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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 (10 articles)
Date: Wed, 17 May 2017 07:53:27 -0400
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Message-ID: 819473AA-9E63-41A2-8D29-48D9B29E1DBF**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Wednesday, May 17, 2017 at 7:53:15 AM
A membership benefit of the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety
All article summaries and tags are archived at http://pinboard.in/u:dchas
Table of Contents (10 articles)
12 CHILDREN INJURED BY BLAST DURING SCIENCE EXPERIMENT IN WEST HOUSTON
Tags: us_tx, education, fire, injury, methanol
FRANKFORT STREET DEPT. LOOKING TO PREVENT FUTURE CHEMICAL INCIDENTS
Tags: us_ky, industrial, release, injury, hydrochloric_acid
VIENNA MAN TURNS UP AT HAZMAT SITE WITH 'LIVE' HAND GRENADE :: WRAL.COM
Tags: Austria, public, discovery, response, bomb, waste
FACT CHECK: WOULD BREAKING A VACCINE VIAL NECESSITATE EVACUATING A BUILDING?
Tags: public, discovery, environmental, mercury
OFFICER ACCIDENTALLY ODS; FIREFIGHTER SAYS IT'S A NEW TIME FOR E
Tags: us_OH, public, release, injury, clandestine_lab
HOW BADDI PHARMA WASTE CAN MAKE YOUR MEDICINES INEFFECTIVE
Tags: India, industrial, release, environmental, pharmaceutical
TWO MEN SUING STATE OVER AIR CORPS CHEMICAL EXPOSURE SAY THEY HAVE DEVELOPED CANCER
Tags: Ireland, industrial, discovery, environmental, toxics
HEAVY RAINS CAUSE CHEMICAL RUNOFF WORRIES FOR WATER COMPANIES
Tags: us_IN, public, discovery, response, pesticides, runoff
TRUMP'S EPA GREENLIGHTS A NASTY CHEMICAL. A MONTH LATER, IT POISONS A BUNCH OF FARMWORKERS.
Tags: us_CA, industrial, release, injury, pesticides
WORKER HOSPITALIZED AFTER OVERCOME BY CHEMICAL IN WEST CHARLOTTE
Tags: us_NC, industrial, release, injury, unknown_chemical
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12 CHILDREN INJURED BY BLAST DURING SCIENCE EXPERIMENT IN WEST HOUSTON
Tags: us_tx, education, fire, injury, methanol
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Several children were injured at a school on the west side after a science experiment gone wrong.
The accident happened at Yellow School - Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church just after noon.
According to the Memorial City Fire Department, preschool students at the 240 block of Blalock Road were conducting some type of science experiment outside when a flash blast occurred.
Of the 12 students who were injured, 11 of them suffered burns, one student was trampled and six of them were taken to the hospital. All of the students are 3 years old, a fire official said.
"It was an experiment that went wrong. There was a brief moment of flame and it was put out fairly quickly," church business administrator Bob Giles told ABC13.
As parents and grandparents picked up children who were not injured, some of the kids told Eyewitness News that they were involved in some type of color-changing fire experiment.
"Fire was changing colors and the last one wasn't working, so we put it a little bit more, and then it exploded," said Kate Earnest, a 5-year-old who was part of the group that participated in the experiment. "That's how the other kids got burned, and they were crying."
The victims were taken to Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital in the Texas Medical Center for treatment. Five of the children have been released, and one remains hospitalized in good condition.
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FRANKFORT STREET DEPT. LOOKING TO PREVENT FUTURE CHEMICAL INCIDENTS
Tags: us_ky, industrial, release, injury, hydrochloric_acid
FRANKFORT, Ind. - After a street sanitation worker was sent to the hospital to get treatment for exposure to a hazardous chemical, leaders with the city's street department want to stop future incidents from happening.
According to Frankfort Street Department superintendent Jason Forsythe, a worker was out on a trash route on Thursday when the crew used the on-board trash compactor and unknowingly had a bottle which contained muriatic acid, a less pure form of hydrochloric acid. The pressure from the compactor forced the bottle to burst and sprayed the worker in the face.
Forsythe said the worker had turned extremely red when the crew returned to the department's headquarters after the incident. "He started to burn and it took his breath away," he said.
The worker was forced to wash the acid off of him at the street department and then again when he was taken to the hospital.
"We unloaded to find out exactly what got him," Forsythe said. "We were able to find a bag in there that was actually smoking, we called the fire department and they came out with their hazmat on. We took a look, found the bottle and were able to get the label off. I took a picture of it and sent it to the mayor who was at the ER and got it hospital staff so they knew what to treat him with."
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VIENNA MAN TURNS UP AT HAZMAT SITE WITH 'LIVE' HAND GRENADE :: WRAL.COM
Tags: Austria, public, discovery, response, bomb, waste
VIENNA ‰?? A man in Vienna has turned up at a waste-disposal site with an apparently live World War II-era hand grenade.
That was too much to handle even for trash collectors specializing in environmentally dangerous materials. Police say employees at the site turned away the man, who then went to a police station and plonked the grenade on a desk.
A police statement Tuesday said officers there gingerly took it outside where it was taken away by de-mining specialists.
The statement says the unidentified man found the grenade Monday while clearing out a storage room.
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FACT CHECK: WOULD BREAKING A VACCINE VIAL NECESSITATE EVACUATING A BUILDING?
Tags: public, discovery, environmental, mercury
Historically, some vaccines and other injections have contained a mercury-based preservative called thimerosal. An early and scientifically unsubstantiated anti-vaccine talking talking point includes the claim that the compound‰??s presence in childhood vaccines is responsible for an increase in autism rates. The fact that autism rates are still climbing (despite the fact that childhood vaccines no longer contain this ingredient) has hindered this specific interpretation of thimerosal risk, but not its general use as a scare tactic.
Thimerosal is included in a handful of specific flu vaccine formulations packaged in multi-use vials; despite this, mercury from thimerosal is still frequently cited in efforts to make children‰??s vaccines sound like a health risk. A recent example of this guilt-by-spurious-association came from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a long-time sower of vaccine safety fears, who said on a 20 April 2017 appearance on ‰??Tucker Carlson Tonight‰??:
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OFFICER ACCIDENTALLY ODS; FIREFIGHTER SAYS IT'S A NEW TIME FOR E
Tags: us_OH, public, release, injury, clandestine_lab
EAST LIVERPOOL, OH (WOIO) -
An East Liverpool patrolman was recently rushed to the hospital after becoming exposed to fentanyl and carfentanil.
Chris Greene was obtaining evidence during a traffic stop when fentanyl attached to his shirt. Police say driver Justin Buckle and passenger Cortez Collins had tried to get rid of evidence in the car.
Even though Greene followed proper procedures, he accidentally overdosed on the opioid about an hour later. It took several rounds of Narcan to save him.
Officer accidentally overdoses during traffic stop
TJ Martin with the Parma Fire Department says this is a new time for police, fire, and rescue officials.
"He was in a situation (involving fentanyl) where no matter what, he was still getting infected," Martin said.
‰??Just out of instinct, he tried to brush it off -- not thinking‰??
Martin said it can just be about not breathing in smoke. Gloves and a mark with a face shield are now used in such situations. The new mask offers respiratory protection to some degree, as well as eye protection.
---------------------------------------------
HOW BADDI PHARMA WASTE CAN MAKE YOUR MEDICINES INEFFECTIVE
Tags: India, industrial, release, environmental, pharmaceutical
Spread over 380 square kilometres in Himachal Pradesh‰??s Solan district, the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) industrial area is one of India‰??s largest pharmaceutical manufacturing hubs. The region hosts around 500 small, medium and large pharma units and accounts for 35 per cent of Asia‰??s total medicine production. But rapid industrialisation and a lax attitude towards safe disposal and management of pharma waste have raised concerns about the effects of pollution on the environment and health.
The water of the Sirsa river, which flows downstream through Baddi, is black and emanates a foul odour. In Jharmajri village, which has the largest number of pharma units, resident Balvinder Thakur points to an open area where solid waste has been burnt. The burnt waste, which contains medicine wrappers, flows along with wastewater into a dirty canal nearby. ‰??All of this is going to the river,‰?? he says. Pharma manufacturing units are required to send their solid waste to the treatment, storage, and disposal facility (TSDF). But people in the area allege that pharma units sometimes do not comply with these norms. ‰??To cut down on costs, waste is given to scrap dealers who visit plants. They dump the waste in open areas or burn it,‰?? says J S Dukhiya, president, Him Parivesh Environment Protection Society, a non-profit based in Nalagarh.
Liquid waste from these units is also discharged through pipes and other outlets that open behind the plant or run underground and open into bushy areas. This released wastewater accumulates in or flows through nallahs, canals and rivulets into the Sirsa river. ‰??Effluents are also injected into the ground at night by digging bore wells or released during rains,‰?? says Balkrishna Sharma, another activist.
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TWO MEN SUING STATE OVER AIR CORPS CHEMICAL EXPOSURE SAY THEY HAVE DEVELOPED CANCER
Tags: Ireland, industrial, discovery, environmental, toxics
TWO OF THE men who are trying to take cases against the Air Corps over claims they were exposed to dangerous chemicals at Baldonnel Airfield say they have developed cancer since starting the litigation.
The men, who have been attempting to have their case heard since 2013, are just two of six people who have cases which are currently at the ‰??discovery‰?? phase.
One of the men was diagnosed with skin cancer last week. He says he has it in three places on his body ‰?? his head, arms and leg.
The other man says he was diagnosed with renal cancer in 2015. A tumour was discovered on his kidney after several visits to his doctor.
The men have maintained that their exposure to a number of chemicals at Baldonnel Airfield has led to them suffering from serious illnesses.
As reported by TheJournal.ie earlier this year, it has been claimed that long-term exposure to the substances led to cases of cancers, respiratory illnesses and mental health problems among members of the Defence Forces.
A new protected disclosure, also reported by this publication last week, alleged that a number of children of Air Corps staff have died as a result of being exposed to toxic chemicals.
---------------------------------------------
HEAVY RAINS CAUSE CHEMICAL RUNOFF WORRIES FOR WATER COMPANIES
Tags: us_IN, public, discovery, response, pesticides, runoff
At least one Indiana water company is warning its customers to be mindful of the chemicals they put on their lawns.
Indiana American Water issued a press release saying recent heavy rains have made it more likely that pesticides and other chemicals would flow from urban lawns into municipal sewer systems.
Once they get there, Office of the Indiana State Chemist pesticide administrator David Scott says they can be hard to treat ‰?? especially if the chemicals dissolve during heavy rains like Indiana has seen in recent weeks.
Scott admits farms are also a source of toxic runoff, and says he can‰??t say whether urban or rural land creates more pollution. But he says if lawn care companies are careless, they pose a significant threat.
---------------------------------------------
TRUMP'S EPA GREENLIGHTS A NASTY CHEMICAL. A MONTH LATER, IT POISONS A BUNCH OF FARMWORKERS.
Tags: us_CA, industrial, release, injury, pesticides
On May 5, more than 50 farmworkers outside of Bakersfield, California, were exposed to a highly toxic pesticide that apparently drifted from a nearby field‰??at a high enough level that "twelve people reported symptoms of vomiting [and] nausea and one person fainted," reports the television news station Kern Golden Empire. "An additional twelve workers did not show signs of any symptoms," the station reported. "However more than half of the farm workers left before medical aide arrived."
"Anybody that was exposed, that was here today, we encourage them to seek medical attention immediately," Kern County Public Health warned.
Public health authorities took the poisoning quite seriously. "Anybody that was exposed, that was here today, we encourage them to seek medical attention immediately. Don't wait. Particularly if you're suffering from any symptoms. Whether it's nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, seek medical attention immediately," Michelle Corson, public relations officer at Kern County Public Health, said in an announcement to the TV station.
According to the news report, the poisoning was caused by a chemical called chlorpyrifos. A spokeswoman for the Kern County Department of Public Health said the department assumes chlorpyrifos was the active ingredient in the pesticide in question, but the matter is still under investigation by the Kern County Department of Agriculture and Measurement Standards. A spokesman for that office said test results pinpointing the chemical are pending but would not be done for at least a week. Dow AgroSciences, one of the main makers of the chemical, did not respond to phone calls and emails.
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WORKER HOSPITALIZED AFTER OVERCOME BY CHEMICAL IN WEST CHARLOTTE
Tags: us_NC, industrial, release, injury, unknown_chemical
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - A worker was rushed to the hospital overnight after being overcome by a chemical at a west Charlotte business.
Officials told Channel 9 that the worker was cleaning a tank at Express Container Services on Tarheel Road around 3 a.m. when he fell ill.
It was not clear what the chemical was but emergency crews said the worker is expected to be OK.
OSHA will investigate to make sure the company followed proper procedures.
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