An explosion at Arens Controls Facility in northwest suburban Arlington Heights in Chicago, has left one person dead and ten injured.
Firefighters and police responded to Arens in the 3600 block of North Kennicott Avenue around 9 a.m. for what they considered at the time a chemical explosion. About 50 employees were evacuated and were left standing outside for more than three hours after the explosion this morning at the factory in Chicago.
Seven workers were injured and three police officers, two from Arlington Heig

hts and one from Buffalo Grove departments, were treated for respiratory problems.
The Arlington Heights Fire Department have reported the injuries were caused by a malfunctioning machine. Police have confirmed it was likely an industrial accident because there is no visible damage on the outside of the factory building.
Arlington Heights Fire Chief Glenn Erickson said in a statement, “The chemical they were using was a diluted form of potassium hydroxide. At this point in time we don’t know what role the chemical had in the accident, if it had any role at all.”
Firefighters and police are still investigating what exactly caused the explosion at the Arlington Heights Factory in Chicago.
Mary Capelli-Schellpfeffer, MD, medical director of occupational health at Loyola University Health System said, “After an industrial accident, even if someone can ‘walk away’ without visible injuries, it doesn’t mean there aren’t health concerns. Even after authorities have determined the cause of today’s explosion, the uncertainty and worry about the tragedy can continue for several weeks or months. It’s important during this time to help employees and neighbors to stay focused to limit additional injuries.”

A nine-mile stretch of the interstate in northern Gwinnett,  Barrow and Jackson counties was shut down in both directions around 3:40 a.m. Tuesday after the tractor-trailer, which officials said was hauling possibly hazardous chemicals, caught fire near Ga. 211.

Braselton police Assistant Chief Lou Solis said the right rear brakes on the Old Dominion Freight Lines truck caught fire around 3:30 a.m., and the fire spread into the trailer.

“He had twin trailers, and in the rear trailer, he was transporting hazardous liquids,” Solis told the AJC.

When Barrow fire crews arrived and saw placards on the truck indicating that it was hauling corrosives, “they looked it up on their emergency response books and it said you need hazmat suit,” Solis said. ”Barrow County doesn’t have hazmat suits, so they called Gwinnett fire out here.”

Gwinnett fire crews suited up and doused the fire, Solis said, but not before some 200 to 300 gallons of the hazardous liquid spilled from the trailer.

Solis said shortly after 7 a.m. that officials were waiting on a private hazmat cleanup crew to arrive “and determine what can be moved and what cannot be moved.”

A tanker conveying cylinders filled with inflammable chemical exploded on the Lekki-Epe Expressway in the Shango- Tedo area of Lagos Friday morning.

An eyewitness alleged that a woman might have been killed in the explosion.

The fire service appears to have been prompt on the scene but there is no confirmation on casualties even though eye-witnesses confirm deaths.

Traffic was at a standstill.

NEW CUMBERLAND - The small home at a rural crossroads in central Hancock County is where James Stanley lived and worked for many years. On Thursday, it's where he met a tragic death.

Stanley, who was in his 60s, was working on a project in his driveway with an acetylene torch Thursday afternoon when he was killed by an explosion, officials say.

"It was a bad accident - just one of those freak things that you don't see very often," Hancock County Sheriff Mike White said. "Very unfortunate."

The likely cause of death was trauma and burns from the explosion, according to the sheriff, but officials are still awaiting a ruling from the state medical examiner's office.

White said he knew Stanley as a retired man who still did work on the side with excavating equipment. Several small bulldozers and backhoes sit on his property at the remote intersection of Ballantyne and Shady Glen roads. A lone pine tree stands in his front yard.

Burn marks from the fire that claimed his life can be seen on the ground outside his garage. Police tape no longer surrounds the property, but the state fire marshal's office is continuing its investigation.

"We're not sure exactly what he was doing (with the torch)," White said. "He was cutting something."

Either flames or sparks from the torch ignited a 55-gallon drum that Stanley was standing over while he was working, White said. The drum was sealed and empty, but investigators are conducting tests to see whether vapors were the ignition source.

Kutch, May 17 (PTI) One person was killed and two others injured when a fire broke out during unloading of chemical from a tanker at Kandla complex near the port, police said. "An inferno broke out when some chemical was being unloaded from a tanker at a terminal operated by a private firm Kesar Chemicals in Kandla complex near the port," they said. One person died and two others sustained injuries, officials said. Around ten fire fighters including those of Kandla port reached the site and brought fire under control, they said, adding the tanker and the terminal were damaged in the incident.

Barwani (MP), May 16 (PTI) Two persons were killed and 11 others were injured today in an explosion in a truck carrying chemicals at Balsamund Check Post, police said. The truck was on its way to Indore from Mumbai. The explosion took place as the driver had parked it at the post and gone out for clearing paper work. Thirteen persons, standing around the truck, were injured seriously. Deepak Pancholi and one Pal died. The rest were admitted to Barwani hospital, police said adding that cause of the fire was not yet known.

GUANGZHOU, CHINA (BNO NEWS) -- A large explosion ripped through a steel plant in southern China on Monday afternoon, killing nine people and injuring several others, state-run media reported.

The explosion occurred at around 3:48 p.m. local time at a plant operated by Shaoguan Steel Co. Ltd. in the municipality of Shaoguan in China's southern province of Guangdong. It happened as workers from China MCC5 Group Corp. were installing facilities at the location.

The state-run Xinhua news agency cited local government officials as saying that eight people died at the scene, while a ninth victim died late on Monday evening. Six workers were injured, including one person who remains seriously injured.

The cause of the explosion remains unknown, but investigations have already been launched.

The rapid economic growth in China, in combination with poor safety measures, frequently result in deadly industrial accidents. In late February, thirteen people were killed and 43 others were injured when a blast ripped through a chemical plant in China's northern Hebei province.

Two serious accidents occurred within two days at the Map Ta Phut petrochemical production zone in eastern Thailand.
An explosion on May 5 at a synthetic rubber plant owned by Bangkok Synthetics killed 12 people and injured more than 140 at Map Ta Phut. The next day, a chlorine leak at a hydrochloric acid plant operated by Aditya Birla Chemicals led to the hospitalization of 13 people, according to the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT).
The back-to-back accidents have revived tensions between the facilities in the industrial zone and nearby residents who blame the petrochemical industry for causing pollution and posing a safety risk.
Bangkok Synthetics said in a statement that the explosion occurred when the plant was shut down and undergoing maintenance. During a storm, a fire broke out in a toluene vessel that had just been cleaned, the company said.

State and federal health officials are investigating how a rare and virulent bacteria strain appears to have killed a young researcher at a VA hospital's infectious diseases lab in San Francisco, setting off alarms that the man's friends and fellow researchers may have also been exposed.
The 25-year-old laboratory researcher at San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center died Saturday morning shortly after asking friends to take him to the hospital. For the week and months before his death, he had been handling a bacteria linked to deadly bloodstream infections at the VA hospital's Northern California Institute for Research and Education, said Peter Melton, a spokesman for the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
The man, whose name has not been released, was working with fellow researchers to develop a vaccine for a bacterial strain that causes septicemia and meningitis. Hours after he left work, however, the germ that he was studying took his own life.
"He left the lab around 5 p.m." Friday, said Harry Lampiris, chief of the VA hospital's infectious diseases division. "He had no symptoms at all."
Two hours later, however, the Treasure Island resident reported to his girlfriend he was feeling sick with a headache, fever and chills, Lampiris said. Not until Saturday morning did the symptoms grow worse with a body rash. He asked friends to take him to the hospital but fell unconscious in the car and had no
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The massive explosion at the factory of a Bangkok Synthetics subsidiary that killed 11 and injured another 129 people on Saturday has prompted the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT) to examine 65 hazardous factories in Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate.

The Pollution Control Depart-ment (PCD) has also called on manufacturers in the estate to reveal to the public and other agencies all hazardous and non-hazardous chemical substances used in their production processes.

The IEAT's deputy governor, Peerawt Rungrueng, said his agency would send teams to investigate 65 factories likely to be at risk accidents inside the estate.

The team will comprise staff from related agencies, local representatives and the Industrial Works Department.

"We will not investigate without participation from local people," he said, adding that the survey was expected to be finished next week.

Currently, IEAT staff are examining damage to the BST Elastomers facility and nearby factories affected by the massive explosion.

The IEAT has also ordered Aditya Birla Chemicals to suspend operations after a chemical leak at its Map Ta Phut factory on Sunday that led to the hospitalisation of 138 people.

A LARGE blaze at a chemical factory in eastern Thailand killed 12 people, injured more than 100 and spewed toxic smoke into the air, the health ministry said today.


Hundreds of residents had to be evacuated after the fire, which was caused by an explosion at the factory in Rayong province, sent a plume of black acrid smoke into the sky yesterday.

Firefighters quelled the blaze but health officials continued to monitor air quality amid concerns poisonous fumes may still seep into the air.

A health ministry statement said 12 people had died in the explosion and ensuing fire while 129 were injured, mainly suffering burns.

The majority of the victims are believed to be factory workers.

"Doctors said 12 were killed in yesterday's explosion but we can only confirm 10 so far," Map Ta Phut police Lieutenant Colonel Charoen Vititkornkul said.

"Police forensic teams are searching for clues to what happened and we are also looking for any more bodies," he said, adding police were ready to evacuate more local residents if necessary.

Fire officials in Seekonk believe that a man killed himself by breathing in a mixture of hydrogen sulfide while inside a car, in a parking lot, where a carnival was scheduled to take place.

Thankfully the man did leave several notes on the car warning people to stay away.

And without those warnings, officials say that the situation could have been much worse.

The warnings were first discovered by a group of kids at around 2:30 Friday afternoon.

"It said poisonous gas, hydrogen sulfide, do not open the doors, call 9-1-1 and get the hazmat team." said 13-year old Matthew Stanley.

WorkSafeBC says wood dust from pine-beetle killed timber is being investigated as a factor in a fatal sawmill explosion in Burns Lake, but stressed it’s just one of several fuel sources being examined.

Also on the suspect list are natural gas and propane.

Roberta Ellis, a senior vice-president with WorkSafeBC, said the agency took the unusual step of providing information in the midst of their investigation because of the serious nature of two recent fatal sawmill explosions in northern B.C.

“We’ve had two catastrophic explosions approximately three months apart. There’s a high level of anxiety and fear in the industry,” Ellis told reporters on a conference call after delivering information on the investigation first to industry leaders.

The investigation into the first explosion at Babine Forest Products in Burns Lake is expected to take two to three months to complete.

That explosion on Jan. 20 killed two workers and injured 19 others.

It was followed by an explosion and fire on April 23 at Prince George’s Lakeland Mills sawmill, which killed two workers and injured 22.

Some injured workers at both sites were left with severe burns.

Ellis acknowledged sawdust from dry, beetle-killed pine had been flagged for some time as a production problem for the forest industry.

But, she said, the dust from beetle-killed trees — described as drier and finer than dust from other timber — had not been identified as a special or increased explosive threat before the Babine Forest Products explosion.

A CHEMICAL company was fined €300,000 yesterday over an explosion at a plant in which a worker was killed.

Liam Nodwell (58) died after suffering burns to 90pc of his body in a huge explosion on April 28, 2008, at the Corden PharmaChem plant in Little Island, Cork.

His burns were so bad that the ambulance that brought the dying man to Cork University Hospital later had to be taken out of service by the HSE and decontaminated.

Yesterday, Liam's brother and sister, Jimmy and Sheila Nodwell, told the Irish Independent nothing would ever make up for the loss of a devoted father, husband, brother and friend.

"He was a father figure to all of us -- he was a marvellous, kind, devoted man. He was worth 10 times €300,000. That's all we can say," they said.

Corden was fined €300,000 and ordered to pay costs of €72,000 after what Judge Patrick Moran at Cork Circuit Criminal Court said was "a very serious (safety) breach".

Mr Nodwell of Church Hill, Glanmire, died just hours after the explosion, which blew apart sections of the firm's Production Block II facility.

A second employee -- James O'Sullivan -- suffered multiple injuries but survived.

A civil action is understood to be still ongoing.

Corden pleaded guilty to four different breaches of health and safety regulations.

The company expressed its regrets and sympathies to the Nodwell family on their loss.

Chandigarh, April 30: At least four workers were killed and 12 others received burn injuries Monday after a chemical factory caught fire in Punjab's industrial town of Lalru, 30 km from here, police said.

The fire started following a blast in a reactor of the factory, a police officer said.

According to police, four bodies have been recovered so far from the factory.

At least 12 workers, who had received burn injuries, were rushed to nearby hospitals. The seriously injured ones were referred to the Government Medical College and Hospital in Chandigarh's Sector 32, the officer added.

Fire tenders arrived from the industrial town of Derabassi and other places, but it took some time to control the fire, police said.

Workplace safety experts are highlighting the dangers of poor housekeeping in sawmills in the wake of a deadly explosion at a Prince George sawmill on Monday.

The cause of the blast has not been determined but high accumulations of dust, which can be extremely combustible when a spark is present, were found inside the Lakeland Mill sawmill — something University of Toronto workplace safety expert Graeme Norval says shouldn’t occur.

“It’s poor housekeeping — you get piles of dust on the floor, or on the pipes, it’s dirty, the dust gets into the air,” said Norval, a chemical engineer who teaches courses in factory safety. “Once you get the dust in the air it’s like having a flammable gas mixture, and it just finds a source of ignition and up it goes.”

He said it’s just “common sense” that management should be inspecting vigilantly — “this is not new or novel.”

Two workers were killed and nine remain seriously injured from the blast that tore through the sawmill Monday. Two dozen workers had been in the factory’s lunchroom in a training session at the time.

ORTSMOUTH — An employee of the Redhook Brewery was fatally wounded Tuesday when a pressurized beer keg exploded at the company's facility in Portsmouth.

The man was rushed to Portsmouth Regional Hospital by ambulance after he was struck in the head and chest by pieces of the keg, according to Assistant Portsmouth Fire Chief Steve Achilles.

Redhook employees found the worker unresponsive in the loading dock area at approximately 7:06 a.m., a short time after the explosion.

Achilles said the worker, who is believed to be in his 20s or early 30s, had been filling kegs with air as part of a cleaning process that removes residual beer from the kegs. He said firefighters responded within three minutes after receiving a 911 call from the employees.

Every day, 12 workers die on the job across America. As the nation's secretary of labor, I am surrounded by numbers about jobs, the labor market and about the economy more broadly. But the number 12 stays with me. It is a haunting reminder of the hard-working Americans we lose every day, often in the prime of their life, filled with the energy that we need to build a better world.

Sheri Sangji was one of these Americans, so full of promise. She was a 23-year-old research assistant in a lab at the University of California at Los Angeles, looking forward to a career that would allow her to pursue her interests in chemistry, law and the rights of women and immigrants. One day, while performing an experiment with highly reactive chemicals, a flash fire ignited her clothes and skin, causing fatal burns. Sheri had not been properly trained in the handling of the chemical that set off the blaze. I later met her family, a loving and tight-knit group of people. The weight of their loss was nearly unbearable. I think about them every day.

To remember Sheri Sangji and all others who die on the job across our country, we observe Workers Memorial Day every April 28. Today, we remember families who have lost a loved one because of workplace injuries, and we pledge to continue fighting tirelessly to make sure that no worker trades a life for a livelihood.

YAMAGUCHI (Jiji-Daily Yomiuri)--One male employee died and 11 were injured at a chemical plant in an explosion in Waki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, in the hours just before dawn on Sunday.

The blast occurred at about 2:15 a.m. in one of the plants at Mitsui Chemicals, Inc.'s Iwakuni-Otake factory, causing a fire. According to the prefectural government and other sources, the explosion affected about 410 households in Waki and Iwakuni, both in the prefecture, as well as neighboring Otake, Hiroshima Prefecture, breaking residents' windows. Police reported nine residents were injured.

Shota Sunakawa, 22, a plant employee, died in the explosion, according to Iwakuni Police Station. No noxious gas is believed to have been produced despite the fire that broke out, police said. The Yamaguchi prefectural police are questioning plant officials on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in death.

According to the company, two employees near the explosion site were seriously injured and five others were harmed. Four employees of another company sustained minor injuries.

Plant manager Shigeru Hara said the accident occurred at a plant manufacturing resorcin, a material for making an adhesive agent commonly used in tire production. According to Hara, after a facility responsible for supplying steam to the factory unexpectedly stopped, operations at about 70 percent of its plants were suddenly halted.

OSAKA, April 22 (Xinhua) -- One people was killed and 11 others were injured when an explosion rocked a chemical plant in Yamaguchi Prefecture in southwestern Japan early Sunday, local press reported.

The explosion occurred at around 2:00 a.m. local time at a plant belonging to leading Japanese company Mitsui Chemicals , killing a 22-year-old worker and injuring 11 other workers at the site.

Glasses of windows of some 100 houses near the plant were broken due to the explosion, the report said, adding that firefighters are still trying to extinguish the fire caused by the blast

Buffalo, N.Y. (WKBW) - It was an explosion that could be heard for miles. An empty tank was being repaired at the DuPont facility in November of 2010 when it blew up, killing Rich Folaron, 57, of South Whales.
Now, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board has answers as to why this tragedy happened.
"The accident occurred while a contract worker was welding a tank that unknown to him contained flammable gas," Chemical Safety Board Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso said.
The explosion occurred because there was a hole in the pipes leading from one tank to another. CSB explained how this happened in a computerized video they prepared. WKBW did not use some of the video because of its graphic nature.
"A whole around the agitators shaft was a path for ignition. Sparks could have fallen into the tank even as flammable gas drifted toward the sparks," explains the CSB video.

TEXAS CITY, Texas -
Monday marks a somber day in Texas history.

The SS Grandcamp exploded at the docks in Texas City, killing nearly 600 people, on April 16, 1947.

The ship was carrying ammonium nitrate when the explosion happened 65 years ago.

The crash destroyed the entire dock area along with Grain Warehouses, a nearby chemical company.

DETROIT -- The potential shortage of a key component used to make fuel lines and brake lines could force automakers in the U.S. and around the world to close car and truck plants as they run short of parts.

Auto industry executives have scheduled an unprecedented meeting on Tuesday in suburban Detroit to talk about the problem. Officials from as many as 10 automakers and dozens of parts supply companies are set to attend.

A March 31 explosion at Evonik Industries in western Germany killed two workers and damaged a factory that makes CDT. That chemical is a key component in a nylon resin called PA12, which is used to make a specialized plastic. The plastic is used in auto fuel lines and brake lines. It is also a component in solar cells, pipelines, sporting goods and household items.

Any auto plant closures that might result from the shortage would come at a crucial time for the industry. U.S. sales are the highest they have been in recent years as the industry recovers from the recession. March was the best month for the industry in nearly five years.

Automakers aren't pushing the panic button yet, but they are concerned.

An explosion and subsequent fire that lasted 16 hours has killed two workers at an Evonik Industries chemical plant in Marl, Germany. The cause of the March 31 accident remains unknown but is under investigation by both government authorities and an Evonik contractor.
The accident occurred in the early afternoon at a plant that produces cyclododecatriene, an intermediate used to make nylon 12, flame retardants, flavors, and fragrances. One worker was killed immediately, and hours passed before his body could be recovered. A second worker, who suffered severe burns, died of his injuries two days later.
During the blaze, some unspecified amount of the carcinogen butadiene did leak, an Evonik spokeswoman says. However, she says, the chemical was consumed by fire, which accounted for the black smoke billowing from the plant site. The public was never at risk from exposure to butadiene, and no other chemical was involved in the blaze, she adds.
At C&EN’s press time, Evonik did not know the full extent of damage to the Marl plant, but it expects “substantial constraints” for the time being on its output of nylon 12, used in auto parts, photovoltaic modules, and sporting goods. The firm says the accident has not affected output of other plastics made at the site, including the engineering polymers polybutylene terephthalate and polyether ether ketone.
About 10,000 Evonik employees work at the 2.5-sq-mile Marl site, which is also home to 30 other chemical-related companies.
Accidents are infrequent in the German chemical industry. Chemical workers in Germany suffered 9.4 accidents per million hours worked in 2010, according to the German Chemical Industry Association, compared with 41.6 in construction, 9.8 in health care, and 16.5 for all industries. In the U.S., chemical workers experienced 11.0 accidents per million hours worked, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Evonik itself recorded just 1.3 accidents per million hours worked company-wide in 2010 and no deaths.

Six people were killed in two different accidents, including an explosion that brought down a four-storey building in southern China today.

Five people were killed and four others seriously injured when a building collapsed, after an explosion in a nearby garage in east China's Fujian Province.

Rescuers are searching the debris for survivors.

The accident was triggered by an explosion that ripped through a garage and toppled a four-storey building in Daji Village of Longyan City.

The building was a residential complex owned by Shubang Coal Mine.

HOHHOT - Fire fighters on Sunday morning put out the blaze in a chemical plant in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, which has caused one dead and three others injured.
The accident happened around 5 pm Saturday at Inner Mongolia 3F Fluorochemical Co Ltd. in the city of Fengzhen. A huge amount of flammable gas has been leaked after the chemical plant caught fire and exploded.
Some tanks containing VDF gas, a flammable and narcotic gas, on the ground floor of the plant's high-rise workshop caught fire. Fire fighters rescued three injured workers trapped in the flames, and evacuated other workers out of the building.

BROKEN ARROW, Okla. (AP) — Broken Arrow police say a man was killed after a compressed natural gas tank exploded.

Police tell Tulsa television station KOTV ( http://is.gd/KZYj9k ) that the man was working on a pickup truck that had a CNG tank. Broken Arrow Police Sgt. Ed Ferguson says someone driving past a business in an industrial park spotted the man's body at about 6:30 a.m. Thursday.

Ferguson says it appears the tank exploded, killing the man.

Authorities say the explosion sent debris into the street and caused minor property damage.

The toxic chemical that authorities say a Boston University doctoral student may have ingested when she apparently committed suicide at her South End flat is cheap and available with just a few clicks of a mouse, according to a toxicologist who says sodium azide is in the “same class” as the cyanide suicide concoctions that have sparked similar haz-mat responses in recent years.

“It’s easy to obtain,” said Roger W. Giese, a professor of chemistry and biomedical science at Northeastern University. The chemical is used as a preservative in laboratories but could also be purchased online, he said. “It’s inexpensive, it’s water soluble. It’s salt, like sodium chloride. ... And it doesn’t take very much” to be lethal.

BU officials said they’re probing whether the 25-year-old woman, a third-year student in the medical school’s pharmacology program, had ingested a chemical from one of their laboratories. The woman on Monday night was taken to Boston Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. Police said they found what appeared to be a suicide note and a relative told them she suffered from depression.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Wednesday granted a third — and final — defense request to delay the arraignment of a UCLA chemistry professor and the UC Board of Regents on felony charges stemming from a 2008 lab fire that killed a staff research assistant.

Judge Shelly Torrealba ordered professor Patrick Harran and lawyers for the regents back into court June 7, effectively setting a deadline for them to reach a plea agreement with prosecutors on charges in the death of Sheharbano “Sheri” Sangji.

Twelve people were evacuated from a South End apartment building and four Boston police officers and an ambulance crew were taken to a hospital after a woman committed suicide Monday night inside an apartment by ingesting a toxic chemical, fire officials said.

Boston Deputy Fire Chief Steve Dunbar said at the hazmat scene that the woman ingested the chemical on the first floor of 676 Mass. Ave. at about 9 p.m. and was later pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center.

He said four police officers and the ambulance team of two EMS workers were being quarantined at BMC to determine whether they were affected by the substance.

Dunbar said a relative of the woman, whose name and age he did not know, reported that the victim told her she ingested a chemical and asked that her cats be taken care of.

The deputy fire chief said the victim appeared to be young, but he could not be more specific.

He said the woman is believed to have ingested sodium azide, a chemical used to make airbags. “But it can metabolize into some kind of cyanide,” Dunbar said, adding that the woman died about an hour or two after ingesting the substance.

LONDON, UK – An explosion at a chemical plant in Germany killed at least one person and left two others injured Saturday.

Police spokeswoman Ramona told Bloomberg that a tank exploded at the Evonik Degussa plant in the western city of Marl and started a blaze, which about 100 firefighters managed to bring under control.

The injured man was flown to hospital, while a third person suffered only light injuries and was discharged earlier today.

More from GlobalPost: Great Pacific Garbage Patch will soon have even more garbage

Marl, a city of 87,000 in the Ruhr industrial heartland, is an important chemical industry hub. Its chemical park is among Europe’s biggest, with 30 firms employing about 10,000 workers producing more than 4,000 products.

The blast – whose cause was not immediately known – was triggered in a tank containing substances used in the production of plastic parts in the auto industry, as well as in electronics and cosmetics, an industry spokesman told the Agence France Presse.

Tragedy is often the impetus for change. 

By many accounts, the death of four Norwich firefighters during an explosion in 1962 had ripple effects that reverberated across the country —  leading to improved safety standards for first responders and major changes in the way hazardous materials are labeled, shipped and handled.

Today, vehicles carrying hazardous materials are required by federal law to have placards  — color-coded, diamond-shaped signs with numbers and symbols. In the event of an emergency, such as a fire, first responders need only consult a guidebook for general information about just how dangerous any cargo is.

 There was no such law in place on the afternoon of April 3, 1962, when Norwich firefighters responded to reports of a truck fire at the Van Tassel warehouse on Forest Street.

“This is the Van Tassel Leather Co. on Forest St. We have a truck on fire, loaded with explosives,” was the call to the fire department.

Thomas LaFreniere, 83, who was seriously injured in the explosion that was to come, said firefighters knew there were explosives on board, but not much else.

“The dispatcher said, ‘Be careful,’ ” LaFreniere said. “But our job is to extinguish the fire. When they’re running out, we’re running in.”

The subsequent explosion leveled parts of the warehouse and shattered glass windows for miles — and claimed the lives of four of the firefighters at the scene. There was an immediate outcry at the local and state levels for better regulations from the city and state after the investigation into the cause.

Norwich Fire Marshal Kenneth Scandariato said that in the 1960s, there were certain chemicals known to be volatile, but the type of response needed in a situation like Van Tassel was not well-understood.
“They were being classified from a compositional perspective, but not for safety,” Scandariato said. “There were very few training bulletins — procedures for fire departments to prepare for hazardous materials response.

“We didn’t have the equipment, the training or the organization we have today,”  he said. “Many of those things came from the Van Tassel tragedy and other incidents that began to raise attention and alarm.”

Major Carroll E. Shaw, the deputy state fire marshal in 1962, reported the load carried by the truck in question was organic peroxides —  a mix of benzoyl peroxide, methyl ethyl ketone peroxide and others shipped in wet and dry forms.

Shaw wrote that the load, was “extremely sensitive to shock, blows and impact,” and likely shifted during the 600-mile trip to Norwich from Buffalo, N.Y.

When bad things happen in an academic laboratory, what should happen to people who bear responsibility for those bad things — even if they didn’t mean for them to happen?

This is the broad question I’ve been thinking about in connection with the prosecution of chemistry professor Patrick Harran and UCLA in connection with the laboratory accident that killed Sheri Sangji. Potentially, Harran could face jail time, and there has been a good bit of discussion (as in these posts at Chemjobber) about whether that’s what he deserves.

I’ll be honest: I find myself uncomfortable weighing Harran’s actions (and inaction) as worthy of jail time or not, let alone assigning the appropriate number of months or years behind bars to punish him for Sheri Sangji’s death. And, other than satisfying our appetite for retribution, I am utterly unsure whether such a penalty in this case would help. I don’t know that it would do much to change the conditions and institutions that ought to be changed in the wake of this accident. (On the matter of changing institutions, read the excellent posts at ChemBark and Chemjobber.)

NANJING - An explosion early Tuesday at a chemical plant in a city on China's east coast has injured two people and left another two missing, according to local authorities.
The blast occurred in Lianyungang Taiyi Fine Chemical Factory in Donghai county in Lianyungang city, Jiangsu Province, a spokesperson for the county government said.
Firefighters are still searching for the missing in the plant, the spokesperson added.
The windows and doors of a school situated 700 meters away from the chemical facility were severely damaged, but no students were hurt as the explosion happened early morning, outside of school hours.
The school's classes have been suspended and will resume Tuesday afternoon.
The explosion caused the leakage of 250 kg of ammonia, which has been diluted with water and will not affect the environment, according to the spokesperson.

Investigations are continuing into Friday night's chemical scare that led to the Emergency Department at the Calvary Mater Hospital being evacuated and decontaminated.

A 32-year-old Lambton man drank a quantity of the substance sodium azide and was taken by ambulance from Newcastle University to the Mater, where he later died.

Ambulance Officers union spokesman Peter Rumball says two paramedics were among several workers who had to be decontaminated.

"The Hazmat decontaminated them and they were allowed to go home," he said.

"The have since recovered but it just highlights the jobs of ambulance officers across the State, simply going to respond to someone that's ill they could become a victim themselves."

Mr Rumball says the chemical, which is extremely toxic, is used in bio-medical experiments and as an insecticide.

"It can be quite dangerous," he said.

"It can be lethal if it's ingested or absorbed.

"That's why the full decontamination process was put in place at the Mater Hospital to deal with that, to protect not only the patient but members of the nursing staff, doctors and the ambulance officers."

On Saturday, take the time to lock up the cyanide and stash your arsenic somewhere safe, because next week is National Poison Prevention Week.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that, despite federally required child-proof packaging on most medicines, emergency rooms receive around 60,000 visits each year from children who sampled from the medicine cabinet. Poisoning is also one of the leading injury-related causes of death in the U.S., with 90 percent of deaths involving drugs, prescription or otherwise, according to the CDC.

It's not just parents that should keep proper poison control in mind. As workplaces go, laboratories are not nearly as risky as forests, but accidental poisoning has claimed the lives of experienced researchers as well as some of the most acclaimed figures in science.

Perhaps the most famous cautionary tale in science is that of Marie Curie, whose work on radioactivity earned her two Nobel Prizes in different scientific fields - chemistry and physics - a feat that has yet to be matched since.

The emergency department at Newcastle's Mater Hospital had to be evacuated overnight after a man who had ingested a dangerous chemical was brought in.
Police say the 32 year old man had swallowed the chemical in the science laboratories at Newcastle University.
Concerns were raised about the volatility of the chemical and the Fire Brigade's Hazmat unit was called in.
Police Inspector Michael Gorman says a number of people who were in contact with the patient had to be decontaminated.
"Police and Hazmat and fire brigade attended the emergency department at the Mater Hospital," he said.
"They took steps to isolate the patient, close the emergency department to any more incoming patients and a partial evacuation of the emergency department as carried out until such time as Hazmat was satisfied that the area was safe.
The emergency department was re-opened just after 2 am (AEST) this morning.
Inspector Gorman says the area was decontaminated before being re-opened.
"The toxicologist was brought in both to treat the male patient but also to liaise with the HAZMAT staff in terms of the air quality and any possible contamination to any persons who had come into contact with the male during the course of the evening," he said.
"After those discussions the all clear was given, the area was decontaminated and the emergency department re-opened at approximately 2am."
The 32 year old man died early this morning.

...
Stolt Valor is a chemical tanker carrying approximately 13,000 metric tons of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), which is used to increase oxygen content in gasoline throughout the U.S., to reduce carbon monoxide and ozone levels caused by auto emissions. MTBE is considered soluble, but not biodegradable.

Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) Battle Watch Officer reported the incident to the Marine Emergency Mutual Aid Center (MEMAC), which dispatched tugs with fire fighting capability to the scene.

U.S. 5th Fleet's Naval Cooperation and Guidance for Shipping (NCAGS) contacted Stolt-Nielsen Limited to establish a line of communication between the military and the shipping company's crisis response team. The environmental impact is unknown at this time.

Stolt Nielsen issued a statement saying:

"Stolt Tankers B.V., a subsidiary of Stolt-Nielsen Limited and operators and owners of MT Stolt Valor, confirm that the vessel suffered an explosion on board whilst transiting the Persian Gulf.

"A Coalition warship is presently on site and is providing assistance. We understand that 24 of the 25 crewmembers are safe and on board the Coalition vessel. One crewmember is currently missing. Families of all the crew are being contacted as a matter of urgency.

"Stolt is working in close cooperation with the authorities on site in order to establish the whereabouts of our missing seafarer and the condition of the vessel."

AJMAN — Three of the five cleaning and maintenance workers who had been battling for life after inhaling toxic chemical fumes during a fire in an oil tanker at Ajman Port last week have succumbed to the inside burns in a hospital here, taking the death toll in the incident to six.
Three workers had died on the spot in the fire on the Sallalah while five were rushed to Khalifa Hospital. Three of them who had suffered third degree burns died in the last two days.

Salih Al Junaibi, Deputy Director of Khalifa Hospital, said the workers were brought to the hospital in very critical conditions, as they had third degree burns inside due to inhaling fumes from the strong chemical which they used to clean the ship.

A pharmaceutical company has pleaded guilty to four breaches of health and safety legislation following a chemical explosion at its plant in Cork that claimed the life of one employee and led to serious injury to another.

Corden Pharma Ltd, trading as Corden Pharmachem Ltd with registered offices at South Mall, Cork, pleaded guilty to the four charges relating to the explosion at its plant at Little Island, Co Cork, on April 28th, 2008.

Father-of-one Liam Nodwell (58) from Glanmire on the outskirts of Cork city was fatally injured.

His workmate Jimmy O’Sullivan was seriously injured in the chemical explosion which happened in a process reactor on the 20-acre site.

Yesterday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court, company director Patrick Burke pleaded guilty on behalf of the company to the four breaches of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 when the company was arraigned on the charges.

Corden Pharma Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the safety and prevention of risk to health at work in that it failed to implement control measures to control an emission from a chemical reaction leading to the death of Mr Nodwell and injury to Mr O’Sullivan.

Poor facilities, lax management and under-qualified workers may all have played a role in the chemical factory blast in Hebei province that killed 25 people and injured 46, according to a preliminary investigation.
The investigation's findings, released by the State Administration of Work Safety on its website on Tuesday afternoon, said that 25 people were killed in the accident and four were still missing, a sharp increase from the 17 casualties announced on Feb 29. There were no updates to the list of injured, which remains at 46 people. On Feb 28, a blast ripped through the Keeper Chemical Factory in Zhaoxian county, Hebei province, razing the three-story building. The explosion also seriously damaged other buildings at the site and shattered the windows of houses up to two kilometers away.
The investigation found that a heat transfer oil spill under one of the three chemical reactors inside the factory caused a fire that heated the ammonium nitrate and guanidine nitrate in the reactor. Both compounds are used to make explosives and explode at high temperatures.
This caused one reactor to explode, triggering a second, massively destructive blast in the plant.

Mar 10, 2012 -- One of the three men who was hurt in a flash fire earlier this week at the Valero Memphis Refinery died this afternoon.

Nicholas Cuevas, who worked for the Texas-based JV Industrial Companies Ltd. doing maintenance work for Valero, died just after 1 p.m. at the Regional Medical Center.

Cuevas, who was as a mechanical craftsman, had burns over 90 percent of his body.

Cuevas's brother, Daniel, along with another man whose name was not available were also hurt. One had burns on 60 to 70 percent of his body. The second man suffered burns on 30 percent of his body.

Both are still being treated at The Med. Their conditions, however, have not been released. The men's ages are 26, 33 and 35.

The flash fire happened around 3 p.m. Tuesday when the three men were working on a flare platform venting gases. Flares are the torch-like towers topped by fire at the refinery that act as safety devices where pressurized gases can be routed and consumed when necessary.

Plea negotiations will continue in an unprecedented criminal case stemming from a 2008 lab fire that killed a UCLA staff research assistant and resulted in felony charges against a chemistry professor and the UC Board of Regents.

On Wednesday, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge postponed until April 11 the arraignment of professor Patrick Harran and the regents. The defendants were charged in December with three counts each of willfully violating occupational health and safety standards, resulting in the death of Sheharbano "Sheri" Sangji.

A Menlo Park research and development company is facing nearly $56,000 in penalties for workplace safety violations following a September explosion that left one scientist dead and another with injuries.
Cal/OSHA on Thursday released the results of its investigation into the fatal blast at Membrane Technology & Research on Willow Road.
At 3:40 p.m. on Sept. 2, Adrian Martin, 55, was mixing butane, helium, nitrogen and methane in a propane cylinder with a maximum allowable working pressure of 300 psi, according to an investigation summary. The concentration of the gases, however, boosted pressure to between 700 and 800 psi.
The 15-inch-diameter, nearly 4-foot-tall cylinder exploded as Martin added more methane in an effort to achieve a 90 percent concentration of the gas, the report said. Had the San Jose resident succeeded, the pressure in the cylinder would have reached at least 1,200 psi.
Investigators also determined that the cylinder wasn't equipped with a proper pressure relief valve. The device was set to activate above 3,360 psi, more than 10 times the maximum allowable working pressure of the cylinder.

At least 13 people have been killed and 43 injured in an explosion at a chemical plant in northern China.

Officials and state media said the blast flattened a workshop at the Hebei Zhaoxian Kerr Chemical Company on the outskirts of the Hebei provincial capital of Shijiazhuang and shattered windows in surrounding villages.

The state Work Safety Administration said on its website that the explosion happened during the production of a high-energy fuel and propellant, guanidine nitrate.

An explosion ripped through a north China chemical factory Tuesday, killing at least 13 people and injuring 43, the government said of the latest industrial accident to strike the nation.

The impact of the blast, which occurred near Shijiazhuang city, capital of Hebei province, was felt in at least three nearby villages, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Photographs posted on the Internet purportedly of the blast site showed a large crater surrounded by debris. The walls of several work shops that surrounded the site had been destroyed.

The cause of the blast is still under investigation and rescue efforts are ongoing, the State Administration of Work Safety said on its website.

The casualty toll came from a preliminary report, the administration said, indicating it could rise.

Safety standards are regularly flouted in China, and workplace accidents remain common despite repeated pledges by the government to improve regulations and oversight.

Nearly 50,000 people died in work-related accidents in the first nine months of 2011, the administration said earlier.

PORTLAND, Ore. – A Swan Island worker died Sunday after he fell into a tank that was full of a hazardous chemical, fire and rescue officials said.

A 57-year-old man working on a barge fell into the tank full of a chemical called lignin amine, according to Lt. Rich Tyler with Portland Fire and Rescue. Lignin is a toxic, corrosive chemical derived from wood and used in agriculture.

Fire and rescue responded to the scene at 10:10 a.m.

The tank is about 40 feet long, 50 feet wide and 20 feet deep, Tyler said. Rescuers used a camera to confirm the man was inside. The oxygen levels were so little that it would cause someone to pass out within one minute and died soon after, Tyler said.

LANZHOU - A chemical worker died in a tank truck explosion in Northwest China's Gansu province Monday morning, local authorities said.
The tank trailer carrying 58 cubic meters of liquefied petroleum gas exploded near an LPG station in Xigu district in the provincial capital Lanzhou at around 9 am, the city's safety administration said in a press release.
It said the blast, which occurred during nitrogen replacement, broken the tank into pieces, shattered several windows and toppled a fencing at the gas station.
The victim was not identified.

AURORA, Colo. -- Emergency crews shut down a stretch of Cornell Avenue east of Peoria Street, and ordered people in two nearby businesses, one of them a daycare center, to stay inside while they dealt with a hazardous chemical situation involving a body.
A maintenance employee at an apartment complex on Cornell Avenue told 7NEWS that he noticed a car parked in an adjacent lot and thought it might be abandoned.
"I walked up to it and noticed a woman slumped over inside," the man said. "The doors were locked."

He said there were notes posted on the driver side door window stating that chemicals were in use and to call 911. So he did.

A Harlingen man is dead after being killed in a Tuesday afternoon oil well explosion just southeast of Midland.

It all happened at an oil drilling site off County Road 125 about 11 miles southwest of Garden City around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

KWES-TV reported that 51-year-old Harlingen native Noe Cabriales died in the accident.

According to KWES-TV, Cabriales was fracking a well at a site belonging to Great White Pressure Pump when a high pressure line exploded.

An explosion and fire killed two workers at a chemical factory in Jacobs, south Durban, South Africa.

The fire started after an explosion just after midnight in the Chemical Technologies building. Department of Labour officials are investigating the circumstances.

Firefighters spent about three hours trying to put out the blaze using foam as there were potentially toxic chemicals in the building. It is not yet known whether the men had been killed in the explosion or whether they had died of smoke inhalation.

"All fatalities most likely resulted from secondary explosions and fires," pointed out a representative from the Chemical Safety Board regarding the Imperial Sugar Explosion.  

An investigation by the CSB blamed housekeeping specifically piles of highly combustible sugar dust at unsafe levels that needed just one spark.

But to date, nothing has been done by the government to prevent a repeat. Congressman John Barrow has co-sponsored legislation three times, each time getting held up in a committee or voted down by the senate.  Last year, Congressman Jack Kingston told News Three he was still dedicated to the cause.

"We're still voting yes because we think that pushing the dust regulations through, it keeps the pressure on OSHA and the other federal authorities on jurisdiction to make sure that this thing is done," says Kingston.  

But that didn't seem to happen.  Instead, according to OSHA's regulatory agenda, combustible dust standards are on the backburner.

Botetourt Co., VA - One man is dead, and I-81 was closed for much of the day as crews worked to cleanup a chemical spill following a tractor trailer accident.

State Police say Wayne Kratzer, 51, of Pennsylvania, died in the wreck in, and authorities say he was trapped for more than three hours then died on the way to the hospital.

When rescue crews got on scene, they quickly realized they were dealing with a leak of Thioglycol, a chemical used in the textile industry but considered a poison.

Two barrels ruptured in the wreck, slowing down the rescue. It also forced residents within a half mile to evacuate their homes for about seven hours.

COLEBROOK - The owner of the Black Mag plant in Colebrook, where two men were killed and one severely injuried in a 2010 explosion, has been indicted on manslaughter and negligent homicide charges.

Craig Sanborn was indicted by the Coos County Grand Jury in connection with the May 14, 2010, explosion that killed Jesse Kennett, 49, and Donald Kendall, 56. A third employee was injured in an explosion at the plant that once produced gunpowder.

The explosion at Millennium Design Muzzleloaders plant in the Colebrook Industrial Park rocked downtown Colebrook. Coos County Attorney Robert McKeel said the indictments handed down late Friday.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials said they were not aware of the plant before the explosion, but afterwards concluded there were huge safety problems and blamed Sanborn, who denied being at fault.

An OSHA investigation determined that the workers had been required to hand feed powder into operating equipment. Following the investigation, OSHA issued the plant 54 workplace safety and health citations with penalties totaling $1.2 million.

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- The name of a man killed after a serious carbon monoxide leak at a South Charleston hotel has been released.

Officials from Rosciti Construction tell WSAZ.com worker William Moran of Warwick, R.I., was killed Tuesday from carbon monoxide poisoning at the Holiday Inn Express. In total, five Rosciti workers were affected. Three of the five are being treated in hyperbaric chambers.

Rosciti Officials also tell WSAZ.com the men were working in Charleston on a government project at the National Guard at Yeager Airport.

South Charleston firefighters say the lethal carbon monoxide levels were due to a leaking gas pump that was used to heat the hotel pool. The pump was located on the ground floor, but the pipe went all the way up through the building.

Vernon Parish, LA (KPLC) - State Police Troop E says there was a multiple vehicle wreck at the intersection of LA 28 and LA 8 Tuesday morning.

Troopers confirm at least one fatality.

This intersection is just east of Leesville in Vernon Parish.

Drivers are being asked to avoid this area until it is cleared by Troopers.

One of the vehicles that crashed was a tanker truck carrying molten sulphur.

A hazmat team is investigating the crash as a precaution.

The father of a student who died following an explosion in shop class says he is relieved charges have been laid against the Ottawa Catholic school board.

The Ontario Ministry of Labour has laid three charges against the Ottawa-Carleton Catholic District School Board under the Occupational Health and Safety Act in relation to the May 26, 2011incident

Eric Leighton, 18, was attempting to cut open an old oil drum at Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School when it exploded. He died of his injuries and four others who were in the classroom were injured.

CSB Safety Recommendations from Ghent, West Virginia Propane Explosion Largely Adopted, Effecting Life-Saving Change   
 
Statement by Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso Marks Five-Year Anniversary of the Convenience Store Tragedy that Claimed Lives of
Two Emergency Responders and Two Propane Technicians
  
Monday, January 30, marks the fifth anniversary of a terrible tragedy that occurred in Ghent, West Virginia – a propane explosion that took the lives of four people and injured six others at a Little General convenience store. The accident occurred as an inexperienced worker attempted to transfer propane from a tank located against an outside wall of the store. 
 
I am pleased to report today satisfactory progress in the adoption of a number of important CSB recommendations made in our final report of September 2008, aimed at improving training requirements for propane technicians, and at improving emergency response actions by on-scene technicians and 911 operators. The recommendations have largely been adopted and will result in lives saved.

New details of the circumstances surrounding the 2009 death of University of California, Los Angeles chemistry researcher Sheharbano (Sheri) Sangji are outlined in a report by the California Division of Occupational Safety & Health (Cal/OSHA). The report says a “systematic breakdown of overall laboratory safety practices” contributed to the fatal accident. Cal/OSHA sent the report to the Los Angeles County District Attorney, who filed felony charges in the case on Dec. 27, 2011 (C&EN, Jan.2, page 7).

Department of Labour officials are investigating the circumstances around a fire that claimed the lives of two workers at a factory in Jacobs, south Durban.

The fire started after an explosion just after midnight on Friday in the Chemical Technologies building on Brooklyn Road.

Firefighters spent about three hours trying to put out the blaze using foam as there were various chemicals in the building.

On 21 January, Kim Christensen of the Los Angeles Times broke the story detailing the investigative report issued on 23 December 2009 by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health into the circumstances leading to Sheri Sangji's death. Science Careers has also obtained the 95-document, which made for a harrowing weekend of reading.   

Through page after page of detailed interviews with UCLA officials, present and former members of Patrick Harran's lab, Harran himself, Sangji's college chemistry adviser, and her former employer, the investigator -- Senior Special Investigator Brian Baudendistel -- presents a nightmarish picture in the dispassionate language of bureaucracy. Reading it, one senses fury straining against the limits set by his official capacity. In the report's detailed, 3-page conclusion, his anger flashes hot.

Issued 2 years before the Los Angeles County district attorney brought felony charges against Harran and the Regents of the University of California, the report presents evidence that contradicts the narrative that UCLA has been asserting since being charged.

A labourer was killed and five others sustained injuries in an explosion at the Sulphur Recovery Unit II at MRPL on Saturday. Nagesh, 25, is the dead.

All the injured were rushed to KMC and they are out of danger. The blast occurred during welding work at the site. As two chemical engineers of the unit were on leave, chemical engineer from a different unit was on duty when the accident occurred.

The contract labourers blamed the MRPL for not taking adequate safety measures, which according to them led to the mishap. A blast had occurred in MRPL a few years ago. The deceased Nagesh of Kulai here was working in MRPL as a contract labourer for the last four years.

“The refinery operations were not affected. The management is investigating the incident and a high-level expert committee has been constituted,” said an official release from MRPL.

Ever since Sheri Sangji was fatally burned in a December 2008 lab fire, UCLA officials have cast it as a tragic accident, saying the 23-year-old staff research assistant was a seasoned chemist who was trained in the experiment that went awry.

But Sangji was neither experienced nor well trained — if trained at all — in the safe handling of air-sensitive chemicals that burst into flame, ignited her clothing and spread severe burns over nearly half her body, according to a report on a Cal/OSHA criminal investigation obtained by The Times.

The 95-page report adds new detail to the circumstances surrounding Sangji's death and provides insight into the basis for felony charges filed last month against UCLA chemistry professor Patrick Harran and the UC Board of Regents. Based on labor code violations, the charges are thought to be the first stemming from an academic lab accident in the United States.

Two people have died after an explosion and fire at a factory in Jacobs. Firefighters were called to the company, Chemical Technologies, on Brooklyn Road just after midnight.


They have told Newswatch that when they arrived on scene the building was engulfed in flames and the fire had already spread to the top of the factory.  

Fire officials spent about three hours trying to put out the blaze using foam. This is a safer method due to the various chemicals in the building.   

One person was killed and six others seriously injured in a fire that broke out at a chemical factory.

Kanpur DIG Rajesh Rai said the fire broke out at six in the morning in Sumit chemical factory in the Panki area.

The fire spread rapidly as many chemical tankers were kept nearby and the situation turned serious trapping the workers one of whom was

Apple on Friday said that explosions at two of its parts suppliers last year were caused by airborne aluminium dust created during the milling and polishing of products such as iMacs, MacBooks and iPads.

The company made the disclosure as part of its sixth annual “Supplier Responsibility Progress Report”, in which it also for the first time listed all of its major suppliers. The report covers issues such as worker safety, labour rights and environmental impact.

Explosions

The explosions took place at a Foxconn plant in Chengdu, China, in May and RiTeng Computer Accessory, subsidiary of Pegatron, in Shanghai in December. The Foxconn explosion killed four workers and injured 18, while the Pegatron incident injured between 59 and 61 workers.

A 30-year-old man was killed in a freak accident on Wednesday morning while he was working in a plastic recycle factory — Surya Traders in Kaikondanahalli on Sarjapur Main road in R.R. Layout. The deceased identified as Niranjan Ramdev Prasad was a native of Bihar. According to preliminary investigation, the incident took place around 12:30 pm when Niranjan was trying to cut open a 20 litre plastic drum, filled with industrial waste with an electrical cutter.

Accidentally, the chemical drum exploded and he fell on the electrical cutter which cut into his chest and he died on the spot. The blast led to a fire in the factory. The factory workers who were in the premises tried to douse the fire with water. Three fire tenders finally extinguished the fire. Property worth `2 lakh has been destroyed in the fire.

The police suspect that the plastic drum which was filled with highly inflammable substances was tried to cut open without removing its lid and that could have led to the explosion. Police have sent the pieces of drum and other materials to the Forensic Science Laboratory. The HSR Layout police have registered a case against the company owner and will take further action based on the FSL report.

series of high-profile incidents at US universities, including the death of Sheharbano (Sheri) Sangji at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2008, has prompted close examination of attitudes towards safety in academic chemistry laboratories.  

The death of Sheri Sangji at UCLA and subsequent criminal charges are helping to focus minds on safety in academic labs

© Naveen Sangji
With criminal charges being brought against both the university and Patrick Harran, Sangji's supervisor, there is hope in the chemistry community that these events will drive a cultural shift towards greater responsibility for lab safety, both across the US and throughout the academic world. 
For its own part, UCLA has overhauled its safety practices and has established a center for laboratory safety to develop and disseminate safety training programmes and best practice. In a statement, the university described the criminal charges as 'baffling', given its cooperation with the authorities and the outcome of various investigations into the incident.  

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board will lobby the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to publish proposed safety rules within the next year to help prevent combustible-dust accidents after such incidents killed several workers in Gallatin last year.

A final report was released Thursday morning detailing the agency’s investigation of three fires at the Hoeganaes iron powder manufacturing plant in Gallatin that killed a total of five workers last year. The three fires at the Hoeganaes facility occurred in January, March and May 2011.

The safety board said at a Nashville news conference that new, tougher OSHA standards should be fashioned to specifically include safety measures to control metal dust such as the materials associated with the Gallatin accidents.

January 5, 2011, Nashville, TN – The U.S. Chemical Safety Board today released its final report on three accidents that occurred in 2011 at the Hoeganaes powdered metals plant in Gallatin, Tennessee. Flash fires and an explosion killed a total of five workers and injured three others.

The CSB investigation found that significant amounts of fine iron powder had accumulated over time at the Hoeganaes facility, and that while the company knew from its own testing and experience with flash fires in the plant that the dust was combustible, it did not take the necessary action to reduce the hazards through engineering controls and basic housekeeping. The investigation also found that Hoeganaes did not institute procedures such as combustible gas monitoring or provide training for employees on avoiding flammable gas fires and explosions.

Indian officials have asked Aurobindo Pharma to provide details of the late November fire at a manufacturing plant that left two workers dead and one injured. The fire, which happened at an API plant in Andhra Pradesh, started after an explosion when the chemical trityl perchlorate was in use.

The request aligns with government concerns over pharma manufacturing safety, reports Pharmabiz. The report notes the rising incidence of fires at drugmaker facilities, which have caused about 6 deaths recently.

Officials say they are conducting regular safety checks. "In spite of our reminders, most of the pharma [companies] are violating the safety norms and resorting to deceiving tactics," a factories officer explains in the report. Manufacturers are hiring unqualified laborers who are unaware of the hazards, he adds.

Aurobindo had been cited for fire safety violations in April.

Separately, the state Pollution Control Board has charged 6 Hyderabad-area drugmakers with environmental violations concerning the disposal of spent solvents. A task force suspects the companies are selling the substances to construction companies, which use them to produce bitumen for road construction rather than safely disposing of it.

The board is threatening the shutdown of the following companies: Lakshmi Saraswathi Chemicals & Organics, Sri Harsha Organic, Apex Drugs & Intermediates, Shruti Laboratories, SKR Chemicals and Sujith Chemicals, according to the Times of India.

The holiday season wasn’t so happy for the families of two workers at the WTI hazardous waste incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio, across the river from Chester, W.Va.  A week before Christmas, a chemical fire a the facility — now officially known as Heritage-WTI Inc. — left one worker dead and another seriously burned.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board said in a statement:

According to company officials a flash fire occurred when workers were splitting a large solid waste drum of hazardous flammable inorganic material into smaller storage drums … Unfortunately accidents at hazardous waste processing facilities are all too common.

A Lakeland man was killed after an apparent illegal drug concoction exploded while he was driving, effectively causing his death, an eventual crash and his passenger to allegedly flee on foot.

Lakeland Police officials originally classified the investigation as an overturned vehicle with injuries Tuesday, but reclassified the investigation as a death investigation and announced the driver was killed from an illegal chemical explosion Wednesday.

Lakeland Police detectives said Clifford Ellison, 36, was killed when he mixed chemicals in a glass liquor bottle to produce an illegal form of the drug meth, known as "Shake N Bake", and the concoction exploded as he and a passenger were driving near 3955 Drane Field Road in Lakeland.

According to detectives, the explosion sent shrapnel from the bottle into Ellison's neck, causing him to crash the vehicle.

UCLA chemistry professor Patrick Harran was released on his own recognizance Tuesday after surrendering on felony charges stemming from a fatal laboratory fire three years ago.

Harran, 42, was out of town last week when the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office charged him and the University of California regents with three counts each of willfully violating occupational health and safety standards, resulting in the death of staff research assistant Sheharbano “Sheri” Sangji.

Sangji, 23, was severely burned on Dec. 29, 2008, when air-sensitive chemicals burst into flames during an experiment and ignited her clothing. Sangji, who was not wearing a protective lab coat, died 18 days later.

The regents and Harran, a prominent researcher who joined the UCLA faculty in July 2008, are accused of failing to correct unsafe work conditions in a timely manner, to require clothing appropriate for the work being done and to provide proper chemical safety training.

An arrest warrant issued last week for Harran was withdrawn after a brief appearance in L.A. County Superior Court on Tuesday, said his attorney, Thomas O’Brien. Harran will be arraigned Feb. 2 and faces up to 4 1/2 years in prison if convicted.

The statute of limitations was about to run out this week when prosecutors filed felony charges in connection with a fatal 2008 laboratory fire at UCLA, surprising university officials and prompting an unusually strong response from them.

Not only did they vow a vigorous defense of the "outrageous" charges against UC regents and chemistry professor Patrick Harran, but they also all but accused the Los Angeles County district attorney's office of sandbagging them since their last contact in October 2010.

"It's gamesmanship. It's illogical and it's deeply frustrating to us," Kevin Reed, UCLA vice chancellor for legal affairs, said of charges that Harran and the regents willfully violated workplace safety standards, resulting in the death of staff research assistant Sheharbano "Sheri" Sangji.

Sangji, 23, was not wearing a protective lab coat when was severely burned in a lab fire on Dec. 29, 2008. She died 18 days later.

Jane Robison, a district attorney's spokeswoman, would not respond directly to UCLA's contentions, but defended the filing Tuesday, two days before the three-year statute of limitations was to expire.

"We carefully evaluated this case based on this evidence and concluded these were the appropriate charges," she said Wednesday.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office filed charges against the University of California and UC Los Angeles chemistry professor Patrick Harran on Dec. 27, 2011, for felony violations of California labor laws in the death of a staff research assistant three years ago.
Sheharbano (Sheri) Sangji, 23, died on Jan. 16, 2009, from injuries sustained in a fire 18 days earlier in a UCLA chemistry laboratory. Working with tert-butyllithium, which ignites spontaneously in air, she was drawing the chemical from a bottle into a syringe when the plunger came out of the syringe barrel (C&EN, Aug. 3, 2009, page 29). Sangji was not wearing a lab coat, and the chemical splashed onto her clothes and set them on fire. Sangji was burned on her torso, arms, and hands.

The unusual decision to bring criminal charges against the University of California, Los Angeles following the death of a staff research assistant could bring needed attention to safety issues at campus laboratories, two industry observers said Wednesday.

The death of Sheharbano "Sheri" Sangji three years ago has created awareness among universities and colleges about preventing similar incidents by improving safety in academic labs. However, the case my spur officials to re-examine their policies now that they could be charged with a crime.

"The idea that someone could go to jail or be fined significantly is a new concept," said Russ Phifer, executive director of the National Registry of Certified Chemists and former head of the American Chemical Society's safety division. "I think the primary impact will be that universities and principal investigators will understand there is potential criminal liability."

On Tuesday, prosecutors filed three felony counts of willfully violating occupational health and safety standards against UCLA regents and chemistry professor Patrick Harran.

Sangji, 23, was burned over nearly half of her body when air-sensitive chemicals burst into flames and ignited her clothes at a UCLA lab in December 2008. She died 18 days later.

Harran, 42, faces up to 4 1/2 years in prison if convicted. An arrest warrant was issued for Harran, who is out of town for the holidays. His attorney, Thomas O'Brien, said his client plans to surrender upon his return to Southern California. He declined further comment.

UCLA could be fined about $4.5 million if found guilty of all counts. The university called the charges "outrageous" and it will mount a vigorous defense, according to a statement posted on its website.

Three years after a young chemistry researcher died following a lab fire at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), her supervisor, the organic chemist Patrick Harran, and the University of California now both face criminal charges. Health and safety experts think that it is the first instance of criminal prosecution over an accident in a US academic laboratory.

On 27 December, the Los Angeles District Attorney charged Harran and the regents of the UC system with three counts each of “willful violation of an occupational health and safety standard causing the death of an employee”. [Felony filing, pdf].  An arrest warrant has been issued for Harran, whose lawyer told the LA Times that he will surrender to authorities. He faces up to 4.5 years in prison if convicted, an attorney spokesperson told the paper,  while UCLA could be fined up to $1.5 million on each count.  In a statement, UCLA said it “intends to mount a vigorous defense against the outrageous charges”.
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The accident triggered calls to improve academia’s safety standards not just at UCLA, but across the United States. But as Nature discussed in an article on laboratory safety after Yale undergraduate Michele Dufault died in April 2011, there’s little evidence that Sangji’s death has shifted the behaviour of bench scientists or laboratory heads, outside of UCLA.

The LA District Attorney’s legal action could shake up that attitude. “I think this is a game-changer. It will significantly affect how people think about their responsibilities now that it’s clear there’s the possibility of going to jail,” says Jim Kaufman, president of the Laboratory Safety Institute in Natick, Massachusetts.

Concerns surrounding prosecution have been a powerful incentive for change in the United Kingdom, where around 25 years ago Sussex University, in Brighton, was prosecuted for negligence after an explosion in a chemistry laboratory shot a piece of metal into a student’s abdomen. (The student later recovered). Tom Welton, a chemist at Imperial College London, told Nature that the episode had a profound effect on safety standards in Britain.

UCLA’s statement notes that an earlier investigation by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (which led to fines) found “no wilful violations on the part of UCLA”. The university called the district attorney’s decision to press charges yesterday “truly baffling”; “the facts provide absolutely no basis for the appalling allegation of criminal conduct,” it said. UCLA would not comment beyond its statement.

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. -- A truck driver was killed and I-95 was shut down in Volusia County following a wreck involving multiple semis that sparked a brush fire and caused a chemical spill in Volusia County.

The crash happened around 3:30 a.m. just south of I-4, according to the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, when officials say a passenger vehicle, an empty logging truck, a mail truck and a truck carrying a chemical crashed near mile marker 257 in Port Orange.

According to WESH in Orlando, neighbors in the area reported hearing explosions. No evacuations were ordered but hazmat crews are still on the scene. The collision sparked a brush fire that fire crews have since been able to put out.

The driver of the truck carrying some kind of chemical was killed in the crash and several others were injured.

(Mizzima) – Five firemen who died in explosions at a state-owned chemical storage warehouse in Mingalar Taungnyunt Township in Rangoon on Thursday were apparently unaware of hazardous chemicals in the warehouses.
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Authorities said the death toll now numbers more than 20 dead and 91 people injured. According to figures compiled at 5 p.m. on Thursday, the 91 people injured in the disaster included 31 firemen, six reserve firemen and 54 civilians.

An official with the Rangoon Region Central Fire Department told Mizzima: “To prevent the fire from spreading to other areas, the firemen only devoted their attention to extinguishing the fire and then the chemical materials exploded. We did not know that they [the chemical material] were in the warehouses.”

The guards at the warehouses were killed in the explosions, he said.
 
Four of the dead firemen were from the Mingalar Taungnyunt Fire Department, and one was from the Rangoon Region Central Fire Department. The funerals of the five firemen were held on Thursday evening at Yayway Cemetery.