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Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Monday, March 13, 2017 at 7:50:51 AM
A membership benefit 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 (14 articles)
SWEETENER CAN TRACK PEE IN THE POOL
Tags: Canada, laboratory, discovery, environmental, pool_chemicals
HAZMAT CREWS CALLED TO LANSFORD
Tags: us_PA, public, release, response, suicide
CORPORATION MOVES TO RELOCATE OLD DHAKA'S CHEMICAL FACTORIES
Tags: Bangladesh, industrial, follow-up, environmental, illegal
NO MORE LICENCE TO CHEMICAL SHOPS IN OLD DHAKA
Tags: Bangladesh, industrial, follow-up, environmental, flammables
CRYSTAL LAKE ROAD REOPENS AFTER CHEMICAL SPILL CLEANUP
Tags: us_IL, transportation, follow-up, response, unknown_chemical
PALO ALTO: HAZMAT ON SCENE AT STANFORD MEDICAL SCHOOL FOLLOWING 3-ALARM FIRE
Tags: us_CA, laboratory, fire, response, unknown_chemical, waste
SCHUMER CALLS FOR INCREASED RAILROAD SAFETY
Tags: us_NY, transportation, release, response, ethanol, sulfuric_acid
NO INJURIES IN CHEMICAL SPILL THAT PROMPTED BRIEF EVACUATION...
Tags: us_FL, education, release, response, unknown_chemical
CREWS PUT OUT FIRE AT BATTLEMENT MESA PIPELINE SITE
Tags: us_CO, industrial, fire, response, natural_gas
10 PEOPLE MYSTERIOUSLY SICKENED IN WESTWOOD PARKING STRUCTURE
Tags: us_CA, public, release, injury, unknown_chemical
CHEMICAL SPILL LEADS TO CRYSTAL LAKE, BARRINGTON ROAD CLOSURES
Tags: us_IL, transportation, follow-up, response, irritant, urethane
FIREFIGHTERS CALLED TO CHEMICAL SPILL AT SHELDON HOTEL
Tags: us_IA, public, release, response, chlorine, pool_chemicals
RESEARCHERS FIND NEW WAY TO DEAL WITH WATER CONTAMINATED WITH FIRE-FIGHTING FOAM CHEMICALS
Tags: Australia, public, discovery, environmental, other_chemical
SCIENCE MAGAZINE ARTICLE ON: POLICY REFORMS TO UPDATE CHEMICAL SAFETY TESTING
Tags: public, discovery, environmental
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SWEETENER CAN TRACK PEE IN THE POOL
Tags: Canada, laboratory, discovery, environmental, pool_chemicals
Researchers estimate that swimming pools contain 30 to 80 mL of urine for each person who‰??s jumped in. The problem, aside from the ick factor, is that urine reacts with chemical disinfectants in the water to form potentially harmful by-products. To track the safety of pools and hot tubs, scientists would like to find a chemical marker of how much urine is actually in the water. Xing-Fang Li and coworkers at the University of Alberta propose that the artificial sweetener acesulfame potassium‰??used in products such as beverages and baked goods, often in combination with other sweeteners‰??could be that marker. Humans don‰??t metabolize the sweetener, so it‰??s excreted intact in urine. Li and coworkers used liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry to measure acesulfame in 250 samples from 31 pools and hot tubs in two Canadian cities. They also sampled the corresponding input tap water for comparison (Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett. 2017, DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.7b00!
043). The team found the sweetener in all pool and hot-tub samples at concentrations from 30 to 7,110 ng/L, compared with 15 ng/L or less in the tap water samples. Using the average amount of acesulfame in a human urine sample, the researchers then estimated that urine can account for up to 30 L of the volume in a standard 420,000-L community pool. The ubiquity of acesulfame suggests that it could indeed be used as a urinary marker for tracking water quality, the researchers note.
---------------------------------------------
HAZMAT CREWS CALLED TO LANSFORD
Tags: us_PA, public, release, response, suicide
LANSFORD, Pa. - Hazmat crews were called out to a home in Lansford, Carbon County Saturday night after a suicide involving chemicals, police said.
Around 5:30 p.m., police tape was set up around a home in the 300 block of Bertsch Street.
Police say the victim used a gas to take his own life inside the home.
Crews at the scene said the Lehigh County HazMat unit responded. Lansford police said the HazMat unit determined the only person affected by the hazard was the victim and the scene was safe.
An spokesperson for the Allentown Fire Department said the bomb squad was also called in as a precaution.
---------------------------------------------
CORPORATION MOVES TO RELOCATE OLD DHAKA'S CHEMICAL FACTORIES
Tags: Bangladesh, industrial, follow-up, environmental, illegal
A mobile court started the drive at Lalbagh's Shahidnagar in presence of Dhaka South City Mayor Sayeed Khokon on Sunday.
One factory was fined Tk 200,000 and two others were asked to immediately relocate at the start of the drive around 12 in the afternoon.
Officials of the Fire Services, Environment and district administration participated in the drive.
Mayor Khokon said that there were many illegal chemical factories and warehouses in Old Dhaka.
"Many people have died in fires that erupted in these factories and warehouses. So these have to be closed down."
Khokon said that no factory that threatens public safety will be allowed to continue in such a highly populated area.
---------------------------------------------
NO MORE LICENCE TO CHEMICAL SHOPS IN OLD DHAKA
Tags: Bangladesh, industrial, follow-up, environmental, flammables
From now on, the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) will not issue any licence to chemical factories in Old Dhaka that use flammable materials.
"We will also not allow any godown [warehouse] to store flammable materials in Old Dhaka for the safety of innocent neighbours," said DSCC Mayor Mohammad Sayeed Khokon yesterday.
He made the announcement while inaugurating a joint drive in Lalbagh area against the chemical factories that did not relocate outside Old Dhaka within the March 1 deadline.
The drive is being run by the DSCC, deputy commissioner's office, fire service and civil defence and the Department of Environment.
In 2010, a devastating inferno in Nimtoli was caused by flammable chemicals stored on the ground floor of a residential building. It killed 123 people and injured 200 others.
But that seems to have been a less than stern warning against such chemical storage as many buildings at Nabab Katra, Bangshal, Siddique Bazar, Sat Rowza, Babu Bazar, Lalbagh, Agamasi Lane and Armanitola still have factories with flammable materials.
Asking to move the factories elsewhere from Old Dhaka, Khokon on January this year declared that a joint drive would be conducted against them.
---------------------------------------------
CRYSTAL LAKE ROAD REOPENS AFTER CHEMICAL SPILL CLEANUP
Tags: us_IL, transportation, follow-up, response, unknown_chemical
CRYSTAL LAKE ‰?? Part of Eastgate Road in Crystal Lake reopened Friday after a semitrailer crash caused a chemical spill earlier this week.
According to the Crystal Lake Fire Rescue Department, at 7 p.m. spill cleanup was completed and the road was opened again between Factory and Commercial roads.
The chemical spill occurred about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday when the semi collided with a pickup truck at Route 14 and Hart Road in Barrington, causing its products to leak onto the ground and shoulder at the scene of the crash, officials said.
---------------------------------------------
PALO ALTO: HAZMAT ON SCENE AT STANFORD MEDICAL SCHOOL FOLLOWING 3-ALARM FIRE
Tags: us_CA, laboratory, fire, response, unknown_chemical, waste
STANFORD ‰?? A three-alarm fire erupted at Stanford Medical School early Saturday and burned a laboratory containing bio-hazardous waste, prompting fire crews to activate hazmat and decontamination teams.
Hazmat crews made entry into the ‰??hot zone‰?? at about 10 a.m. to evaluate any hazards inside the lab, said Catherine Capriles, deputy fire chief of the Palo Alto Fire Department.
The incident was reported on the department‰??s Twitter account at about 8 a.m. Though initial reports said the fire was inside Stanford Hospital on Pasteur Drive, crews later said it was in the medical school building, located in the same compound.
An official cause for the fire was not immediately determined, but Capriles said it may have been sparked by an experiment inside the third-floor lab.
‰??It appears at this point in time that there was some sort of experiment on a hot plate or heating mechanism,‰?? she said. ‰??That was on fire when our team came in.‰??
Capriles said the fume hoods in the laboratory helped contain the blaze.
Crews temporarily closed the main entrance to the hospital and redirected people to other entrances, but there were no threats to patients, fire officials said.
---------------------------------------------
SCHUMER CALLS FOR INCREASED RAILROAD SAFETY
Tags: us_NY, transportation, release, response, ethanol, sulfuric_acid
NEW WINDSOR ‰?? The freight train derailment on the Newburgh and New Windsor waterfront Tuesday was just one of several making news across the country this week.
Freight trains also derailed in places like Rhode Island, Iowa, Maryland, the Bronx and western New York. Some carried hazardous materials like sulfuric acid or ethanol, although there were no serious spills or leaks.
The derailments had Sen. Chuck Schumer calling Friday for action to make trains safer for those who live and work in the communities the trains pass through.
Schumerstood Friday at the Newburgh waterfront where a CSX freight train derailed on Tuesday. Three locomotives and 16 freight cars, including five tankers carrying hazardous materials like sulfuric acid, derailed when the train hit a boom lift stopped on the tracks.
---------------------------------------------
NO INJURIES IN CHEMICAL SPILL THAT PROMPTED BRIEF EVACUATION...
Tags: us_FL, education, release, response, unknown_chemical
MIAMI - A chemical spill briefly prompted the evacuation of a building on the Modesto A. Maidique Campus of Florida International University.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said the chemical spill occurred Friday afternoon in room 311 of FIU's Academic Health Center.
A hazardous materials crew was called to the school to clean up the chemical.
FIU spokeswoman Dianne Fernandez said there were no injuries and that everyone returned to class.
---------------------------------------------
CREWS PUT OUT FIRE AT BATTLEMENT MESA PIPELINE SITE
Tags: us_CO, industrial, fire, response, natural_gas
Firefighters this week extinguished a fire at what has proven to be a problematic pipeline project site where Ursa Resources is planning to drill for natural gas in the residential community of Battlement Mesa.
Dave Devanney with the group Battlement Concerned Citizens said the incident happened Wednesday night.
Pipeline company Summit Midstream said in a statement that the fire involved activated foaming grout that was left over following work to place sealing grout around installed pipelines. The grout was used in an effort to stop heavy flows of groundwater encountered while boring to install the lines.
The leftover grout was in a preconstructed earthern berm used for mixing the product, the company said.
‰??A chemical reaction occurred in the berm leading to heat and ultimately a small fire. Summit Midstream immediately contacted the local fire department to extinguish the flame,‰?? the company said.
It said that following the fire, the contractor involved, Rock Solid, removed the material and cleaned the site.
Officials at the Grand Valley Fire Protection District were unable to provide details about the incident Friday.
Devanney said the incident occurred at one of the pads where Ursa plans to drill.
---------------------------------------------
10 PEOPLE MYSTERIOUSLY SICKENED IN WESTWOOD PARKING STRUCTURE
Tags: us_CA, public, release, injury, unknown_chemical
WESTWOOD, CA ‰?? Ten people complained of being sickened Thursday in an underground parking structure in Westwood, but none of them required hospitalization.
The incident was reported at 7:11 p.m. in the 1000 block of Glendon Avenue, just south of the UCLA campus, according to Sean Saunders of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
The patients complained of a burning sensation, a metallic taste in their throats and feeling sickened, Saunders said.
No one was taken to a hospital, but a hazardous materials crew was dispatched to take samples and try to determine what substance was involved.
---------------------------------------------
CHEMICAL SPILL LEADS TO CRYSTAL LAKE, BARRINGTON ROAD CLOSURES
Tags: us_IL, transportation, follow-up, response, irritant, urethane
CRYSTAL LAKE ‰?? Part of Eastgate Road in Crystal Lake will likely remain closed for cleanup from a chemical spill through Friday ‰?? and possibly longer ‰?? after a semi-truck crash earlier this week, authorities said Thursday.
Westbound Route 14 at Hart Road in Barrington will remain closed through the evening. Officials plan to open at least one lane overnight into Friday morning, according to a news release.
The spill happened about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday when the semi collided with a pickup truck at Route 14 and Hart Road in Barrington. The semi caught fire and the product leaked onto the ground and shoulder at the scene of the crash, officials said.
Crews were originally told the substance was vegetable oil but found out the next day it was methylene diphenle diisocycanate, a chemical used in polyurethane production. The chemical can be an allergen and an irritant, officials said.
---------------------------------------------
FIREFIGHTERS CALLED TO CHEMICAL SPILL AT SHELDON HOTEL
Tags: us_IA, public, release, response, chlorine, pool_chemicals
Sheldon, Iowa ‰?? Sheldon firefighters were called to the report of a chemical spill in the maintenance room of the swimming pool area at Sheldon‰??s Holiday Inn Express shortly before 9:30 Thursday morning.
Sheldon Assistant Fire Chief Randy Harms tells KIWA that the incident happened when the hotel received an unexpected delivery of chemicals. Harms says the empty chemical containers contain a small amount of chemical residue, and an attempt was made by a maintenance worker to combine two partial containers of the same chemical into one container. However, a mistake was made, and two different chemicals, hydrochloric acid and chlorine were combined into the same container, causing a reaction that generated foam and noxious fumes. Harms praised the maintenance worker and chemical delivery person for quickly donning protective masks, getting the containers outside the building, and going back inside the pool area, and opening windows to ventilate the building.
Harms says Sheldon Firefighters contacted the Sioux City Fire Department HazMat Team to make sure the right steps were being taken to mitigate the situation. He says they learned from the HazMat Team that the fumes given off by the combination of the chemicals is highly flammable, but Harms says fortunately there was no ignition source in the area.
---------------------------------------------
RESEARCHERS FIND NEW WAY TO DEAL WITH WATER CONTAMINATED WITH FIRE-FIGHTING FOAM CHEMICALS
Tags: Australia, public, discovery, environmental, other_chemical
Australian researchers may have found a solution to help deal with fire-fighting contamination water at Defence bases and other airports around the country.
The chemicals in the foams, per- and poly-fluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS), are today known as being ubiquitous in the environment and human bodies.
Australian researchers at CRC CARE has found a way to help remediate PFAS-contaminated water. Photo: Jim Rice
Investigations are underway into potential contamination of the substances in water and soil at several Defence bases around the country, due to historical fire-fighting practices.
But researchers at the Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment have found a way to use electricity to create strong oxidising agents that strip PFAS molecules of electrons, breaking them down into smaller and safer compounds.
The treatment adapts a previous CRC CARE technology, called ‰??matCARE‰??, into a new substance called ‰??pfasCARE‰??, which could be used to help remediate PFAS-contamination wastewater and groundwater.
---------------------------------------------
SCIENCE MAGAZINE ARTICLE ON: POLICY REFORMS TO UPDATE CHEMICAL SAFETY TESTING
Tags: public, discovery, environmental
Toxicological evaluation of chemicals and newly emerging substances, such as engineered nanomaterials, is essential to protect human health and the environment (1). Traditional approaches for chemical safety assessment often use high-dose animal studies, human exposure estimates, linear dose extrapolations, and uncertainty factors to determine the circumstances under which human exposure is safe. But in 2016, major bipartisan reform of the antiquated Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) in the United States embraced a new paradigm emerging across the globe (2). This paradigm, relying largely on nonanimal, alternative testing strategies (ATS), uses mechanism-based in vitro assays and in silico predictive tools for testing chemicals at considerably less cost (3). We provide a cautious but hopeful assessment of this intersection of law and science. Although the law generally takes a sensible approach to using ATS for regulatory purposes, commitment by the U.S. Environmental Prot!
ection Agency (EPA) and its partner agencies remains the key to successful integration of ATS in TSCA.
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