From: Ralph Stuart <membership**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety headlines (5 articles)
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2018 07:45:26 -0500
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Message-ID: 3BD7031B-B5C6-4144-AFBE-9165D7C59B9B**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org


Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Wednesday, November 28, 2018 at 7:45:12 AM

A service of the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety
Connecting Chemistry and Safety at http://www.dchas.org
All article summaries and tags are archived at http://pinboard.in/u:dchas

Table of Contents (5 articles)

CU STUDENT TAKEN TO HOSPITAL AFTER ACID SPILL AT ON CAMPUS LAB
Tags: us_CO, laboratory, release, injury, acids

CHEMOURS TO CLEAN UP GENX AND PAY $12 MILLION FINE
Tags: us_NC, industrial, follow-up, environmental, water_treatment

CREWS DOUSE BLAZE AT MASSACHUSETTS CHEMICAL PLANT
Tags: us_MA, industrial, fire, response, other_chemical

NORTH PORT MAN BADLY BURNED IN VAPE PEN EXPLOSION
Tags: us_FL, public, explosion, injury, metals

TOXIC CHEMICAL SPILL IN SOUTHERN CHINA 10 TIMES WORSE THAN PREVIOUSLY DISCLOSED
Tags: China, industrial, release, response, petroleum, toxics


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CU STUDENT TAKEN TO HOSPITAL AFTER ACID SPILL AT ON CAMPUS LAB
https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/cu-student-taken-to-hospital-after-acid-spill-at-on-campus-lab/73-618300582
Tags: us_CO, laboratory, release, injury, acids

An equipment malfunction Tuesday around 5 p.m. at a lab on CU Boulder's campus spat acid on a student, sending her to the hospital with minor injuries, according to campus police.

The Cristol Chemistry Building where this accident happened will be open on Wednesday, but police said some offices and labs will remain closed due to water damage. Contractors are clearing up the area overnight.

The injured student followed proper emergency procedures after the spill, rushing to a shower station to clean herself of the acid.

Runoff from the shower caused some slight water damage to the building, campus police said.

What the student was working on, and the specific type of equipment that malfunctioned causing the injury was not explained. The Cristol Chemistry building was briefly evacuated Tuesday night. The incident may have happened on the second floor, as authorities were encouraging people to avoid it during the Hazmat investigation.

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CHEMOURS TO CLEAN UP GENX AND PAY $12 MILLION FINE
https://cen.acs.org/environment/persistent-pollutants/Chemours-clean-GenX-pay-12/96/web/2018/11
Tags: us_NC, industrial, follow-up, environmental, water_treatment

To settle allegations that it tainted drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people in southeast North Carolina with toxic fluoroethers, Chemours has agreed to pay the state $12 million.
The agreement stems from state enforcement actions against Chemours. Under a proposed consent order released Nov. 21, Chemours would pay an additional $1 million to cover the state‰??s costs for investigating the pollution. Chemours would have to install thermal oxidizing equipment to dramatically reduce air emissions of chemicals related to its GenX fluorosurfactant at its plant outside of Fayetteville.

In addition, the company would have to provide permanent replacement drinking water to homes and businesses with contaminated wells, continue to capture all of the facility‰??s process water for off-site disposal, and reduce the non-polymeric per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in groundwater near the plant that seep into the Cape Fear River. A North Carolina court must approve the order before it takes affect.
Fluoroethers contaminate the river downstream of the Fayetteville facility. The chemicals persist after drinking water treatment. They also pollute rain and private wells near the facility, including those not directly hydraulically connected with groundwater below the plant.

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CREWS DOUSE BLAZE AT MASSACHUSETTS CHEMICAL PLANT
https://www.powderbulksolids.com/news/Crews-Douse-Blaze-at-Massachusetts-Chemical-Plant-11-26-2018
Tags: us_MA, industrial, fire, response, other_chemical

Firefighters put out a two-alarm fire at the Twin Rivers Technologies plant in Quincy, MA last Saturday night, reports by local news organizations said.

Crews were called to the scene at about 8:30 p.m. after oil leaked out of a fractionator in the plant and caught fire, fire officials told the Quincy Patriot Ledger. The fractionator, a piece of equipment used to separate liquids, has a capacity of 1000 gal of liquid material.

Coconut oil was involved in the fire, coverage by New England Cable News (NECN) said. The flames were brought under control in about a half-hour using foam and water.

Emergency personnel remained at the plant for about two hours, containing the flames to the fractionator, the Associated Press (AP) reported. No injuries were logged during the incident.

Twin Rivers Technologies manufactures fatty acids and glycerin products at the Quincy plant, according to information on the company‰??s website. The facility‰??s capabilities include fractional distillation, crystallization, and hydrogenation.

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NORTH PORT MAN BADLY BURNED IN VAPE PEN EXPLOSION
http://www.fox13news.com/news/local-news/north-port-man-badly-burned-in-vape-pen-explosion
Tags: us_FL, public, explosion, injury, metals

NORTH PORT, Fla. (FOX 13) - Working with glass and metal comes with its own safety code at Euro-Wall in North Port, but it's what happened inside an office that's caught many off guard. One of the company‰??s managers had just sat down when his vape pen exploded in his pocket.

‰??There was smoke in the office. He had opened the door. He was in shock," recalled employee Brant Julius. "You could see the chemical burns are a little different and seeing it fresh like that, literally I could smell the difference between flesh burning.‰??

The man, identified by co-workers only as Mike, was airlifted to Blake Medical Center in Manatee County with second- and third-degree burns. He underwent surgery Monday morning.

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TOXIC CHEMICAL SPILL IN SOUTHERN CHINA 10 TIMES WORSE THAN PREVIOUSLY DISCLOSED
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2175013/toxic-chemical-spill-southern-china-10-times-worse-previously
Tags: China, industrial, release, response, petroleum, toxics

A toxic chemical leak in southern China which put 52 people in hospital and has cost affected fishing villages millions of dollars in lost revenue was 10 times worse than previously reported.
Quanzhou city authorities on Sunday confirmed that 69 tonnes of the petrochemical C9 ‰?? a by-product of the oil refining process ‰?? had spilled into the local seawater, far in excess of the originally claimed seven tonnes.
Two officials have been sacked for negligence, in addition to the arrests of seven people for their roles in the incident.
Fishermen in Xiaocuo, the coastal village where the leak occurred, have consistently questioned the official version of events which began on November 4 when a tube carrying the toxic liquid from a local petrochemical plant to a tanker came loose.

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