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Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Friday, March 18, 2022 at 6:19:38 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 (13 articles)
FIRE CREWS RESPOND TO SALTASH 'HAZMAT' INCIDENT
Tags: United_Kingdom, public, release, environmental, unknown_chemical
70 RESIDENTS EVACUATED, STREETS CLOSED FOLLOWING CHEMICAL SPILL IN TRENTON
Tags: us_NJ, public, release, response, unknown_chemical
CHEMICAL LEAK IN ATWATER VILLAGE PROMPTS EVACUATION, HAZMAT RESPONSE
Tags: us_CA, industrial, release, injury, epoxy
CHARACTERIZING GRADUATE STUDENT IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF AN INTEGRATED RESEARCH AND TEACHING GRADUATE STUDENT TRAINING COURSE
Tags: laboratory, discovery, environmental, unknown_chemical
DINNERTIME MYSTERY AND A DISHWASHER POD MATCHUP
Tags: public, discovery, environmental, carbon_monoxide, sodium_chloride
UPDATE: U.S. 35 RAMPS TO SB I-75 REOPEN AFTER LENGTHY HAZMAT INVESTIGATION ' WHIO TV 7 AND WHIO RADIO
Tags: us_OH, transportation, release, response, acids, water_treatment
NEARLY 30 MILLION UNDER LOCKDOWN IN CHINA AS VIRUS SURGES
Tags: China, public, discovery, environmental
FAULTY EQUIPMENT, NOT JUST BAD CHEMICALS, LED TO NOV. SHUTDOWN AT O.B. CURTIS, EMAILS SHOW
Tags: us_MS, industrial, follow-up, response, water_treatment
UPDATED: CHEMICAL MIXTURE PROMPT HAZMAT RESPONSE AND SENDS ONE PERSON TO HOSPITAL
Tags: us_MA, public, release, injury, cleaners
STATE DOJ SUES TYCO, JOHNSON CONTROLS OVER MARINETTE-AREA PFAS CONTAMINATION
Tags: us_WI, public, follow-up, environmental, other_chemical
'APPALLING' CHEMICAL SPILL IN MELBOURNE'S WEST LEAVES DEAD WILDLIFE STREWN THROUGH WATERWAYS
Tags: Australia, industrial, fire, environmental, unknown_chemical
CRUSH IT SAFELY: SAFETY ASPECTS OF MECHANOCHEMICAL GRIGNARD SYNTHESIS
Tags: Thailand, laboratory, discovery, environmental, magnesium, metals, solvent
CHEMISTRY IN PICTURES: LURKING IN THE CORNER
Tags: us_TX, laboratory, discovery, environmental, bromine, corrosives
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FIRE CREWS RESPOND TO SALTASH 'HAZMAT' INCIDENT
https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/fire-crews-respond-saltash-hazmat-6823067
Tags: United_Kingdom, public, release, environmental, unknown_chemical
Multiple emergency service crews in Cornwall attended the scene of what was called a 'hazmat' incident, last night.
Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service says its crews were mobilised at 9:25pm last night (Thursday, March 17) to a 'hazmat' incident in Pill Lane in Saltash. An environmental support vehicle also responded to the night-time incident.
Crews from Saltash, Camels Head in Plymouth, Bodmin, St Austell and Launceston fire stations were all in attendance at the scene.
A spokesperson for Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service said: "In total, there are four appliances, one Environmental Support Vehicle, one Incident Command Unit, and two officers in attendance." In an update given at 11:17pm, they said: "The incident commander has requested a Water Carrier to attend the scene. This has been mobilised from Liskeard Community Fire Station."
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70 RESIDENTS EVACUATED, STREETS CLOSED FOLLOWING CHEMICAL SPILL IN TRENTON
https://dailyvoice.com/new-jersey/camden/police-fire/70-residents-evacuated-streets-closed-following-chemical-spill-in-trenton/828112/
Tags: us_NJ, public, release, response, unknown_chemical
About 70 residents were evacuated and several local streets closed following a chemical spill in Trenton, authorities said.
N. Willow St. and Tucker St. were closed to all traffic ' including pedestrian traffic ' as of Thursday morning, Trenton City Hall officials confirmed on social media.
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CHEMICAL LEAK IN ATWATER VILLAGE PROMPTS EVACUATION, HAZMAT RESPONSE
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-03-17/chemical-spill-in-atwater-village-prompts-evacuation-hazmat-response
Tags: us_CA, industrial, release, injury, epoxy
A chemical leak at an industrial facility in Atwater Village on Thursday prompted a hazardous material response and sent a massive cloud of odorous smoke into the air over Northeast L.A.
Two people went to a nearby hospital with respiratory issues that may have been related, though an air quality expert noted that eye, skin and respiratory symptoms could take 24 hours to develop after exposure.
The incident was reported around 8:40 a.m. at Huntsman Chemical at 4541 W. Electronics Place, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman Margaret Stewart.
Officials initially said the incident occurred after a small valve broke, but by Thursday evening, the precise cause remained unclear. A spokesperson from the South Coast Air Quality Management District said the agency believed it may have been a chemical reaction rather than a leak.
According to a hazardous material spill report from the California Office of Emergency Services, a rupture disk was released during the packaging of an epoxy product known as Reninfusion 8610, 'spilling a small amount of the product onto the concrete floor and allowing smoke to release into the atmosphere.'
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CHARACTERIZING GRADUATE STUDENT IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF AN INTEGRATED RESEARCH AND TEACHING GRADUATE STUDENT TRAINING COURSE
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c00927#
Tags: laboratory, discovery, environmental, unknown_chemical
Graduate education in chemistry typically follows an apprenticeship model, primarily aimed at preparing students for academia; however, the inclusion of teaching within this apprenticeship is not always clear as faculty, students, and other stakeholders do not agree on the need for instructional training. Despite the variability in training, a large majority of chemistry graduate students will be graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) at some point in their education and will hold these positions while conducting research. This discrepancy between hiring graduate students as GTAs and inconsistent inclusion of instructional training indicates a misalignment between the needs of graduate students and the support programs offer.
This multiple case study using a sociocultural perspective focuses on chemistry graduate student identity development as researchers and teachers to understand how chemistry graduate students make sense of their roles and intersections of those roles in the context of a first-semester training course which integrates content related to research and teaching. The course incorporates GTA training best practices from the literature and course components designed to support identity development. Qualitative data in the form of interviews were the main sources for analysis. A priori and inductive coding using Thematic Analysis methods revealed patterns in how chemistry graduate students develop as teachers and researchers and how those identities intersect.
The results of this study demonstrate the importance of explicitly discussing how and why teaching is relevant in chemistry graduate student education more broadly and that student agency in the structure of such courses is useful for graduate student professional development in chemistry.
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DINNERTIME MYSTERY AND A DISHWASHER POD MATCHUP
https://cen.acs.org/business/consumer-products/Dinnertime-mystery-dishwasher-pod-matchup/100/i9?ref=search_results#
Tags: public, discovery, environmental, carbon_monoxide, sodium_chloride
Shortly before 7 p.m. on a Monday evening, this hungry Newscriptster set a pot of rice and water on the stove, clicked on the gas burner, and spotted something concerning. Rather than producing the expected blue flames, the stove burned orange. User manuals warn that orange flames from a gas stove mean incomplete combustion, which can cause a dangerous buildup of carbon monoxide. So the flame was promptly extinguished, a window opened, and all-knowing Google consulted for advice.
'Check if the burner needs cleaning,' Google suggested. It did not. 'Check if anything is clogging the fuel supply line.' There was not. 'Turn off the humidifier.' Wait, what?
An ultrasonic humidifier had recently been installed after a string of dry winter days had this Newscriptster feeling at risk of collapsing into a pile of dust and fingernails. The new gadget, filled with tap water, had been running for about 8 h by the time the pot of rice hit the stove. This seemed significant. But internet commenters were split on how exactly the humidifier was affecting the stove's flame: Was increased atmospheric water responsible for the color shift, or was the orange color caused by stray minerals forced into the air by the device?
'When you see orange as a chemist in something hot, your mind immediately goes to sodium,' says Mark Jones, a Dow Chemical retiree who offered to help tease out the mystery. Indeed, sodium is present in tap water and produces a distinctive tangerine shade when burned. Calcium, another tap-water mineral, also produces an orange-hued flame. But Jones wasn't convinced that the concentration of minerals in tap water is high enough to cause this effect. Instead, he suggested that water droplets in the atmosphere could be cooling the flame as they evaporate. And water vapor could displace oxygen, thereby reducing combustion and producing an orange flame.
Definitive research on this subject is tragically lacking. After all, as Jones notes, 'Who would pay you to do this?' But a simple test would confirm whether the minerals were a factor. If water droplets alone were responsible, then replacing the tap water in the humidifier with distilled water would result in the same orange flames. The kitchen was vented and re-humidified with distilled water. The flames returned to their usual blue hue.
'I am certainly surprised,' Jones says, citing a 1995 fire extinguishment study and experiments with his own tap water. He agrees that the results exonerated atmospheric water droplets, leaving sodium and calcium as the likely culprits. He suggested a final experiment: adding a pinch of sodium chloride to the distilled water in the humidifier's reservoir (something Jones warns against doing with other salts). The effect was striking: within moments, the burner's flames turned bright orange.
---------------------------------------------
UPDATE: U.S. 35 RAMPS TO SB I-75 REOPEN AFTER LENGTHY HAZMAT INVESTIGATION ' WHIO TV 7 AND WHIO RADIO
https://www.whio.com/traffic/traffic-alert-hazmat-investigation-shuts-down-us-35-ramps-sb-i-75-dayton/SVIWYIXLCNBSPI3SGSAANSEKCQ/
Tags: us_OH, transportation, release, response, acids, water_treatment
A hazmat investigation forced a lengthy closure of the U.S. 35 ramps to southbound I-75 in Dayton while crews investigated the source of a leak inside a semitrailer.
Police, hazmat, and fire crews were called around 9:20 a.m. on reports of a liquid leaking from a semitrailer.
The truck was returning to a chemical company in Cincinnati and was hauling strong acids, bases, and water treatment materials, Denny Bristow Dayton Regional Hazmat Coordinator told News Center 7.
The leak was caused by a quick stop the semi made, which caused the load to shift, Bristow said. Hazmat crews tested the leaking liquid was the water treatment materials, which Bristow described as the 'least hazardous' material inside the trailer.
---------------------------------------------
NEARLY 30 MILLION UNDER LOCKDOWN IN CHINA AS VIRUS SURGES
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220315-nearly-30-million-under-lockdown-in-china-as-virus-surges-1
Tags: China, public, discovery, environmental
Beijing (AFP) ' Nearly 30 million people were under lockdown across China on Tuesday, as surging virus cases prompted the return of mass tests and hazmat-suited health officials to streets on a scale not seen since the start of the pandemic.
ADVERTISING
China reported 5,280 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, more than double the previous day's tally, as the highly transmissible Omicron variant spread across a country that has stuck tightly to a zero-Covid strategy.
That approach, which pivots on hard localised lockdowns and has left China virtually cut off from the outside world for two years, appears stretched to the limit as Omicron finds its way into communities.
---------------------------------------------
FAULTY EQUIPMENT, NOT JUST BAD CHEMICALS, LED TO NOV. SHUTDOWN AT O.B. CURTIS, EMAILS SHOW
https://www.wlbt.com/2022/03/15/faulty-equipment-not-just-bad-chemicals-led-nov-shutdown-ob-curtis-emails-show/
Tags: us_MS, industrial, follow-up, response, water_treatment
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - A temporary shut down at the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant in November was not solely the result of a bad batch of chemicals, but also the result of a leak and faulty equipment at the plant's chemical bulk tanks, emails obtained by WLBT indicate.
In November, the city of Jackson shut down production on the conventional side of the Curtis plant, after an operator at the facility discovered that a 'bad batch' of chemicals had gotten into the water.
The chemicals, ACH, or aluminum clorohydrate, are used to help solids 'coagulate' and sink to the bottom of the plant's conventional basins.
However, on Saturday, November 13, an operator noticed that the treatment was not working. And, as a result, the conventional side of the plant was shut down, causing water production in the city to drop.
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UPDATED: CHEMICAL MIXTURE PROMPT HAZMAT RESPONSE AND SENDS ONE PERSON TO HOSPITAL
https://www.capecod.com/cape-wide-news/chemical-mixture-prompt-hazmat-response-and-sends-one-person-to-hospital/
Tags: us_MA, public, release, injury, cleaners
DENNIS ' A reported chemical mixture prompted a hazmat response to Dennis about 5:30 AM. The incident happened at 14 Prince Way. State Hazardous Materials technicians were working to determine what the chemicals were.
Statement from Dennnis Fire: At 5:39 AM Tuesday, the Dennis Fire Department had to request members of the Massachusetts State Hazardous Material Team to 14 Prince Way. One member of the household was treated and transported to Cape Cod Hospital with non-life threatening injuries due to incorrectly mixing household chemicals. Two police officers were evaluated on scene by paramedics and returned to work. The Mass state team isolated and identified the chemicals and abated any future hazards. No injuries to firefighters were sustained.
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STATE DOJ SUES TYCO, JOHNSON CONTROLS OVER MARINETTE-AREA PFAS CONTAMINATION
https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2022/03/15/state-doj-sues-tyco-johnson-controls-over-marinette-area-pfas-contamination/
Tags: us_WI, public, follow-up, environmental, other_chemical
The state Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit Monday against the companies involved in the discharge of PFAS-related chemicals in northeast Wisconsin first reported five years ago.
The suit, filed in Marinette County Circuit Court against Johnson Controls Inc. and Tyco Fire Products, resulted from a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) investigation of PFAS contamination from firefighting foam around the communities of Marinette and Peshtigo that began more than two years ago.
The contamination originated at a fire technology facility in Marinette where Tyco developed and tested firefighting foams containing PFAS chemicals. Nicknamed 'forever chemicals' because they persist in the environment, PFAS chemicals contain perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances and are found in thousands of everyday consumer products.
The Marinette PFAS discharge has produced 'a plume of PFAS groundwater contamination at and around' the fire technology center, the lawsuit charges. 'Because of Tyco and Johnson Controls' failure to completely investigate and define the extent of the PFAS contamination, the extent of this plume is not accurately known at this time,' the lawsuit states.
---------------------------------------------
'APPALLING' CHEMICAL SPILL IN MELBOURNE'S WEST LEAVES DEAD WILDLIFE STREWN THROUGH WATERWAYS
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-14/chemical-spill-kills-wildlife-in-melbournes-west/100909200
Tags: Australia, industrial, fire, environmental, unknown_chemical
Residents in Melbourne's west are devastated about a significant chemical spill that has left dead fish through local waterways and may have made it all the way to Port Phillip Bay.
The chemical spill occurred last Monday and came from an industrial area in Laverton North after a factory fire.
Environmental authorities believe about 12,000 to 13,000 litres of surfactant ' a type of chemical often found in detergent or soap ' was released into the waterways via stormwater drains.
The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has started a formal investigation, probing just how the spill occurred.
It does know pollution made its way into Cherry Creek, and then followed the creek's water flows east to Cherry Lake, a large lake used for fishing and recreational activities in Altona.
Here, fish and eels have been seen floating dead in large numbers right across the lake's surface for days.
---------------------------------------------
CRUSH IT SAFELY: SAFETY ASPECTS OF MECHANOCHEMICAL GRIGNARD SYNTHESIS
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.chas.2c00018
Tags: Thailand, laboratory, discovery, environmental, magnesium, metals, solvent
The Grignard reaction has been one of the most versatile workhorses for synthetic organic chemists for more than a century. Typically, the preparation of Grignard reagents and their subsequent reactions require anhydrous solvents and a protective inert atmosphere. A recent report showed that the reactions could be performed under mechanochemical conditions by ball-milling magnesium metal, an organic halide, and a small amount of an ethereal solvent together followed by the addition of an electrophile. Excellent results were reported for a broad range of substrates even when the reaction was performed under the ambient atmosphere, making the process highly appealing to a wide synthetic community. In this commentary, some safety aspects of this mechanochemical Grignard reaction are pointed out so that appropriate risk management plans can be devised to ensure its safe use.
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CHEMISTRY IN PICTURES: LURKING IN THE CORNER
https://cen.acs.org/safety/lab-safety/Chemistry-Pictures-Lurking-corner/100/web/2022/03
Tags: us_TX, laboratory, discovery, environmental, bromine, corrosives
Cleaning out the corrosives cabinet isn't many people's favorite lab chore, but after finding this decomposing container of hydrobromic acid (HBr), Mark Olson was glad his group got around to it. Olson is a chemistry professor at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, where he researches soft matter, nanoscience, and supramolecular chemistry. Glass reagent bottles are sometimes shipped in steel cans like this, surrounded by padding. 'I am not sure how long the bottle sat there,' he says. 'It was sitting towards the back behind a much larger bottle of another substance, easily out of view. What became clear once we began to clean it up was that the bottle inside the unopened can had somehow ruptured and was leaking,' he says.
The brown material is iron bromide (FeBr2), a relatively benign substance that formed as the acid leaked and reacted with the steel container. And the cabinet was properly vented, Olson says. Nonetheless, Olson says, they carefully moved the whole mess into a fume hood, took it apart, and disposed of everything in appropriate hazardous and chemical waste containers. In this case, the can corroded from the inside out, Olson says, but because other chemicals in the corrosives cabinet react with steel, whoever took delivery should have opened the can and placed just the bottle of reagent in with the others. 'Opening the can immediately after delivery to the lab might have shown that the bottle cap had failed,' he adds.
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