From: Ralph Stuart <membership**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety headlines (11 articles)
Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2018 05:57:32 -0500
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Message-ID: C01C11E5-FED4-4AEE-A167-D457E79FCBD9**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org


Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Monday, December 31, 2018 at 5:57:13 AM

A service of the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety
Connecting Chemistry and Safety at http://www.dchas.org
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Table of Contents (11 articles)

POLICE, HAZMAT CREWS RESPOND TO GAS LEAK IN BUCKS COUNTY
Tags: us_PA, public, release, response, propane

WAREHOUSE CATCHES FIRE IN SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE COUNTY
Tags: us_FL, industrial, fire, response, unknown_chemical

1 FIRE AT WORLI AND LOWER PAREL, 16 FIREFIGHTERS RUSHED TO HOSPITAL
Tags: India, laboratory, fire, injury, unknown_chemical

HAZMAT CREWS CLEAN UP ACID AT CHESTER COUNTY TOW YARD
Tags: us_PA, public, release, response, hydrochloric_acid

NOXIOUS GAS SICKENS PATRONS, BUILDING EVACUATED
Tags: us_FL, public, release, injury, cleaners

YOUNG MUM CREATED A CHLORINE GAS INCIDENT
Tags: United_Kingdom, public, release, response, chlorine

DOH: FIRECRACKER-RELATED INJURIES NOW UP TO 43
Tags: Philippines, public, follow-up, environmental, fireworks

NO ANSWER ON FBI AGENTS‰?? ILLNESSES AFTER HAZMAT SWEEP OF NIAGARA FALLS APARTMENT ‰?? THE BUFFALO NEWS
Tags: us_NY, public, follow-up, injury, clandestine, lab

2 GILL HAULING EMPLOYEES INJURED IN EXPLOSION AT SIOUX CITY'S LANDFILL
Tags: us_IA, industrial, explosion, injury, wastes

AHMEDABAD: FIRE BREAKS OUT AT ISRO CAMPUS, 5 FIRE TENDERS AT THE SPOT
Tags: India, laboratory, fire, response, unknown_chemical

AUDIO: AQMD REVIEWING NEW TOXIC CHEMICAL LEAK AT TORRANCE REFINERY
Tags: us_CA, industrial, follow-up, environmental, hydrofluoric_acid


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POLICE, HAZMAT CREWS RESPOND TO GAS LEAK IN BUCKS COUNTY
http://www.wfmz.com/news/southeastern-pa/police-hazmat-crews-respond-to-gas-leak-in-montgomery-county/957374672
Tags: us_PA, public, release, response, propane

EAST ROCKHILL TWP., Pa. - Police and Hazmat crews responded Saturday night to a gas leak at a Bucks County home.

The Pennridge Police Department said it responded after a the homeowner accidentally drove a vehicle into a valve to a 400-gallon underground propane tank.

Police responded to the call at 7:35 p.m. at the 2300 block of East Rock Road in East Rockhill Township. The area of the gas leak was secured within an hour.

Goodwill provided people who were temporarily displaced with food and water. Nobody was permanently displaced after the incident.

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WAREHOUSE CATCHES FIRE IN SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE COUNTY
https://www.local10.com/news/florida/miami-dade/warehouse-catches-fire-in-southwest-miami-dade-county
Tags: us_FL, industrial, fire, response, unknown_chemical

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. - A warehouse caught fire Sunday in southwest Miami-Dade County, authorities said.

Lt. Felipe Lay, a spokesman for Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, said the fire started around 7 a.m. at a building near Southwest 130th Street and Southwest 122nd Avenue.

No one was inside the building at the time of the fire.

By 10 a.m., more 20 fire units had brought the blaze under control, but they were monitoring the warehouse to ensure the fire did not flare up again.

Lay said firefighters contained the blaze to two units within the building, but those units suffered heavy damage.

Firefighters called in hazardous materials crews because a strange smell started emanating from the smoke. Crews believe the odor came from one of the products stored in the warehouse.

‰??It wasn't your typical smoke odor, per se,‰?? Lay said. ‰??But we did have our HAZMAT units collect some samples to do their investigation.‰??

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1 FIRE AT WORLI AND LOWER PAREL, 16 FIREFIGHTERS RUSHED TO HOSPITAL
https://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/1-fire-at-worli-and-lower-parel-16-firefighters-rushed-to-hospital/1425121
Tags: India, laboratory, fire, injury, unknown_chemical

Mumbai: There were two new blazes in Mumbai on Saturday which reminded the citizens of the one year anniversary of Kamala Mills blaze. The first fire broke out on the eleventh floor of the Orbit Terrace, an under-construction building at Lower Parel and the second one was reported in Sadhana Industrial Estate building at Worli. Incidentally both these blazes were close to the Kamala Mills com-pound. Initially the news caused a bit of panic with the reports of another fire near Kamala Mills.

The Mumbai Fire Department rushed tankers to Sadhana building to douse the flames. Initially the fire was declared as Level II and subsequently it was escalated to major, level IV. The fire started in a laboratory where medicines and chemical were stored. The primary cause is said to be due to short circuit, thereafter it spread fast due to the chemicals and packaging of the medicines.

In this mishap, 16 fire fighters suffered from suffocation during the fire fighting operations. Of these, some were rushed to Poddar Hospital and some 2 at King Edward‰??s Memorial (KEM). All have reportedly suffered due to suffocation because they inhaled toxic gas, confirmed RA Choudhary, Deputy Chief Fire Officer (Technical). ‰??I too am being given oxygen as I have suffered due to asphyxiation,‰?? said Choudhary.

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HAZMAT CREWS CLEAN UP ACID AT CHESTER COUNTY TOW YARD
https://6abc.com/hazmat-crews-clean-up-acid-at-chester-county-tow-yard/4985480/
Tags: us_PA, public, release, response, hydrochloric_acid

COATESVILLE, Pa. (WPVI) -- Hazmat crews and first responders were called to an incident at a Chester County tow yard early this morning.

A car had been taken to the Fling's Towing on Hurley Road in Coatesville after it was involved in an earlier accident.

A gallon of muriatic acid had been left in a car and it spilled.

The situation was contained and no one was hurt.

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NOXIOUS GAS SICKENS PATRONS, BUILDING EVACUATED
https://www.theledger.com/news/20181229/noxious-gas-sickens-patrons-building-evacuated
Tags: us_FL, public, release, injury, cleaners

WINTER HAVEN ‰?? A noxious gas produced by a mixture of cleaning agents caused several people in a downtown Winter Haven building to get sick, prompting evacuations on Saturday and sending two patrons to the hospital, according to Jamie Brown, spokeswoman for the Winter Haven Police Department.

At approximately 11:50 a.m., the Winter Haven Fire Department and Polk County Hazmat Team responded to 27 3rd Street NW in Winter Haven regarding a report of a smoke smell.

Fumes were making patrons ill, so Winter Haven Police closed Central Avenue between 2nd Street NW and 4th Street NW.

Gas monitors were sent into the building, said Brown, but no harmful substance was found.

The building was ventilated as a precautionary measure, and cleared by 1:15 p.m.

One person who was complaining of respiratory issues was taken to Winter Haven Hospital, and a patron who was pregnant drove to the hospital on their own to be checked out.

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YOUNG MUM CREATED A CHLORINE GAS INCIDENT
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/young-mum-created-chlorine-gas-2373189
Tags: United_Kingdom, public, release, response, chlorine

A young Westcountry mum created a major chemical incident when she tried to unblock her toilet and accidentally filled her house with deadly chlorine gas.

Three fire engines were called and Dominique Heath's house it had to be evacuated for 10 hours after she used two different chemicals hours apart and produced a cloud of toxic gas.

The mum-of-three is now warning others to think twice before they tackle a blocked toilet.

The loo at Dominique‰??s home in Nailsea near Bristol was blocked the day after Boxing Day - she thinks one of her young children put too much toilet paper or dropped a toy down there.

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DOH: FIRECRACKER-RELATED INJURIES NOW UP TO 43
https://news.mb.com.ph/2018/12/29/doh-firecracker-related-injuries-now-up-to-43/
Tags: Philippines, public, follow-up, environmental, fireworks

Three more cases of firecrackers-related injuries have been reported by the Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday, bringing the total number of such injuries to 43.

The total figure is 51 percent lower compared to the same period last year, and 75 percent lower than the five-year average, the DOH noted in its latest report.

The three new cases were from Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, and Bicol Region.

The DOH said that of the 43 cases, 41 injuries were due to exploding firecrackers while the remaining two cases were firecracker ingestion. The cases of firecracker ingestion involved a 3-year-old girl from Valenzuela City on Dec. 21; and a 6-year-old boy from Tondo, Manila on Dec. 25. Both of them were discharged from the hospital.

Majority of the victims were males. The youngest victim was 2-years-old and the oldest is 69-years-old, the DOH said.

Twenty-four individuals sustained blast injuries without amputation, five sustained blast injuries that resulted in the amputation of the affected limbs, while 14 sustained eye injuries.

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NO ANSWER ON FBI AGENTS‰?? ILLNESSES AFTER HAZMAT SWEEP OF NIAGARA FALLS APARTMENT ‰?? THE BUFFALO NEWS
https://buffalonews.com/2018/12/27/hazmat-sweep-of-niagara-falls-apartment-offers-no-answers-about-fbi-agents-illnesses/
Tags: us_NY, public, follow-up, injury, clandestine, lab

Niagara County investigators have not found anything in a Packard Court apartment to explain why several FBI agents got sick after conducting a raid there, but are still waiting for lab results that could give them some answers, Niagara County Sheriff James R. Voutour said Thursday.

Voutour said the hazmat team that went into the apartment on Pine Avenue on Wednesday found no unusual chemicals other than cleaners and "something to start motors," but those were well-sealed in containers.

He said investigators sent additional samples from the apartment to the Erie County Forensic Laboratory to be tested for biological agents.

Federal agents, along with Niagara Falls police and sheriff's deputies, executed a search warrant at the apartment Dec. 14 and arrested 28-year-old Jeffrey Richards, after finding cocaine, heroin, marijuana, 10 guns and ammunition, and an improvised explosive device, according to authorities. He faces a series of criminal charges.

Over the next few days, several agents got sick with a respiratory ailment and "flu-like" symptoms that sent them to their doctors.

That led the FBI to ask Niagara County to sweep the apartment to determine if there was a connection, Voutour said.

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2 GILL HAULING EMPLOYEES INJURED IN EXPLOSION AT SIOUX CITY'S LANDFILL
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2018/12/27/sioux-city-landfill-explosion-gill-hauling-employees-injured-hazmat-hazardous-materials-methane/2428102002/
Tags: us_IA, industrial, explosion, injury, wastes

SIOUX CITY, Ia. ‰?? Two men were injured in an explosion at a Sioux City landfill.

Assistant Fire Chief Dan Cougill told the Sioux City Journal the men injured Thursday were employees of Gill Hauling, which operates the city-owned landfill.

Emergency responders were called to the landfill about noon and found an explosion and fire had damaged an office area of the scale house, where trucks weigh the garbage they're hauling. Cougill says the building also is a collection point for household hazardous materials.

Cougill says he didn't know how seriously the men were injured. Their names weren't released.

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AHMEDABAD: FIRE BREAKS OUT AT ISRO CAMPUS, 5 FIRE TENDERS AT THE SPOT
https://www.thelivemirror.com/ahmedabad-isro-campus-fire/
Tags: India, laboratory, fire, response, unknown_chemical

Fire broke out inside the campus of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Ahmedabad on Friday. According to reports, five fire engines have been rushed to the spot. The mishap happened in the storeroom of ISRO.

So far, no casualty has been reported, as reported by Zee news.com.

Earlier this year in May, a major fire had broken out at a research facility located in the Space Application Centre (SAC) of the ISRO in Ahmedabad. The blaze was doused within few hours and there was no report of any casualty.

As pere reports, the fire had broken out inside a building which is used as an antenna testing laboratory (for satellites). The laboratory is located inside the sprawling SAC campus in the Satellite area of the city. Due to the presence of U-Foam material on the lab‰??s walls, the blaze spread quickly.

Notably, the SAC is a major research centre of the ISRO in the city, where payloads for satellites are prepared. Vikram Sarabhai who is known as the father of the Indian space programme, had established the centre.

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AUDIO: AQMD REVIEWING NEW TOXIC CHEMICAL LEAK AT TORRANCE REFINERY
https://www.scpr.org/news/2018/12/27/87657/aqmd-reviewing-new-toxic-chemical-leak-at-torrance/
Tags: us_CA, industrial, follow-up, environmental, hydrofluoric_acid

Air quality inspectors were at the Torrance Refinery Monday following up on a toxic chemical spill over the weekend. Five gallons of Modified Hydrofluoric Acid leaked from a hose as it was being transferred from a tanker truck to a container at the Torrance Refinery.

When exposed to air, the acid can turn into a ground-hugging fog that can travel for miles and hurt or kill those in its path. In this case a worker doused the leaking vapor with water and the chemical stayed within refinery grounds.

The spill happened at 8:17 Saturday morning. Soon after, Torrance Fire Department posted to Facebook and Twitter that it was responding to a leak at the refinery. It did not name the chemical. And because the leak was small, Torrance did not use its citywide notification system, a spokesman said.

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