CHEMICAL
SAFETY MATTERS - BIODIESEL MAGAZINE, http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=4558
Producing
biodiesel is a relatively easy and straightforward process, but handling
and containing the various hazardous chemicals it involves should not be
taken lightly. Common chemicals found at a plant, such as methanol, can
leave plants vulnerable to fires and explosions if the equipment isn=92t
properly designed within state, local and municipal fire codes.
Additionally, plant personnel are expected and required to go through
extensive chemical spill and fire response training in order to help
preserve property, and personnel safety, in accordance to Occupational
Safety and Health Administration and International Fire Code standards,
along with other supporting local or state safety
protocols.
-----------------------
APEX,
N.C. =97 For Wake County residents along Ten-Ten Road, the memory of a
chemical fire and explosion an Apex hazardous waste plant in 2006 is
fresh enough to create worries about a planned expansion at Motiva
Enterprises.
Tankers that supply gas stations with fuel get their
load from Motiva. About 75 trucks a day fill up from the gasoline stored
in six large, white tanks at the property.
A plan to
build an additional, even larger tank as met with opposition from
neighbors.
Karin Evanoff, a resident of the Southchase
subdivision across Ten-Ten Road from Motiva, said, "To have such a site
close to Ten-Ten Road is a very frightening thought.
"Knowing
they're wanting to do this, right across the street from a huge
neighborhood, half mile from two schools, is just simply incompatible,"
said Evanoff. "I don't know how many of us would be left if that
thing blew."
Eddie Wilson, manager of Fast Lube Plus next door to
Motiva, said the expansion and added traffic could put the brakes on his
business.
"I don't think as many customers would want to be
coming in here with tanker trucks being out front," he
said.
-----------------------
TWO people - including a fire fighter - have been
taken to hospital following the discovery of a suspected drug lab at a
Hillcrest home.
Police, paramedics and the fire brigade were called to
the County St home at about 9.30pm following reports a woman had
collapsed inside.
She was taken from the house
unconscious.
Soon after, a fire fighter who responded to the call
was taken to hospital having been exposed to an "unknown
chemical".
-----------------------
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Kansas
City, Kan. fire crews and a hazardous materials team spent hours
investigating an apartment alarm at 1742 S. 40th Street Thursday that
turned out to be a resident who had attempted to make their own bug
spray.
KCK fire spokesman Craig
Duke had initially said an "illicit drug lab" was at the center of the
high-rise complex, called Douglas Heights Apartments.
The sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth floors of the
apartment building were evacuated. No injuries have been reported in the
incident. Residents have been taken to the Argentine Community Center
while the building was being examined.
Fire officials said chemical fumes from an apartment
on the seventh floor triggered a fire alarm. Fire officials found
chemicals originally believed to be part of a methamphetamine lab inside
an apartment, but came to a different conclusion after questioning a
woman who was inside the apartment.
-----------------------
ALPHARETTA, Ga. - An Alpharetta law firm was evacuated
Thursday morning after four people complained of unidentified symptoms,
say authorities.
Alpharetta authorities say they are running a HAZMAT
operation to determine the source of the complaints at the Promise
Solutions Law Firm on old Alabama Road.
Authorities say the four people who complained of symptoms
refused to be transported to a hospital.
-----------------------
TABERG =97
A fire department Hazmat team responded Wednesday to the residence at
Pond Hill Estates where a fugitive was taken into custody on a warrant
Tuesday.
The team was called to secure the site before state
police investigators went inside.
State Police at Marcy Capt.
Francis S. Coots said the apartment was believed to have been "some kind
of illegal drug lab," and the state police requested the Hazmat team
respond to secure any chemicals.
"It was to conduct an
analysis of everything (inside) and to make sure everything was
secured," Coots said. "We don=92t know if it was a methamphetamine lab,
but some items and chemicals were found there that led us to believe
there may have been one."
Police picking up two men on outstanding arrest
warrants Tuesday morning encountered suspicious smoke and possible
chemicals at Pond Hill Estates, prompting the evacuation of all
residents. Neighbors in the six-unit apartment building at 3275 Pond
Hill Road said police knocked on their doors at about 9:30 a.m. and told
them one of the apartments was possibly running a meth lab with
chemicals and that they were evacuating the building.
Authorities said that two aggressive pit bulls in one of the
apartments added to the delay in apprehending a suspect. Suspect Jarrott
Marino, 29, had also attempted to barricade himself inside the residence
and started a fire, investigators said.
-----------------------
4 WORKERS INJURED IN BLAZE
AT DERA BASSI CHEMICAL FACTORY, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/4-wor
kers-injured-in-blaze-at-Dera-Bassi-chemical-factory/712291/
A Major
fire broke out on the premises of Anuja Health Care, a pharmaceutical
manufacturing company, situated at Industrial Focal Point in Dera Bassi
on Tuesday evening, leaving four factory workers seriously injured and
gutting building, machinery and chemicals worth lakhs of
rupees.
The cause of fire could not be ascertained as yet and
investigations are on. Four fire tenders from Dera Bassi, Mohali and
Chandigarh took two hours to douse the raging inferno.
Factory
owner KR Jain disclosed that it was at around 5.45 pm when chemical
stored in plastic drums caught fire from a spark emanated from a reactor
in the production plant on the second floor of the building. Within no
time, the chemical fire engulfed the entire unit and four workers
working at that time could not find way to run out.
-----------------------
Businesses have been evacuated and fire crews remain
on standby after thousands of litres of acid spilled at a southeast
Queensland business.
The Department of Community Services says up to
five-thousand litres of hydrochloric acid leaked from a storage
container at a Toowoomba business this morning.
It says
firefighters have contained the substance, which is now being pumped
into a truck to be taken away.
A number of businesses in
the area have been evacuated.
-----------------------
The downtown YMCA-YWCA on Argyle Street has reopened
after a freon gas leak evacuated about 200 people from the building
Wednesday, sending swimmers onto the street in their bathing
suits.
The leak was detected in a mechanical room on the
third floor of the building where sub-contractors were working to remove
asbestos at about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. The building reopened just after
1 p.m.
Seven workers were assessed at the scene, and three
were sent to hospital to be treated for injuries.
-----------------------
Lafayette
Law and Hazmat officials are on the scene of a meth lab this
morning.
It happened shortly after 3:00am when law officials
received a call of suspicious actively at the Bell Down apartments on
the 400 block of Guilbeau Road.
After entering the apartment
law officials found a meth lab. Many surrounding apartments have been
evacuated this morning and the suspects are being interviewed at a
different location at this time.
-----------------------
Traffic
on Route 17 North in Rochelle Park was snarled for miles as a result of
an accident between a gas tanker truck and a Lexus SUV around 3 p.m. on
Nov. 10. Firefighters from Maywood and the Bergen County Hazmat team
helped Rochelle Park clean up more than 40 gallons of diesel fuel that
was spilled onto the highway. There were no serious
injuries.
-----------------------
HAZMAT
SITUATION: AUTHORITIES RESPOND TO HAZMAT SITUATION AT MEDICAL COLLEGE OF
WISCONSIN - WITI, http://www.fox6now.com/news/witi-111710-hazmat,0,7071708.story
The
Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department initially responded to a hazmat
spill at 4:29 on the campus of the Medical College of Wisconsin Loading
Dock. The Wauwatosa Fire Department Hazmat Unit responded, and
determined a 300 gallon container of formaldehyde
ruptured.
-----------------------
Eight people have been hospitalized and several more
have complained of pain after a hazmat situation broke out in Thermal
Wednesday morning.
Jody Hagemann of the Riverside County Fire Department
says the eight were taken to local hospital after breathing in some sort
of unidentified fumes in the area of the Oasis Date Gardens, near
Grapefruit Blvd. and 60th Avenue. Most of those people were complaining
of minor nausea, Hagemann said.
The incident was first
reported at 8:25 a.m., and as of 10:35 a.m., the Hazardous Materials
Team and Environmental Health officials had still not located the source
of the fumes, according to fire officials. After testing the air
quality, everything appeared normal.
-----------------------
Working with nanomaterials
As nanotechnology marches from the boundaries of
laboratories to the home of a consumer, safety concerns should not be
overshadowed by the success of the technology. A recent review article
by Joseph H. Lavoie, a chemical engineer at the U.S. Army=92s Natick
Soldier Research, Development, and Engineering Center, tackles the
safety concerns of nanomaterials in manufacturing and consumer products
(Proc. Saf. Prog., DOI: 10.1002/prs.10388).
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