Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Wednesday, September 14, 2022 at 6:41:38 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 (12 articles)
NATURAL GAS LEAK PROMPTS HAZMAT RESPONSE IN HILLSDALE
Tags: us_MI, public, release, response, natural_gas
FISH KILLED BY POOL CHLORINE IN FOUR MILE RUN STREAM, OFFICIALS SAY
Tags: us_VA, public, follow-up, environmental, chlorine
TO IMPROVE COMPLIANCE WITH REGULATIONS, TAP EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Tags: us_MA, laboratory, discovery, environmental
FLINT RIVER’S NO-CONTACT ORDER STILL IN EFFECT AS CLEAN-UP EFFORTS CONTINUE AFTER SPILL
Tags: us_MI, public, follow-up, environmental, used_oil, waste
RISE OF HYPE SEE MORE AND MORE ‘NOVEL’, ‘CRITICAL’ AND ‘KEY’ GRANT APPLICATIONS
Tags: Canada, laboratory, discovery, environmental
US CHEMICAL SAFETY BOARD LEADERS AIM TO REBOOT AGENCY
Tags: public, discovery, environmental
VT FFS BATTLE 3-ALARM FIRE AT RUBBER PLANT
Tags: us_VT, industrial, fire, response, dye, runoff
DRUM RECONDITIONER DAMAGE CASE REPORT
Tags: industrial, discovery, environmental, waste
CHEMICAL REACTION CREATES VAPOR CLOUD AT ATTLEBORO TREATMENT PLANT, WORKER EXAMINED
Tags: us_MA, industrial, release, injury, water_treatment
FIVE PEOPLE BEING TREATED AFTER CHEMICAL SPILL AT CESSNOCK
Tags: Australia, public, release, injury, unknown_chemical
HAZMAT SCARE FORCES DOG DAYS OF BIRMINGHAM TO EVACUATE WORKERS, 26 DOGS
Tags: us_AL, public, release, injury, urethane
EXPLOSION CATAPULTED MACHINERY THROUGH CHEMICAL FACTORY CEILING
Tags: United_Kingdom, industrial, follow-up, environmental, hydrogen
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NATURAL GAS LEAK PROMPTS HAZMAT RESPONSE IN HILLSDALE
https://www.hillsdale.net/story/news/accident/2022/09/13/natural-gas-leak-prompts-hazmat-response-in-hillsdale/69493281007/
Tags: us_MI, public, release, response, natural_gas
HILLSDALE — Emergency personnel are on the scene of an active HAZMAT situation near the heart of downtown Hillsdale.
At least one home voluntarily evacuated near the corner of Budlong Street and Waldron Street where contractors were working to place a new fiber line.
Contractors were using a Ditch Witch to place the line underground, which caused the natural gas line to rupture into a storm sewer line.
A strong smell of natural gas filled the neighborhood as emergency personnel, Michigan Gas Utilities, Hillsdale City Police, Department of Public Services and Hillsdale’s Board of Public Utilities converged on the area.
MGU technicians worked quickly to find the newest gas shutoff line to stop the leak while additional crews arrived in the area.
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FISH KILLED BY POOL CHLORINE IN FOUR MILE RUN STREAM, OFFICIALS SAY
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/13/fish-killed-four-mile-run/
Tags: us_VA, public, follow-up, environmental, chlorine
Officials said Monday that pool chlorine was the cause of a hazmat incident in a Northern Virginia stream that killed about 100 fish last week.
On Sept. 7, the Arlington County Department of Environmental Services said about 100 fish were found dead at the Four Mile Run stream between South Walter Reed Drive and South Taylor Street.
Peter Golkin, an agency spokesman, said at that time that officials noted a “chemical smell” near a storm drain and that “would indicate that someone probably poured something not good down there.”
Fish die after hazmat incident in Northern Virginia stream
On Monday, Golkin said in an email that the fish deaths were caused by “flawed seasonal pool care involving chlorine.” Overflow from a multifamily property swimming pool ran into the storm sewer after the pool was treated with an abundance of chlorine as a part of late-season maintenance, he said Tuesday.
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TO IMPROVE COMPLIANCE WITH REGULATIONS, TAP EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/to-improve-compliance-regulations-tap-employee-engagement
Tags: us_MA, laboratory, discovery, environmental
An exhausted hospital worker forgets to change her gloves between patient visits. A long-haul truck driver eager to reach his destination speeds along a narrow highway. A new scientist at a research lab fails to correctly clean up a chemical spill, contaminating a shared workspace.
Whether on the road, in a hospital, at a laboratory, or in any other workspace, managers can find themselves struggling to get frontline employees to comply with regulations — even when those regulations are designed for safety and legality.
New research from MIT Sloan professorSusan Silbey uncovers insight into why even senior-level employees sometimes overlook regulations.
In a 17-month study of laboratory scientists, Silbey learned that the scientists used a mix of formal rules and their own expert judgment to determine how and when they complied with regulations designed to prevent risks.
She found that in making their decisions, the scientists prioritized work tasks and collegiality with coworkers.
“This is what builds the scientific community, this attention to what others are doing,” Silbey said. “It’s also about relying on each other. These labs can function only because people pay close attention to what each other are doing, and that's something we should take note of.”
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FLINT RIVER’S NO-CONTACT ORDER STILL IN EFFECT AS CLEAN-UP EFFORTS CONTINUE AFTER SPILL
https://www.wnem.com/2022/09/13/flint-rivers-no-contact-order-still-effect-clean-up-efforts-continue-after-spill/
Tags: us_MI, public, follow-up, environmental, used_oil, waste
FLINT, Mich. (WNEM) – An order that prohibits contact with the Flint River remains in effect as clean-up efforts continue.
It has been almost three months since a chemical spill in the Flint River prompted the Genesee County Health Department to issue a no-contact order.
Jill Greenberg, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) says that cleanup efforts are ongoing.
“It’s going to take a while,” Greenberg said. “It’s complicated.”
Greenberg is talking about the status of the investigation into Lockhart Chemical’s Flint River spill that happened in June. Greenberg said clean-up efforts are ongoing.
“We’ve collected 69,000 gallons of waste oil from the site, from Lockhart,” Greenberg said. “And close to 20,000 gallons of waste oil from the outfall going into the river.”
Greenberg also said that there’s a small discharge of waste oil at the outfall.
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RISE OF HYPE SEE MORE AND MORE ‘NOVEL’, ‘CRITICAL’ AND ‘KEY’ GRANT APPLICATIONS
https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/rise-of-hype-see-more-and-more-novel-critical-and-key-grant-applications/4016213.article
Tags: Canada, laboratory, discovery, environmental
A steady and dramatic increase in ‘hype’ in the abstracts of successful grant applications funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) since the mid-1980s has been documented by a new analysis.
The researchers from Japan and Canada, who work in applied linguistics, biomedical research and machine learning, found that the prevalence of 130 out of 139 ‘hype adjectives’ increased by an average of more than 1300% in successful applications submitted to the NIH between 1985 and 2020. The study analysed more than 900,000 NIH abstracts with the researchers coding adjectives as non-hype or hype based on how promotional they were in context, and whether they could be removed or replaced by a less subjective word without changing a sentence’s meaning.
In 1985, 72% of these NIH abstracts included at least one such hype adjective, and by 2020 this percentage had increased to 97%. The interim years, overall, showed annual increases.
Over this 35-year time period, the words ‘novel’, ‘critical’ and ‘key’ saw the largest absolute increases, and the biggest relative increases were for the terms ‘sustainable’, ‘actionable’ and ‘scalable’.
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US CHEMICAL SAFETY BOARD LEADERS AIM TO REBOOT AGENCY
https://cen.acs.org/safety/industrial-safety/US-Chemical-Safety-Board-leaders/100/i34
Tags: public, discovery, environmental
“We think problems are in fact opportunities.”
That positive, hopeful cliché was oft repeated by new US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) members Sylvia Johnson and Steve Owens in a lengthy interview with C&EN. Looking at where the CSB is now and where the two hope to take it, Johnson and Owens have a bonanza of new opportunities.
Their goal is to turn around the small agency, which investigates significant chemical-related accidents, and restore it to its former authority. Safety experts and regulators, members of Congress, and even accident-prone companies once considered it to be the worldwide gold standard in conducting industrial accident investigations. Its reports and animated videos are valued by industry, regulatory authorities, and communities worldwide.
But the agency has been struggling for a while. For more than a year, the CSB has not initiated a new accident investigation. It has a backlog of 17 incomplete investigations; one is 6 years old. It also has merely nine dedicated incident investigators—the heart of the agency—less than half its past high. The total number of staff is 29, including Johnson and Owens. The agency employed more than 40 people before the presidency of Donald J. Trump, who tried three times to eliminate it but was thwarted by Congress. The board lacks three of five board members. Staff morale has tanked, according to Johnson, Owens, and a host of former staff.
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VT FFS BATTLE 3-ALARM FIRE AT RUBBER PLANT
https://www.firehouse.com/operations-training/news/21280435/brattleboro-vt-ffs-battle-3alarm-fire-at-rubber-plant
Tags: us_VT, industrial, fire, response, dye, runoff
Sep. 12—BRATTLEBORO — No one was injured in a three-alarm blaze Sunday at a manufacturing building on Justin Holden Drive that took firefighters several hours to extinguish, according to a news release from the fire department.
A little after 6:45 a.m., emergency personnel responded to 32 Justin Holden Drive for a fire alarm activation at Fulflex, an elastic rubber manufacturer, the release states. Upon arriving at the scene, Capt. Kurt Schmidt reported heavy gray smoke showing from the north end of the building and by 7 a.m. he had elevated the fire to a third-alarm, according to the release.
Firefighters encountered intense smoke with zero visibility upon entering the building and made their way to the area of the fire, the release states. The sprinkler system was holding the fire and crews were ordered out of the building, which is "very difficult to navigate on a normal day," the department wrote.
Firefighters opened ventilation points on the roof and side of the building and later made their way back into the building to extinguish the flames, the release states. Assistant Fire Chief Chuck Keir said in a phone interview Monday that the burning material included neoprene and chemical dyes, which were on a rack system.
By 3:15 p.m., the fire was under control, the release states. Keir said the building sustained minor structural damage and considerable smoke damage.
The contents that were burning during the fire generated many different colors of smoke and the runoff from the scene made it to the underground drain system on Putney Road, which eventually dumps into the Connecticut River, according to the release.
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DRUM RECONDITIONER DAMAGE CASE REPORT
https://www.epa.gov/hw/drum-reconditioner-damage-case-report
Tags: industrial, discovery, environmental, waste
EPA completed a damage case report (pdf) to improve our understanding of how the drum reconditioner industry operates and document damage case incidents at these facilities that have caused damage to human health and the environment. This report serves to inform domestic policymakers, enforcement officials, and the public about the regulatory and waste issues surrounding drum reconditioning facilities. EPA is planning to engage interested entities on possible approaches to addressing and mitigating these issues.
EPA compiled and analyzed information from publicly available sources on drum reconditioning facilities and their damage cases, which included EPA online databases, public complaints and concerns, newspaper reports, and other governmental agencies reports, including state environmental agencies. The goal of the report is to increase awareness of interested entities of this critical topic. EPA will engage interested entities on ways to tackle these issues, particularly on methods to prevent future damage to human health and the environment from drum reconditioners.
The report's findings indicate an estimated national drum reconditioning universe of 181 facilities with approximately 40 million total drums being processed each year. The data also indicate that approximately 35% of drums are reconditioned using burn-off ovens, and the remaining 65% are reconditioned through washing methods.
Of the total 181 drum reconditioning facilities identified by EPA, 86 had one or more reported damage cases, representing 47.5% of the industry. Damages include fires; drum explosions; hazardous waste spills; improper storage of drums; employee injuries; air, water, or soil contamination; and various combinations of these incidents.
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CHEMICAL REACTION CREATES VAPOR CLOUD AT ATTLEBORO TREATMENT PLANT, WORKER EXAMINED
https://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/local_news/chemical-reaction-creates-vapor-cloud-at-attleboro-treatment-plant-worker-examined/article_ec668fc9-9239-537a-a9d2-15657ad66b77.html
Tags: us_MA, industrial, release, injury, water_treatment
ATTLEBORO — A city worker was examined by EMTs but did not require hospitalization after a chemical reaction caused a vapor cloud inside the city’s wastewater treatment plant early Sunday morning.
Firefighters responded to an alarm at the plant at 27 Pond St. North about 1:30 a.m. Sunday after a heat sensor activated when water mixed with lime, creating the cloud, District Fire Chief Charlie Moore said Monday.
Lime and water are used in the chemical treatment process at the plant, Moore said. The exact cause of the accident was not immediately known.
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FIVE PEOPLE BEING TREATED AFTER CHEMICAL SPILL AT CESSNOCK
https://www.2hd.com.au/2022/09/13/five-people-being-treated-after-chemical-spill-at-cessnock/
Tags: Australia, public, release, injury, unknown_chemical
Fire and Rescue NSW crews are on the scene of a chemical spill at a Subway store in Cessnock.
They were called to incident on Tuesday morning on Charlton Street and safely evacuated all staff.
NSW Ambulance say they are treating five people for sore throats as a result of the spill. No one has been transported to hospital yet.
The street is closed off and traffic is heavy along Vincent Street, due to the diversions in place.
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HAZMAT SCARE FORCES DOG DAYS OF BIRMINGHAM TO EVACUATE WORKERS, 26 DOGS
https://www.wvtm13.com/article/dog-days-birmingham-evacuate-hazmat/41168458
Tags: us_AL, public, release, injury, urethane
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. —
A suspicious smell forced Dog Days of Birmingham to evacuate the building Monday morning. Learn more in the video above.
Shortly after 8 a.m., Birmingham firefighters said they responded to a possible HAZMAT leak at the business on 18th Street North. Upon arriving, they learned two employees reported feeling ill.
At least 26 dogs had to be taken out of the building. Two dogs were taken to a local vet for treatment.
The source of the odor is believed to be a chemical reaction from polyurethane that was reportedly used by a contractor who refinished the floors earlier in the morning.
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EXPLOSION CATAPULTED MACHINERY THROUGH CHEMICAL FACTORY CEILING
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/explosion-catapulted-machinery-through-chemical-25000861
Tags: United_Kingdom, industrial, follow-up, environmental, hydrogen
A Widnes chemical manufacturer has been fined £120,000 after safety errors meant one of its chemical reactors exploded.
Pieces of heavy machinery were thrown as far as 25 metres away from CatAlloy’s premises after an explosion took place back in 2015.
The blast, later found to be caused due to a build up of hydrogen, meant the area around the business’s Moss Bank Road had to be cordoned off after it took place on December 3 of that year.
A judge at Liverpool Crown Court today said it was only good luck that no one was injured or killed after the explosion as he handed the company’s owners a hefty fine and ordered them to pay prosecution costs.
Nigel Lawrence KC, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court this morning that CatAlloy produces a nickel catalyst, a product required in chemical industries.
The chemical process used to create it takes place in a reactor and causes hydrogen to be produced, something which could be explosive in high amounts. To guard against the risk of a blast, nitrogen is supposed to be fed into the reactor. However, on the day of the explosion a series of failures meant this did not happen.
A large explosion then took place that morning, throwing pieces of equipment, some of which were as heavy as 184kgs, through the building’s ceiling. Some came to rest 20 to 25 metres away from the building.
No one was injured in the blast. However, a similar explosion in November 2011 saw one worker suffer minor injuries. A separate set of court proceedings following that explosion had concluded just three months before the second explosion and saw the business fined £80,000 and ordered to pay £80,000 in costs.
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