| About This Archive | | DCHAS-L 2014 Index | | DCHAS-L Yearly Index | |
Check out Safety Emporium for your N95, N99, and face shield needs.
|
Previous by Date: Subject: [DCHAS-L] Video Usability Date: Monday, November 17, 2014 6:10:15 AM Author: "Secretary, ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety" <secretary**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG> |
Next by Date: Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Lesson learned video - but what about student labs? Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 19:48:10 +0000 Author: "Kennedy, Sheila" |
Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Monday, November 17, 2014 at 6:52:36 AM
A service of the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety
All article summaries and tags are archived at http://pinboard.in/u:dchas
Table of Contents (8 articles)
IMPROVING CHEMISTRY DEMONSTRATION SAFETY
Tags: education, follow-up, injury, antifreeze, flammables, methanol
FEDERAL EFFORTS TO ASSESS CHEMICALS AREN‰??T DUPLICATIVE, GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE FINDS
Tags: public, discovery, environmental
LANL OFFICIALS DOWNPLAYED WASTE‰??S DANGERS EVEN AFTER LEAK
Tags: us_NM, industrial, follow-up, response, radiation, waste
4 WORKERS DIE AFTER CHEMICAL LEAK AT TEXAS PLANT
Tags: us_TX, industrial, release, death, ag_chems, pesticides
ANOTHER CHEMICAL LEAK AT STEPAN PLANT
Tags: us_IL, transportation, release, response, other_chemical
SMALL FIRE BREAKS OUT AT FMC PLANT
Tags: us_NY, industrial, fire, response, unknown_chemical
CHEMICAL LEAK AT ROYAL PRESTON HOSPITAL
Tags: United_Kingdom, laboratory, release, response, formaldehyde
MANY HAZMAT HAULERS IGNORE BAN ON PASSING THROUGH DOWNTOWN
Tags: us_OH, transportation, discovery, environmental
---------------------------------------------
IMPROVING CHEMISTRY DEMONSTRATION SAFETY
Tags: education, follow-up, injury, antifreeze, flammables, methanol
Four fires from educational demonstrations have injured 22 children and two adults since the start of September. Calling such incidents a national problem, the Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) on Oct. 30 released a safety bulletin with recommendations for preventing them.
On Sept. 3, a demonstrator at a museum in Reno, Nev., was attempting to create a colored ‰??fire tornado‰?? when she poured methanol from a 4-L container onto a smoldering cotton ball. On Sept. 15, a teacher at a high school in Denver was demonstrating flammable properties when he poured methanol from a 4-L container onto an open flame. On Oct. 20, a Cub Scout group trying to produce a green flame poured methanol-containing antifreeze from a 355-mL bottle onto a fire in Raymond, Ill. And on Oct. 31, high school students in Chicago were also using methanol to create a green flame.
In at least the first three cases‰??the fourth is still being investigated‰??the fire propagated back into the fuel bottles and ignited the remaining liquid, CSB investigator Mark Wingard says. Pressure built up in the containers and the fiery fluid was expelled, burning people in the vicinity.
---------------------------------------------
FEDERAL EFFORTS TO ASSESS CHEMICALS AREN‰??T DUPLICATIVE, GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE FINDS
Tags: public, discovery, environmental
Multiple federal agencies have a hand in evaluating the toxicity of chemicals. Each agency conducts hazard assessments for a specific goal, such as setting allowable levels of chemicals in the workplace, the environment, food, or consumer products. Various agencies often evaluate the same substance using disparate approaches‰??and in many cases, they end up setting different levels of exposure to the chemical as being protective of people‰??s health.
To make this process more efficient and unified, some congressional lawmakers and industry groups are calling for consolidation of hazardous chemical assessments into one federal agency. They question why limited government resources are being spent by several agencies to evaluate the same chemicals. At a minimum, they say, government agencies should better coordinate their chemical assessments.
---------------------------------------------
LANL OFFICIALS DOWNPLAYED WASTE‰??S DANGERS EVEN AFTER LEAK
Tags: us_NM, industrial, follow-up, response, radiation, waste
But the following summer, workers packaging the waste came across a batch that was extraordinarily acidic, making it unsafe for shipping. The lab‰??s guidelines called for work to shut down while the batch underwent a rigid set of reviews to determine how to treat it, a time-consuming process that jeopardized the lab‰??s goal of meeting the deadline.
Instead, the lab and its various contractors took shortcuts in treating the acidic nuclear waste, adding neutralizer and a wheat-based organic kitty litter to absorb excess liquid. The combination turned the waste into a potential bomb that one lab chemist later characterized as akin to plastic explosives, according to a six-month investigation by The New Mexican.
The lab then shipped a 55-gallon drum of the volatile material 330 miles to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the nation‰??s only underground repository for nuclear waste, southeast of Carlsbad. Documents accompanying the drum, which were supposed to include a detailed description of its contents, were deeply flawed. They made no mention of the acidity or the neutralizer, and they mischaracterized the kitty litter as a clay-based material ‰?? not the more combustible organic variety that most chemists would have recognized as hazardous if mixed with waste laden with nitrate salts, according to interviews and a review of thousands of pages of documents and internal emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
---------------------------------------------
4 WORKERS DIE AFTER CHEMICAL LEAK AT TEXAS PLANT
Tags: us_TX, industrial, release, death, ag_chems, pesticides
LA PORTE, Texas (AP) ‰?? Four workers were killed and one was injured Saturday during a hazardous chemical leak at a DuPont industrial plant in suburban Houston, company officials said.
The chemical, methyl mercaptan, began leaking from a valve around 4 a.m. in a unit at the plant in La Porte, about 20 miles east of Houston. Plant officials said the release was contained by 6 a.m.
Methyl mercaptan was used at the plant to create crop-protection products such as insecticides and fungicides, according to DuPont. The cause of the leak was not immediately known.
Five employees were in the unit at the time of the incident and were exposed to the chemical, the company said. Four died at the plant, and one was hospitalized.
---------------------------------------------
ANOTHER CHEMICAL LEAK AT STEPAN PLANT
Tags: us_IL, transportation, release, response, other_chemical
ELWOOD ‰?? A vapor leak of sulfur trioxide lasted for more than 13 hours at the Stepan Company plant on Friday before it was stopped.
It was the second day a sulfur trioxide leak occurred at the plant located near Elwood. Both times, company officials and local authorities said they were confident the contamination was kept on-site without any hazard to the surround community.
"This incident is similar to yesterday," Will County Emergency Management Agency Director Harold Damron said.
Air monitors were set up outside of the plant Friday to check for possible impact, Damron said. He noted that the Elwood Fire Department and a multi-department hazardous materials team also were on site for independent confirmation of what was happening at the Stepan plant.
Both leaks occurred at rail cars, but they were separate rail cars, said Kim Kumiega, a spokeswoman for Stepan. Work crews were scheduled to return Saturday to conduct repairs, she said.
---------------------------------------------
SMALL FIRE BREAKS OUT AT FMC PLANT
Tags: us_NY, industrial, fire, response, unknown_chemical
MIDDLEPORT, N.Y. (WIVB) - Response teams from Niagara and Orleans Counties responded to an incident at FMC Corporation, in Middleport, Friday morning. The Niagara County Sheriff said the large response was cautionary because it is a chemical plant.
A FMC Corporation release said the company is grateful for the quick response, but apologized to neighbors for any inconveniences the fire may have caused.
The responders were at 100 Niagara Street, in Middleport, for a small fire in the ventilation system. No one was injured in the fire.
A school across the street was on lock down for a short time during the fire, but returned to normal.
Investigators are still looking into the cause of the fire.
---------------------------------------------
CHEMICAL LEAK AT ROYAL PRESTON HOSPITAL
Tags: United_Kingdom, laboratory, release, response, formaldehyde
Six fire crews were called to deal with a ‰??large hazardous materials incident‰?? at the Royal Preston Hospital on Friday night.
It involved a chemical leak in a pathology lab at the hospital in Sharoe Green Lane, Fulwood, Preston.
Crews wearing breathing apparatus and gas tight suits identified that the leak was Formaldehyde and worked to stop it.
Firefighters then laid down absorbent pads.
There were no casualties and no risk to patients or staff. A small number of staff were evacuated.
The drama unfolded at around 8.10pm on Friday and the clean up operation lasted several hours with crews remaining at the hospital into the early hours of Saturday morning.
---------------------------------------------
MANY HAZMAT HAULERS IGNORE BAN ON PASSING THROUGH DOWNTOWN
Tags: us_OH, transportation, discovery, environmental
Trucks carrying hazardous materials through Franklin County are supposed to take I-270 to avoid Columbus‰?? most populous neighborhoods, but many hazmat haulers ignore the law.
Despite the presence of hard-to-miss warning signs outside I-270 ‰?? and the threat of fines and even incarceration ‰?? truckers regularly cut through Downtown via I-70, I-71 and I-670, according to an analysis by WBNS-TV (Channel 10).
Last year, the Columbus Division of Police issued 146 citations to drivers of trucks bearing explosives, noxious chemicals or other dangerous substances. And that figure undoubtedly pales in comparison with the number of violators who escaped detection, Sgt. Rob Barrett said, noting that police officers can‰??t be everywhere.
Hazmat haulers, meanwhile, are everywhere ‰?? or so it seems.
---------------------------------------------
Ralph Stuart
secretary**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Secretary
Division of Chemical Health and Safety
American Chemical Society
Previous post | Top of Page | Next post