near Goornong about 8.30pm on Thursday.
The CFA responded to the incident and handed control of the site over to the Environmental Protection Authority.
A man was injured last night when a drum sent to a company in East Bendigo for cleaning released chemicals.
He remains at the Bendigo Hospital.
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'BOOBY-TRAPPED' SAFE PROMPTS HAZMAT RESPONSE IN AMESBURY
https://www.newburyportnews.com/news/local_news/booby-trapped-safe-prompts-hazmat-response-in-amesbury/article_9369256c-c886-5a30-839e-b400404aae65.html
Tags: us_MA, public, discovery, response, irritant
AMESBURY -- When the owner of a former carriage factory on Chestnut Street opened a ‰??booby-trapped‰?? old safe Friday afternoon, fire officials say a vial of what appeared to be CS gas ‰?? similar to tear gas ‰?? rolled out onto the floor.
The vial didn‰??t break, but the building owner quickly called 911, prompting a hazmat response by Amesbury firefighters and evacuation of the building at 6 Chestnut St.
Fire Chief Kenneth E. Berkenbush said Friday in a press release that when the new owner of the building opened one of the doors of the World War II-era safe, ‰??a booby trap was triggered, causing a vial with suspected CS gas inside to fall to the ground.‰?? The chief said CS gas is an irritant that is not generally poisonous.
Berkenbush his firefighters responded just after 4 p.m. to what he termed a Tier 1 response, the lowest tier out of five. There was no danger to the public, he added. Amesbury police roped off Chestnut and Washington streets and a hazmat team from the Massachusetts State Police also responded to the building, which is the former Biddle and Smart carriage factory.
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UPDATE: MARSHFIELD APARTMENT BUILDING EVACUATED AFTER HOUSEHOLD CHEMICAL SPILL
https://www.wsaw.com/content/news/Marshfield-fire-department-responding-to-possible-haz-mat-situation-505928461.html
Tags: us_WI, public, release, injury, acetone, bleach
Four people were sent to the hospital to be checked over after a household chemical mishap and evacuation at an apartment building for the elderly in Marshfield Friday night.
Deputy Fire Chief Troy Weiland tells NewsChannel 7 they got a call just after 9pm that there was a strange smell coming from a hallway in the Cedar Rail Apartments on South Cedar Street.
Once crews arrived on the scene, they traced the smell to one apartment. Weiland says one person had spilled an acetone-based product and used bleach to try to clean it up, creating the noxious fumes.
Residents of the three-story building were evacuated to another owned by the same company. Four people, two residents and the first two police officers on the scene were sent to the hospital to be checked over. At least one had burning eyes. Weiland says the checkup by the doctors was mostly precautionary.
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TECHNICIAN SUFFERS CHEMICAL BURNS AT MILFORD RESEARCH COMPANY
https://www.milforddailynews.com/news/20190215/technician-suffers-chemical-burns-at-milford-research-company
Tags: us_MA, industrial, release, injury, acids
MILFORD ‰?? An employee at Nitto Avecia was hospitalized with chemical burns Friday after being splashed with a form of acid at the Fortune Boulevard research company.
The technician was taking apart a hose connection late Friday morning, but did not realize the hose was pressurized and was splashed with the acid. The technician ‰?? who was wearing protective equipment ‰?? immediately hit the emergency shutdown, helping contain the spill to one room. That room is specially designed to contain a chemical spill, Fire Chief William Touhey said outside the scene.
The technician decontaminated twice in an emergency shower at the facility before being taken to Milford Regional Medical Center.
The technician was not immediately identified, and Touhey did not have a condition update while at the scene Friday.
The chief is unsure how much of the substance was spilled. A state hazmat team responded and was assessing the situation before cleanup operations began Friday afternoon, said Touhey.
The facility was evacuated and there were no other reported injuries. The chief anticipated employees would be able to get back into other parts of the building later in the day.
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PANEL TO REVIEW POTENTIAL OSHA EMERGENCY RESPONSE STANDARD
https://www.businessinsurance.com/article/20190215/NEWS08/912326745/Panel-to-review-potential-OSHA-emergency-response-standard
Tags: industrial, follow-up, environmental
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is planning to initiate a small business advocacy review panel for a potential emergency response standard outlining procedures to respond to natural catastrophes such as fires and hurricanes and incidents such as explosions at chemical plant facilities within 60 days.
The agency informed the Small Business Administration‰??s Office of Advocacy and the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs within the Office of Management and Budget on Feb. 7 that it plans to initiate a Small Business Advocacy Review panel, commonly known as a SBREFA panel, on emergency response under the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act, according to an email from a SBA spokesperson.
An April 2013 explosion at the West Fertilizer Co. in West, Texas that killed 12 emergency responders and three civilians and injured more than 260 others led to then-President Barack Obama‰??s executive order directing agencies such as OSHA to strengthen their preparation and response to chemical safety incidents.
In response, OSHA tasked the National Advisory Committee for Occupational Safety and Health's subcommittee for emergency response and preparedness with exploring a potential regulation in September 2015. In December 2016, NACOSH recommended that OSHA pursue an emergency responder preparedness program standard and submitted a draft rule for OSHA consideration that would require emergency service organizations to write and implement a comprehensive risk management plan covering risks associated with administration, facilities, training, vehicle operations, protective clothing and equipment, emergency and nonemergency incidents and related activities.
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HASSAN, SHAHEEN TAKE AIM AT EPA OVER DRINKING WATER STANDARDS
https://www.unionleader.com/news/health/hassan-shaheen-take-aim-at-epa-over-drinking-water-standards/article_28ca219a-4989-53b3-81a3-696a2f52dccf.html
Tags: us_NH, public, follow-up, environmental, other_chemical
PORTSMOUTH ‰?? New Hampshire's two U.S. senators had sharp words for the Environmental Protection Agency, which stopped short Thursday of setting safe drinking guidelines for water contaminated by per- and polyfluoroalkyls.
EPA plans to propose a safe water level by the end of the year through a regulatory determination, which is called for in the Safe Drinking Water Act, acting EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler said. It would still take years, however, before a standard would be adopted.
The contaminants, PFOS and PFOA, were found in a well at the Pease Tradeport in May 2014. The city of Portsmouth shut down the well once the exposure was discovered.
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ECO-FRIENDLY TECHNIQUE SELECTIVELY RECOVERS COPPER FROM CIRCUIT BOARD WASTE
https://cen.acs.org/environment/sustainability/Eco-friendly-technique-selectively-recovers/97/web/2019/02
Tags: China, industrial, discovery, environmental, waste, copper
Tossed circuit boards are about 20% copper, a much larger fraction than the roughly half a percent in copper ore mined from the ground. That percentage, plus the growing mounds of global electronic waste, drives the hunt for effective and green methods for extracting copper from circuit boards.
A new method takes advantage of ball milling, a brute force means of jumpstarting chemical reactions (Environ. Sci. Technol., 2019, DOI:10.1021/acs.est.8b06081). If the simple process can be scaled up, it would be more eco-friendly and efficient than current methods for recovering copper from circuit boards.
Global electronic waste exceeds 40 million tons and is growing at a rate of 3-5% per year. Circuits boards make up 2 million tons of that total. China, one of the largest producers of circuit boards and the major recipient of global electronic waste before the country limited the import of many types of waste in 2018, is struggling under the environmental consequences of this waste. ‰??Improper handling of waste circuit boards has generated serious environmental problems and human health threats in China,‰?? says Huijie Hou, an environmental engineer at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST).
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US EPA CITES CHEMOURS FOR RELEASES OF GENX-RELATED CHEMICALS
https://cen.acs.org/environment/pollution/US-EPA-cites-Chemours-releases/97/web/2019/02
Tags: us_NC, industrial, follow-up, environmental, other_chemical, plastics, illegal
The US Environmental Protection Agency has cited Chemours for failing to control emissions of its GenX-related fluoroethers from plants in North Carolina and West Virginia. The EPA move marks the first federal-enforcement action against Chemours since fluoroether pollution from the factories came to public attention in the last two years.
Chemours violated the terms of a 2009 consent order with the agency that allowed the firm to manufacture two of the chemicals, says EPA‰??s notice of violation, issued Feb. 14 and first reported by NC Policy Watch.
The fluoroethers are part of Chemours‰??s GenX technology designed to replace the use of persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic perfluoroocanoic acid as a processing aid in the manufacture of fluoropolymers. The GenX chemicals are considered less toxic and less bioaccumulative than the substance they are replacing.
The agency originally developed the consent order with DuPont, which spun off its fluorochemicals business into Chemours in 2015. With that split, Chemours was legally bound to comply with the 2009 EPA directive.
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