From: DCHAS Membership Chair <membership**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety headlines - editorial comment
Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2020 12:49:33 -0400
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU>
Message-ID: F03C7184-C620-4038-A710-407574FAB7D8**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
In-Reply-To <0099c6a0-ab47-83ca-4c5f-c51ae25cfa96**At_Symbol_Here**colostate.edu>


>I am writing to comment about the editorial policy regarding the review (or not) of articles prior to forwarding them.
>
Thanks for your comments on this topic. I thought about this concern a lot when I began the headline collection process 10 years ago. There are consistently errors in mass media reports that could arise from a variety of sources. After observing this pattern, I decided to let the reports stand as they appear on the web site, primarily as a reminder to the primary audience (the CHAS community), of the challenge chemical terminology presents to the public. Sometimes the results are confusing, other times somewhat humorous. Fortunately, there are enough reports that either 1) present a novel hazmat scenario or 2) represent an interesting reminder of established scenarios that I feel that they are worth including in the day's list.

I know that several CHAS members have followed up, either with the web site carrying the story or the people on the scene of the incident, to collect better information about a particularly confusing report. They did not meet with much success in this effort.

I do appreciate it when DCHAS-L readers take the time to identify items from the list that are of particular interest, either because the reports don't add up, or because they have learned something important from the headlines. With the economic downturn of the last few months, the number of reports of specific incidents has dipped significantly, and I am including more stories with contextual information relative to hazmat concerns in the list. I hope that this is a helpful approach to this situation.

Let me know if you have any questions about this.

- Ralph

Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org

Membership chair
American Chemical Society
Division of Chemical Health and Safety

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