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Previous by Date: Subject: Unknown hazardous chemical Date: Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:02:34 -0500 Author: Ray Mainer |
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India http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/two-research-students-killed-i n-barc-lab-fire/381177/ Two research students killed in BARC lab fire BS Reporter / Mumbai December 30, 2009, 1:09 IST Two research students were burnt alive in a fire that broke out at a chemical laboratory inside the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) complex at Trombay, near Mumbai. An official statement said that no reactor, radioactivity or radiation was involved in the accident. The accident happened at 12.05 pm in one of the rooms of the Modular Laboratory, which had a few analytical instruments like spectrophotometers, said an official release. Agencies said the victims were in the age group of 22-25 years and were identified as Umang Singh of Mumbai and Partha Bag of Kolkata. =93There was a loud bang after which black smoke billowed out of the chemistry lab filling the corridor,=94 BARC director and Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Sreekumar Banerjee told news agency PTI. It was not immediately clear if the bang was caused by any explosion or was triggered by a chemical reaction. No research involving radioactive material is conducted in the multi-storeyed modular lab, said the official. The BARC fire brigade arrived immediately and brought the fire under control in about 45 minutes. The two bodies, charred beyond recognition, were discovered by the firemen who entered the laboratory after extinguishing the fire. Police have started investigations and BARC has also started investigating the cause of the fire, said the release. http://www.hindu.com/2009/12/30/stories/2009123057600100.htm Two killed in BARC laboratory fire T.S. Subramanian CHENNAI: Two persons were burnt to death in a fire that broke out in a chemical laboratory in the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre at Trombay, Mumbai, on Wednesday. Spectroscopic equipment are kept in the laboratory located on the third floor of a building. BARC Director and Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission Srikumar Banerjee called it a =93sad event.=94 =93We are checking all the points=94 on what caused the fire. =93I don=92t know how this can happen,=94 because no incendiary material, LPG or hydrogen cylinders, were stored in the laboratory. The fire was contained after 45 minutes. PTI reports from Mumbai: The research students in the 22-25 age group were identified as Umang Singh of Mumbai and Partha Bag of Kolkata. They were identified on the basis of the ID cards they carried since the bodies were charred beyond recognition, a BARC release said. It was stated that no reactor, radioactivity or radiation was involved in the accident. == Australia http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/story/2009/12/30/wheelie-bin-blast-ma ims-rocky-teen-wheelie-bin-bla/ Wheelie bin blast maims Rocky teen Melinda Siegmeier | 30th December 2009 An 18-year-old man was seriously injured when a plastic bottle containing liquid exploded when he emptied the rubbish on Monday night. A TEENAGER has chemical burns to his eyes and two shattered hands after a two-litre plastic soft-drink bottle containing chemical liquid exploded. The 18-year-old was emptying rubbish into a recycling bin beside his North Rockhampton home at 8pm on Monday when he noticed a foreign bottle and reached for it. As the bottle moved it exploded, sending the chemical into his eyes. The pressure from the blast severely injured his hands. The chemical, thought to be chlorine, burnt the protective film off the man=92s right eye and sent him momentarily blind. The pressure was so severe his wrist watch was torn from his arm and landed 7m away. Yesterday the teen, who asked not to be named, still had blurry vision and had a saline solution permanently circulating through his eyes, as he recovered in Rockhampton Hospital. ... The mother said it wasn=92t the first time a suspected =93chlorine bomb=94 had been placed in their wheelie bin. She said six weeks ago a large bang came from the bin and shook the house. ... === Ag campus fire destroys lab No injuries reported in blaze on 2nd floor of UT's McCord Hall http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/dec/29/ag-campus-fire-destroys-lab/?prin t=1 By Hayes Hickman, Don Jacobs Tuesday, December 29, 2009 A Monday blaze on the second floor of a University of Tennessee agriculture campus building has destroyed a laboratory, and fire officials' investigation is continuing. The fire at McCord Hall, which houses offices and labs for the Animal Sciences Department, was reported to E-911 about 2:20 p.m. by Brynn Voy, an assistant professor of animal sciences. "I was on the second floor and heard the fire alarm go off," Voy said. "We heard the glass popping and could see smoke and flames on the second floor." Knoxville Fire Department Capt. D.J. Corcoran said the fire was in a lab area of the four-story brick building, 2640 Morgan Circle, and was contained to that section. The building houses faculty laboratories and offices, as well as the ag campus' cafeteria, Mabel's Cafe. Voy said she believes she and probably one other person were the only staff in the building at the time of the fire. Classes are out for the holidays break. "The fire was breaching through the windows when firefighters arrived," said Corcoran, adding that no one was in the lab at the time of the fire, and no injuries were reported. The building dates to the 1920s and does not have a sprinkler system. The laboratory had wooden floors and ceiling joists, and fire investigators speculated that might have fed the flames, which also damaged the ceiling between the second and third floors. The "wet lab" is used for mastitis research associated with cattle milk production, said Lorna Norwood, spokeswoman for the UT Institute of Agriculture. "=46rom here, it does look like that lab is a total loss," Norwood said. Corcoran added that firefighters later scrubbed their gear clean as a precaution, as a room adjacent to the fire housed several chemicals and bacteria, including salmonella, campylobacter and E. coli. The bacteria do not pose an airborne threat, said Corcoran, but could cause illness if they come into contact with an open cut, the nose or mouth. === http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/29/2782175.htm Bomb suspect's explosive undies shown The first photos of the underpants bomb that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to detonate on a Northwest Airlines flight above Detroit on Christmas Day have been released. Experts have since been debating whether the explosive, if properly detonated by the 23-year-old Nigerian suspect, would have caused enough damage to bring down the transatlantic airliner. According to the US Justice Department, Abdulmutallab tried to detonate PETN, an explosive powder also known as pentaerythritol which belongs to the same chemical family as nitroglycerin. It was the same explosive used by "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid, the Briton convicted of trying to detonate explosives hidden in his shoes while on a Paris-Miami flight in December 2001. The material was sewn into Abdulmutallab's underwear and officials say tragedy was averted only because the makeshift detonator failed to work properly. "It's one of the most powerful explosives, more powerful than TNT or other plastic explosives," Mr Hoffman said. "On an airplane, especially sitting in a window seat, you only use a small amount of that to partially destroy the fuselage." Chemical reaction Preliminary probe findings show the suspect filled a syringe with a liquid chemical and tried to inject it into a powder that he had hidden in his trousers. Witnesses heard popping sounds like "firecrackers," while some told US media they saw Abdulmutallab's trousers, his seat and the side of the cabin on fire before passengers and crew subdued him and put out the blaze. According to ABC America, who released the images of the underwear, the suspect had 80 grams of PETN sewn into his underpants. CNN cited sources familiar with the investigation saying it was enough explosive to blow a hole in the side of the aircraft. But some experts expressed doubts about the deadliness of such a blast. "This is not a huge dose," Jimmie Carol Oxley, an explosives expert at the University of Rhode Island, said. "A few months ago ... I took that much explosive and used it though, up against half-inch [1.3-centimetre] steel, and it made a hole about the size of a nickel," she said. The skin of an airplane is generally thinner than half an inch, but its made of light-weight but strong and highly-resistant aluminium. Fatal explosion? The question is, would such an explosion, and resulting hole, have been fatal to the Northwest Airbus 330 and its passengers? Not necessarily, according to Vincent Fave, a French expert in aviation accidents. "Everything depends on the size of the hole, the power of the explosive and the altitude," Mr Fave said. "The aircraft is high up, and it is more exposed because of high pressurisation." "I am not convinced that a small hole is a real danger to the aircraft, except to be a real danger to the person who is nearby." In addition, the jet was already well into its descent, thereby reducing the potential of a violent cabin depressurisation. Even if an explosion blew a substantial hole in the aircraft, that is no guarantee that the craft will break apart or crash. In a well-documented case in 1988, a decompression explosion in an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 flying at 7,000 meters with 95 people aboard ripped a hole in the left side of the plane's roof, sucking one person out of the plane to her death. The plane landed safely 20 minutes later, despite damage which had grown to a gaping, six-metre hole in the top half of the fuselage. All 94 other people on board survived. - AFP
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