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Previous by Date: Subject: [DCHAS-L] New articles for ACS Chemical Health & Safety are available online. Date: Monday, July 19, 2021 at 6:37:01 AM Author: Ralph Stuart <membership**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG> |
Next by Date: Subject: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety headlines (12 articles) Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2021 06:32:13 -0400 Author: Ralph Stuart |
Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Monday, July 19, 2021 at 6:40:40 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 (14 articles)
CREWS RESPOND TO HAZARDOUS MATERIALS INCIDENT
Tags: us_VA, transportation, release, response, other_chemical
PEST CONTROL COMPANY PLEADS GUILTY AFTER CHEMICAL POISONING LEAVES MAN IN COMA
Tags: New_Zealand, industrial, follow-up, injury, pesticides
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS AFTER ARSON ATTACK AT DURBAN PESTI...
Tags: South_Africa, industrial, fire, response, illegal
SIX FLAGS PARK-GOERS EXPOSED TO CHEMICAL LEAK OUTSIDE HOUSTON, TEXAS ‰?? NBC CHICAGO
Tags: us_TX, public, release, injury, unknown_chemical
PROCTOR ICE ARENA EVACUATED FOR AMMONIA LEAK, ALL SATURDAY EVENTS CANCELED
Tags: us_MN, public, release, response, ammonia
MAINE BANS TOXIC ‰??FOREVER CHEMICALS‰?? UNDER GROUNDBREAKING NEW LAW
Tags: us_ME, public, discovery, environmental, dye
FLORIDA SWAMPED BY RED TIDE ‰?? BUT IS FERTILIZER PLANT SPILL MAKING IT WORSE?
Tags: us_FL, industrial, follow-up, environmental, ag_chems
NB 170 FWY LANES REOPEN IN NORTH HOLLYWOOD AFTER PICKUP OVERTURNS, SPILLS POOL CHEMICALS
Tags: us_CA, transportation, release, response, pool_chemicals
GAS LEAK REPORTED AT AVENEL WAREHOUSE THURSDAY
Tags: us_NJ, industrial, release, response, unknown_chemical
FIRE BREAKS OUT AT IISER CHEMICAL LAB
Tags: India, laboratory, fire, injury, solvent
20 YEARS AFTER THE HOWARD STREET TUNNEL FIRE, WHAT STILL NEEDS TO CHANGE
Tags: us_MD, transportation, follow-up, environmental
TRUCK CONTAINING ABOUT 600 POUNDS OF CHLORINE POWDER IN SIGNAL HILL CATCHES FIRE ‰?? NBC LOS ANGELES
Tags: us_CA, transportation, fire, response, chlorine
GEORGIA EPD INVESTIGATING CHEMICAL REACTION AT ROBERTA PLANT
Tags: us_GA, industrial, release, response, epoxy
GEORGETOWN RV REZONING PASSES PLANNING COMMISSION DESPITE CHEMICAL PLANT CONCERNS
Tags: us_SC, industrial, follow-up, environmental, methylene_chloride
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CREWS RESPOND TO HAZARDOUS MATERIALS INCIDENT
https://www.suffolknewsherald.com/2021/07/18/crews-respond-to-hazardous-materials-incident/
Tags: us_VA, transportation, release, response, other_chemical
Suffolk Fire & Rescue and Suffolk Police were on the scene of the hazmat incident in the 900 block of southbound Carolina Road. The truck was hauling liquid animal proteins and partially lost its load over several hundred feet of roadway, according to a city press release. It was reported at 11:52 a.m.
Suffolk Police provided traffic control in the area, and crews from Public Works set up detours at Carolina Road southbound to the Southwest Bypass and northbound at Turlington Road.
The Virginia Department of Emergency Management was also notified.
The investigation into the cause of the incident remains ongoing at this time.
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PEST CONTROL COMPANY PLEADS GUILTY AFTER CHEMICAL POISONING LEAVES MAN IN COMA
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/125792240/pest-control-company-pleads-guilty-after-chemical-poisoning-leaves-man-in-coma
Tags: New_Zealand, industrial, follow-up, injury, pesticides
A pest control company‰??s worker ended up in an induced coma after he was poisoned in a factory housing chemicals that can be used to make the pesticide 1080.
The man was hospitalised for more than two weeks in May 2019 after being exposed to a poisonous substance at a unit in Bromley, Christchurch, leased by Pest Control Research.
According to court documents, released to Stuff on Monday, the company pleaded guilty to four of the six charges originally laid by WorkSafe. The other two charges were withdrawn.
The company admitted it failed to ensure a site plan was available for inspection at a location where hazardous substances, including 91 kilograms of ethanol and 400 litres of ethyl fluoroacetate, were kept.
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UNANSWERED QUESTIONS AFTER ARSON ATTACK AT DURBAN PESTI...
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-07-19-unanswered-questions-after-arson-attack-at-durban-pesticide-warehouse-and-toxic-air-cloud/
Tags: South_Africa, industrial, fire, response, illegal
Swimming was finally banned on beaches north of Durban and residents warned to stay indoors at the weekend to avoid breathing noxious chemical fumes after the massive fire at a Durban pesticide warehouse ‰?? but seven days after the arson attack, questions remain unanswered about the human health risks, ecological impacts and poor communication to affected communities.
Thousands of Durban residents woke to the overpowering stench of burning chemicals almost a week ago, when arsonists and looters set fire to a massive warehouse containing toxic pesticides and chemical products owned by the Mumbai-based chemicals giant UPL.
The Indian multinational group was set up in 1969 as United Phosphorus Limited by chemist Rajju Shroff and now boasts that it is the fifth biggest agrochemical company in the world (after Bayer, Dupont, Syngenta and BASF) with annual revenue of $5.04-billion
In a press statement released almost five days after the fire began, the company confirmed that the attack led to ‰??a large plume of smoke being released into the atmosphere as well as causing water to overrun catchment devices‰?? from its new Cornubia warehouse.
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SIX FLAGS PARK-GOERS EXPOSED TO CHEMICAL LEAK OUTSIDE HOUSTON, TEXAS ‰?? NBC CHICAGO
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/national-international/thirty-four-park-goers-exposed-to-chemical-leak-outside-houston-texas/2557384/
Tags: us_TX, public, release, injury, unknown_chemical
More than 60 people underwent decontamination Saturday after they were exposed to an airborne chemical leak at a Six Flags park outside Houston, Texas, authorities said.
Twenty-six people were taken to local hospitals from Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Splashdown in Spring, Texas, officials said at a press conference Saturday. All are in stable condition.
The Harris County Fire Marshal's Office tweeted that it was investigating the source of the leak while monitoring air quality.
---------------------------------------------
PROCTOR ICE ARENA EVACUATED FOR AMMONIA LEAK, ALL SATURDAY EVENTS CANCELED
https://kbjr6.com/2021/07/17/proctor-ice-arena-evacuated-for-ammonia-leak-all-saturday-events-canceled/
Tags: us_MN, public, release, response, ammonia
PROCTOR, MN -- Duluth HAZMAT and fire crews evacuated Proctor Ice Arena because of an ammonia leak Saturday.
Duluth and Proctor Fire Departments responded to the arena around 7 p.m.
Everyone in the building was evacuated safely.
No one was hurt.
Duluth's Hazardous Materials Response unit provided assistance in clearing the area.
A city spokesperson said Duluth and Proctor Fire Departments will continue to monitor air quality and are ventilating the space.
No word yet on where the leak is coming from.
According to crews on the scene, the ammonia leak was a low-level spill.
All remaining events at the rink have been canceled for the day.
---------------------------------------------
MAINE BANS TOXIC ‰??FOREVER CHEMICALS‰?? UNDER GROUNDBREAKING NEW LAW
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/15/maine-law-pfas-forever-chemicals-ban?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Tags: us_ME, public, discovery, environmental, dye
Maine has enacted a groundbreaking law that will ban the use of toxic PFAS compounds in all products by 2030, except in instances deemed ‰??currently unavoidable‰??.
Though states and the federal government have passed piecemeal laws regulating the dangerous chemicals‰?? use, Maine is the nation‰??s first state and world‰??s first government to enact a broad prohibition on the class of about 9,000 compounds, which are dubbed ‰??forever chemicals‰?? because they don‰??t fully break down and accumulate in the environment and humans.
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are typically used to make products water and stain resistant. They‰??re so effective that they‰??re now used across dozens of industries and added to a wide range of products, including food packaging, cosmetics, cookware, waterproof textiles, guitar strings, dental floss, firefighting foam and stain protectors like Scotchgard that is commonly applied to carpet and furniture.
An increasing body of science has linked the chemicals to a range of serious health problems such as cancer, liver disease, decreased immunity, kidney disease, plummeting sperm counts, endocrine disruption, high cholesterol, birth defects and more.
---------------------------------------------
FLORIDA SWAMPED BY RED TIDE ‰?? BUT IS FERTILIZER PLANT SPILL MAKING IT WORSE?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/17/florida-red-tide-fertilizer-plant-spill?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Tags: us_FL, industrial, follow-up, environmental, ag_chems
Piles of dead fish, dolphins, turtles and manatees are rotting on the shorelines of coastal Florida in a soup of reddish brown ocean water after a devastating so-called ‰??red tide‰?? algal bloom struck sea life in the region.
The city council in St Petersburg, Florida, called for a state of emergency last week saying that crews need help getting the dead sea creatures cleaned up from the beaches. In the Pinellas county area, more than 800 tons of dead fish and sea life have washed ashore ‰?? and the smell is already hitting the cities.
‰??No community should suffer this‰??: Florida‰??s toxic breach was decades in the making
Read more
Red tides do happen in the area, but this year‰??s incident is so serious that it is causing some experts to wonder if a pollution accident at a former fertilizer plant called Piney Point could be a reason it is so bad.
In March, a dam at a reservoir at the defunct plant that stored phosphate wastewater began to fail, prompting temporary evacuations of nearby residents on 1 April. Two days later, Florida‰??s governor, Ron DeSantis, issued a state of emergency. The plant released 215m gallons of contaminated water into Tampa Bay in an effort to prevent the reservoir‰??s collapse.
The current algal bloom can be traced back to December 2020, when it began to travel north up the coast into the Tampa Bay area. Tropical storm Elsa also caused strong winds, which may be pushing fish to pile up on shores in much larger and stinkier quantities.
---------------------------------------------
NB 170 FWY LANES REOPEN IN NORTH HOLLYWOOD AFTER PICKUP OVERTURNS, SPILLS POOL CHEMICALS
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/nb-170-fwy-closed-in-north-hollywood-after-pickup-overturns-spills-pool-chemicals/
Tags: us_CA, transportation, release, response, pool_chemicals
The northbound 170 Freeway in North Hollywood reopened Friday afternoon after a pickup overturned and spilled pool chemicals, officials said.
All northbound lanes had been shut down just north of Sherman Way shortly before 9:45 a.m. after the truck was involved in a collision, the California Highway Patrol said.
The two leftmost northbound lanes, Nos. 1 and 2, reopened around 1 p.m., and the remaining two lanes reopened around 3:30 p.m.
Traffic was backed up at least a mile when Sky5 was above the scene shortly after 11 a.m.
---------------------------------------------
GAS LEAK REPORTED AT AVENEL WAREHOUSE THURSDAY
https://patch.com/new-jersey/woodbridge/gas-leak-reported-thursday-avenel-warehouse
Tags: us_NJ, industrial, release, response, unknown_chemical
WOODBRIDGE, NJ ‰?? On Thursday, Woodbridge and Avenel firefighters responded to a possible chemical gas leak and chemical gas fumes reported inside an Avenel warehouse.
Avenel firefighters responded to a call of gases leaking from a 55-gallon drum inside the warehouse. Firefighters said they did not know the exact chemicals causing the odor, but it was a mixture of two to three chemicals inside one container.
The warehouse is located on Omar Avenue. The Middlesex County Haz-Mat team also responded. Crews mitigated the issue and cleared the scene within a couple hours. There were no injuries.
---------------------------------------------
FIRE BREAKS OUT AT IISER CHEMICAL LAB
https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/pune-news/fire-breaks-out-at-iiser-chemical-lab-101626450253226.html
Tags: India, laboratory, fire, injury, solvent
A fire broke out inside the Indian Institute of Science and Research (IISER) on Friday afternoon that left a student with minor injuries. According to the central fire brigade officials, the fire broke out in the chemical laboratory but the cause of the incident could not be ascertained. According to the fire department, the fire took place between 12.30 to 1 pm and was brought under control in half an hour.
Five water tenders and over two dozen firemen were deployed at the spot to put out the fire. A student escaped with minor injuries was given first aid and sent to private hospital for further treatment.
PMC chief fire officer Prashant Ranpise said, ‰??The fire took place on the third floor where the chemical lab is located. The storage of organic chemicals and solvents caught fire and destroyed the entire building. We immediately rushed the fire tenders and water tankers. The fire was brought under control within half an hour. The extent of damage and cause of fire is being assessed.‰??
Fire officials who were on duty said that the lab was reduced to ashes and the entire building was burnt due to chemical induced fire which raged due to solvents catching fire. However, nobody from the institute was injured except a fireman who had sustained a cut in the hand while carrying out firefighting operations.
---------------------------------------------
20 YEARS AFTER THE HOWARD STREET TUNNEL FIRE, WHAT STILL NEEDS TO CHANGE
https://www.wmar2news.com/infocus/in-focus-20-years-after-the-howard-street-tunnel-fire-what-still-needs-to-change
Tags: us_MD, transportation, follow-up, environmental
BALTIMORE ‰?? For six days, 20 years ago, Baltimore and freight rail traffic up and down the east coast, shut down.
"It was early in the afternoon, maybe 3:30 in the afternoon," Chief Roman Clark was an Administrator with the Baltimore City Fire Department when he got the call. "In responding to the scene we heard radio transmission that there was a derailment."
Eleven of 60 cars on the CSX train flipped off the tracks in the narrow Howard Street Tunnel. Several of those cars carrying hazardous materials, causing a massive chemical fire that would send the city into a panic.
As he assessed the scene, Clark realized thousands would be headed to the city for the Orioles game, and he had to make a quick decision, "Hey you‰??ve got to cancel this game tonight. We have a problem."
Six days of around the clock crews on the scene, three canceled baseball games and Clark says the best thing that could have happened in that instant did, a water main break, "It helped us tremendously by extinguishing the fire."
Getting the scene under control was a test. In 2001, Baltimore City Fire equipment wasn't as good as it is now. Crews were not able to enter the tunnel to fight the fire, or really assess the damage, without being suffocated by the smoke.
---------------------------------------------
TRUCK CONTAINING ABOUT 600 POUNDS OF CHLORINE POWDER IN SIGNAL HILL CATCHES FIRE ‰?? NBC LOS ANGELES
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/truck-containing-about-600-pounds-of-chlorine-powder-in-signal-hill-catches-fire/2640571/
Tags: us_CA, transportation, fire, response, chlorine
A U-Haul truck carrying about 600 pounds of chlorine powder caught fire in the parking lot of a Signal Hills Costco Friday, prompting an precautionary evacuation of the building. Los Angeles County Fire Department units were dispatched about 1:55 p.m. to the 2200 block of East Willow Street.
Authorities evacuated the Costco in an abundance of caution and closed off the area.
‰??Now that we have achieved knockdown of the fire, we continue to monitor the surrounding air and subsequent water run-off,‰?? the fire department reported in a tweet about 4:30 p.m. that said no harmful levels were detected and no injuries were reported.
‰??Throughout the incident, we have monitored the air in the parking lot and surrounding areas. We have detected no harmful particles other than the ordinary products of combustion. The white smoke seen earlier was the result of packaging materials in the vehicle burning only.‰??
The cause of the chemical fire was under investigation.
---------------------------------------------
GEORGIA EPD INVESTIGATING CHEMICAL REACTION AT ROBERTA PLANT
https://www.13wmaz.com/article/news/local/georgia-environmental-protection-division-investigating-chemical-reaction-at-roberta-plant-2/93-a8bf6b86-5b6f-4f04-8158-a3a67e1c4c70
Tags: us_GA, industrial, release, response, epoxy
ROBERTA, Ga. ‰?? The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) says it's investigating a chemical reaction at a Crawford County plant.
It led to a "shelter-in-place" order for about three hours in Roberta on Thursday.
Crawford County Fire Chief Randy Pate says they're continuing to monitor the plant.
A Georgia EPD spokesperson says the chemical reaction is now contained on a concrete slab.
They'll dispose of the chemicals once the reaction actually stops.
"We're just standing by monitoring. That's all," Pate said.
Pate says they got the call from the Olin Proxy Plant around 9:15 Thursday morning.
People downtown, about a mile from the plant, say they could smell a strong odor, like something electrical burning.
Right before noon Thursday, nearly three hours after the call was originally made, the county issued a "shelter-in-place " order out of precaution. Pate says it took them that amount of time after first responders were dispatched to make a plan.
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GEORGETOWN RV REZONING PASSES PLANNING COMMISSION DESPITE CHEMICAL PLANT CONCERNS
https://www.postandcourier.com/georgetown/georgetown-rv-rezoning-passes-planning-commission-despite-chemical-plant-concerns/article_3f1818c2-e636-11eb-ad9e-3f976ea1ad21.html
Tags: us_SC, industrial, follow-up, environmental, methylene_chloride
GEORGETOWN ‰?? Georgetown County is one step closer to getting an RV resort possibly with a pool, public restaurant, commercial area with a gas station and a boardwalk and marina for guests.
But some residents are concerned about putting a resort less than a mile from a chemical manufacturing facility.
Georgetown planning commission voted 4-2 to recommend the rezoning to county council. Though he did not speak during public comment at the meeting, Georgetown resident Gary Weinreich sent an email to several planning commissioners, county council members, planning director Holly Richardson and others July 14 outling his concerns with the 3V Sigma chemical plant being located nearby.
The chemical facility is located just across the Sampit River from the resort, and it produces specialty chemicals like methylene chloride.
In his email, Weinreich noted an accident that occured in the facility in March 2021 that resulted in the death of a worker due to inhalation from a leak.
Though this leak was contained inside the facility, Weinreich said accidents can occur, and as a retired environmental manager at companies such as BMW Manufacturing and Georgetown‰??s own International Paper, Weinreich said he has no clue why anyone in the county thought the project was a good idea.
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