CENtral Science

Friday chemical safety round-up

Chemical health and safety news from the past week:

• Over at Chemical Space, a mysterious white powder cushioning trimethylsilyl cyanide turned out to be sodium carbonate, and I’m with David in wondering why the company didn’t identify the chemical anywhere in or on the packaging
• David also discussed the laboratory Safety Chain: “If the management doesn’t care to push safety issues (or just gives lip service) then the rank and file will cut the corners they can.”
• After the spate of nitric acid waste explosions this fall, Chemistry World’s “Chemistry in its Element” podcast on nitric acid seems timely
• The Center for Chemical Process Safety released the December issue of “The Process Safety Beacon”: “You should have more than one barrier between a hazardous material and the outside environment or the workplace. A single leaking or accidentally opened valve should not result in a dangerous release of hazardous material.”
• Honeywell and J.R. Simplot are developing a fertilizer that is similar to ammonium nitrate but without the explosive potential: “Sulf-N 26 is made with a patented Honeywell process that chemically fuses ammonium sulfate, which acts as a fire retardant, and ammonium nitrate to produce a stable molecule that delivers nitrogen to crops.”
• A West Virginia science panel announced its findings on toxicity of perfluorooctanoic acid, known as C8: the panel determined “a ‘probable link’ between C8 and high blood pressure among pregnant women, but no such link between exposure to the chemical and other reproductive effects; the panel is part of a settlement between DuPont and local residents regarding C8-contaminated water supplies
• Cleaning up California’s Wild West: EPA takes on polluted mercury mine in San Benito ghost town: “Forty gallons a minute, 21 million gallons a year. It bubbles and gurgles across the landscape, a bright orange toxic brew, nearly as corrosive as battery acid, teeming with mercury, aluminum, iron and nickel, the legacy of a long-abandoned mine, relentlessly pouring into nearby streams” and eventually San Francisco Bay.
• Massive WWII bomb successfully defused in Germany; lack of rain caused the Rhine river’s water level to fall, exposing a British 1.8 ton bomb (and a U.S. 275-pound bomb), 45,000 residents of Koblenz were evacuated
• Lead from old U.S. batteries sent to Mexico raises risks
• Singapore’s Chemic Industries was fined $154,000 for an incident in which four workers died from acid burns and their supervisor was injured while cleaning heat exchangers

Fires and explosions:

• A flash fire injured four workers at Polymer Partners in Kentucky, “three of the workers suffered burn injuries and the fourth needed treatment for smoke inhalation”; state labor officials cited the company for unsafe work conditions by state labor officials several times in 2004-2008
• A fire at FMC BioPolymer in Maine was located in the “alcohol room” for carrageenan processing and probably started when an alcohol pump overheated; the company’s automatic sprinkler system minimized damage

Leaks, spills, and other exposures:

• 6,400 gallons of ethanol at a Heaven Hill Distilleries facility in Kentucky: “They were filling a tank that has a connection to a smaller tank and the valve to the smaller tank was open and it overflowed the tank” and “A valve in a containment wall that normally would have stopped the liquid had been left open during recent rains,” leaving the liquid to run out to a local creek
• 5,000 gallons of dilute ammonium nitrate solution, at Orica in Australia (yet again)
• 300 gallons of mixed sulfuric and nitric acid and 100 gallons of sodium hydroxide and caustic acid at Crowley Foods in New York, both chemicals were confined to secondary containment
• Biphenyl and diphenyl oxidce (heat transfer fluid Dow Therm A) at a BASF site in Illinois, no one was injured
• Ethanol fumes at a Plymouth Tube Company mill in Maryland, one worker was evaluated for exposure
• Hydrochloric acid, from a package at a UPS facility in California
• A mix of lithium, dibromo-o-xylene and tetrahydrofuran produced an irritating vapor in a Washington University of St. Louis lab, sending one graduate student to the hospital for evaluation; meanwhile, a TA proctoring an exam in the building may have encouraged students to stay and finish the exam rather than evacuate
• Via ChemBark, students at Harvard were exposed to ultraviolet light when they didn’t wear protective goggles to view DNA gels: “the exposure caused some superficial dermal and ocular irritation and/or inflammation in some students. Some students also experienced discomfort from mild corneal abrasions.”
• A sodium light fixture broke in a high school gymnasium in Philadelphia, leaving 10 students and parents complaining of eye irritation

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