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Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2011 08:25:06 -0400
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From: Ralph Stuart <secretary**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
Subject: Chemical Safety headlines from Google
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A CRANBOURNE North resident cooking a box of chillis
in an electric wok caused a chemical emergency when neighbours were
overcome by fumes on Tuesday last week.
Five ambulances, a Cranbourne CFA unit and a Hazmat
response vehicle from Dandenong CFA were called to Lawless Drive when
about 10 residents were affected by the chilli fumes. The Hazmat unit
was unable to detect the cause of the fumes because it was organic so a
CFA crew was forced to rely on sniffing out the source.
Intensive
care paramedic David Llewelyn said an ambulance arrived just before
10.30pm to treat two men who were coughing and having trouble breathing,
and more ambulances arrived as the number of affected people
grew.
"We had up to 10 people who were coughing and were
dizzy and nauseated." He said the fumes reached houses up to 150 metres
away.
"We decided to do a doorknock of other homes to make
sure no one else had been overcome, while the CFA worked to find the
source of the fumes. It emerged someone was roasting strong chillies in
the backyard and that's what caused the fumes."
-----------------------
Hazmat
crews spent Saturday afternoon cleaning up a diesel fuel spill along the
west bank of the Susquehanna River.
Brown sludge could be seen
seeping from the bedrock for at least four miles along the shoreline,
from the intersection of Front and Market streets in East Pennsboro
Township, to the John Harris Bridge.
Cumberland County public
information officer John Bruetsch said the spill is the result of a
"fuel leak" from a piece of Norfolk Southern train equipment from tracks
near 4th Street that occurred late Tuesday evening.
-----------------------
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- A
tractor-trailer hauling 45,000 pounds of phosphoric acid flipped on the
ramp from eastbound Interstate 70 to northbound I-435 Saturday
morning.
The crash happened at 11:15
a.m. Rescue crews had to rescue the truck=92s driver by removing the
windshield of the truck, Kansas City, Kan., firefighters
said.
The driver refused medical
treatment, firefighters said.
Hazmat
crews were also dispatched to the wreck because it involved
acid.
-----------------------
Hamilton
International Airport president and chief executive officer Richard
Koroscil and Environment Hamilton officials agreed to share information
to determine where toxic contaminants are leaking from the airport and
into the Welland River tributary system.
The
verbal agreement was made April 22 after Dr. Joe Minor a biologist and
director of Environment Hamilton, revealed after a test on a sediment
sample taken near a water outflow near the airport beside Airport Road
found =93extremely=94 high levels of perfluorooctanesulfonic acid
(PFOS). Minor, who collected the one sample on April 9, and had it
tested by a private firm, Maxxam, found the sediment contained 170 parts
per billion of PFOS. Minor said the result is more than three times the
highest recorded levels in sediment that have been found in Lake
Ontario. It cost EH $300 to conduct the sample, said
Minor.
=93The PFOS contamination is coming off the airport
property is active as we speak,=94 said Minor, speaking to reporters at
the site of where he took the sample, with the airport property in the
background. =93This is an active and on-going spill.=94
-----------------------
A
chemical reaction Friday morning forced the temporary evacuation of the
Coats North America plant in Woodlawn.
Palmer
Morris, director of manufacturing at the thread finishing plant, said
the chemical reaction was caused by rainwater leaking into the plant=92s
chemical room. At 9 or 9:30 a.m., the rainwater got into a barrel of
sodium hydrosulfite, which is used in the dyeing process. The chemical
is stored in 35-gallon drums and the barrel contained 12 gallons of
sodium hydrosulfite.
=93A very small amount of water will cause the
chemical reaction,=94 said Morris. =93It smoked a little
bit.=94
The plant employees who were closest to the barrel
smelled the chemical as it reacted. They notified the department manager
and plant employees were moved away from that area of the building.
Members of Woodlawn-Sevier Volunteer Fire Department were called to the
scene. Firefighters consulted with plant managers, and it was decided
that the entire plant should be evacuated.
-----------------------
Fire crews are on the scene of a chemical plant in
Winton Hills, after battling a two-alarm fire.
The fire
started shortly before 1 p.m. at the Cognis plant, and is under control
at this time.
Scanner reports indicate that the building may contain
Methylate, a compound of methyl alcohol and a base.
The
Cincinnati Fire Department and The St. Bernard Fire Department are on
the scene at this time.
There's no word yet on the cause of the
fire, or the damages.
-----------------------
FRESH towels and massage oil have been identified as
the cause of a fire which ripped through one of the Swindon College
beauty training salons last week.
Fire crews were called to
the Pegasus tower in the college=92s North Star campus on April 12 after
reports of a blaze on the fifth floor of the six-storey
building.
Investigators have discovered that it started after a
batch of towels, which had been used for massage and had just been
washed and tumble-dried, were stacked in the corner of the
room.
Alan Harper, the group manager for the Swindon area of
Wiltshire fire and rescue service, was in charge of the investigation
and said unusual circumstances led to the fire.
=93The
cause of the fire was down to some of the oils which were used as part
of the health and beauty course,=94 he said.
=93One of
the oils, grape seed oil, which is part of the massage treatment, when
that is absorbed into the towels the oil itself can then go through an
oxidisation process which starts to self heat.
-----------------------
MOTORISTS hoping to get away for a long-weekend break
suffered long delays after a mysterious liquid was spotted on a
road.
Firefighters based in Whitefield, Blackley and
Ramsbottom were called to the eastbound M60 between junction 18 for Bury
and junction 19 for Middleton at just before 8.30pm on Thursday (April
20).
They discovered that an industrial vehicle had dropped
an unknown substance onto the road.
Police closed all three
lanes and diverted traffic via the M60 southbound near Heaton Park for
an hour until they concluded the chemical was not harmful and reopened
the road.
It caused tailbacks as far as junction 15 and delays
of up to two hours.
-----------------------
Millburn
Firefighters and Police, along with Essex County=92s Bomb Squad and
Nutley=92s Hazardous Materials team, called in the state Department of
Environmental Protection team on Friday night to test chemicals that had
leaked from cracked 50-year-old bottles in a Millburn
garage.
At about 9:30 p.m., DEP officials performed tests on
the chemicals and determined they did not pose a danger to the
homeowners or the neighborhood, but called in a contractor to have
them properly removed, said Millburn Fire Battalion Chief Robert
Eshavarria.
Phil Kirsch, the owner of the home on Cedar Street,
said the bottles have been in his garage for at least 50 years - ever
since his father, a scientist who is now 93, worked in pharmaceuticals
and brought them home.
-----------------------
ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The
release of a hazardous material inside Emcore Corporation Friday morning
brought fire units to the southeast Albuquerque plant and sent one
employee to a hospital.
The Albuquerque Fire Department reported a "small
amount of particulate metal" was released into the air about 11 a.m.
with two employees possibly inhaling the substance.
AFD
medics evaluated the two employees with one being sent to Lovelace
Hospital for observation.
The high-tech manufacturing plant at Eubank Boulevard
SE and Research Road produces components used with fiber optics and
solar photovoltaics..
-----------------------
Officials with the Coconino County Sheriff's Office
suspect a small methamphetamine lab was to blame for the wildfire
Wednesday east of A-1 Mountain.
A number
of materials associated with making the drug were found at the scene,
officials said.
At about 2 p.m. Wednesday, a
pilot flying a private plane spotted the fire burning near a Forest
Service road on state trust land and reported it to the Flagstaff
Airport control tower. Crews from the Coconino National Forest responded
to the area and were able to contain the fire to a
half-acre.
-----------------------
At the Czech plant in
Pardubice fragments of bodies have been recovered after the blast
there.
The incident occurred on Wednesday. Nitroglycerin
exploded at the chemical plant Explosia. 2 buildings were wiped out
entirely, 9 people were injured. 4 people, present at the chemical plant
at the time of the tragedy, are listed missing.
Police
will continue to search through the rubble at the epicenter of the
explosion. It is likely the death toll will
increase.
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