From: "Secretary, ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety" <secretary**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety headlines from Google (6 articles)
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2015 07:26:45 -0500
Reply-To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Message-ID: 8379AB8E-9C1A-4FB7-AAA2-EC1619805C33**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org


Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Monday, January 5, 2015 at 7:26:16 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 (6 articles)

CYANIDE SPILL CLOSES TAURANGA STREET
Tags: New_Zealand, laboratory, release, response, cyanide

CHEMICAL EXPLOSIONS: SANTA CLARA WASTE WATER SUING INSURER FOR $7 MILLION
Tags: us_CA, transportation, follow-up, injury, unknown_chemical, waste

MP: LABOURER FALLS INTO CHEMICAL TANK AT PHARMA FIRM, DIES
Tags: India, industrial, release, death, unknown_chemical, pharmaceutical

CHEMICAL DRUM EXPLODES, WOMAN INJURED
Tags: India, public, explosion, injury, flammables

RISK SCIENCE CENTER BAD LUCK AND CANCER
Tags: public, discovery, response, other_chemical

I-20 SHUT DOWN INTO NIGHT IN ARLINGTON AFTER TRUCK FIRE
Tags: us_TX, transportation, fire, response, propane


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CYANIDE SPILL CLOSES TAURANGA STREET
Tags: New_Zealand, laboratory, release, response, cyanide

A cyanide spill at a dentist's surgery has closed one of Tauranga's busiest streets.

Cameron Road was closed between 15th Avenue and 17th Avenue while emergency services dealt with a small spill of the hazardous chemical.

Cordons were in place, with five fire engines and a hazmat (hazardous materials) truck on site.

Police were at the scene directing traffic.

A man admitted himself to hospital after he dropped a vial of potassium cyanide, a highly toxic and extremely dangerous substance.

A "small quantity of potassium cyanide" was dropped in the dental clinic, Bay of Plenty area Fire Service manager Murray Binning said.

Firefighters were cleaning up the spill and a unit was ready to decontaminate them and their gear.

There was no risk to the public, Binning said.

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CHEMICAL EXPLOSIONS: SANTA CLARA WASTE WATER SUING INSURER FOR $7 MILLION
Tags: us_CA, transportation, follow-up, injury, unknown_chemical, waste

Santa Clara Waste Water is suing its insurer for $7 million to cover the costs associated with a series of chemical explosions and fires that started on the early morning of November 18 at the facility located west of Santa Paula.

The company also names 805 Trucking in the lawsuit filed by Richard C. Giller of Polsinelli LLP in Los Angeles, which alleges a truck owned by the Oxnard-based company was the one that initially exploded at 3:45 a.m.

In recent weeks Ventura County officials stated the vehicle that exploded was a SCWW vacuum truck.

The initial explosion and fire and those thereafter sent more than 50 people to local hospitals seeking treatment for symptoms believed to be related to exposure to unknown chemicals. Three Santa Paula Firefighters remain on medical leave.

Santa Clara Waste Water claims in the lawsuit, filed December 23 in Ventura County Superior Court, that is insurer, Allied World Assurance, refused to pay costs related to the incident and Patriot Environmental Services, hired for the cleanup by SCWW, threatened to stop work due to the unpaid bill.

The lawsuit claims that a criminal investigation being conducted by the Ventura County District Attorney's Office as well as fire losses have limited the availability of SCWW documents requested by the insurer.

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MP: LABOURER FALLS INTO CHEMICAL TANK AT PHARMA FIRM, DIES
Tags: India, industrial, release, death, unknown_chemical, pharmaceutical

A 43-year-old labourer died on Friday after he allegedly fell into a chemical tank at the factory of pharmaceutical company IPCA on the outskirts of Ratlam town.

Three other labourers were also injured in the accident which took place around 7.30 am.

The deceased, identified as Jagdish Patidar, 43, from Ramgarh in Jhabua district, had been working at the factory for more than 20 years, IPCA‰??s public relations officer Vikram Kothari said.

Patidar was cleaning the reactor when he slipped into the chemical tank, Kothari said, adding that the victim suffered serious burns and inhaled poisonous gas.

While trying to rescue Patidar, the other labourers also inhaled the gas and fell unconscious. They have been admitted to a hospital. A case has been registered under Section 174 (unnatural death) of the CrPC.

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CHEMICAL DRUM EXPLODES, WOMAN INJURED
Tags: India, public, explosion, injury, flammables

A 19-year-old woman was injured this afternoon when a drum containing some inflammable chemical caught fire and exploded in the Swaroop Nagar area of northwest Delhi.

The victim, identified as Sunita (19), is a housewife. She has been admitted to a nearby hospital for treatment.

"The blast took place in a chemical drum and was so powerful that it blew away the roof of the house and shattered the windowpanes of a neighbouring house," said a senior police official.

Police is trying to ascertain as to how come the chemical was stored in the house.

The fire department said that it got a call about the emergency at 2:20 P.M. Following which two fire tenders were rushed to the spot. It took the firefighters 40 minutes to douse the flames.

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RISK SCIENCE CENTER BAD LUCK AND CANCER
Tags: public, discovery, response, other_chemical

The chances are that, if you follow news articles about cancer, you‰??ll have come across headlines like ‰??Most Cancers Caused By Bad Luck‰?? (The Daily Beast) or ‰??Two-thirds of cancers are due to ‰??bad luck,‰?? study finds‰?? (CBS News). The story ‰?? based on research out of Johns Hopkins University ‰?? has grabbed widespread media attention. But it‰??s also raised the ire of science communicators who think that the headlines and stories are, in the words of a couple of writers, ‰??just bollocks‰??.

With all the coverage of the paper, and the subsequent coverage of the coverage, I was interested in just how off-base the news articles were, and to what extent this was down to lazy reporting.

The paper in question is ‰??Variation in cancer risk among tissues can be explained by the number of stem cell divisions‰?? by Cristian Tomasetti and Bert Vogelstein, published this month in the journal Science. At the heart of the paper the authors look at how stem cell divisions in different tissues correlate with lifetime risk of developing cancer in those tissues. The study shows a clear correlation with the cancer types considered ‰?? the faster the stem cells divide in a particular tissue, the greater the chance of developing cancer in that tissue.

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I-20 SHUT DOWN INTO NIGHT IN ARLINGTON AFTER TRUCK FIRE
Tags: us_TX, transportation, fire, response, propane

ARLINGTON ‰?? Fire crews now believe Interstate 20 will remain closed through much of the night because the propane fire is burning slower than expected.

The Fort Worth police said on Twitter the highway will remain closed until at least 2 a.m.

Fire department spokesman Lee Tovar said it's impossible to predict when the fire will go out, though he believed it could be sometime Saturday morning.

They have been on the scene of a fiery crash involving an 18-wheeler and two other vehicles since 6:15 a.m. The wreck has closed all lanes of I-20 between Green Oaks and 820.

Fire officials say their main concern is a possible explosion, since the 3,000-gallon tanker truck was carrying propane. It burned for hours Friday on I-20 near Bowman Springs. Firefighter Lee Tovar with Arlington Fire Department said the driver had just filled the tanker up with 2,600 gallons of propane.

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Ralph Stuart
secretary**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Secretary
Division of Chemical Health and Safety
American Chemical Society

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