From: "Secretary, ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety" <secretary**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety headlines from Google (7 articles)
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2017 07:45:08 -0500
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Message-ID: D83D6A74-249F-49B9-BA2A-9DFCDBE5B416**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org


Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Friday, January 20, 2017 at 7:44:58 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 (7 articles)

CHEMICAL LEAK IN ASCENSION PARISH CONTAINED
Tags: us_LA, transportation, release, response, hydrochloric_acid

MACHINERY CAUSED FIRE AT SUN CHEMICAL IN SPRING GROVE VILLAGE
Tags: us_OH, industrial, fire, response, unknown_chemical

CIVIL SUIT FILED AGAINST UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOR LAB EXPLOSION
Tags: us_HI, laboratory, follow-up, injury, hydrogen, oxygen

HAZMAT CREWS RESPONDING TO TANKER TRUCK SPILL IN ST. PETERS
Tags: us_MO, transportation, release, response, unknown_chemical

COMPANY EXPOSED EMPLOYEES TO CHEMICAL COMPOUND, OSHA SAYS
Tags: us_NJ, industrial, discovery, response, other_chemical

BOISE HAZMAT CREW, MEDICS RESPOND TO BOISE STATE LAB INCIDENT
Tags: us_ID, laboratory, explosion, injury, nitric_acid

CHEMICALS, RUMORS MAKE WAREHOUSE FIRE ESPECIALLY TOUGH TO BATTLE
Tags: us_FL, explosion, fire, injury, other_chemical


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CHEMICAL LEAK IN ASCENSION PARISH CONTAINED
Tags: us_LA, transportation, release, response, hydrochloric_acid

BATON ROUGE - Hazmart crews have contained a hydrochloric acid leak in Ascension Parish, and emergency responders have been working to neutralize the chemical.

A hazmat team was called to the scene on Ashland Road near Highway 30. Someone working along the railroad reported the leak coming from a rail car.

Officials with the Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office said the Lamar Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales, and everything within a one-mile radius, was evacuated as a precaution. Ashland Road was also shut down for some time.

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MACHINERY CAUSED FIRE AT SUN CHEMICAL IN SPRING GROVE VILLAGE
Tags: us_OH, industrial, fire, response, unknown_chemical

SPRING GROVE VILLAGE, OH (FOX19) -
Dozens of emergency crews spent Thursday evening in Spring Grove Village at a chemical company after a fire broke out.

The Cincinnati Fire Department was sent to Sun Chemical around 7 p.m. after a heavy piece of machinery caught on fire.

Firefighters said the fire was in a large industrial vat.

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CIVIL SUIT FILED AGAINST UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOR LAB EXPLOSION
Tags: us_HI, laboratory, follow-up, injury, hydrogen, oxygen

An injured postdoctoral researcher and her spouse have filed a civil suit against the University of Hawaii (UH) and others involved for a 2016 explosion in which the researcher lost one of her arms.
At the time of the incident, postdoc Thea Ekins-Coward was preparing a gas mixture of 55% hydrogen, 38% oxygen, and 7% carbon dioxide to feed to bacteria to produce biofuels, according to a report issued by the University of California Center for Laboratory Safety (UCCLS). The center was hired by UH to investigate the incident.
The gases were combined in an ungrounded 49-L steel tank designed for compressed air, not for hazardous gases. UCCLS concluded that a static discharge most likely caused the explosion.
Ekins-Coward lost her right lower arm and elbow and suffered corneal abrasions, facial burns, and loss of high frequency hearing from nerve damage to her ears, according to a civil complaint filed with a Hawaii court on Jan. 9.
Ekins-Coward worked for the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute. The defendants named in the suit are UH; Jian Yu, the principal investigator of the lab in which Ekins-Coward worked; and Richard E. Rocheleau, director of the institute.
The defendants 'negligently, grossly negligently, carelessly and recklessly breached their duty by providing unsafe and improper equipment, by failing to provide adequate training, by failing to follow safety codes, standards and regulations in laboratory safety, by directing Thea Ekins-Coward to undertake experiments that were inherently and unnecessarily unsafe, by failing to make reasonable inspection of the equipment, and by failing to warn of any inadequacy of the equipment or the possible dangerous condition,' the complaint says.
The complaint does not specify the amount of compensation that Ekins-Coward and her spouse are seeking.

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HAZMAT CREWS RESPONDING TO TANKER TRUCK SPILL IN ST. PETERS
Tags: us_MO, transportation, release, response, unknown_chemical

ST. PETERS (KMOV.com) ' Hazmat crews have closed Salt River Road in St. Peters because a tanker truck is leaking an unknown chemical.

The road is closed in both directions from Old Town St. Peters to Highway 79. There is also no access available into Arrowhead Industrial Park.

Drivers are advised to take alternate routes around the closures.

The road is expected to be closed for several hours, officials said.

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COMPANY EXPOSED EMPLOYEES TO CHEMICAL COMPOUND, OSHA SAYS
Tags: us_NJ, industrial, discovery, response, other_chemical

EAST ORANGE -- A New Jersey company is facing nearly $90,000 in fines after authorities say it exposed two of its employees to the chemical compound silica.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently issued three citations to County Concrete, of East Orange - the result of a July follow-up inspection to the company, which received safety violation citations in 2013, as well, OSHA announced in a release Tuesday.

According to the administration, the company failed to complete several safety precautions, including providing medical evaluations for employees required to wear respirators while cleaning concrete mixers. The citations come several years after the company was fined $153,900 for 18 safety violations in 2013.

"Our follow-up inspection found that two County Concrete employees were exposed to silica above the permissible limit as they cleaned concrete mixers," Kris Hoffman, director of OSHA's Parsippany Area Office, said in a release.

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BOISE HAZMAT CREW, MEDICS RESPOND TO BOISE STATE LAB INCIDENT
Tags: us_ID, laboratory, explosion, injury, nitric_acid

Sixteen people, including a fire fighter, were taken to a local hospital for evaluation and treatment after a lab explosion at Boise State University on Wednesday evening.

The Boise Fire Department's hazmat team was called to Boise State's science education building at 5:29 p.m. to respond to a chemical exposure incident, according to Boise Fire spokeswoman Tammy Barry.

Nitric acid and isopropyl alcohol were mixed, causing a small explosion under the hood in the lab, Barry said.

Three students were placed in showers for decontamination, and eight others are being evaluated by Ada County emergency medical responders, Barry said.

Crews were still on scene as of 6:45 p.m. handling clean-up.

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CHEMICALS, RUMORS MAKE WAREHOUSE FIRE ESPECIALLY TOUGH TO BATTLE
Tags: us_FL, explosion, fire, injury, other_chemical

First came explosions, then black smoke that could be seen for miles Wednesday around central Broward County as a blaze drew multiple firefighting crews to a chemicals warehouse just north of Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.

One firefighter injured his leg and was taken to Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Deputy Chief Timothy Heiser said. He was in stable condition.

The call for help came at 7:54 a.m. to ConSeal International, 6681 NW 17th Ave., Heiser said.

The company's chief operating officer, Donna Gilmore Rossetti, said by phone: "I don't really have any comment. I have a lot going on right now, as you can imagine."

Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue's fire marshal, Jeff Lucas, said the blaze was accidental and began when someone operating a forklift tore open a container that held a chemical called sodium chlorite.

Friction between the forklift and the compound created a small fire, Lucas said. When the worker returned with a fire extinguisher, the fire was too big to contain and employees had to leave right away.

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