November 18th, 2011 • 04:11
Friday chemical safety round-up
Chemical health and safety news from the past week:
- Theo Gray demonstrates how not to fry a turkey, “by lowering a bird that hadn’t been properly thawed into five gallons of soybean oil at a temperature 100 degrees hotter than is recommended” (Gray’s page on why you should wear safety safety glasses is also entertaining)
- Chronic polluters are also chronic workplace health and safety violators
- TSCA reform: The American Chemistry Council and the Consumer Specialty Products Association do not agree
- The radioactive beagles are gone, but cleaning up an old UC Davis waste site will still cost $6 million to $100 million
- The Chemical Safety Board says that Hoeganaes knew that the metal dust in its Gallatin, Tenn., plant was highly explosive when ignited and the plant had had several small flash fires before the incidents that killed five workers this year (CSB investigation page here)
- New study shows chemical exposure dangers to firefighters
- Where regulators failed, citizens took action — testing their own air
- Edward Wyman was sentenced to five years in prison “for illegally storing a huge amount of toxic chemicals and explosive hazardous waste, including unstable gunpowder, in his [Los Angeles] home”
- And in Wisconsin, a guy originally thought to be running a meth lab turned out to be making explosives
Fires and explosions:
- Seven workers died from a fire in a medicinal alcohol bottling unit of a pharmaceutical company in India; “Sub inspector AM Sindh of Kadi police station, who is investigating the case, said that the incident occurred while the labourers were transferring the chemicals from one drum to another. The fire started due to a motor.”
- Zirconium caught fire from a spark from a shovel at a magnesium chloride mixing plant at Prineville Freight Depot in Oregon
Leaks, spills, and other exposures:
- Fumes from a paint stripper being used in a tank at California paint manufacturer Vista Paint may have caused the death of one worker, 62-year-old Roberto Magdariago, and the hospitalization of another
- Chlorine at the New Page paper mill in Maryland, four employees were sent to the hospital
- Mercaptans and sulfur dioxide from a BP refinery in Texas
- Acetylene from Nation Coating Systems in Ohio
- “Boron” (sodium borate, maybe?) after a fire at a New Zealand freight depot damaged containers
- Sulfuric acid sprayed pedestrians when acid started leaking from a truck in London
- Ethylene oxide at a Vanderbilt University facility, from a system used to sterilize medical instruments
- At a high school in New Jersey, a sodium metal demonstration “created more smoke than the ventilation fans in the lab could handle and created a smoke condition in the building”
Not covered: meth labs; ammonia leaks; incidents involving floor sealants, cleaning solutions, or pool chemicals; and fires from oil, natural gas, or other fuels
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