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Previous by Date: Subject: [DCHAS-L] Free link to all ACS papers on coronavirus Date: Wednesday, March 11, 2020 at 8:33:44 AM Author: Dr Bob <drbob**At_Symbol_Here**FLOWSCIENCES.COM> |
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Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Wednesday, March 11, 2020 at 8:34:48 AM
A service of the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety
Connecting Chemistry and Safety at http://www.dchas.org
All article summaries and tags are archived at http://pinboard.in/u:dchas
Table of Contents (13 articles)
WHO DUMPED EXPLOSIVE STUFF NEAR BANGALORE DAIRY?
Tags: India, education, follow-up, injury, waste
FDA SAYS CHEMICAL REPLACEMENTS FOR PFOA, PFOS MORE TOXIC THAN THOUGHT
Tags: public, discovery, environmental
ONE DEAD, 13 INJURED IN EXPLOSION AT BARCELONA CHEMICAL PLANT
Tags: Spain, industrial, explosion, death, unknown_chemical
MOBILE EMS RESPOND TO CHEMICAL SPILL IN PRICHARD
Tags: us_AL, public, release, injury, unknown_chemical
INDUSTRIAL CHEMIST ALESSANDRO AGOSTI SAYS QUALITY PRODUCTS COME FROM CONTROLLED, SAFE PROCESSES
Tags: Italy, laboratory, discovery, response, pharmaceutical
WHAT IS AN ALLERGY SENSITIZER, AND HOW DOES A CHEMICAL BECOME ONE?
Tags: us_CA, laboratory, discovery, injury, flammables, irritant
‰??WEAK ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT‰?? LED TO COLUMBIA GAS DISASTER, FEDERAL PROSECUTORS SAY
Tags: us_MA, public, follow-up, death, illegal, natural_gas
MACHINE FIRE EVACUATES EMPLOYEES
Tags: us_IN, industrial, fire, response, sulphur
3 INJURED IN KOKERNAG GAS CYLINDER EXPLOSION
Tags: India, education, explosion, injury, gas_cylinders
MYSTERIOUS BLAST IN ARMY AMMUNITION DEPOT KHUNDRU
Tags: India, laboratory, explosion, death, unknown_chemical
6 STEPS TO CHANGE: INFLUENCING FIREFIGHTERS‰?? PERCEPTIONS OF PPE USE AND CARE
Tags: industrial, follow-up, environmental, toxics
'SMALL FIRE' AT NOVA CORUNNA SUNDAY
Tags: Canada, industrial, fire, response, unknown_chemical
U.S. CHEMICAL SAFETY BOARD STILL GETTING WORK DONE DESPITE A LACK OF MEMBERS
Tags: public, discovery, environmental
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WHO DUMPED EXPLOSIVE STUFF NEAR BANGALORE DAIRY?
https://www.deccanherald.com/metrolife/metrolife-your-bond-with-bengaluru/who-dumped-explosive-stuff-near-bangalore-dairy-812436.html
Tags: India, education, follow-up, injury, waste
On Sunday, Narasimhaiah, housekeeping employee at a college hostel, was looking through a heap of garbage in Chandrappa Layout when something exploded.
The area is close to Bangalore Diary and Mico, off an arterial road connecting south Bengaluru. Police later said it was a chemical blast. Many neighbours witnessed the incident. They say the blast was loud and scary.
Narasimhaiah (52) was rushed to Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, near NIMHANS, for treatment. Metrolife visited the hospital on Monday, and found he was being treated in the ICU.
The blast site is not a regular garbage dumping spot. A heap appeared only two weeks ago after a building was demolished to make way for Metro work.
Vijaya, living in a house near the blast site, told this reporter debris from the demolished building was partly cleared, and what had been left behind had turned into a garbage dump.
‰??People started throwing waste here. We saw Narasimhaiah sifting through this debris. He had already picked up some cartons and tied them together,‰?? she says.
She then saw him pick up a large plastic bag and fill it with plastic bottles and covers. He took a stick and was poking the garbage when something exploded.
‰??The next thing I saw was that smoke was billowing. We rushed to see him lying in a pool of blood with his leg separated from his body,‰?? recalls Vijaya.
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FDA SAYS CHEMICAL REPLACEMENTS FOR PFOA, PFOS MORE TOXIC THAN THOUGHT
http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2020/03/10/fda-says-chemical-replacements-for-pfoa-pfos-more-toxic-than-thought/
Tags: public, discovery, environmental
The chemical structure of 6:2 FTOH (Illustration: ChemSpider)
In 2006, when 3M and DuPont, under legal and regulatory pressure, began phasing out their production of two types of perfluorinated compounds ‰?? PFOA and PFOS ‰?? the companies had a backup plan: By reducing the number of fluorinated carbon molecules from eight to six or fewer, they could produce new chemicals that would ostensibly be safer than their longer carbon-chain counterparts.
GenX, for example, is a short-chain perfluorinated compound.
But two new FDA studies show that theory isn‰??t true. The results were recently published in peer-reviewed, independent journals Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology and Food and Chemical Toxicology The Environmental Working Group announced the results of the studies.
The compound in question, 6:2 FTOH is widespread in the environment. It is present in fast food packaging, stain- and water-resistant consumer products, fire-fighting foam ‰?? even nap mats at child-care centers.. The general population is exposed to the compound by inhaling it, such as in indoor dust, and eating food packaged in materials containing the compound.
FDA researchers found that 6:2 FTOH is toxic. It builds up in the liver and fatty tissues of rats, persisting for roughly the equivalent of a year in humans.
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ONE DEAD, 13 INJURED IN EXPLOSION AT BARCELONA CHEMICAL PLANT
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spain-blast-barcelona/one-dead-13-injured-in-explosion-at-barcelona-chemical-plant-idUSKBN20X21G
Tags: Spain, industrial, explosion, death, unknown_chemical
BARCELONA (Reuters) - One person died and 13 others were injured in an explosion on Tuesday at a small chemical plant in Barcelona, local emergency services in Catalonia‰??s regional capital said.
There was no health risk to the residents of La Verneda neighborhood where the plant was located, said a Barcelona city government spokeswoman.
Officials were checking with the plant owners to determine what type of products exploded. Debris from the blast, including bolts, was visible on a nearby street, footage from local channel Beteve showed.
The plant is run by a firm named Proquibasa, the spokeswoman added. Proquibasa describes itself in its LinkedIN profile as one of the leading Spanish-based distributors of commodity and specialty chemicals.
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MOBILE EMS RESPOND TO CHEMICAL SPILL IN PRICHARD
https://www.al.com/news/mobile/2020/03/mobile-ems-respond-to-chemical-spill-in-prichard.html
Tags: us_AL, public, release, injury, unknown_chemical
Hazmat units were sent out to a residence on St. Stephens Road and West Clark Avenue in Prichard due to an chemical spill Tuesday afternoon.
According to the Mobile Fire-Rescue Department, the chemical spill was a result of a car accident that occurred near the residence. The chemical has been identified as tal oil, which is considered to not be dangerous.
A 56-year-old woman was transported to the hospital suffering from burn injuries. They are considered to be non-life threatening injuries.
---------------------------------------------
INDUSTRIAL CHEMIST ALESSANDRO AGOSTI SAYS QUALITY PRODUCTS COME FROM CONTROLLED, SAFE PROCESSES
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.chas.0c00021
Tags: Italy, laboratory, discovery, response, pharmaceutical
Integrating process safety values into organic chemical manufacturing guides Alessandro Agosti‰??s work each day. He is the head of process safety and reaction scale-up at Olon, an Italy based manufacturer of pharmaceutical chemicals.
Olon‰??s chemists, engineers, and process safety experts help pharmaceutical companies bridge the gap from research and development to manufacturing. Agosti is an organic chemist by training, and his role is to determine how pharmaceutical companies can smoothly and safely transition to plant-scale production of new chemicals.
Efficiency, high-quality products, and safe manufacturing methods go together, he says. An unsafe process is wasteful and expensive, a maxim he stresses as he scales up production for client companies.
---------------------------------------------
WHAT IS AN ALLERGY SENSITIZER, AND HOW DOES A CHEMICAL BECOME ONE?
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.chas.0c00025
Tags: us_CA, laboratory, discovery, injury, flammables, irritant
Kate McKnelly expects to finish up her PhD this summer, but she isn‰??t allowed to set foot in her laboratory at the University of California, Irvine. That‰??s because she is effectively allergic to the building.
She had been handling peptide coupling agents for years when in 2018 she started to develop a severe and potentially life-threatening reaction to three of them: HATU, HBTU, and HCTU. While HATU and HBTU were already known to cause allergic reactions, McKnelly‰??s case appears to be the first to involve HCTU as an allergy sensitizer.
‰??If you look at a chemical label and it says ‰??Flammable,‰?? then you know to be really careful. Or if it‰??s a carcinogen, then you know it can cause cancer. You have a good grasp on what those words mean,‰?? McKnelly says. ‰??Sensitizer is a more nebulous term.‰??
Sensitizers are chemicals with the potential to become allergens. It‰??s hard to predict which chemicals will be sensitizers, who is likely to be vulnerable to them, and how much exposure will induce a reaction. Consequently, working safely in a lab means handling known sensitizers and chemically similar compounds cautiously to minimize exposure.
---------------------------------------------
‰??WEAK ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT‰?? LED TO COLUMBIA GAS DISASTER, FEDERAL PROSECUTORS SAY
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/09/metro/weak-engineering-management-led-columbia-gas-disaster-federal-prosecutors-say/
Tags: us_MA, public, follow-up, death, illegal, natural_gas
Columbia Gas of Massachusetts on Monday formally took blame for failing to safeguard against overpressurization that it long knew could lead to ‰??a dangerous and catastrophic‰?? event like the explosions that rocked the Merrimack Valley in 2018 ‰?? and killed an 18-year-old.
Columbia president Mark Kempic took the witness stand in US District Court, swore an oath, and told the judge he was pleading guilty to a criminal felony charge, on behalf of the company, because it was guilty of reckless disregard and flagrant indifference to minimum safety standards.
The guilty plea, along with a $53 million fine and a promise to leave the state were among the conditions of a negotiated plea bargain designed to bring legal resolution to a community still reeling from the disaster.
Leonel Rondon, 18, was killed in the blasts that overtook Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover in September 2018.
Flames and explosions forced residents and business owners from their properties; 131 buildings were destroyed.
---------------------------------------------
MACHINE FIRE EVACUATES EMPLOYEES
https://www.wibc.com/news/local-indiana/machine-fire-evacuates-employees/
Tags: us_IN, industrial, fire, response, sulphur
INDIANAPOLIS- Early Monday morning a machine caught fire at Thomas & Skinner Inc.
IFD says a furnace machine containing liquid sulfur sparked inside the magnetic materials company.
25 employees were evacuated. No injuries reported.
The 104-year-old Thomas and Skinner Metals is located at 1120 E 23rd Street.
---------------------------------------------
3 INJURED IN KOKERNAG GAS CYLINDER EXPLOSION
https://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/kashmir/3-injured-in-kokernag-gas-cylinder-explosion/
Tags: India, education, explosion, injury, gas_cylinders
Three employees of a government-run school were injured in an accidental gas cylinder blast in Larnoo village of Kokernag in this South Kashmir district on Monday.
A police official said the cylinder, used for cooking midday meals, exploded when a cook switched on its burner. He said three employees sustained burn injuries in the incident.
‰??The police party reached the school soon and shifted the injured to nearby health facility for treatment,‰?? the official said. The injured were identified as Mumtaza Banoo, Haseena Banoo and Sajad Ahmad Bhat ‰?? all residents of Larnoo.
---------------------------------------------
MYSTERIOUS BLAST IN ARMY AMMUNITION DEPOT KHUNDRU
https://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/front-page-2/mysterious-blast-in-army-ammunition-depot-khundru/
Tags: India, laboratory, explosion, death, unknown_chemical
A mysterious blast inside the army‰??s 21 Field Ammunition Depot (FAD) in Khundru area of this south Kashmir district on Monday killed two labourers and wounded two others.
A police official said the blast took place in the ammunition technical area laboratory of the camp.
‰??Two labourers received splinter injuries and were immediately shifted to military health facility but they succumbed. The two others after being given initial treatment were shifted to Government Medical College (GMC) Anantnag for specialized treatment,‰?? he said.
---------------------------------------------
6 STEPS TO CHANGE: INFLUENCING FIREFIGHTERS‰?? PERCEPTIONS OF PPE USE AND CARE
https://www.firechief.com/fire-products/personal-protective-equipment-ppe/articles/6-steps-to-change-influencing-firefighters-perceptions-of-ppe-use-and-care-EEfDuL0nJurf8zGP/
Tags: industrial, follow-up, environmental, toxics
In ‰??Firefighter PPE compliance: How to achieve buy-in,‰?? I wrote about how a systematic approach that creates a ‰??new normal‰?? within the department is critical to firefighter commitment when it comes to keeping PPE clean to reduce the risk from toxic chemicals, chemical compounds and carcinogens found in today‰??s structure fires. But there‰??s more to that process than meets the eye, and that‰??s what I‰??m going discuss in this article: how to create a new normal in your fire department regarding PPE decontamination and other mitigation measures after a fire.
In the study ‰??The Invisible Danger of Bunker Gear Transfer,‰?? the researchers affirm that after exposure to the toxic mix of chemicals, chemical compounds and carcinogens present in today‰??s structure fires, firefighters can absorb them through skin contact or inhale them as they off-gas. Further, the industry‰??s increased awareness of these risks has caused fire department leaders to create policies and practices focused on gear cleaning and decontamination processes to decrease risk; however, such efforts are in their infancy in many departments and tend to be somewhat piecemeal in nature.
This second point is of particular note, as this has been the fire service ‰??standard‰?? approach to any problem: We become aware of the problem; figure out why it‰??s a problem; develop a training program to make everyone aware of the problem; write a policy or procedure to tell everyone how to avoid the problem. The end.
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'SMALL FIRE' AT NOVA CORUNNA SUNDAY
https://blackburnnews.com/sarnia/sarnia-news/2020/03/09/small-fire-nova-corunna-sunday/
Tags: Canada, industrial, fire, response, unknown_chemical
NOVA Chemicals has reported what it calls a small fire at its Corunna facility Sunday.
Spokesperson Meaghan Lawrence said on-site personnel responded, contained the fire immediately and the event was resolved quickly.
Lawrence said there were no additional impacts.
She said ‰??out of an abundance of caution,‰?? the Chemical Valley Emergency Coordinating Organization (CVECO) was notified as part of the company‰??s emergency response protocol.
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U.S. CHEMICAL SAFETY BOARD STILL GETTING WORK DONE DESPITE A LACK OF MEMBERS
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2020/03/u-s-chemical-safety-board-still-getting-work-done-despite-a-lack-of-members/
Tags: public, discovery, environmental
Not even many feds may be aware of the small, independent U.S. Chemical Safety Board. It has a critical mission, investigating industrial chemical accidents. The board has had a somewhat rocky time over the past few years. Critics say it‰??s understaffed. But recently it got a crucial rule out the door. For an update, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke to the board‰??s interim executive, Kristen Kulinowski.
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