Chemical Safety Headlines =46rom Google
Friday, December 2, 2011 7:56:25 AM
A service of the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety
Table of Contents (22 articles)
BIOTECH, PHARMACEUTICAL, FACULTY, POSTDOC JOBS ON SCIENCE CAREERS
Tags: laboratory, explosion, response, follow-up
MYSTERIOUS BOX THAT PROMPTED HAZMAT RESPONSE CONTAINED HARMLESS ROCKS
Tags: us_MA, public, discovery, response, radiation, follow-up
TEN HOSPITALIZED IN CORAL SPRINGS HAZMAT INCIDENT
Tags: us_FL, transportation, release, injury, water_treatment
CRUSHED BULBS FOUND IN BARRELS AT MESA HOSPITAL
Tags: us_AZ, public, discovery, response, waste
JFE SAYS EXPLOSION HAS NO IMPACT ON STEEL OUTPUT AT CHIBA PLANT
Tags: Japan, industrial, explosion, injury, sulfuric_acid
EXTENSIVE DAMAGE REPORTED IN LOWER VALLEY SHOP FIRE
Tags: us_WA, industrial, fire, response, gasoline
MAN WOUNDED BY BARREL EXPLOSION IN MELBOURNE
Tags: us_FL, public, explosion, injury, ethanol
TOXIC SPILL CLEANUP CONTINUES NEAR COLORADO REFINERY
Tags: us_CO, industrial, release, environmental, petroleum
SAFD: SOUTHEAST-SIDE REFINERY FIRE UNDER CONTROL, NO INJURIES
Tags: us_TX, industrial, explosion, response, petroleum
METH LABS IN WEBSTER COUNTY: FROM SUSPICION TO CLEAN UP
Tags: public, discovery, response, meth_lab
AMMONIA LEAK HALTS CITY CENTRE PARK
Tags: Canada, public, release, response, ammonia
FIRE DEPARTMENT SAYS RADIATION FROM BOX FOUND IN ROXBURY WAS WITHIN LIMITS
Tags: us_MA, public, discovery, response, radiation
UPDATE: OFFICIALS CLEANING UP HAZARDOUS MERCURY SPILL IN ABILENE
Tags: us_TX, public, release, environmental, mercury
HAZMAT INCIDENT AT ECPI CLEARED
Tags: us_VA, education, release, response, mercury
WORKERS BURNED WHEN CLEANING PRODUCT CATCHES FIRE
Tags: us_CA, industrial, fire, injury, unknown_chemical
CHEMICAL LEAK FORCES SHELTER IN PLACE BRIEFLY THIS MORNING
Tags: us_TX, industrial, release, response, sulfur_dioxide
DEEP: AMMONIA, BLEACH LIKELY CAUSE OF FUMES AT LAWRENCE & MEMORIAL
Tags: us_CT, public, release, injury, ammonia, bleach
FARIDABAD FACTORY BLAZE KILLS 2, 11 INJURED
Tags: India, industrial, fire, death, flammables, solvent
FIRE TAKES HOLD IN UNIVERSITY LAB
Tags: Austria, laboratory, fire, response, metals
NEWS DETAILS
Tags: Malta, industrial, explosion, death, fireworks, follow-up
HOME EXPLOSION LAWSUIT BEING HEARD
Tags: us_IA, public, explosion, injury, propane, follow-up
LOWER MACUNGIE TOWNSHIP EXPLOSION CAUSED BY DRANO, TIN FOIL MIXTURE, POLICE SAY
Tags: us_PA, public, explosion, response, bomb
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BIOTECH, PHARMACEUTICAL, FACULTY, POSTDOC JOBS ON SCIENCE CAREERS
Tags: laboratory, explosion, response, follow-up
As the hideous revelations from Pennsylvania State University reverberate across the country, another scandal involving willful inattention and bureaucratic power continues to endanger vulnerable young people on campuses nationwide. This second scandal lacks a sickening sexual component, but the resulting deaths and injuries are every bit as real. And many of those deaths and injuries were every bit as preventable had university officials fulfilled their responsibility to those entrusted to their care.
A groundbreaking document from the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) has removed the excuse that academic officials do not know about the risks that students, postdocs, and others face when working in academic laboratories or how institutions can protect them better. Issued in October, a CSB report entitled Texas Tech University: Laboratory Explosion lays out in 23 pages of straightforward, nontechnical language what went wrong in a near-fatal 2010 incident on the Lubbock campus and what needs to be done to prevent anything like it from happening again.
The report goes far beyond the usual accident investigation=92s list of technical mishaps. It views the maiming of Texas Tech University (TTU) graduate student Preston Brown not as an isolated series of individual errors but as the predictable outcome of a culture, set of values, and system of organization prevalent not only at TTU but also at many other campuses. Having collected at least =93preliminary information=94 on 120 other such incidents, CSB declares itself =93greatly concerned about the frequency of academic laboratory incidents in the United States.=94
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MYSTERIOUS BOX THAT PROMPTED HAZMAT RESPONSE CONTAINED HARMLESS ROCKS
Tags: us_MA, public, discovery, response, radiation, follow-up
The mysterious box with radiation hazard labels on it that caused some alarm when it was found Wednesday in a Dorchester basement was opened this morning by a federal expert at a Boston Fire Department training facility.
It turned out to contain nothing but rocks.
=93It was just someone=92s collection that they left in the basement of this house,=94 said Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald.
He said a federal inspector with a nuclear incident response team opened the box. The rocks are =93perfectly safe,=94 he said.
MacDonald said fire officials would see if a local college with a geography department might want the rocks.
The box was found shortly before 2 p.m. at 64 Julian St. A hazardous materials response was initiated, but tests soon found that the radiation emitted by the box was within acceptable limits.
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TEN HOSPITALIZED IN CORAL SPRINGS HAZMAT INCIDENT
Tags: us_FL, transportation, release, injury, water_treatment
Ten people were hospitalized after a mixture of chemicals made them sick at the water plant in Coral Springs Thursday morning.
The incident happened shortly before 9 a.m. at the plant at 3800 Northwest 85th Avenue, according to Coral Springs Fire Department Capt. Richard Antonini.
Antonini said a man was delivering a tanker truck filled with chlorine and when he transferred the chemicals into a tank, they mixed with some fluorine which was left in the tank.
The mixture created a potentially toxic gas, which caused the truck driver to be overcome with fumes.
The driver and nine others were taken to Coral Springs Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries, Antonini said.
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CRUSHED BULBS FOUND IN BARRELS AT MESA HOSPITAL
Tags: us_AZ, public, discovery, response, waste
MESA, AZ (KPHO) -
Mesa firefighters found seven 55-gallon drums filled with crushed fluorescent light bulbs in a garage on property owned by Banner Desert Hospital on Wednesday morning.
A fire department spokesman said a police K-9 and officer deemed the barrels safe, but at a hazard material level. Mesa Fire HAZMAT crews later opened the barrels and discovered the crushed light bulbs.
The barrels were labeled "HONEY" and found in the garage on the hospital grounds, though the garage is not owned by the hospital.
Officials said they did not know how the barrels got into the garage.
A private disposal company was used to transport them away, according to Forrest Smith of Mesa Fire.
He said police did evacuate the area near the garage as a precaution.
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JFE SAYS EXPLOSION HAS NO IMPACT ON STEEL OUTPUT AT CHIBA PLANT
Tags: Japan, industrial, explosion, injury, sulfuric_acid
JFE Holdings Inc., Japan=92s second- largest steelmaker, said its steel mill in Chiba, near Tokyo, is operating normally after four workers were injured by an explosion at JFE Chemical Co.=92s sulfuric acid tank.
The explosion, which occurred within the site of JFE=92s steel works at 9:55 a.m., Japan time, didn=92t cause a fire and hasn=92t impacted steel production, spokesman Seiji Iwashita said today by telephone.
JFE is investigating the cause of the accident, he said. JFE Chemical is a wholly owned unit of JFE.
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EXTENSIVE DAMAGE REPORTED IN LOWER VALLEY SHOP FIRE
Tags: us_WA, industrial, fire, response, gasoline
TOPPENISH, Wash. =97 Nearly a half million dollars worth of losses are estimated from a farm shop fire about 6 miles west of Toppenish.
The fire, reported about 2:20 p.m. Monday, took place at the Green Acres Farm at 6080 Campbell Road.
It started when gasoline from a vehicle being repaired came into contact with a work lamp, according to a press release issued this morning by Yakima County Fire District. No. 5.
The light bulb exploded causing additional gasoline to catch fire, which quickly spread to the rest of the shop, which measured about 40-by-60 feet, according to firefighters.
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MAN WOUNDED BY BARREL EXPLOSION IN MELBOURNE
Tags: us_FL, public, explosion, injury, ethanol
A man was injured Tuesday when a barrel he was working on exploded in the 2200 Wickham Business Park in Melbourne.
The man had minor burns around his eyes and face and was taken to a hospital, said assistant chief Joe Sunday of the Melbourne Fire Department.
The explosion was heard more than a mile away at a Melbourne fire station on Croton Road, Sunday said.
Using a circular saw, the man was cutting a 55-gallon steel drum to make a fire pit when a spark may have ignited denatured ethanol inside the barrel, according to Sunday.
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TOXIC SPILL CLEANUP CONTINUES NEAR COLORADO REFINERY
Tags: us_CO, industrial, release, environmental, petroleum
COMMERCE CITY (AP) =97 Environmental Protection Agency officials say small dams erected on a bank overnight appear to be containing an oily muck that's seeping into a Denver-area creek. Officials are trying to keep it from reaching the South Platte River, which is a major source of drinking water, wildlife habitat and agricultural water for Colorado and the Midwest.
EPA spokeswoman Karen Edson said Wednesday that the dams seem to be containing most of the substance. Workers are vacuuming the heaving muck out of the isolated area created by the dams but a sheen remains on the creek.
State health department spokesman Warren Smith says the toxic spill is believed to be coming from Suncor's refinery. He says further tests could identify the chemicals and the source as early as Wednesday.
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SAFD: SOUTHEAST-SIDE REFINERY FIRE UNDER CONTROL, NO INJURIES
Tags: us_TX, industrial, explosion, response, petroleum
SAN ANTONIO -- Firefighters scrambled to cut off the fuel supply following a "large explosion" at a southeast-side refinery, SAFD spokeswoman Melissa Sparks said Wednesday afternoon.
The NuStar San Antonio Refinery at South Presa Street and Southeast Military Drive was evacuated around 12:50 p.m.
Nustar spokesman Greg Matula said about 60 workers and contractors were evacuated from the refinery following a brief fire, lasting about five to 10 minutes. The cause is unknown, he said, adding that the company invested in new safety equipment when they purchased the plant earlier this year.
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METH LABS IN WEBSTER COUNTY: FROM SUSPICION TO CLEAN UP
Tags: public, discovery, response, meth_lab