CENtral Science

Friday chemical safety round-up

Chemical health and safety news from the past week:

• Liberal Arts Chemist weighed in on responsible home laboratories
• AIChE’s Spring Meeting and the 8th Global Congress on Process Safety is coming up in April; ExxonMobil’s Michael Dolan will give the keynote address on “Process Safety and Corporate Responsibility”
• Mark Stone, 49, died of injuries sustained in a flash fire at Polymer Plastics earlier this month
• The eye irritation suffered by students and parents in a high school gym was likely from ultraviolet light emitted by a defective metal halide lamp
• Xcel Energy will pay $1.5 million to the families of the workers who died in a fire in an underground tunnel, plus a $100,000 penalty to OSHA, as part of a plea deal in which the company pleaded guilty to five counts of violating a federal OSHA regulation
• Texas officials cited Magnablend “for emitting unauthorized chemicals and for improper ventilation of contaminants”
• Safety concerns on rise as major accidents occur in Indian pharma companies

Fires and explosions:

• Thomas Bailey, 52, was killed at Heritage-WTI’s hazardous waste incinerator in New York Ohio; another worker, John Bechak, was injured; “Bailey and Bechak were in the process of separating products from a barrel when the material reacted, causing a small explosion, followed by a larger explosion, according to city fire department reports. … Fire reports indicated the barrel they were separating contained cutting oil, hafnium, niobium, water and zirconium”
• An explosion caused by some sort of chemical solution killed a worker at MyCelx Technologies, which makes industrial water-treatment systems in Georgia
• A filtering vessel caught fire at a Coim USA specialty chemical facility in New Jersey
• An explosion in a University of Oregon lab left a faculty member injured; a U Oregon spokesman tells me that the professor was cleaning a fume hood in a research lab and a glass container burst, although they don’t know yet why; the professor was cut and needed 3-4 stitches (he was not burned, as local press reported)
• A fire in an Australia National University chemistry lab started in a fume hood and spread to the roof; no one was injured; the department head tells me that an investigation is underway

Leaks, spills, and other exposures:

• Yet another spill at Australia’s Orica, this time 4,000 L of sulfuric acid; the leak was contained
• “A combination of paint-making chemicals” at Australia’s Nuplex Resins led to a “toxic gas cloud” and the evacuation of 100 residents
• Dye illegaly dumped into storm drains turned China’s Jian River bright red
• Formaldehyde spilled a hospital in Texas
• Something spilled in a biochemistry lab at the University of Wisconsin, Madison; one person suffered a minor cut; the building was closed for at least several hours while hazmat crews cleaned up

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