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From: DCHAS Secretary <secretary**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety headlines from Google (11 articles)
Date: Mon, 7 Nov 2016 05:27:48 -0500
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Message-ID: CB5B49C3-DBA8-4A26-8866-AADA33AF0D97**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Monday, November 7, 2016 at 5:27:22 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 (11 articles)
SMALL SPILL INTO GRAND RIVER IN PORTLAND CONTAINED
Tags: us_MI, public, release, response, petroleum
DEFENCE DEPARTMENT CONFIRMS TOXIC CHEMICAL CONTAMINATION AT TWO NT SITES
Tags: Australia, public, discovery, environmental, toxics
PREVENTING FACTORY EXPLOSIONS BY (SAFELY) BLOWING STUFF UP
Tags: us_MA, industrial, discovery, environmental, dust
BOMB SQUADS CALLED IN TO BLOW UP CHEMICALS AT MIDLAND SCHOOLS
Tags: United_Kingdom, laboratory, discovery, response, explosives, hydrazine
FIRE DEPARTMENT SAYS LEAKING GAS CANISTER CAUSED SMALL EXPLOSION, HOUSE FIRE
Tags: us_MI, public, explosion, response, butane, flammables
ROADS REOPEN AFTER CHEMICAL SPILL CRASH SHUT DOWN CONROY ROAD NEAR I-4 WEST ONRAMP
Tags: us_FL, transportation, release, injury, chlorine, hydrochloric_acid
CLASSYFIRE: AUTOMATED CHEMICAL CLASSIFICATION WITH A COMPREHENSIVE, COMPUTABLE TAXONOMY
Tags: Canada, laboratory, discovery, environmental
HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCE CONTROL WORKSHOP ‰?? MITIGATE CHEMICAL RISK AND MEET BRANDS‰?? EXPECTATIONS
Tags: industrial, discovery, response, unknown_chemical
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION UNDERWAY IN TOXIC CHEMICAL RELEASE
Tags: us_CO, public, discovery, environmental, toxics
ADVISORS WARN NASA ABOUT SPACEX PLANS TO FUEL ROCKETS WITH PEOPLE ON BOARD
Tags: us_TX, industrial, follow-up, environmental, other_chemical
CHEMICAL REACTION PROMPTS HAZMAT RESPONSE
Tags: us_MA, industrial, fire, response, epoxy, resin
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SMALL SPILL INTO GRAND RIVER IN PORTLAND CONTAINED
Tags: us_MI, public, release, response, petroleum
PORTLAND, Mich. (WOOD) ‰?? Emergency responders on Sunday contained a small chemical spill into the Grand River in Portland.
Around 2:30 p.m., crews were called to the area near the intersection of E. Grand River Avenue and Maple Street downtown on a report of a discolored sheen in river.
Authorities say only about a gallon of chemicals made into the river. Crews put a boom into the water to soak up the substance.
A boom soaks up a small chemical spill in the Grand River in Portland. (Nov. 6, 2016)
‰??This product stayed on top of the water. Some products go below, some stay above. This stayed on top which makes it a lot easier for us to contain it. The (boom) sock goes around that. The sock‰??s made of absorbent material so what it will do is it will absorb the product and within the next day or two the product will be gone,‰?? Portland Fire Chief John Baker said.
Authorities say there is no threat to the river or public.
The LookingGrand Cafe & Bakery in Portland. (Nov. 6, 2016)
Authorities say the chemicals came from the nearby LookingGrand Cafe & Bakery, where the owner has been doing some roof work in the past few months. The owner cleaned paint brushes using some kind of chemical in buckets, which he then poured down the roof drain, not realizing it would go straight to the river.
It‰??s not yet known exactly what kind of chemicals were involved, but the fire chief said he believes they were petroleum-based.
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DEFENCE DEPARTMENT CONFIRMS TOXIC CHEMICAL CONTAMINATION AT TWO NT SITES
Tags: Australia, public, discovery, environmental, toxics
At least two sites around RAAF Base Tindal near Katherine in the Northern Territory have tested positive for toxic chemicals following the historic use of firefighting foams, with the Defence Department to launch a detailed study early next year to determine the breadth of the contamination.
Key points:
Defence says at least two sites around Katherine have tested positive for contamination
One household has applied to be supplied with alternate drinking water
Preliminary report results will be made public by end of November
A detailed NT study will begin in early 2017
A dozen military bases around Australia have been the subject of testing after it was revealed that firefighting foams previously used by Defence contained per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
Preliminary test results in the NT were due to be released in September, but residents are still waiting to find out what the long-term effects of their exposure might be.
Rear Admiral Clint Thomas told the ABC that Defence's report on the initial testing would be released by the end of November.
---------------------------------------------
PREVENTING FACTORY EXPLOSIONS BY (SAFELY) BLOWING STUFF UP
Tags: us_MA, industrial, discovery, environmental, dust
Q. What is FM Global, and what do you do there?
A. We‰??re a commercial property insurance company. My area is explosions that affect industries including chemical, petrochemical, food and semiconductors. I blow things up to try to predict and prevent explosions. I also test products designed to prevent explosions and make recommendations on how clients can avoid risks. My office is in Norwood, Mass., and our research facility is in West Gloucester, R.I.
What do you blow up?
Anything that produces combustible dust, which includes many everyday items such as grain, flour, powdered sugar, cornstarch, cocoa, wood and powdered metals. Sparks, heat or a flame can ignite these in a flash, and the losses can be costly for companies. I also ignite all kinds of flammable gases.
---------------------------------------------
BOMB SQUADS CALLED IN TO BLOW UP CHEMICALS AT MIDLAND SCHOOLS
Tags: United_Kingdom, laboratory, discovery, response, explosives, hydrazine
Around a dozen schools across the UK are believed to have called in the military bomb disposal teams to conduct controlled explosions in recent days.
The controlled explosions are being carried over the improperly stored A-level chemistry substance 2,4 dinitrophenyl hydrazine (DNP).
It comes as the government issued national guidance with teachers urging them to check if laboratories were storing DNP.
St Dominic's Priory School, Stone, was one of the schools to have the disposal team on site on Thursday. A controlled explosion was carried out.
A Staffordshire Police spokesperson, Vicky Beech, said: "We had a call from a school in the Stone area on November 3 following their receipt of national guidance regarding the disposal of a hazardous substance.
"The EOD (Explosives and Ordnance Disposal) team attended and dealt with it. The particular chemical involved does not pose any danger as long as it is not being handled. Disposal work was done outside normal school hours to minimise disruption."
---------------------------------------------
FIRE DEPARTMENT SAYS LEAKING GAS CANISTER CAUSED SMALL EXPLOSION, HOUSE FIRE
Tags: us_MI, public, explosion, response, butane, flammables
Granite Street in Cadillac had to be shut down Tuesday evening as crews investigated a fire at a home near Chemical Bank.
The call came in around 8:24pm ‰?? that‰??s when fire crews and police responded to 204 Granite Street after getting a report of a fire in that home.
When they arrived they found a fire in the bathroom area ‰?? generating lots of smoke, but relatively little damage otherwise. Emergency responders helped the homeowner and others out of the building and remained on-scene to ventilate the house and investigate.
There were no injuries in the fire. Neighbors did describe hearing what they called a small explosion around the time of the incident.
Now the Cadillac Fire Department says they‰??ve identified what caused that explosion.
The investigation into the fire‰??s origin and cause identified a natural gas forced air furnace that appeared to have exploded. The furnace was extensively damaged, as well as the heating ducts throughout the home.
Over the course of the investigation, a natural gas leak was ruled out as the potential cause of the explosion. The gas source was later identified as butane. A mishandled and improperly stored canister of butane was leaking resulting in flammable gas in the furnace. When the home‰??s furnace turned on, the butane gas was ignited, causing a small explosion in the furnace and heating ducts ‰?? leading to the fire.
---------------------------------------------
ROADS REOPEN AFTER CHEMICAL SPILL CRASH SHUT DOWN CONROY ROAD NEAR I-4 WEST ONRAMP
Tags: us_FL, transportation, release, injury, chlorine, hydrochloric_acid
ORLANDO, Fla. - An Orlando street was shut down Friday after a crash caused chlorine and muriatic acid to spill, but the road has since been reopened, police said.
The chemicals spilled after three vehicles, including a pool service truck towing a trailer, crashed on Conroy Road east near the west Interstate 4 onramp, police said.
Authorities said the I-4 west onramp and Conroy Road east was shut down at Vineland Road as hazmat crews clean up the mess.
The circumstances surrounding the crash, and information on the extent of injuries have not been released.
---------------------------------------------
CLASSYFIRE: AUTOMATED CHEMICAL CLASSIFICATION WITH A COMPREHENSIVE, COMPUTABLE TAXONOMY
Tags: Canada, laboratory, discovery, environmental
Scientists have long been driven by the desire to describe, organize, classify, and compare objects using taxonomies and/or ontologies. In contrast to biology, geology, and many other scientific disciplines, the world of chemistry still lacks a standardized chemical ontology or taxonomy. Several attempts at chemical classification have been made; but they have mostly been limited to either manual, or semi-automated proof-of-principle applications. This is regrettable as comprehensive chemical classification and description tools could not only improve our understanding of chemistry but also improve the linkage between chemistry and many other fields. For instance, the chemical classification of a compound could help predict its metabolic fate in humans, its druggability or potential hazards associated with it, among others. However, the sheer number (tens of millions of compounds) and complexity of chemical structures is such that any manual classification effort would prove!
to be near impossible.
Results
We have developed a comprehensive, flexible, and computable, purely structure-based chemical taxonomy (ChemOnt), along with a computer program (ClassyFire) that uses only chemical structures and structural features to automatically assign all known chemical compounds to a taxonomy consisting of >4800 different categories. This new chemical taxonomy consists of up to 11 different levels (Kingdom, SuperClass, Class, SubClass, etc.) with each of the categories defined by unambiguous, computable structural rules. Furthermore each category is named using a consensus-based nomenclature and described (in English) based on the characteristic common structural properties of the compounds it contains. The ClassyFire webserver is freely accessible at http://classyfire.wishartlab.com/">http://classyfire.wishartlab.com/. Moreover, a Ruby API version is available at https://bitbucket.org/wishartlab/classyfire_api">https://bitbucket.org/wishartlab/classyfire_api >, which provides programmatic access to the ClassyFire server and database. ClassyFire has been used to annotate over 77 million compounds and has already been integrated into other software packages to automatically generate textual descriptions for, and/or infer biological properties of over 100,000 compounds. Additional examples and applications are provided in this paper.
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HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCE CONTROL WORKSHOP ‰?? MITIGATE CHEMICAL RISK AND MEET BRANDS‰?? EXPECTATIONS
Tags: industrial, discovery, response, unknown_chemical
Managing hazardous substances along the textile and leather supply chains is no longer optional.
Brands and consumers want to know what chemicals have been used, how they have been managed and any risks mitigated. SGS‰??s Hazardous Substance Control (HSC) Workshop enables industry professionals to mitigate chemical risk and meet brands' expectations.
It takes more than 40 types of chemicals to turn cotton from its raw state into a finished product; more than 30 types of chemicals to turn animal hide into a leather belt. How can so many potentially hazardous substances be managed across the many production processes involved?
---------------------------------------------
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION UNDERWAY IN TOXIC CHEMICAL RELEASE
Tags: us_CO, public, discovery, environmental, toxics
DENVER (AP) ‰?? Military and civilian authorities are investigating whether any laws were broken in the unexplained discharge of 150,000 gallons of wastewater tainted with toxic chemicals at an Air Force base in Colorado.
The Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are looking into the release of the contaminated wastewater at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, officials said Tuesday.
The chemicals flowed into the city‰??s wastewater treatment system but didn‰??t get into its drinking water, officials said.
The discharge was discovered on Oct. 12 and announced six days later.
Air Force officials have scheduled a news conference Wednesday to discuss the incident and other issues surrounding the chemicals, called perfluorinated compounds or PFCs.
---------------------------------------------
ADVISORS WARN NASA ABOUT SPACEX PLANS TO FUEL ROCKETS WITH PEOPLE ON BOARD
Tags: us_TX, industrial, follow-up, environmental, other_chemical
Members of NASA Space Station Advisory Committee criticized the SpaceX refueling plans for manned rockets, labeling it as a ‰??hazardous operation.‰??
The same NASA advisers had warned the company earlier this year, months before the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded in September. Currently, SpaceX intends on fueling the Rockets with astronauts already aboard the capsule located at the top of the rocket. The plan was criticized by the entirety of the committee through a letter sent by its chairman Air Force Lt. General Thomas Stafford. So far, NASA has not emitted an official statement.
The test involving one of the used Falcon 9 rockets took place at SpaceX-owned McGregor test center in South Texas. Image Credit: PC Mag
The presence of fuel increases the risk of explosions
SpaceX did explain that their refueling process is optimized in a way that ‰??it minimizes the duration and number of personnel exposed to the hazards of launching a rocket.‰?? Although this may be the case, it is a common practice for space agencies to avoid refueling equipment with people on board. This is so if there‰??s an accident, the least amount of human loss is attained.
SpaceX rockets need to use cold fuel to reach maximum efficiency, due to it occupying less volume. This makes it so astronauts do not have enough time to prepare for launch before the fuel warms up, forcing them to remain aboard during the fueling process. But the Rockets do have an emergency evacuation system that would expel the transport capsule, so it is far from danger.
Each accident is two steps backward
Apparently, the explosion of the Falcon 9 rocket that occurred back on September was due to faulty fueling procedures. Experts believe that a helium tank inside the rocket‰??s booster was the primary cause of the accident. A chemical explosion ensued and destroyed the rocket and the satellite it was carrying. Later, SpaceX officers stated that the probable cause was operational rather than the design of the rocket‰??s booster equipment.
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CHEMICAL REACTION PROMPTS HAZMAT RESPONSE
Tags: us_MA, industrial, fire, response, epoxy, resin
NORTH ANDOVER ‰?? A chemical reaction Wednesday afternoon at Atlee electronics hardware manufacturing company in North Andover caused four employees to evacuate and prompted a response from a regional hazmat team.
At 12:39 p.m., the North Andover fire received a call for a chemical reaction causing smoke inside 10 Bayfield Drive, the building that houses Atlee, part of the business park off of Route 114.
Fire chief William McCarthy said the reaction was caused by a common epoxy resin hardening process gone wrong.
"They mixed larger quantities than normal and it started to overheat and react, and they developed a smoke condition in the building," he said.
The epoxy resin is normally used as a liquid that is poured over a circuit board or other similar electronic hardware and then hardens.
When the fire department arrived, McCarthy said the four people who were inside the building at the time of the incident had already exited, with no injuries.
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