CENtral Science

Friday round-up

Chemical health and safety news from the last two weeks:

• Declan Fleming, a school teacher fellow at the University of Bristol, turned up a morbidly awesome paper from the 1950s documenting chemistry accidents of the time
• A New York bartender faces charges of reckless endangerment for setting drinks aflame
• Got questions about gas detection? Check out Industrial Scientific’s new blog, Ask Dave
• Another bomb squad got called out to deal with old picric acid, this time at the Tralee Institute of Technology, in Ireland
• Hoeganaes worker Fred Tuttle died from injuries sustained in a May 27 fire at the metal powder manufacturing plant in Tennessee; Tuttle is fifth Hoeganaes worker to die this year from workplace injuries
• West Virginia titanium and zirconium recycler AL Solutions is contesting the OSHA citations for a December, 2010, explosion that killed three workers; the fine was $154,000
• Via The Pump Handle, a series by the Center for Public Integrity explores OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program; stories so far:
  • ‘Model workplaces’ not always so safe
  • But does it work? After 29 years, OSHA lacks proof that self-policing makes workplaces safer
  • ‘Model’ workplaces avoid special government scrutiny targeting hazardous industries
  • And more detailed looks at companies in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Wyoming
• Dow found responsible for contaminating Louisiana’s Upper Plaquemine Aquifer with vinyl chloride
• Two chemical factories in the Philippines, Cleveland Envirotech Solutions and Cleveland Industries, were shuttered for dumping hazardous waste into a nearby creek; residents had complained of skin and respiratory problems for the last four years
• Intel pinpointed the cause of a fire that injured seven last month at an Arizona microchip plant: “a temporary system used in the solvent cleaning process was being started up for the first time. The system was in place until a permanent one was brought online later this summer, officials said. The system has been abandoned at all Intel locations, including Chandler, officials said.”
• FAA proposes $689,800 FedEx hazmat fine for “[failing] to provide pilots-in-command with complete, accurate information on the nature, quantity and weight of hazardous materials loaded on their aircraft”
• EPA announced changes to its database of chemical toxicity information to make hazard assessments shorter and clearer and to present the scientific rationale for decisions

Fires and explosions:

• More than 90 containers of gunpowder ignited on a Cyprus naval base, resulting in a “massive blast that killed 12 people, wounded 62 and wrecked a major power station, causing extensive blackouts”; an official originally said a brush fire ignited the gunpowder but later said the gunpowder itself might have been the source; the gunpowder had been confiscated two years ago from an Iranian cargo ship
• A fire destroyed Niagara Lubricant, which makes industrial oils and greases in New York
• Cause of Akzo Nobel plant fire in Illinois remains unknown
• “A trailer loaded with hazardous material caught fire after 40 different chemical were combined then combusted”; the trailer belonged to hazmat company Clean Harbors in Sacramento, Calif.
• Two chemicals in a shipping container somehow mixed and ignited, causing a fire at at a shipping terminal in Texas
• An illegal vodka distillery may have been the source of an explosion and fire at a U.K. industrial site; five people were killed and another injured
• Something exploded in a lab refrigerator at Purdue, no one was injured

Leaks, spills, and other exposures:

• A 10-year-old boy in India died after falling into an open pool used to clean chemical bottles
• 100 gallons of radioactive liquid waste spilled at a South Carolina nuclear plant; “the spill appeared to have been from a failing pipe leading to a discharge point at the facility” and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is investigating
• A drum of General Electric’s “Inhibitor AZ8104″ leaked the fluid from the second floor, through the ceiling to the first floor of REO Distribution in Virginia; “Inhibitor AZ8104” (MSDS pdf) is used to prevent corrosion on copper and copper alloy heat exchange surfaces and contains sodium chlorotolyltriazole, dichlorotolyltriazole, sodium tolyltriazole, and sodium hydroxide; the drum seems to have been left behind by a previous tenant, a computer and printer manufacturer
• 900 gallons of “a highly flammable liquid” spilled at a Fiji plant in Ohio
• Acrylonitrile leaked at INEOS Chemicals in Ohio
• Ethylenediamine spilled at the Missouri Department of Natural Resources
• Two University of West Florida students were burned when cleaning glassware with nitric acid and acetone: “What the faculty member suspects happened is that some of those chemicals mixed together when they sealed the flask and the combination of those chemicals created pressure in the glassware that caused it to explode”
• A bottle of hydrochloric acid fell and broke at Edison State College in Florida
• Tucson police and the FBI are cleaning out a house found to contain “lots of containers of chemicals”–it’s not clear what they were for, although a police spokeswoman says it was probably not a meth lab; it was discovered when a man showed up at a hospital with chemical burns
• In the Los Angeles area, a residential garage storing ammunition and assorted chemicals caught fire:
  

  Hazmat crews were called in along with Los Angeles County public health officials to clean up the controlled chemicals, for which the homeowner, a retired chemist, had a license to own, officials said.

  The homeowner, Bob DeVoe, told fire crews he didn’t know what types of chemicals were inside his home or backyard because he had been collecting the substances for many years, Rifino said.

  DeVoe was also a firearms enthusiast, Rifino added.

• And in South Carolina, authorities are cleaning out a makeshift lab–I don’t even know how to summarize what all is on the property, just go read the story (we’ll make it a challenge: post your summary in the comments!)
• One to make astronomers wince: More than 100 L of antifreeze spilled on the main mirror of the Subaru telescope on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea mountain when a cable-control mechanism malfunctioned; supposedly the mirror was fine but the jury’s still out on a couple of instruments
• On roads, railways, and shipyards: asphalt sealant, hydrochloric and phosphoric acids, something “corrosive and hazardous”, styrene (resulting in the evacuation of a Bulgarian town), leaking oxygen tanks, an herbicide, more hydrochloric acid, “corrosive liquids, including nitric acid”

Not covered: meth labs; ammonia leaks; incidents involving floor sealants, cleaning solutions, or pool chemicals; and fires from oil, natural gas, or other fuels