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From: "Secretary, ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety" <secretary**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety headlines from Google (8 articles)
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2016 07:29:05 -0400
Reply-To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Message-ID: 61810D17-3222-4FAF-A0A2-57DECFCFECC8**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Wednesday, June 22, 2016 at 7:28:55 AM
A membership benefit of the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety
All article summaries and tags are archived at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__pinboard.in_u-3Adchas&d=DQIFaQ&c=lb62iw4YL4RFalcE2hQUQealT9-RXrryqt9KZX2qu2s&r=meWM1Buqv4IQ27AlK1OJRjcQl09S1Zta6YXKalY_Io0&m=FkxjVJkaaUo4tesRxR_aZsWQ-GtoAilJL73onQArQyk&s=fRtrjcUMBJp-zIYYgbu5Y0_ohCHvMXRmS4N3ElCAef4&e=
Table of Contents (8 articles)
FIRE OFFICIALS STILL TRY TO IDENTIFY CHEMICAL UNEARTHED AT ELIZABETHTON CONSTRUCTION SITE
Tags: us_tn, industrial, fire, response, carbon_disulphide
CHEMICAL SPILL TAKES WORKER'S BREATH AWAY, OFFICIAL SAYS
Tags: us_pa, public, release, response, unknown_chemical
OBAMA TO SIGN TOXIC CHEMICAL RULES; 1ST OVERHAUL IN 40 YEARS
Tags: us, public, discovery, response
PRESSURE IS ON THE U.S. TO RELAX MARIJUANA"S LEGAL STATUS
Tags: us_CO, public, discovery, environmental
PCBS AND OTHER ORGANIC POLLUTANTS REACH THE DEEP OCEAN
Tags: public, discovery, environmental, other_chemical
SUSPECTED 180-YEAR-OLD VIAL OF POISON PROMPTS CHESTERFIELD HAZMAT RESPONSE
Tags: us_VA, public, release, response, strychnine
FIRE CODE LESSONS FROM WEST, TEXAS DISASTER
Tags: us_TX, industrial, follow-up, environmental, ammonium_nitrate
CRANE COLLAPSE AT EXXONMOBIL IN TORRANCE INJURES 3, CAUSE UNDISCLOSED
Tags: us_CA, industrial, release, response, flammables
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FIRE OFFICIALS STILL TRY TO IDENTIFY CHEMICAL UNEARTHED AT ELIZABETHTON CONSTRUCTION SITE
Tags: us_tn, industrial, fire, response, carbon_disulphide
ELIZABETHTON, TN (WJHL) " Elizabethton Fire officials are still trying to determine what chemical is in an unearth concrete vault. The vault was found on Monday while a construction crew was digging basements for upcoming apartments.
Chief Barry Carrier said that they believe the chemical is Carbon Disulfide which is highly flammable and can be explosive.
Crews covered the vault with dirt hoping to extinguish the fire, but when they uncovered it the fire came back.
Tuesday, officials said that they will let the chemical burn off before proceeding, also they have found a second vault near the site.
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CHEMICAL SPILL TAKES WORKER'S BREATH AWAY, OFFICIAL SAYS
Tags: us_pa, public, release, response, unknown_chemical
When an Easton city worker grabbed the bag Tuesday morning from the garbage can in the first block of North Third Street in Easton, the smell was intense.
He dropped the bag on the sidewalk next to a parking lot, but not before getting a whiff of what was inside.
"It took his breath away," an Easton fire official said. A compromised bottle in the bag left three yellow stains in the sidewalk.
The Easton Fire Department was called at 11:40 a.m.
A city firefighter put on a safety suit and moved the bag from the sidewalk into the street, the official said. The firefighter cut open the bag, but was not able to determine what kind of chemical was in the bottle.
Whatever was inside didn't spill much onto the street. There was a chemical odor several feet away, although a brisk wind was ventilating the area.
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OBAMA TO SIGN TOXIC CHEMICAL RULES; 1ST OVERHAUL IN 40 YEARS
Tags: us, public, discovery, response
President Barack Obama will sign into law the first overhaul of toxic chemical rules in 40 years while hailing a rare moment of cooperation between Republicans and Democrats.
Lawmakers from both parties planned to join Obama on Wednesday for the ceremony, along with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy, environmental advocates and industry groups that backed the legislation. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the bill, which passed with broad bipartisan support, was an outlier in a political climate in which the two parties agree on little.
"Any time you see Democrats and Republicans come together on a piece of legislation, it does reflect a measure of compromise, which means that there may be some people who will criticize it because it's not perfect," Earnest said.
In addition to updating rules for tens of thousands of everyday chemicals used in household cleaners, clothing and furniture, the bill also sets safety standards for dangerous chemicals like formaldehyde, asbestos and styrene. The goal is to standardize on the national level what is currently a jumble of state rules governing the $800 billion-per-year industry.
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PRESSURE IS ON THE U.S. TO RELAX MARIJUANA"S LEGAL STATUS
Tags: us_CO, public, discovery, environmental
The legal marić-juana industry in Colorado is fed up with state and local government officials seizing and destroying their crops and marić-juana-infused products. The state has seen dozens of recalls of contaminated pot this year, triggered by positive tests for pesticides banned for use on marić-juana in Colorado.
Businesses say they have no way to challenge the test results before their products are removed from commerce. Two Denver-based businesses"EdiPure, which sells marić-juana-infused edibles, and Organa Labs, which makes marić-juana products for vaping"are appealing recalls by the city of Denver. They claim that the city relied on shoddy tests results from an uncertified laboratory.
The tension between businesses and state and local officials over pesticides on marić-juana has been growing rapidly since the governor of Colorado declared last year in an executive order that marić-juana contaminated with unlawful pesticides "constitutes a threat to the public safety."
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PCBS AND OTHER ORGANIC POLLUTANTS REACH THE DEEP OCEAN
Tags: public, discovery, environmental, other_chemical
Persistent organic pollutants extend 2,500 m deep in the Atlantic Ocean, but at concentrations not acutely toxic to deep-sea organisms
Oceanographers lower a polyethylene sampler (enclosed in metal cage) attached to a mooring (orange) into the waters of the north Atlantic. With the samplers, the scientists have confirmed that persistent organic pollutants contaminate the deep ocean.
Ocean pollution isn"t just a plastic problem. An alphabet soup of persistent organic pollutants"including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) used as flame retardants, and more"are carried by the wind and rivers into the ocean. A new study bolsters findings from scant prior sampling showing that these compounds have penetrated deeper than 2,000 m below the surface (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2016, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b05891).
To gauge the impact of these pollutants on marine life, oceanographers want to know their abundance, how widely they are distributed, and how they get there. But it"s a challenge to measure them at sea because the pollutants have relatively low concentrations, demanding careful sampling techniques and precautions to avoid contamination. The research cruises required to take these open ocean samples are also very expensive. Until now, there have been only three studies of persistent organic pollutants in the deep ocean, at just a few different sites. Given how big the ocean is, there"s a lot of missing information, says Rainer Lohmann of the University of Rhode Island.
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SUSPECTED 180-YEAR-OLD VIAL OF POISON PROMPTS CHESTERFIELD HAZMAT RESPONSE
Tags: us_VA, public, release, response, strychnine
CHESTERFIELD, Va. (WRIC) " A woman is under arrest in Chesterfield after a bizarre incident involving an alleged vial of poison from the 1830s.
Officers responded to a report of a domestic dispute involving a vehicle around 11 a.m. Monday. Officers located the vehicle and after a short pursuit were able to stop the driver on Club Terrace Lane.
The adult female suspect struggled with officers at that location, and during the struggle, a vial of what Chesterfield Police said was believed to be a vial of strychnine from the 1830s fell onto the ground and broke.
Chesterfield hazardous materials teams responded to the scene out of caution and decontaminated the suspect and several officers who may have come into contact with the substance. A male child who was in the vehicle was also decontaminated before being released to a guardian.
The suspect was taken into custody. Charges are pending.
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FIRE CODE LESSONS FROM WEST, TEXAS DISASTER
Tags: us_TX, industrial, follow-up, environmental, ammonium_nitrate
A fire at the West Fertilizer Co. facility wreaked tragic havoc in West, Texas on April 17, 2013, when it set off ammonium nitrate fertilizer explosions. A dozen first responders and three others died, more than 250 people were injured, and a large section of the north side of the town of 2,500 people was damaged.
The comprehensive post-disaster analysis by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board questions if the McClennan County facility could have been subject to locally adopted codes. The Texas Local Government Code limits rural counties with populations less than 250,000 from adopting and enforcing fire codes.
Yet, population level wasn't a good determinant for the need of codes in this case.
An estimated 40 to 60 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer was stored at West Fertilizer. In comparison, the truck bomb that leveled the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, carried 4,800 pounds of ammonium nitrate.
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CRANE COLLAPSE AT EXXONMOBIL IN TORRANCE INJURES 3, CAUSE UNDISCLOSED
Tags: us_CA, industrial, release, response, flammables
A 300-ton crane collapsed at the ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance Monday morning hitting a piece of equipment, slightly hurting three workers, and causing flammable-vapor releases that were quickly subdued, officials said.
The incident came as the company is completing final repairs to make the refinery fully functioning before ownership is transferred to PBF Energy, which agreed to purchase the plant last year for $537.5 million as long as all damage is repaired from a February 2015 explosion there. Despite Monday"s incident, the sale is still expected to be finalized this summer, according to an ExxonMobil statement.
Torrance Fire Department was called to the refinery, located at 190th Street and Crenshaw Boulevard, at about 9:30 a.m., said Battalion Chief Bob Millea. There, 27 firefighters assisted ExxonMobil officials in suppressing escaped flammable vapors and hydrocarbons. Within two hours, the incident was described as "static" and firefighters left.
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