From: Ralph Stuart <rstuartcih**At_Symbol_Here**me.com>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Safety headlines from Google (10 articles)
Date: Mon, 1 Jan 2018 12:01:50 -0500
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Message-ID: 03DD1091-C0D2-4E02-9223-8CA128E57865**At_Symbol_Here**me.com


Chemical Safety Headlines From Google
Monday, January 1, 2018 at 12:01:37 PM

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)

OIL SHEEN SPOTTED IN VERMILION RIVER DISSOLVED
Tags: us_LA, public, release, response, petroleum, solvent

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY TO EDC-2: THE ENDOCRINE SOCIETY'S SECOND SCIENTIFIC STATEMENT ON ENDOCRINE-DISRUPTING CHEMICALS: ENDOCRINE REVIEWS: VOL 36, NO 6
Tags: public, discovery, environmental, ag_chems, pesticides

CHEMICAL SPILL IN SOIL LEAVES ROTTEN-EGG STENCH IN COMMUNITY
Tags: us_MS, public, release, response, thiols

PESTICIDE SPILL IN MARINA SHUTS DOWN ABRAMS DRIVE
Tags: us_CA, transportation, release, response, pesticides

NEW TESTING FINDS CHEMICAL ACROSS RIVER FROM CHEMOURS PLANT
Tags: us_nc, discovery, industral, release, other_chemical

ONE KILLED, ONE INJURED IN CHEMICAL BLAST
Tags: india, industrial, explosion, death, unknown_chemical

VAPE BATTERY EXPLOSION LAWSUITS ON THE RISE
Tags: us_CA, public, explosion, injury, batteries

METHANE STILL LEAKING FROM THE GROUND AT SITE OF GAS EXPLOSION DECADES AGO
Tags: Netherlands, public, discovery, environmental, methane

GENX POLLUTION IN NORTH CAROLINA: DEQ FUNDING AND LEGISLATION AT THE NCGA IN 2018
Tags: us_NC, public, follow-up, environmental, other_chemical

PEANUT STORAGE FACILITY CATCHES FIRE IN DELTA
Tags: us_MS, industrial, fire, response, unknown_chemical


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OIL SHEEN SPOTTED IN VERMILION RIVER DISSOLVED
Tags: us_LA, public, release, response, petroleum, solvent

LAFAYETTE, La. -
Lafayette fire investigators say the oil sheen detected in the Vermilion River yesterday dissolved overnight.

Firefighters responded to a report of an oil sheen on the river between University Avenue and Pinhook Road Saturday at 4:38 p.m. They later called off the search for the source of the oil sheen due to a lack of lighting.

Crews resumed their investigation this morning to find the river clear of the oil. A spokesman with the Lafayette Fire Department says fire investigators were not able to locate the origin and source of the sheen, but hazmat crews will continue to monitor the river over the next few days.

A sampling of the residue taken last night indicated a light hydrocarbon solvent compound, the spokesman says.

Absorbent booms, placed across the river near the Pinhook Road bridge, will remain in place for now.

---------------------------------------------

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY TO EDC-2: THE ENDOCRINE SOCIETY'S SECOND SCIENTIFIC STATEMENT ON ENDOCRINE-DISRUPTING CHEMICALS: ENDOCRINE REVIEWS: VOL 36, NO 6
Tags: public, discovery, environmental, ag_chems, pesticides

This Executive Summary to the Endocrine Society's second Scientific Statement on environmental endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) provides a synthesis of the key points of the complete statement. The full Scientific Statement represents a comprehensive review of the literature on seven topics for which there is strong mechanistic, experimental, animal, and epidemiological evidence for endocrine disruption, namely: obesity and diabetes, female reproduction, male reproduction, hormone-sensitive cancers in females, prostate cancer, thyroid, and neurodevelopment and neuroendocrine systems. EDCs such as bisphenol A, phthalates, pesticides, persistent organic pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls, polybrominated diethyl ethers, and dioxins were emphasized because these chemicals had the greatest depth and breadth of available information. The Statement also included thorough coverage of studies of developmental exposures to EDCs, especially in the fetus and infant, becau!
se these are critical life stages during which perturbations of hormones can increase the probability of a disease or dysfunction later in life. A conclusion of the Statement is that publications over the past 5 years have led to a much fuller understanding of the endocrine principles by which EDCs act, including nonmonotonic dose-responses, low-dose effects, and developmental vulnerability. These findings will prove useful to researchers, physicians, and other healthcare providers in translating the science of endocrine disruption to improved public health.

---------------------------------------------

CHEMICAL SPILL IN SOIL LEAVES ROTTEN-EGG STENCH IN COMMUNITY
Tags: us_MS, public, release, response, thiols

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) " People in a northern Mississippi community have been living with a chemical stench that causes headaches.
CenterPoint Solutions mixes an odorant called ethyl mercaptan into natural gas. The company has a site in the Harmontown community, outside Oxford, where a spill has left soil contaminated with the undiluted odorant, the Oxford Eagle reported .
Natural gas is colorless and odorless, so additives like ethyl mercaptan are added to give the gas a rotten-egg smell. When it is mixed into the natural gas, the odorant is extremely diluted. But in the open air, the smell is potent.
Mike Sanders, who lives near the company's Harmontown site, says the smell began the second week of October, when workers from CenterPoint brought 55 gallon drums of ethyl mercaptan to the site to refill tanks. He said that after they left, the smell grew unbearable.
"When you smell a gas leak in your community, you're smelling it diluted to parts per million," Sanders said. "Out here, this is the pure stuff, pure ethyl mercaptan."

---------------------------------------------

PESTICIDE SPILL IN MARINA SHUTS DOWN ABRAMS DRIVE
Tags: us_CA, transportation, release, response, pesticides

MARINA, Calif. "
A chemical spill Sunday has shut down Abrams Drive from Imjin Parkway to Lexington Court in Marina.

Marina Fire Chief Doug McCoun said a blue container fell out of a white pickup truck and spilled a yellow liquid onto a car and the road.

McCoun said the yellow liquid had a strong 'chemical smell' and was initially considered a 'potentially hazardous chemical'.

That prompted Monterey County Health Department officials to respond to the scene and later determine the chemical was a pesticide and not considered dangerous.

CHP is actively looking for the truck that spilled the pesticide.

The road will be shut down until further notice.

---------------------------------------------

NEW TESTING FINDS CHEMICAL ACROSS RIVER FROM CHEMOURS PLANT
Tags: us_nc, discovery, industral, release, other_chemical

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) " North Carolina officials say elevated levels of an industrial chemical have been found on the opposite side of the Cape Fear River from the chemical plant.

The Fayetteville Observer reports that the state Department of Environmental Quality found the chemical GenX on the east side of the river as part of their testing of wells within a mile of the Chemours plant in Bladen County.

Previous testing had shown GenX only on the side of the river where the plant operates.

GenX is classified by the federal government as an "emerging contaminant" needing more study. It is used to make Teflon and other coatings.

---------------------------------------------

ONE KILLED, ONE INJURED IN CHEMICAL BLAST
Tags: india, industrial, explosion, death, unknown_chemical

One person was killed and another seriously injured in a chemical blast that occurred near the municipal filter beds at Khilla in the town on Saturday.

The diseased was identified as Nayakwadi Bhumesh, 35, whose body was ripped into pieces in the impact of the blast, while Tirupathi Reddy, L and T supervisor, was injured. He was rushed to a hospital in Hyderabad and his condition was said to be serious. Both were engaged in underground drainage work that was in progress at the site.

The blast took place when a plastic can containing a chemical meant for use in the work was opened. The L and T had taken the work on contract and stocked the material at a store room near the filter beds. The blast was such that body pieces of Bhumesh were strewn all around the place while a defeaning sound was heard by residents within a radius of 300 metres. The pieces were gathered and sent for postmortem at the Government General Hospital.

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VAPE BATTERY EXPLOSION LAWSUITS ON THE RISE
Tags: us_CA, public, explosion, injury, batteries

(CN) " More than 120 lawsuits were filed across the United States in 2017 by plaintiffs claiming they were hurt in explosions and fires caused by e-cigarette batteries.

At least 8 plaintiffs in 2017 filed lawsuits claiming electronic cigarettes exploded in their mouth, with some saying the blast knocked out teeth and caused third-degree burns. Dozens of other claimants allege they were scorched around their legs or groin when vaporizer batteries they were carrying in their pocket caught fire.

A cluster of pending cases in California state courts, handled by Gregory Bentley of Schernoff Bidart in Claremont, includes claims from one plaintiff who lost an eye and had his facial bones smashed in an alleged e-cigarette battery explosion, and another who underwent skin grafts after his vaporizer battery purportedly burned him in front of his children.

---------------------------------------------

METHANE STILL LEAKING FROM THE GROUND AT SITE OF GAS EXPLOSION DECADES AGO
Tags: Netherlands, public, discovery, environmental, methane

A team with members from several institutions in the Netherlands has found that the area around a site where a gas explosion occurred in 1965 is still emitting methane gas from the ground into the air. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their study of the area and the degree of hazard the gas leak poses.
Back in 1965 a team working for the Dutch Petroleum Company (NAM-a venture between Exxon and Shell) accidentally caused a natural gas explosion at a gas field in Sleen, East Drenthe (in a northeastern part of the Netherlands). The blowout turned the sand in the area to quicksand, and a drilling rig sank and disappeared into the ground. After a period of time, the area was converted into a park. But now, the area is back in the news, because the researchers with this new effort have discovered that the site is still leaking methane. NAM has also been in the news of late due to recent evidence implicating the company as the cause of small earthquakes impacting Groningen, a province just north of the former gas field.
The researchers made the discovery while looking into the environmental impact of shale gas production, including its possible contamination of groundwater. To learn more, they began testing well water in and around the park and the farmland that surrounds it. They report finding abnormally high levels of methane in the water and that its isotopic composition (its chemical signature) was very similar to that of the gas reservoir, suggesting that methane is leaking from cracks made below the surface as part of natural gas drilling operations a half-century ago.

---------------------------------------------

GENX POLLUTION IN NORTH CAROLINA: DEQ FUNDING AND LEGISLATION AT THE NCGA IN 2018
Tags: us_NC, public, follow-up, environmental, other_chemical

RALEIGH
The more scientists look for GenX and other similar, potentially hazardous chemicals in North Carolina, the more they find. And next spring they could ramp up their efforts.

The state"s environmental regulators at the Department of Environmental Quality took several actions in late 2017 against the company that has been accused of being behind much of the water pollution. And as 2018 rolls around, the legislature appears ready to give DEQ more direction on addressing GenX.

State lawmakers have squabbled over some of the details on how to address GenX, a chemical used in Teflon whose health effects are largely untested. But disagreements aside, addressing water pollution is high on the list for lawmakers when they return briefly to Raleigh in January. There"s a bipartisan consensus in the General Assembly that more action is needed.

The chemical was originally found in the Cape Fear River, which provides the drinking water for people from Fayetteville down to Wilmington. And a more recent study found that relatives of GenX are in Jordan Lake " which provides the drinking water for much of the Triangle.

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PEANUT STORAGE FACILITY CATCHES FIRE IN DELTA
Tags: us_MS, industrial, fire, response, unknown_chemical

GREENWOOD, Miss. (WTVA) " Firefighters in the Mississippi Delta are still on the scene of a fire at a peanut storage facility.

Greenwood Fire Chief Marcus Banks says the blaze broke out around 7 a.m. on Friday.

The facility is located in the industrial park off Highway 82 in Leflore County.

Banks says a chemical reaction led to more than 25,000 bushels of peanuts to catch fire.

They are currently using foam to control the fire which has been contained to one area.

But the fire chief says the fire will not be completely out until this weekend.

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