CENtral Science

Friday chemical safety round-up

Let me start off this week with a little happy birthday to the Safety Zone! We began the blog a year ago and have covered more than a few safety letters along with incidents at Texas Tech, Missouri and SIUC, and Sepracor. We’ve also had Russ’ rant on online training, Neal’s favorite things, eye protection, teaching safety, fireworks, lab coats, promoting a safe lab culture, two earthquakes, and blowing up an explosives-filled house. If you’ve got suggestions for topics in the coming year, please feel free to leave a note in the comments!

Now, on to the round-up, which goes back three weeks. I’m leaving out the usual cleaning fluid and pool chemical incidents and refrigerator ammonia leaks.

• First, some entertainment for those who haven’t already spied this in the comments: The Hazcom Song
• Not chemistry but certainly worker safety: This week was the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Waist Company fire that killed 146 in New York City. The New York Times reflects, the Library of Congress has historical material. Remember this the next time you’re tempted to grip about having to keep corridors and exits clear.
• Also historical: Speakeasy science talks about “the Radium Girls, the young painters of luminous watch dials in the 1920s.” Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency released photos of people working at the Fukushima nuclear plant
• In California harbors damaged by the tsunami, “The gas from the boats, batteries, lube oil, things like that are what we’ll be cleaning up”–imagine the contamination in Japan
• China establishes hazardous chemical rules: “The regulations are aimed at improving the safety and protection of the public and the environment. They include clauses on the production, sale, transportation, storage and use of hazardous chemicals.”
• C&EN Bayer Crop Science announced that it would finally end use of methyl isocyanate at its Institute, W.Va. plant; CSB released a video documenting the 2008 explosion at the plant
• The U.K.’s Abacus Chemical sentenced after worker suffers toxic burns: The company was having the employee mix 22 kg of sodium cyanide pellets with hydrogen peroxide to make them less toxic and avoid paying for hazardous waste disposal, “The court was told that the company did not have a permit to mix the chemicals, failed to carry out an assessment of the risks, and did not provide protective clothing or adequate equipment.The 58-year-old worker from Barrow-in-Furness required skin grafts to his arms and chest, and has suffered permanent scarring.”
• U.C. Merced conducted chemical spill training by simulating a spill of piranha solution
• Scaling up a reaction? Gaussling discussed equipment material considerations, Chemjobber the likelihood of things working the same
• Environmental activists to appeal expansion of largest toxic waste dump in the West, at Kettleman City, Calif.
• Bomb unit called for WWI chemical found inside safe: chloropicrin, believed to have been “attached to the backside of the safe door as part of an aftermarket burglary deterrent
• The Army is missing 1200 rounds of depleted uranium-containing, armor-piercing bullets from the 1960s
• California’s Hondo Chemical gets another chance to clean up: The list of problems goes on and on…
• EPA is recommending two California mines for Superfund status: the New Idria mercury mine and the Blue Ledge copper and cadmium mine
• A new study says that firefighters need more protection from chemical fumes

Fires and explosions:

• Two die from explosion and fire at a Carbide Industries plant in Kentucky
• Two killed in fire at Gharda Chemicals in India: “Thirty workers were in the pesticide manufacturing unit’s plant 4 when there was a huge explosion”
• Fatal blast when worker uses lighter to peer into flammable drum: “While speaking by cell phone with a chemical supplier, Martinez ignited the lighter to check the level of auto cleaning solvent inside the drum. The barrel exploded and was propelled about 30 feet into the air before it struck the roof.”
• A fire at Shasun Chemicals & Drugs Limited in India led to bromine gas release and maybe also chlorine; more than 120 people were hospitalized
• Four injured in explosion at Bostik in Mass., “the four employees who suffered injuries were working in an area of the facility where ‘solvent-based adhesives’ are produced”
• 1000 L of hydrogen peroxide caught fire at a water plant in Australia; two workers suffered minor injuries and homes within 1 km were evacuated
• A fire destroyed chemical stores at an ink and color factory in India
• A Louisiana State University student was burned in a flash fire in a chemistry lab
• Missouri high school experiment gone wrong: “students were heating sugar and potassium nitrate when the mixture ignited…the smoke and dust from the fire extinguisher sent clouds through the school’s B wing, forcing the district to cancel classes for the rest of the day.”
• Concentrated hydrogen peroxide caused a household fire and chemical burns to four firefighters

Leaks, spills, and other exposures:

• Crews test California site where chemicals were stored, looking for the source of perchlorate in Barstow’s drinking water
• A chlorine leak at an Archer Daniels Midland plant in Nebraska left seven workers hospitalized
• “A valve on a mixing tank blew out, leading to a nitric acid leak at Technic U.K.; one worker was burned
• Sulfuric acid leaked from a 5000 gal tank at Pacific Ethanol in California: “The crews were able to slow the leak, not completely stop it. But the leaking acid is being contained, and is not a risk at this time.”
• 10 gal of amines leaked at a DuPont plant in West Virginia, nearby residents were advised to stay indoors until the smell dissipated
• Several hundred gallons of sodium hydroxide spilled from a train tanker car at a paper plant in Ohio
• 200-250 gal of xylene spilled at Citrus & Allied in Maryland
• 40 workers evacuated after chemical spill at Arizona’s International Rectifier, “line carrying a liquid regularly used in semiconductor industry had sprung a leak inside the building”
• For the “Don’t make it worse!” file: Someone cleaning up ink spilled at keypad-maker Grayhill, in Chicago, used “VD thinner” (pdf) and sent eight of his or her coworkers to the hospital
• Some sort of acid spilled at a water-treatment plant in Iowa: “There was an overflow inside the building. The chemical then ate away at the brick and mortar, seeping out down the driveway. Workers at the plant were evacuated, but the surrounding area was not.”
• Hydrochloric and sulfuric acid leaked at Dunkirk Specialty Steel in New York: “The chemical spill did make its way out of the building and into a nearby creek, but Ahlstrom said that both the DEC and the City of Dunkirk took readings downstream of the spill and only trace amounts of the chemicals were detected.”
• A drum of sodium hydroxide and a 5-gallon pail of calcium hypochlorite caused problems at a waste transfer station in Georgia; also in the debris pile were chlorine tablets, fertilizer bags, and lime bags
• A leaking ammonia tank shut down Goessman laboratory building at UMass Amherst
• Six injured in highway chemical explosion in Colombia: “There was a tank-type vehicle which carries carbonic gas, it suffered mechanical problems, rolled over, and dumped its product, which generated some explosions”
• Also on roads and railways: zinc aluminum copper alloy, ammonia, ammonium nitrate (story has a nice photo of workers in hazmat suits), sulfuric acid, one or more corrosive materials, ammonium thiosulfate, mercury

Photo credit: Shutterstock