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Previous by Date: Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Minimizing risk in reopening research laboratories Date: Thursday, April 23, 2020 at 6:15:40 PM Author: NEAL LANGERMAN <neal**At_Symbol_Here**CHEMICAL-SAFETY.COM> |
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Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Friday, April 24, 2020 at 8:10:29 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 (7 articles)
C.D.C. LABS WERE CONTAMINATED, DELAYING CORONAVIRUS TESTING, OFFICIALS SAY
Tags: laboratory, discovery, environmental
10 YEARS LATER: HOW THE DEEPWATER HORIZON OIL SPILL CHANGED SAFETY, EDUCATION
Tags: us_LA, industrial, follow-up, environmental, petroleum
AFTER THE MACANDO SPILL: SAFETY STANDARDS AND METRICS
Tags: us_TX, industrial, follow-up, environmental
POLICE TAKE OVER AS DRUG LAB FOUND IN WEST VANCOUVER FIRE
Tags: Canada, public, fire, response, meth_lab
EPA PREPARES TO RETURN STAFF TO WORK, OVER SOME PROTESTS (1)
Tags: public, discovery, environmental
CARBON NANOTUBES ‰?? FIRST NANOMATERIAL OF HIGH CONCERN ON THE SIN LIST
Tags: Belgium, public, discovery, environmental
POISON CONTROL SEES SPIKE IN CALLS FOR CLEANER, DISINFECTANT ACCIDENTS AMID COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Tags: public, discovery, environmental, bleach, cleaners
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C.D.C. LABS WERE CONTAMINATED, DELAYING CORONAVIRUS TESTING, OFFICIALS SAY
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/18/health/cdc-coronavirus-lab-contamination-testing.html
Tags: laboratory, discovery, environmental
Sloppy laboratory practices at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention caused contamination that rendered the nation‰??s first coronavirus tests ineffective, federal officials confirmed on Saturday.
Two of the three C.D.C. laboratories in Atlanta that created the coronavirus test kits violated their own manufacturing standards, resulting in the agency sending tests that did not work to nearly all of the 100 state and local public health labs, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
Early on, the F.D.A., which oversees laboratory tests, sent Dr. Timothy Stenzel, chief of in vitro diagnostics and radiological health, to the C.D.C. labs to assess the problem, several officials said. He found an astonishing lack of expertise in commercial manufacturing and learned that nobody was in charge of the entire process, they said.
Problems ranged from researchers entering and exiting the coronavirus laboratories without changing their coats, to test ingredients being assembled in the same room where researchers were working on positive coronavirus samples, officials said. Those practices made the tests sent to public health labs unusable because they were contaminated with the coronavirus, and produced some inconclusive results.
In a statement on Saturday, a spokeswoman for the F.D.A., Stephanie Caccomo, said, ‰??C.D.C. did not manufacture its test consistent with its own protocol.‰??
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10 YEARS LATER: HOW THE DEEPWATER HORIZON OIL SPILL CHANGED SAFETY, EDUCATION
https://www.businessreport.com/newsletters/10-years-later-how-the-deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-changed-safety-education
Tags: us_LA, industrial, follow-up, environmental, petroleum
Today marks the 10-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that deeply affected south Louisiana and took years to clean up, affecting wildlife and the seafood industry.
If there was anything to gain from this disaster, it was realizing the importance of safety in the drilling industry, says LSU Petroleum Engineering Professional-in-Residence Wesley Williams. According to an LSU release, Williams works to teach his students the importance of safety, and he and other LSU petroleum engineering faculty have spent the past decade researching how to prevent future offshore explosions and spills.
On April 20, 2010, high-pressure methane gas from the oil well expanded into the marine riser and rose into the Deepwater Horizon rig, where it exploded, engulfing the rig and killing 11 workers. The rig sank on April 22, 2010, and oil spilled into the Gulf for 87 days at an estimated flow-rate of 1,000-5,000 barrels per day. The U.S. government estimates a total of 4.9 million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf.
BP spent more than $65 billion on cleanup costs and penalties. According to Williams, the petroleum industry is not to blame; the lack of safety culture is.
‰??My first thought after hearing about the [Deepwater Horizon] rig explosion was, ‰??Where were the human failures?‰??‰?? Williams says. ‰??It‰??s always multiple human failures that create these kinds of disasters. Deepwater was days of ignoring telltale signs that what you‰??re doing is wrong. It was years of culture that built up into causing that.‰??
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AFTER THE MACANDO SPILL: SAFETY STANDARDS AND METRICS
https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/features/after-the-spill-safety-standards-and-metrics/
Tags: us_TX, industrial, follow-up, environmental
IN the wake of the Deepwater Horizon incident at the Macondo well, the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) issued a series of recommendations to bolster safety. These have yet to be fully implemented. As such, offshore drilling in the US remains an unacceptably hazardous operation.
The CSB is a non-regulatory federal government agency that conducts investigations to determine the causal factors leading to major industrial chemical incidents where the release of a hazardous substance resulted in loss of life, serious injury or substantial property damage. Being apart from the industry and other regulatory agencies affords us the independence to examine incidents from a systems perspective, identifying gaps in safety management systems and regulations broadly, and issue recommendations to prevent their reoccurrence or mitigate their consequences.
The Macondo investigation was a multi-year effort for the CSB, and one of the most challenging experiences in agency history. Our investigation commenced several months post-incident after we received requests from the US Congress to apply the same rigour to this complex incident as the agency had to its investigation of the 23 March 2005 explosions and fire at the BP America refinery in Texas City, TX.
Then followed lengthy litigation against Transocean, the drilling contractor and entity with the most eyewitnesses on the rig, for failure to provide key document and interview subjects. The agency prevailed after four-and-a-half years, during which time the CSB‰??s investigation focussed where it could with the cooperation of other entities. The magnitude of the case, and its technical complexity, challenged an agency with limited resources. Nevertheless, we persisted, ultimately issuing four volumes containing 16 safety recommendations. While many official entities investigated this incident, the CSB‰??s reports cover aspects not addressed by these other bodies, most of whose work had concluded before the final phases of testing of the blowout preventer and the conclusion of litigation revealed new insights.
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POLICE TAKE OVER AS DRUG LAB FOUND IN WEST VANCOUVER FIRE
https://www.castanet.net/news/BC/297940/Police-take-over-as-drug-lab-found-in-West-Vancouver-fire
Tags: Canada, public, fire, response, meth_lab
Police have taken over the investigation into a fire at a West Vancouver home after it turned out to be a large scale clandestine drug lab.
Early on April 15, neighbours smelled noxious smoke and called 911.
‰??They were met with heavy smoke and flame. They got signs right away that the house was vacant, like no furniture in the house, and some unusual things like big holes cut in the floor,‰?? said assistant fire chief Matt Furlot. ‰??There were strong signs of the house being a meth lab.‰??
Thankfully, the fire didn‰??t ignite any of the lab equipment in the basement or cause a hazardous material spill from any of the barrels they found inside. It took crews almost five hours to get the flames out.
‰??A very, very challenging attack, but the crews did very well. There were no injuries,‰?? Furlot said. ‰??If the lab is infringed with fire, there are vapours that can be very toxic and harmful and if that happened, we would be evacuating that immediate neighbourhood.‰??
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EPA PREPARES TO RETURN STAFF TO WORK, OVER SOME PROTESTS (1)
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/epa-prepares-to-return-staff-to-work-over-employees-objections
Tags: public, discovery, environmental
The EPA is in the midst of crafting a plan for staffers to eventually return to offices across the country, agency leaders said during an employee-only briefing on Tuesday.
The planning comes in response to a White House memo on Monday for federal agencies to prepare for a return to work in low-risk areas, once certain conditions are met.
The Environmental Protection Agency‰??s guidance will lay out steps for workers to go back to the office with the ‰??lowest risk possible,‰?? said Doug Benevento, associate deputy administrator for the agency. The plan will be released shortly, Benevento said on the call, which was shared by an EPA employee who wasn‰??t authorized to speak publicly.
The EPA expects a phased return, and won‰??t require all staffers to go back to the office at the same time, Benevento said.
The plan will prioritize employees‰?? health and recognize the burdens on those who must care for dependents, said Lynnann Hitchens, director of EPA‰??s Office of Resources and Business Operations.
It will further accommodate workers at high risk of contracting the virus, said Alexandra Dapolito Dunn, assistant administrator of the EPA‰??s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said older adults and people with serious underlying medical conditions, such as chronic lung disease or serious heart conditions, are in the high-risk category.
Both Hitchens and Dunn gave their remarks on the employee-only teleconference.
No firm dates for the return have been announced. The White House memo directed agencies to let employees work from home until state and local authorities begin reopening their economies.
Employees Feel Unsafe
But some employees say they don‰??t feel safe leaving their homes anytime soon.
‰??I‰??m scared,‰?? one EPA staffer told Bloomberg Law. ‰??It feels very rushed. They‰??re going to have us go back now? I feel like the agency is not putting enough thought into our safety. I feel like they‰??re rolling this out and implementing whatever the plan is without safety, data, and best practices in mind.‰??
Another EPA staffer flatly said he wouldn‰??t return to the office until he felt safe doing so.
The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than half of the EPA‰??s 14,000 workers, also criticized the White House order. In a tweet on Tuesday, the union said the administration wants ‰??federal workers to be the sacrificial lambs of the Covid-19 crisis,‰?? and that the orders are meant ‰??to convince private industry it‰??s OK.‰??
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CARBON NANOTUBES ‰?? FIRST NANOMATERIAL OF HIGH CONCERN ON THE SIN LIST
https://euon.echa.europa.eu/nanopinion/-/asset_publisher/jyZzQmR9Vyq0/blog/carbon-nanotubes-first-nanomaterial-of-high-concern-on-the-sin-list?_cldee=cnN0dWFydGNpaEBtZS5jb20%253d&recipientid=lead-e3a3bbf81ee8e8118107005056952b31-0a21fbb60b3944a2b761761c12bf6c2f&esid=be7302cd-7884-ea11-811e-005056b9310e
Tags: Belgium, public, discovery, environmental
Since 2008, ChemSec has aimed at both guiding companies and catalyzing the EU REACH legal process, by listing hazardous chemicals that in our view fulfil the legal criteria for being substances of very high concern (SVHCs), ahead of the official process. This list is called the SIN List, an intentionally chosen abbreviation that spelled out means ‰??Substitute It Now‰??.
High-tech material or a threat of incalculable proportions?
Ever since the start of the SIN List there have been requests to add nanomaterials to the SIN List. To many companies, NGOs and even regulators, ‰??nano‰?? is something very diffuse. Some see it as very futuristic, high-tech and a potential solution to most problems. Others see it as a main threat of incalculable proportions. Politically and legally, the main discussions so far have been about definitions and characterisations, not providing any clarity about safety.
So, when we found the scientific evidence to make a case and put a nanomaterial ‰?? Carbon Nanotubes ‰?? on the SIN List, we revisited the thought of ‰??doing something about nano‰?? in 2019.
Carbon nanotubes are, as the name suggests, thin carbon sheets rolled into tubes. The tubes can be longer or shorter, have one or several walls and they can be tangled. As is often the case for nanomaterials, characterisation of carbon nanotubes and where to draw the line between different forms can be difficult. The difficulty in characterization is problematic also when investigating hazardous properties.
Carcinogenicity and reprotoxic effects
Carbon nanotubes have been seen as a high-tech new material with much potetial. So far, consumer applications have been mainly about making lightweight material strong such as sportsequipment and also superblack coatings.
Several studies of different types of multiwalled carbon nanotubes show carcinogenicity for lungs and one type was classified as ‰??possibly carcinogenic to humans‰?? by the International Agency for Research of Cancer, IARC, this summer. Genotoxicity and lung damage have been shown by more types of carbon nanotubes, including single walled, double walled and multiwalled.
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POISON CONTROL SEES SPIKE IN CALLS FOR CLEANER, DISINFECTANT ACCIDENTS AMID COVID-19 PANDEMIC
https://www.livescience.com/covid-19-cleaning-chemical-exposure.html
Tags: public, discovery, environmental, bleach, cleaners
Calls to poison control centers regarding exposure to household cleaners and disinfectants have spiked amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report.
The report authors found that, from January to March this year, poison control centers received 45,550 calls related to cleaner and disinfectant exposure. That's up 20% compared with calls over the same period in 2019, according to the report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The report cannot prove for certain that the rise is due to people's cleaning efforts to prevent COVID-19, but it does show "a clear temporal association with increased use of these products," the authors said.
Overall, calls for exposures to bleach, non-alcohol disinfectants and hand sanitizers made up the biggest percentage of the increase from 2019 to 2020, the report found.
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