Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Monday, November 28, 2022 at 6:31:29 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 (5 articles)
SIDNEY FIREFIGHTERS CALLED TO HAZMAT/EXPLOSION HAZARD
Tags: us_NE, transportation, discovery, response, bomb
MSME MINISTRY ASKS ASSOCIATIONS TO CREATE AWARENESS ON INTER...
Tags: India, industrial, discovery, environmental, petroleum
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA STRIKE IMPACTS CHEMISTS
Tags: us_CA, laboratory, discovery, environmental
FIRE CREWS SAVE ST MARYS RECYCLING PLANT – THE WESTERN WEEKENDER
Tags: Australia, industrial, fire, response, waste
TOXIC WHANGāREI HARBOUR CHEMICAL SPILL WON’T HAPPEN AGAIN
Tags: New_Zealand, industrial, follow-up, environmental, illegal, petroleum
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SIDNEY FIREFIGHTERS CALLED TO HAZMAT/EXPLOSION HAZARD
https://panhandle.newschannelnebraska.com/story/47793669/firefighters-called-to-hazmatexplosion-hazard
Tags: us_NE, transportation, discovery, response, bomb
Sidney first responders were called to a possible hazardous materials/explosion hazard south of Sidney Sunday morning, Nov. 27.
Firefighters, first responders and law enforcement were called to the 1400 block of Cheyenne County Road 113, near Sidney Municipal Airport, at about 9:45 a.m.
The call was in relation to a resident finding some old railroad "torpedo" devices that had crystallized. The Scottsbluff Bomb Squad was also called to the scene.
Sidney firefighters returned to the firehouse by 10:30 a.m.
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MSME MINISTRY ASKS ASSOCIATIONS TO CREATE AWARENESS ON INTER...
https://menafn.com/1105233787/MSME-Ministry-Asks-Associations-To-Create-Awareness-On-International-Chemical-Safety-Cards
Tags: India, industrial, discovery, environmental, petroleum
New Delhi, Nov 25 (KNN) The Ministry of MSME has asked MSME Associations to circulate the Information regarding the International Chemical Safety Cards (lCSCs).
A MoU has been signed by the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals with International Labour Organization (ILO) to adopt the ICSCs to disseminate appropriate hazard information on chemicals at the work place.
In the Chemicals and Petrochemicals sector, MSME sector plays key role in making Indian chemical industry Aatma Nirbhar.
The diversification within the chemical industry is large and covers more than eighty thousand commercial products in which large number of MSME units arc operating and handling the chemicals.
ICSCs are data sheets intended to provide essential safety and health information on chemicals concisely.
The primary aim of the Cards is to promote the safe use of chemicals in the workplace and main target users are workers and those responsible for occupational safety and health.
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA STRIKE IMPACTS CHEMISTS
https://cen.acs.org/education/graduate-education/University-California-strike-impacts-chemists/100/i42
Tags: us_CA, laboratory, discovery, environmental
Graduate students and postdoctoral researchers at all 10 University of California (UC) campuses are on strike, a move that is impacting many chemists and chemistry departments.
The strike, which began Nov. 14, is over alleged unfair labor practices by UC, which the union representing the students and postdocs says is not negotiating new contracts in good faith. The larger issues underlying the contract negotiations center on wages and benefits for UC’s graduate students, teaching assistants, postdocs, and academic researchers, who fuel much of the UC system’s research and teaching. The union, the United Auto Workers, represents 48,000 academic workers on the campuses, making the strike the largest in higher education in US history.
“Clearly, 48,000 people across the state are really fired up about this,” says Khalid Mahmood, a chemistry graduate student at UC Berkeley.
Mahmood, who lives with six roommates, says that 40% of his income goes toward rent. In addition, there is little consistency in salary between departments or even from semester to semester. “We really care about our research, but we want the contributions that we make to the university to be reflected in our compensation,” he says.
So far, effects on departments are unclear. At UC Irvine, Chemistry Department chair Douglas J. Tobias says the effect on classes appears highly variable. “In some cases, it’s had a major impact, whereas in other cases, it’s had zero impact,” he says. But Tobias says he isn’t allowed to ask faculty members whether their students are teaching or coming to the lab, and faculty can’t ask students anything about the strike, in order to avoid the perception of intimidation. That has made responding to the strike difficult, he says.
The union has already filed a complaint against Tobias for sending an email telling students that they are expected to continue attending classes and doing their research in their role as students; the email was based on information he received from the university administration. A similar complaint has been filed against UC San Diego’s chemistry department.
Graduate students and postdocs in the US have been increasingly discontent with their salaries and benefits. While this strike isn’t the first, it is particularly important, says Holden Thorp, editor in chief of the Science family of journals and a former university administrator. “You’ve got 10 of the most powerful research universities in the world, all dealing with this at the same time.”
The strike reflects how the US research system is designed to rely on graduate students and postdocs, Thorp says. Research labs keep getting bigger, especially in the life sciences, but there aren’t enough jobs in science for all those future professionals, he adds. The growing frustration means that “the workforce is not going to be there if these things don’t get straightened out,” Thorp says.
Hannah Freund, a bioinformatics graduate student at UC Riverside, says they were fearful when they first heard about the strike because, like many of their colleagues, they cannot afford to stop working. It helped to know that striking workers would get some compensation from the UAW, but the the longer-term concerns over wages and benefits are what really drove Freund to join the picket lines. The union is also asking for childcare for academic workers with dependents, public transportation subsidies, and protections against bullying and harassment.
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FIRE CREWS SAVE ST MARYS RECYCLING PLANT – THE WESTERN WEEKENDER
https://westernweekender.com.au/2022/11/fire-crews-save-st-marys-recycling-plant/
Tags: Australia, industrial, fire, response, waste
Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) crews have extinguished a fire which threatened to destroy a chemical recycling plant in St Marys overnight.
More than 50 firefighters and 12 FRNSW trucks attacked the blaze, which broke out on Christie Street in St Marys just before 9pm on Thursday, November 24.
A 30 cubic metre hook bin and stacks of bulk containers, holding chemical waste, were engulfed in flames.
The fire began to spread towards the storage warehouse, with six LPG-powered forklifts parked on the other side of the wall closest to the fire.
FRNSW crews battled for more than an hour to bring the blaze under control, stopping it from reaching the building and the hazardous chemicals inside.
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TOXIC WHANGāREI HARBOUR CHEMICAL SPILL WON’T HAPPEN AGAIN
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/toxic-whangarei-harbour-chemical-spill-wont-happen-again-channel-infrastructure/LWZUUBCRU5BQ5NKWA6U7VRG4BY/
Tags: New_Zealand, industrial, follow-up, environmental, illegal, petroleum
The Northland company fined $169,000 after toxic firefighting foam used at the former Marsden Pt Oil Refinery leaked into Whangārei Harbour says it no longer uses the banned foam and the situation won’t happen again.
Channel Infrastructure, the company that replaced Refining NZ when the refinery closed this year, received the fine when it was sentenced in the Whangārei Court on charges of discharging contaminants, in breach of the Resource Management Act.
The firefighting foam that had been banned from use in training exercises was used multiple times at Marsden Point Oil Refinery, with foam ending up in Whangārei Harbour.
The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) laid seven charges against the company, formerly the New Zealand Refining Company Limited, under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act and a further seven charges under the RMA.
Channel Infrastructure entered guilty pleas to all 14 charges, which relate to the prohibited use and unauthorised discharge of firefighting foam containing per-and-polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on seven separate occasions in May and June 2021.
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