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From: Ralph Stuart <membership**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety headlines (13 articles)
Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2022 13:40:08 -0500
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU>
Message-ID: 33661902-1428-47DB-92E8-1B505523B683**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Monday, January 10, 2022 at 1:39:55 PM
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 (13 articles)
ONLINE ACTIVITY: CHEMICAL KINETICS AND THE 'RADIUM GIRLS'
Tags: Canada, education, discovery, environmental, radiation
AT LEAST 16 KILLED AFTER OFFICE CANTEEN EXPLOSION IN CHINA
Tags: China, public, explosion, death, unknown_chemical
ILLINOIS SUES MINE OVER USE OF TOXIC FOAM TO CONTROL FIRE
Tags: us_IL, industrial, release, response, other_chemical
TURKMENISTAN PLANS TO EXTINGUISH VAST GAS CRATER FIRE DUBBED 'GATEWAY TO HELL'
Tags: Turkmenistan, public, fire, response, natural_gas
NANOSICHERHEIT IM INTERNET
Tags: Germany, public, discovery, environmental, nanotech
PHILADELPHIA POLICE BUILDING EVACUATED AFTER CHEMICAL SPRAYED ON DOOR: REPORT
Tags: us_PA, public, release, response, pepper_spray
SOLVENT EXPLOSION REPORTED FRIDAY MORNING
Tags: us_MO, industrial, explosion, response, solvent
CONCERNS PERSIST ABOUT PACE OF CLEANUP AT US NUCLEAR LAB
Tags: us_NM, laboratory, follow-up, environmental, radiation
EXPLOSIVE ENDING FOR OLD, POTENTIALLY VOLATILE CHEMICALS AT U OF REGINA AS POLICE CARRY OUT PLANNED DETONATION
Tags: Canada, laboratory, discovery, response, dinitrophenylhydrazine, time-sensitive
THE COSTS OF FOOD SAFETY: CORRECTION VS. PREVENTION
Tags: industrial, discovery, environmental
AT LEAST 3 PEOPLE TREATED AFTER FENTANYL EXPOSURE IN FALMOUTH HOSPITAL ER
Tags: us_MA, public, release, injury, other_chemical
PROCESS SAFETY BEACON: ENSURE DRAWINGS AND PROCEDURES ARE ACCURATE
Tags: us_PA, industrial, follow-up, environmental, corrosives, sulfuric_acid
COMMON PROBLEMS IN PILOT PLANT AND LABORATORY HAZARD ANALYSIS
Tags: laboratory, discovery, environmental
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ONLINE ACTIVITY: CHEMICAL KINETICS AND THE 'RADIUM GIRLS'
https://www.chemedx.org/blog/online-activity-chemical-kinetics-and-%E2%80%9Cradium-girls%E2%80%9D
Tags: Canada, education, discovery, environmental, radiation
The 2020-21 academic year, with its pandemic-induced social distancing measures, produced many challenges in the implementation of laboratory-related activities. At Bradley University, many chemistry lab activities forced to move to an online format. One activity that went online was the classic coin-flip exercise to demonstrate the first-order kinetics associated with radioactive decay. This rather simple exercise meshes well with discussions of kinetics and nuclear chemistry explored in General Chemistry courses, and can readily be used in other academic settings, such as high school. This lab activity placed the coin-flip exercise in the context of the tragedy of the 'radium girls'. These were a group of young women who worked in factories painting clocks and instruments with radium-containing paint and suffered illness and death from radium contamination.1-3 Study of the history and chemistry of this event provides opportunities to make connections to toxicology, gre!
en chemistry, and sustainability.
In the introduction to the lab activity, students are given a very brief introduction to the radium girls story and its connection to Ottawa, IL (in central Illinois located about an hour or two from Bradley University). The students are then directed to visit the internet for more information,3 such as a video made at a memorial to the affected workers located in Ottawa, shown below.
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AT LEAST 16 KILLED AFTER OFFICE CANTEEN EXPLOSION IN CHINA
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/08/at-least-16-killed-after-office-canteen-explosion-in-china
Tags: China, public, explosion, death, unknown_chemical
A lunchtime explosion at an office canteen killed 16 people in southwest China and injured 10 others, authorities said.
A gas leak is the suspected cause of the blast on Friday, the Chongqing city government said in an online statement.
The canteen collapsed, trapping victims inside. Rescue workers searched the debris into the night and all the bodies were recovered by midnight, the official Xinhua news agency said.
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ILLINOIS SUES MINE OVER USE OF TOXIC FOAM TO CONTROL FIRE
https://www.heraldsun.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article257158352.html
Tags: us_IL, industrial, release, response, other_chemical
The Illinois attorney general is accusing a coal mine operator of polluting the area with toxic foam to try to stop an underground fire.
'Exposure to such chemicals can cause long-lasting damage to the environment and poses a serious risk to public health,' Kwame Raoul said.
Raoul's lawsuit in Franklin County alleges that the Sugar Camp mine in August used firefighting foam containing PFAS compounds. There was no immediate comment from the owner, Foresight Energy.
The compounds are called 'forever chemicals' because they don't break down in the environment or the human body and can accumulate over time. They have been linked to a variety of health problems.
State environmental regulators received complaints about foam in a farm ditch and a tributary to Akin Creek near the mine. The mine is 110 miles southeast of St. Louis.
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TURKMENISTAN PLANS TO EXTINGUISH VAST GAS CRATER FIRE DUBBED 'GATEWAY TO HELL'
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/08/turkmenistan-plans-to-extinguish-vast-gas-crater-fire-dubbed-gateway-to-hell?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Tags: Turkmenistan, public, fire, response, natural_gas
Turkmenistan's strongman leader has ordered experts to find a way to finally extinguish a massive five-decade-old fire in a giant natural gas crater, labelled the 'gateway to hell'.
Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, president of the central Asian country, appeared on state television on Saturday, telling officials to put out the flames at the Darvaza gas crater in the middle of the vast Karakum desert. He cited environmental and economic concerns.
In 2010, Berdymukhamedov also ordered experts to find a way to put out the flames, which have been burning since a Soviet drilling operation went awry in 1971.
Berdymukhamedov said the human-made crater 'negatively affects both the environment and the health of the people living nearby'.
'We are losing valuable natural resources for which we could get significant profits and use them for improving the wellbeing of our people,' he said.
Berdymukhamedov instructed officials to 'find a solution to extinguish the fire'.
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NANOSICHERHEIT IM INTERNET
https://www.iwm-tuebingen.de/www/en/forschung/projekte/projekt.html?name=Nanosicherheit%20im%20Internet
Tags: Germany, public, discovery, environmental, nanotech
Nanotechnology is considered one of the key technologies of the 21st century. A general statement on the effect of nanomaterials on people and the environment however is not yet possible. As part of the Leibniz Research Alliance 'Nanosafety', this project focuses on how laypersons and experts deal with conflicting scientific information on this topic and how they make decisions based on this information. We look at this research question with special regard to the internet as a source of knowledge.
Especially on the internet there is much (partially conflicting) information on the topic of nanosafety with different sources and varying quality. Using controlled as well as actual information environments, we are researching the handling of such fragile information by laypersons to see which strategies they use to resolve or explain possible contradictions. In another step we want to research how these strategies differ from strategies used by domain experts. To look into these processes we use methods such as eye-tracking and log file analysis.
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PHILADELPHIA POLICE BUILDING EVACUATED AFTER CHEMICAL SPRAYED ON DOOR: REPORT
https://dailyinvestorhub.com/philadelphia-police-building-evacuated-after-chemical-sprayed-on-door-report/
Tags: us_PA, public, release, response, pepper_spray
A police precinct in Philadelphia was evacuated Friday night after an unidentified suspect entered the building and sprayed the door of the Southwest Detectives Division with a chemical agent, according to a report.
The chemical, described as similar to pepper spray, caused officers to cough and gag at the 18th Police District at 55th and Pine and forced HAZMAT to be called, a reporter for KYW-TV of Philadelphia reported.
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SOLVENT EXPLOSION REPORTED FRIDAY MORNING
https://www.thetelegraph.com/news/article/Solvent-explosion-reported-in-Alton-16757132.php
Tags: us_MO, industrial, explosion, response, solvent
ALTON ' Multiple fire departments responded to a reported solvent explosion in Alton Friday morning.
At about 9:45 a.m. Friday, firefighters from Alton, Godfrey and Fosterburg were at Hatch & Kirk, 4758 Humbert Road. They have since been joined by firefighters from Wood River, Brighton and Blackjack, Missouri.
Authorities arrived to find smoke coming from an entrance; moments later a hissing sound could be heard and the fire spread through the entire building. The rear wall of the building has collapsed.
As of 10:30 a.m. all of the firm's employees have been accounted for with no reports of injuries. Police closed Humbert Road and were keeping people away from the smoke at the site.
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CONCERNS PERSIST ABOUT PACE OF CLEANUP AT US NUCLEAR LAB
https://www.thetelegraph.com/news/article/Concerns-persist-about-pace-of-cleanup-at-US-16757934.php
Tags: us_NM, laboratory, follow-up, environmental, radiation
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) ' Officials at one of the nation's top nuclear weapons laboratories are reiterating their promise to focus on cleaning up Cold War-era contamination left behind by decades of research and bomb-making.
But New Mexico environment officials and watchdog groups remain concerned about the pace and the likelihood that the federal government has significantly understated its environmental liability at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The U.S. Department of Energy has been estimating that it will be 2036 before cleanup at the lab ' which played a key role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II ' is complete. Federal officials acknowledged during a meeting Thursday night that the date hasn't changed but they are reviewing whether new risks will boost the need for more funding and more time.
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EXPLOSIVE ENDING FOR OLD, POTENTIALLY VOLATILE CHEMICALS AT U OF REGINA AS POLICE CARRY OUT PLANNED DETONATION
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/regina-police-explosive-chemical-disposal-1.6307087
Tags: Canada, laboratory, discovery, response, dinitrophenylhydrazine, time-sensitive
The University of Regina has disposed of more than two kilograms of potentially volatile chemicals it discovered last fall on its campus ' by blowing the chemicals up.
Members of the Regina Police Service's bomb squad were on campus over Thursday and Friday to dispose of the chemicals, which had become unstable over time, U of R president Jeff Keshen told CBC News.
The exact length of time hasn't been determined, he said.
At about 9 a.m. Friday, the chemicals were remotely detonated in an unpopulated open area to the south of the Regina campus, a spokesperson said.
The chemicals found in about nine containers ' including dinitrophenol, 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine and 2,4,6-trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid ' were discovered during an audit of the chemicals supply in the Research and Innovation Centre and adjoining lab building at the university.
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THE COSTS OF FOOD SAFETY: CORRECTION VS. PREVENTION
https://foodsafetytech.com/column/the-costs-of-food-safety-correction-vs-prevention/
Tags: industrial, discovery, environmental
Every company that grows, produces, packs, processes, distributes and serves food has a food safety culture. In the food industry, when looking at food safety culture there are essentially two groups: The correction and the prevention groups. Basically, the prevention group is constantly improving their food safety practices to minimize foodborne illness while the correction group waits until there is an outbreak to make changes.
The correction group isn't proactive and has a number of excuses that keep them from implementing a food safety program. Oftentimes owners or managers think, 'The chances of my company being involved in a food safety outbreak are so rare, I just won't worry about it.' Or they think, 'The cost of having a food safety program is so prohibitive that I'd rather handle the consequences of an outbreak if it were to arise.' Also, sometimes there's a lack of knowledge and some producers don't even know about food safety programs and don't have or want to take the time to learn about them.
If your food company is in the corrective group, you are not alone. Three years ago a private study was done to see how many food facilities could pass a basic Good Agriculture Practice (GAP) and/or Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) audit. It was discovered that less than 20% of these companies would be able to pass the most basic food safety audit. This number is staggering and unfortunately the correction group is much larger than anyone thinks'it equals a majority of the facilities at around 80% of the food industry. This statistic is frightening and needs to be addressed to help reduce outbreaks.
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AT LEAST 3 PEOPLE TREATED AFTER FENTANYL EXPOSURE IN FALMOUTH HOSPITAL ER
https://sports.yahoo.com/ongoing-situation-falmouth-hospital-er-214717990.html
Tags: us_MA, public, release, injury, other_chemical
FALMOUTH ' At least three people required treatment with Narcan after a tussle with a combative patient in the Falmouth Hospital emergency room Thursday afternoon exposed public safety workers and hospital staff to the potentially deadly substance fentanyl.
The hospital ER was closed for a few hours to incoming ambulances ' who were diverted to other hospitals ' while the state hazmat team responded and decontaminated the scene, officials said.
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PROCESS SAFETY BEACON: ENSURE DRAWINGS AND PROCEDURES ARE ACCURATE
https://www.aiche.org/resources/publications/cep/2022/january/process-safety-beacon-ensure-drawings-and-procedures-are-accurate
Tags: us_PA, industrial, follow-up, environmental, corrosives, sulfuric_acid
On Oct. 11, 2008, a tank overfill of oleum (i.e., a solution of sulfur trioxide in sulfuric acid) spread a cloud of toxic and corrosive SO3/H2SO4 mist across three towns in Pennsylvania. Approximately 2,500 people were forced to evacuate or shelter-in-place. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.
The facility was originally built with one power supply and three plug-in pumps, which prevented more than one pump from being used at a time. To prevent an overfill, the power supply was interlocked to stop the pump when a high-high level was reached in Tank 1501 or Tank 1502. However, in the 1980s, a temporary emergency power supply was added after several power outages in the main system. This emergency system was never added to the piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs) or the operating procedures. Importantly, the high-high level switches (LSHHs) did not control the emergency power supply.
On the day of the incident, an operator began to pump oleum from Tank 610 to Tank 1502. To save time, he plugged another pump into the emergency power supply to transfer oleum from Tank 611 to Tank 1502. This practice had been passed from operator to operator for many years, but it was not documented nor managed within the process safety program. The LSHH was unable to stop the transfer from Tank 611, causing Tank 1502 to overfill and release oleum.
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COMMON PROBLEMS IN PILOT PLANT AND LABORATORY HAZARD ANALYSIS
https://www.aiche.org/resources/publications/cep/2022/january/common-problems-pilot-plant-and-laboratory-hazard-analysis
Tags: laboratory, discovery, environmental
Moving from small-scale laboratory operations to larger-scale pilot plant operations increases the potential risks at each step. Personnel are needlessly placed at risk when a hazard analysis and risk assessment (HARA) does not adequately analyze and evaluate the risks. HARA, also referred to as hazard identification and risk assessment (HIRA), can be part of a larger process hazard analysis (PHA) or it can be applied to any research activity that is too small for a PHA. Most pilot plant and laboratory operations are too small to be covered by U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA's) process safety management (PSM) rules unless they are co-located with a manufacturing site that is covered.
Similar to a PHA, a HARA should carefully review the operation to determine any potential hazards, develop an assessment of the magnitude and frequency of hazards, and evaluate the resulting risk (usually against the organization's risk matrix). In a PHA, these general steps are followed regardless of the type of methodology used, e.g., a hazard and operability review (HAZOP), a what-if analysis, a fault tree analysis, or an event tree analysis.
HARA for research activities is often a challenging process. While the quantities of hazardous materials and the scale of the equipment are much smaller than process units, the proximity of the operators, the lack of established process knowledge, and the use of new equipment and processes create significant challenges in evaluating hazards. Applying plant-scale HARA methodologies to these research operations may not be as effective for many reasons, including insufficient information, personnel who are less experienced in HARA, and the inherent uncertainties in research. As a result, research HARAs are often less rigorous and comprehensive.
This article focuses on ten of the most common problems encountered in HARAs for pilot plants, laboratories, and other research operations. Understanding the most common problems can help ensure that these issues do not prevent the HARA from achieving its goal of improving safety and preventing accidents.
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