CENtral Science

Friday chemical safety round-up

Chemical health and safety news from the past week:

• If you’re thinking about career paths and want to be assured of a job, consider becoming an occupational health and safety professional: According to a National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) report, “based on current trends, future national demand for occupational safety and health services will significantly outstrip the number of professionals with the necessary training, education, and experience to provide such services”
• A former DuPont zinc smelting site in West Virginia is under scrutiny for possibly contaminating groundwater or streams
• PPG Industries requested a variance from local water regulations restricting how much mercury a West Virginia chlorine manufacturing plant can discharge into the Ohio River

Fires and explosions:

• A short-circuit led to a chemical fire at a paint manufacturing factory in India; two workers died
• Firefighters let a blaze at a Momper Insulation warehouse in Indiana run its course to limit the spread of chemical-contaminated runoff; ” the warehouse contained fiberglass insulation and polyurethane-foam insulation kept in 55-gallon drums”
• Thirteen-year-old Ashley Cherry was badly burned on her face, neck, and hands after a middle school science demonstration blew up–from the news footage, it looks like they were doing flame tests of some sort; in Oklahoma

Leaks, spills, and other exposures:

• Aniline at a DuPont plant in Texas; 26 workers were evaluated for exposure on site and one was transported to a hospital and later released
• “A chlorinated paraffin solution” at Dover Chemical in Ohio
• Nitric acid from storage drums at Alpine Metal Finishing Products in Ohio
• Ether, 4 L, at Boston University’s Metcalf Science Center
• A New Zealand teenager suffered acid burns to his face after he mixed sulfuric acid with something else, possibly potassium permanganate, in a backyard experiment; “one neighbour said that over the past two years they had heard loud explosions that sounded like rifle fire and had then seen clouds of smoke” and “Another neighbour said they once saw a fireball rise about four metres from the property”

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