An entire shift of firefighters has been replaced at a northeast D.C. station after falling ill.

All eight firefighters at Engine 10 Station in the 1300 block of Florida Avenue NE complained of possible symptoms of chemical exposure – like respiratory problems and burning eyes – Wednesday evening, News4’s Jackie Bensen reported.

D.C. Fire and EMS declared a mass casualty hazmat and took the firefighters to the police and fire clinic for observation.

The firefighters could be ill from a fire they fought about 11 a.m. in the 3700 block of Hayes Street NE, officials said. It’s possible it was a PCP lab.

Extra fire crews were called in to cover Engine 10 Station.

HARMFUL chemicals including hydrochloric and sulphuric acid were left in an Ammanford factory — creating a high risk for people living nearby.

The Environment Agency Wales (EAW) removed some 500 containers and five chemical lagoons at the former electroplating facility, the exact location of which has not been disclosed.

Kimberley Ekin-Wood, from the EAW, said: "This site posed a high risk to both the local environment and people living in the area so removing the chemicals had to be a priority."

The factory has been empty for several years.

The EAW, alerted by the fire service found the previous landowners had left it full of waste chemicals. These included hydrochloric acid, chromic acid, sulphuric acid and sodium hydroxide.

A MAN has been charged on suspicion of possessing an explosive which led to the prolonged evacuation of around 50 houses in Sheffield.

Police said the 34-year-old man is facing charges on two counts of possessing an explosive, after chemicals were found at a property on Ridgehill Avenue, Intake.

They said the substances, discovered on Thursday, were consistent with those used in the production of class A drugs and explosives.

The suspect, who lives on Ridgehill Avenue, has been remanded in custody.

A second man in his 60s arrested in relation to the incident was released on police bail until June, pending further enquiries.

BOSTON (CBS) – The state Department Of Transportation has decided to ban trucks carrying hazardous materials, including gasoline and heating oil, from traveling through Boston between 6 a.m and 8 p.m.

Mayor Menino has been fighting for several years for a ban on hazmat trucks from city streets.

He calls the decision a victory for the people of Boston.

“Vehicles carrying hazardous materials through the City pose a significant public safety threat to residents of our effected neighborhoods, as well as to commuters and other daily visitors to Downtown Boston,” Menino’s statement said.

Trucks delivering to or picking up from Boston will still be allowed on the roads.

BOMB squad officers carried out a controlled explosion this afternoon after police discovered chemicals in a Sheffield office.

Ridgehill Avenue, Intake, Sheffield, was shut for hours yesterday when police discovered chemicals relating to drug production.

The avenue was cordoned off for a second time this morning when more substances were discovered during a follow-up search.
...
“Police had previously found chemicals at the address and the controlled explosion took place to safely dispose of these substances from the property.

“Earlier this morning a number of neighbouring properties were evacuated as a precautionary measure, as the public’s safety is paramount to officers.

“A 34-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly attempting to produce class A drugs, he has subsequently been arrested under the explosives act.

A report of an acid spill prompted the evacuation of two buildings and a HazMat response at the Illinois Institute of Technology on the South Side on Tuesday afternoon.

About 1:30 p.m., a Level 2 HazMat response was called for a reported acid spill in the basement of 3110 S. State St., Fire Media Affairs spokesman Will Knight said. That building, as well as a second at 3105 S. State St., were evacuated.

But a spokesman for the school said there was no spill. The HazMat response was secured about 3:40 p.m.

Jeanne Hartig, vice president of communications at IIT, said students were conducting a regular chemical inventory in the Engineering 1 Building when they found a safety container holding a material used for etching metals.

The students were unfamiliar with the substance and contacted the school’s Public Safety department to be “extra cautious,” she said.

A source said the students were checking materials in the science building when they found expired and possibly dangerous materials, but Hartig would not confirm that information, though she said there had not been an acid spill.

The police Bomb and Arson Unit was removing the material from the building with firefighters’ assistance, Fire Media Director Larry Langford said. About 200 people were evacuated from the two buildings.

ST. PAUL, Minn. - First responders in St. Paul are going through a condo complex after the discovery of chemicals in a basement storage area Thursday.

St. Paul Fire Marshall and spokesman Steve Zaccard tells KARE 11 that hazmat crews were summoned after the discovery of a 5-gallon bucket of sulfuric acid in the basement at 311 Pleasant Avenue.

Zaccard says the condo complex was once a hospital, but didn't know whether the chemicals had been present since then.

Fire crews removed the bucket. At this time it does not appear anyone was injured in the incident.

PAWTUCKET – Shea High School Principal Chris Lord reported Wednesday morning that a student brought several vials full of unidentifiable contents into school.

A school resource officer, as a precaution, contacted a hazmat team and the contents of the vials were inspected and found to be harmless, according to Lord.

Lord told The Breeze that a male student picked up the vials from a facility down by the Blackstone River and carried them to school even though he didn't know what was in them. Disciplinary action was pending, he said.

"Common sense is not so common anymore," said Lord. "He's been educated today though."

Shea was not evacuated, according to its principal.

"At no time was safety in the building compromised," said Lord. "Officer Pereira is commended for this precautionary action and the school day will proceed normally."

- The Longmont Fire Department's hazardous material unit responded to Twin Peaks Charter Academy, 340 S. Sunset St., on Wednesday afternoon after school officials found a small container of oxidized sodium.

The sodium was in a locked science chemical storage area, according to school officials.

Principal B.J. Buchmann said the substance was discovered at about 12:30 p.m. Students were moved to a different area of the school for the rest of the day, he said.

After school was dismissed, firefighters removed the substance from the school, Buchmann said.

t's a clean-up job with serious danger involved.

A specially trained crew was called out Wednesday after two Belmont County parole officers discovered a meth lab in a Barnesville man's basement.

Now the man is in jail, and the lab has been dismantled by experts.

It all started when two parole officers dropped in to check on 22-year-old Michael Malesky of Sandy Ridge Road, outside Barnesville.

The parole officers told 7 News they noticed drugs in the house, and then noticed other items--Coleman lantern fluid, denatured alcohol, pseudo ephedrine, and cold packs.

Together in one place, those items spell meth lab.

And they found one in the basement.

As nanoparticles increasingly make their way into consumer products and the environment, toxicologists want to understand their effects on human health. Ideally, they’d like to develop models that predict a material’s toxicity based on its chemical properties. Now a research team reports the first such model for metal oxide nanoparticles that uses the materials’ electrical and solubility properties (ACS Nano, DOI: 10.1021/nn3010087).
Metal oxide nanoparticles are semiconducting materials that drive oxidation and reduction reactions in devices such as fuel cells and electronics. Previous studies have linked the materials to health problems, such as inflammation in the lungs of welders who inhale fumes containing the compounds (Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol., DOI: 10.1016/j.taap.2003.11.021).

HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) - The State Police bomb squad and hazmat team were called to 125 Jarvis Avenue in Holyoke Sunday morning.

Lt. Thomas Paquin of the Holyoke Fire Department told 22News, Elizabeth Mish, the woman who lives in the home, found chemicals in her garage that belonged to her deceased husband.

She was concerned because the chemicals had been in there for many years.

When the bomb squad arrived they found a couple cases of blasting caps. They took those away to detonate them in a safe area.

The hazmat team found several different chemicals in the house as well.

One neighbor told 22News he was shocked to see so many police and fire trucks outside of his home.

"I just wanted to know if it was stable or not in case it was going to blow up or something. We don't really know about chemicals, it was a little scary, it was a little nerve-racking at first,” said Bryan Borges-Vega who lives across the street.

NORTHVALE – Authorities on Saturday found no leaks or spills from multiple drums at a Livingston Street industrial building that’s been the site of a cleanup of toxic chemicals buried there a generation ago.

Police and firefighters responded to the TECT/Danzig property at 254 Livingston St. at about 10:45 a.m. on a call that doors had been left open in the building, said Northvale Fire Chief Ed Rejmaniak.

When firefighters checked the building, they discovered 55-gallon drums inside and contacted the hazardous-materials teams from Bergen County and New Milford as a precaution because they didn’t know the contents of the drums, he said. The teams found no leaks, Rejmaniak said.

“They were worried about the safety of our residents,” Northvale Mayor Paul Bazela said of the firefighters. “They took every precaution.”

NEWPORT — A blockish two-story brick building next to a row of homes along West 12th Street does little to call attention to itself. Nearly all of the windows are covered with plywood, painted gray to match the brick.

A sign is tacked above a boarded-up doorway: L&H Tool & Die Co.

In 1910, however, it was the Newport Foundry Co., historical fire insurance maps show. From at least 1949 to 1954, industry directories show the site was home to Certified Metals Manufacturing Co., which made babbitt (or bearings) and solder, mixed metals that often contained lead.

Soil tests in nearby residential yards showed lead levels that could be hazardous to children, with some reading over six times the action level for residential areas.

A meth lab found in a Cheney apartment last week has led to an Eastern Washington University student’s arrest and a multi-agency investigation.
Patrick M. Janicke, 22, was arrested April 11 for malicious mischief, manufacturing meth and using a building for drug purposes. Janicke was reported to police by his roommate for slashing tires in their apartment complex’s parking lot; the roommate claimed he was not aware that Janicke, an EWU science major, was cooking meth, instead assuming he was doing chemistry homework.
Police discovered the meth lab in Janicke’s apartment on the 2700 block of Al Ogdon Way after arresting him for slashing tires.
Cheney Police Cmdr. Rick Campbell said the incident began late on the evening of April 10, when Janicke left something in the apartment’s kitchen that caught fire. Janicke’s roommate put out the fire and threw out the substance, which angered Janicke and spurred an argument. He then went outside and began slashing tires.

Kathleen Marshall used to think the fenced backyard of her Philadelphia home was a safe place for her five children to play. Not anymore.

Marshall was horrified to learn that a long-forgotten factory once melted lead just across the street and that soil tests by USA TODAY indicate her yard is contaminated with hazardous levels of the toxic metal.
"You're living here and you have no idea of what's really in your ground, what's in your backyard," Marshall says now. "It's just kind of scary to think that you're sending your kids out to play in an area that's hazardous."
Hundreds of soil tests by USA TODAY in neighborhoods near former lead factories show numerous areas where the dirt is so contaminated that children should not be playing in it.

SAN BERNARDINO -- Firefighters came to a San Bernardino business Wednesday after someone found two containers, including one with a cyanide label, in a cabinet.
Neither of the bottles spilled, but hazardous materials personnel conducted tests on the chemicals to determine how to handle them.

A man looking through items on the property in the 600 block of West 40th Street called the San Bernardino Fire Department at 10:02 a.m. after finding a bottle labeled cyanide and another with a skull-and-crossbones label, said fire Division Chief Eric Esquivel.

Esquivel said the chemicals were found in an auto repair business that is in the process of being sold

A radioactive device was extracted from a scrap metal Dumpster in an alley between the Heating and Cooling Plant and the Meeman Journalism Building on April 12.
Sharon Whitaker, who works inside Meeman, said she was alarmed when she looked out her window and saw men in HAZMAT suits inside the Dumpster.
“I just kept thinking in my mind, ‘Something is not right,’” she said. “Whenever you put on a HAZMAT suit, it’s got to be something that has to do with your health.”
The radioactivity in the Dumpster was first detected on April 5 by monitors at Sims Metal Management, where a truck took the bin to dispose of the waste.
The metal processing company routinely scans the contents of bins brought there to check for radioactive substances before admitting their contents into its facilities.
Monitors initially detected radiation levels that were 35 percent above normal background radiation, also known as naturally-occurring radiation, in the bin brought from The University of Memphis.
The truck carrying the Dumpster was scanned two additional times, producing slightly lower percentage results before the Dumpster was returned to its original location on campus that afternoon.
Alton Simpson, director of environmental health and safety and The University’s radiation safety officer, was immediately notified by Physical Plant staff who covered the Dumpster with a tarp to stop the potential spread of contaminants.

Virginia Commonwealth University police and the Richmond Police Department, Richmond Fire, Richmond Ambulance and the HAZMAT team are at 10th and Leigh Streets on the VCU MCV campus.
The scene is at the campus residence hall complex known as Warner Rudd Bear and McRae Halls. The dorms were evacuated, said VCU, when campus police found unidentified compounds, liquids and glassware in a student’s dorm room.
VCU Police Chief John Venuti said that Tyler Hendon, 27, was arrested earlier Tuesday for possession of marijuana and a controlled substance, DMT.
During the course of the investigation, police executed a search warrant at Warner Hall, where Hendon lived downstairs, alone, on the main floor.
Our reporter on the scene said that the Drug Enforcement Administration suited up with masks and respirators and entered the building.
Mike Porter, spokesperson for VCU, said that air quality monitoring tests were performed, and materials were removed.
Venuti said that no evidence of “a functioning laboratory was found.”

Police have removed what they say is explosive material from the backyard of the former Forest Hill home of Byron Sonne, the so-called “G20 geek,” nearly two years after his arrest for allegedly possessing explosives.

Closing arguments in Sonne’s trial ended Monday and it is unclear what effect, if any, this new evidence will have in the case, or if the Crown can lay new charges.

Toronto police, including members of the Explosive Disposal Unit, firefighters and ambulance were called early Wednesday to a Forest Hill home near Bathurst St. and Eglinton Ave., the house Sonne once shared with his now estranged wife. She still lives there, according to neighbours.

Toronto police investigator Tam Bui said investigators went to the home to follow up on evidence that came out in Sonne’s trial.

The trial heard that during an online chat May 29, 2010, Sonne talked about a “storage magazine’’ buried in the shady part of the backyard of the home, “sealed and hidden’’ and containing potassium chlorate.

Potassium chlorate can be used to make both explosives and propellants for rockets, his trial heard.

Ontario fire and police departments have responded to a hazardous material call at a business complex in the 200 block of Milliken Avenue.
About 30 personnel from Ontario police and fire, hazmat and San Bernardino County hazardous material team are on scene and have evacuated the business. No injuries have been reported.

Shortly before 1:30 p.m. fire officials said they would be detonating the control material in the next half hour. While the explosion will cause a loud noise, officials said there was no danger to the surrounding areas.

Ontario fire officials are still trying to determine the composition of the materials, said Jacob Green with Ontario Fire Department.

Green said fire officials also still don't have details about the materials used by the business.

Businesses in the area reported receiving automated messages from the Fire Department informing them of the activity.

The Charlottesville Fire and Rescue HAZMAT squad responded to a potential HAZMAT situation Thursday afternoon at 3:20 p.m. on McCormick Road outside the University Chapel, before declaring the scene all clear about an hour later.

University spokesperson Carol Wood said a student placed an emergency call after he discovered an abandoned biohazard bag on a University Transit Service bus and thought it might contain contaminants or other dangerous materials.

“We were thinking there might be a potential HAZMAT situation,” she said. “They have since determined it was just a pair of shorts and a T-shirt in the bag.”

Charlottesville Police Chief Charles Werner said the use of the biohazard bag was “inappropriate,” but said it ultimately posed no risk to health. “It was just because of the nature of the biohazard bag which made [the situation a cause] of concern,” he said.

Werner said the HAZMAT team gave the bag to University Environmental Health and Safety, which disposed of the contents.

The University and local emergency services took “every precaution” when responding to the situation, Wood said, especially because the bus had stopped “right in the middle of Grounds in a busy intersection” which students, faculty and visitors walk through frequently.

“You just don’t want to mess around with anything like this,” she said. “Everybody — the students and passengers, the bus driver, everybody — was taken off the bus.”

GEISMAR, LA (WAFB) -
Hazardous materials teams from the Ascension Parish Sheriff's Department and Louisiana State Police are monitoring a potential situation at Trimac Transportation on Highway 30 in Geismar.

Chief Deputy Tony Bacala with the Ascension Sheriff's Office says the hazmat crews have been staged on the trucking service property since Wednesday. Bacala says a tanker truck carrying acrylic acid is registering "too hot." If the acid gets to a certain high temperature, there is potential for an explosion.

Trimac spokesman Neil Voorhees says crews are waiting for the acrylic acid to stabilize, at which time they will introduce an inhibitor. Voorhees says some equipment and a limited number employees are still working at the facility.  

Bacala also says there is no immediate danger, and that he does not anticipate a problem. He says the hazmat crews are there as a precaution, and will likely be there for another 24 hours

ELKHART, Ind. — Trash bags on the edge of the road may not be dirty diapers and food scraps. As city officials and a volunteer at the Elkhart Environmental Center found out recently, it could be the remnants of a meth lab.

And local police and firefighters don't have the training to clean them up.

City Councilman Ron Troyer was driving around his district March 27 with the new community affairs officer at the Elkhart Police Department, Sgt. Wayne Bias. Among things they looked at was trash dumped along the side of Perkins Street on city property at the Elkhart Environmental Center.

A number of trash bags and tires sat just below and within 15 feet of a sign that warns of a $2,500 fine for dumping trash, Troyer said.

The Elkhart Street Department was asked to pick up the trash, but Commissioner Marty Morgan told Troyer it was determined the trash was actually meth trash and it was tagged with yellow ribbons to be picked up by the Indiana State Police, which has a special unit to dispose of meth labs.

The remains included tubing, tin foil, pseudoephedrine, bottles with liquid in them and cakes of white powder residue, Assistant Police Chief Tim Balyeat said.

"The police department is not trained, is not equipped and does not have the storage facilities" to deal with meth labs, he said.

More than 10 days later — the bags were still there, Troyer said.

Mayor Dick Moore's office ordered the materials cleaned up, Balyeat said. A short time later, the Elkhart Fire Department's Hazardous Materials Team was in special suits and respiratory protection containing the bags.

Hazmat crews responded to reports of possible hazardous materials at a building in Carlsbad Wednesday afternoon.

According to Carlsbad Fire, they received a call around 3:10 p.m. about a possible combination of dangerous chemicals at a building on 3305 Tyler St. The building once housed K & K Laboratories, a vitamin factory that closed down about two years ago, according to authorities.

Carlsbad Fire said a cleaning company had been cleaning out old products in the building when an unknown solid and liquid accidentally combined, causing a violent reaction that sparked heat.

Police said there were around 10 people in the building at the time of the incident. The people inside evacuated the building and called 9-1-1.

No injuries have been reported, but it is still unclear if someone physically came into contact with the potentially harmful chemicals that combined.

Police in Boaz, Alabama, discovered a meth lab in a Walmart ladies’ bathroom.

Police Chief Terry Davis said maintenance workers cleaning the bathroom discovered a one-pot meth lab. The device or pot consisted of a Nestle water bottle. Found with the bottle were five packets of pseudoephedrine, a main component of methamphetamine.

Investigators are working with store security teams to analyze security footage to pinpoint a suspect, he said. So-called shake-and-bake meth labs require few ingredients to make a few grams of meth. The shopping list: drain cleaner, lithium batteries and decongestants found in common cold medicines such as Sudafed. All of these items may be found easily at stores, including Walmart, Davis said.

The science building at Gordon College was evacuated for a time on Friday morning after a chemical vapor was released for an air-conditioning unit that was being repaired.

Luckily, the Ken Olsen Science Center was mostly empty since classes were not in session on Good Friday and there were fewer students and staff in the building that on a typical Friday,

“There were very few students in the building,” said Wenham Fire Chief Bob Blanchard.

The repairman was working on the AC unit in a service room on the lower level of the building.

“It released a mist and set the detectors off,” Blanchard said.

The repairman quickly shut down the equipment, he said.

Initially, there was concern because it was not clear what the substance was before firefighters checked the air quality in the building.

“Everything turned out OK,” Blanchard said, adding that firefighters ventilated the building.

Related Topics: Air Conditioning, Gordon College, Ken Olsen Science Center, and wenham fire department
Email me updates about this story.

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. -
A chemical scare in South Burlington kept hazmat and fire crews busy for hours Thursday.

Police were called to a home on Swift Street after the tenants discovered a box of suspicious, liquid-filled jars hidden upstairs in their rental property. Hazmat crews removed less than two gallons of the mystery substance from the home. Officials tested the liquid on site and determined that the combination of chemicals was hazardous.

The state's hazmat chief says the chemicals may have been used by a previous tenant to make illicit drugs.

"And so the chemicals were, in fact, dangerous chemicals. They were flammable, toxic, corrosive and so our folks were able to identify them," Vt. Hazmat Chief Christopher Herrick said.

Officials say the chemicals do not pose a health risk to anyone in the area. But police are remaining on the scene until a hazardous waste company comes to remove them.

Online education is playing an increasing role in the physical classroom. Late Nite Labs is replacing real-life science labs with digital experiments.

Educators and students can access the virtual lab from any computer at any time. If a wrong mixture is made or too much of an ingredient is added, a beaker will explode and the scientist will have to start again -- just like a real lab. The platform combines gaming graphics with education principles.

Late Nite Labs works with over 150 colleges, universities, and high schools. More than 20,000 students use it.

The startup has raised $1.1 million from Harold Levy of Palm Ventures and the former Chancellor of New York Public Schools.

The bag of white powder that kicked off a hazmat scare after being found in a University of Virginia bathroom Thursday morning turned out to be cocaine, said Sgt. Darrell Byers of the Albemarle County police.

Dispatch records indicate the cocaine was found in a second floor women’s restroom in the Sheridan G. Snyder Translational Research Building and Fontaine Research Park.

The Charlottesville Fire Department’s regional hazmat team responded after the powder was found, confirmed Charlottesville Fire Chief Charles Werner in an email. After determining the substance wasn’t hazardous, fire officials turned the case over to the county police, according to Werner.

The amount of cocaine was relatively small, consistent with personal use rather than distribution, Byers said. He said investigators will have a tough time figuring out who left behind the cocaine.

VILLAGE OF WOODVILLE, Ohio (WUPW) - A Sandusky County farmer tiling his field Wednesday afternoon hit an old underground well, causing it to spill into a ditch.

The incident took place at around 5:30 p.m. in the Village of Woodville.

EPA and Hazmat officials who were dispatched to assist in recapping the well. They said it's fairly common for underground wells to crack and spill during farming.

Crews have put absorbents out to hopefully suck up the oil.

The oil leak is not a risk to the public, the EPA said.

East Peoria, Ill. —

Robby Owens found more than he bargained for when he went to retrieve his mail at 10 a.m. March 21. He was greeted by a layer of yellow powder inside his mailbox.

Owens was not alone. Four of his Fauber Lane neighbors had the same powder in their mailboxes. One neighbor also found his mail torn up and thrown in his yard.

911 clash
In this day and age of terrorism Owens took no chances. He dialed 911.

“The lady on the other end of the phone was quite upset with me,” Owens said. “She said we had called for a ‘non-emergency.’ How does she know?”

After calling a non-emergency number a Tazewell County Sheriff’s deputy was dispatched. He came out and looked at the chemical in the mailboxes, Owens said.

“The deputy said he thought it was fire extinguisher material,” Owens said, but admitted he was not sure. The deputy, he said, called the Spring Bay Fire Department and then East Peoria. Both departments said they were not equipped to handle the situation.

The Peoria Fire Department Hazmat Team was dispatched to the scene. The East Peoria Fire Department then responded, as well.

The hazmat team swabbed the material. It was found to be a caustic food processing material called Calcium hydrogenphosphate dihydrate.

“The hazmat team told us to rinse it out with water,” Owens said, and left.

Aftermath
When Owens looked up the chemical on Google he found the following listed under safety precautions:

• In case of contact with eyes, rinse immediately with plenty of water and seek medical advice

About two dozen passenger vehicles were damaged this morning by vandals who slashed tires, doused cars with a corrosive chemical and dumped sugar in gas tanks in the Overbrook section, police said.

Capt. Melvin Singleton, commander of the 19th Police District, said tires were slashed on 17 cars and the paint on seven other passengers vehicles had been stripped away by an acid-like substance.

Some cars also had sugar in the gas tanks, he said.

A Fire Department Hazmat Unit was called to the scene to scrape off some of the corrosive chemical for testing.

Senior Safety Specialist, Marc White, shows off the new hands-on safety training lab at the Great Lakes Safety Training Center.

The lab features different simulations people in all different types of industries can use.

"They can put the harnesses on or do the confined space and actually use the equipment and it will emphasize what they learned in the classroom," says White.

"We typically work with clients in the chemical industry, heavy manufacturing, general construction, as well as commercial type industries," says Executive Director, Jim Cook.

The Safety Training Center in Midland has always offered classroom courses, as well as a computer lab for workers in different trades.

New warning labels and standardized descriptions of chemicals’ hazards are coming to U.S. labs, factory floors, and other workplaces. Through a regulation released last week, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration is bringing U.S. requirements for communicating chemical safety information to workers in line with an international system.
Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis says OSHA’s revised hazard communication standard “will improve the quality, consistency, and clarity of hazard information that workers receive, making it safer for workers to do their jobs and easier for employers to stay competitive in the global marketplace.” She adds, “Exposure to hazardous chemicals is one of the most serious dangers facing American workers today.”
The agency’s move will require chemical makers and importers to use warning symbols that were developed through the United Nations. Called pictograms, the symbols are designed to communicate chemical hazard information to workers regardless of whether they can read or the language they use.

UPPER SADDLE RIVER – Borough Hall was evacuated early Friday afternoon following the mistaken application of a termite control chemical by a pest company worker in an area of the building that was not scheduled to be treated.

There were no injuries and no one was overcome by the use of the chemical. About 15 to 20 borough employees were asked to leave the building at about 12:30 p.m. after the pest control worker accidentally released about five to seven gallons of the chemical into what police describe as a storage closet that contained computer equipment.

“The worker pumped the chemicals into the wrong building – the DPW area – rather than the area of the building that was designated to be treated,” said Upper Saddle River Police Chief Pat Rotella. “The entire Borough Hall was evacuated, including the finance office, the planning-zoning office, the assessor office, the building department, the borough clerk and borough administrator’s office.”

The borough was notified by the pest control company that they had made an error by drilling then pumping the chemical – known as Termidor – into the wrong area of the building, Rotella said.

The Upper Saddle River Fire Department and the county HAZMAT unit were dispatched to the scene. Also on scene were the Mahwah Fire Department HAZMAT unit, the Ramsey Fire Department and the Ramsey Rescue Squad Decontamination unit.

“It’s going to be an extended clean up,” he said. “Everything should be back to normal by Monday.”

Email: coutros@northjersey.com

MORROW, OH (FOX19) – A Morrow Police officer who pulled a man over on what appeared to be a simple speeding ticket soon found a lot more than he expected.

When Sergeant Matt Landrum stopped 23-year-old Jacob Yost of Hillsboro, OH for speeding on US 22/3 in Morrow, he says he also found that Yost was driving under suspension. When he asked if he could search the car, Yost agreed, then volunteered that there was a meth lab in the trunk.

Sgt. Landrum didn’t find a meth lab, but he did find all the ingredients for making meth, including pseudoephedrine pills, Muriatic acid (also known as hydrochloric), lithium batteries, a moisture absorbing chemical, and more.  He says these are ingredients for the “one-pot” method of making methamphetamine.

The find led to a big response at US 22/3 and front street.  One witness counted 8 police cars from the Sheriff’s Office, Hamilton Township, and Morrow, along with two fire trucks.  Fortunately for the authorities, since meth production had not begun, hazmat crews were not required.

ILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) -- A scare at a Wilmington business this morning. Jugs of liquid found in a shipping container led to an evacuation, while police, US Customs and even Homeland Security got involved.
...
"We started looking at the manifest bill of lading. This particular container was not listed on the bill of lading on the manifest, and we became concerned, and obviously US Customs became concerned as well," Wilmington Fire Department Battalion Chief Jimmy Casteen said.

The hazmat team was able to remove a sample of the liquid from the jugs, which they tested on site to determine what exactly was in them. Turns out, it's not a threat. The liquid appears to be a type of finishing product used on wicker furniture. The fire department says it likely was locked up accidentally in the shipping container in Indonesia and shipped overseas.

BEND, Ore. -- A federal-state hazardous material team was wrapping up identification, packaging and clean-up work Thursday at a southeast Bend recycling business that unknowingly bought hundreds of unlabeled chemicals someone improperly left stored at a nearby mini-storage business, officials said.
Pakit Liquidators at 903 SE Armour St. contacted authorities when the chemicals, apparently from an old research lab of some sort, were found among items the firm bought when Clark’s Storage, a Ninth Street mini-storage business, sold off the items in two storage units whose leases expired due to unpaid rent, said Brian Allen, a hazardous waste compliance inspector with the state Department of Environment Quality in Bend.
"They brought the equipment, books, everything over to their site," Allen said. The Pakit workers began going through the materials on Sunday, March 4 and “noticed they had acquired some chemicals,” so they contacted Bend police, who in turn put them in touch with the Oregon Emergency Response System, Allen said.

AN ARMY BOMB disposal team was deployed to the Malahide Road at Dublin 17 earlier today after an unstable chemical was discovered at a laboratory.
The team arrived on the scene at Teagasc on the Malahide Road at about 4pm. The unstable chemical, called Picric Acid, had been found during a routine audit of the lab.
It was removed to waste ground and a controlled explosion was carried out to make the substance safe.

(Westmoreland, CA) -- Part of State Route 86 north of Brawley remains closed Friday evening, as of 4:30 pm (PST), as crews continue cleaning-up a crash involving dangerous chemicals.

The California Highway Patrol says at 6:30 Friday morning, a big rig and pick-up truck collided.

The northbound lane near Allen Road was closed because of toxic chemicals inside the big rig.

A Hazmat team was dispatched to an Abingdon elementary school Thursday morning for a report of a chemical spill. School officials confirmed the chemical was a small amount of metallic mercury.

No classes were disrupted.

A sink was being removed in the nurse's suite at William S. James Elementary School in Abingdon and there was a "minor chemical spill," according to Harford County Public Schools Manager of Communications Teri Kranefeld.

A "very small" amount of mercury was found in water in the trap of the sink and leaked out when the sink was removed for replacement, Kranefeld said.

   Friday, March 2, started out as a normal warm spring day. All that changed in the late afternoon. A report was received that old dynamite had been found in a barn next to Highway 23 in Garfield. This triggered a response by the Swainsboro/Emanuel County Hazmat team and the Garfield Fire Department. A command center was established next to the fire station. 
   A hazmat technician made entry into the barn and determined that 3 sticks of commercial grade dynamite wrapped in a 1970’s newspaper were in the building. Once this was confirmed, Chief Mike Strobridge notified the GBI bomb squad and requested their response to the scene. While the bomb squad was enroute from Savannah, plans were developed for the mitigation of the hazard. The final plan was to destroy the dynamite by burning it in the open.
   Upon the arrival of the specially equipped bomb squad truck, final preparations were made. Highway 23 was shut down to all traffic, charged fire hose lines were put in place. Bales of hay were prepared to be burnt with the dynamite placed inside. After a final check by the GBI bomb technicians, an announcement “Fire in the hole” was given three times, followed by a small igniter charge starting the hay bales on fire. Within 10 minutes the fire had been reduced to a pile of glowing embers and the hazard destroyed.

GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. — A man has been charged with illegally dumping chemicals in High Point, but Guilford County officials said the suspect could have avoided arrest by dropping them off at a site for free.
Juan Antonio Cardenas faces one count of felony littering and two misdemeanor counts.
High Point Fire Marshall Mike Levins alleges Cardenas left hundreds of gallons of paint, lacquer and thinner all over the city. More charges are pending, Levins said.
Dozens of buckets were found in two places in the city–the Old Miller Desk Factory on Lincoln Road and another property on Anderson Place, Levins said.
It didn’t stop there, Levins said.
“They sold some paint. They gave some paint to other individuals, and what they couldn’t get rid of they basically just dumped on the side of the road,” Levins said.

MARSHFIELD — A State Police bomb squad and a hazardous-materials response team on Monday removed explosive chemicals from two locations in town.

Chemicals were taken from the basement of a Church Street home and then from the high school’s chemistry lab.

The Marshfield Fire Department said all of the dangerous chemicals found at both locations were removed and disposed of. No injuries were reported.

As of Monday night, classes at the high school, at 167 Forest St., had not been suspended or canceled as a result of the chemical removal.

The chemical removed from the high school was potassium, a substance commonly used in fireworks and pyrotechnics, said John Hall, chairman of Marshfield’s board of selectmen. By 7:30 p.m., the potassium was transported to the town landfill off Clay Pit Road, where it was disposed of.

Earlier in the day, picric acid, an explosive agent once used by military forces, was removed from a Church Street home, Marshfield Fire Chief Kevin Robinson said.

Robinson said the chemical operation at the high school occurred Monday afternoon only because the hazardous-materials team was already in town for the Church Street incident.

BELLEVUE, Tenn.- A stretch of McCrory Lane in Bellevue was shut down Thursday afternoon as crews worked to remove deteriorating chemicals from a business.

Hazmat crews were called out to help the business remove chemicals from their building. Police said the business at 8337 McCrory Lane houses chemicals. The company had deteriorating chemicals they requested Metro's Bomb Squad's assistance in removing the items.

No injuries were reported, but due to the volatile nature of the chemicals McCrory lane was shut down as a precaution.

Officials began dismantling a crude residential ecstasy lab in Burnaby on the weekend after neighbours’ complaints about chemical smells led to a police raid on the operation.

Three people were arrested early Saturday when the RCMP’s Burnaby Drug Section and federal officers raided a home in the 100-block of Ellesmere Avenue, in Burnaby’s Capitol Hill area.

A specialized cleanup team in haz-mat suits was dismantling the lab, a job that could take up to three days to complete, police said.

SEYMOUR — A bulging bottle of chlorine used to clean Seymour High School’s swimming pool forced the evacuation of students and staff Friday, and ultimately an early dismissal.

School had opened two hours late Friday because of the morning snow, and then closed after a custodian noticed one of the chlorine bottles delivered Friday morning was defective.

There were no injuries during the incident.

According to Director of Security Richard Kearns, the school went into lockdown at around 10:45 a.m. Students and staff then were sent into the steel track and field shed near DeBarber Field for shelter and warmth. Eventually, they went into the school gym, where they waited for the buses to take them home.

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Several high school students throughout Kern County got the opportunity to see firsthand what hazmat crews deal with.
One of the ideas behind Youth Leadership Bakersfield is to give students experiences that will help them develop leadership skills and career choices.
On Wednesday, 32 students in the program went to the Department of Public Health, put on protective suits and saw up close and personal what hazmat crews deal with.
"They put us in a situation like it was a real hazardous chemical spill and I was a little bit scared at first, I'm not going to lie," said Avery Andrew, student.
Crews put on a scenario of what they actually do during a hazardous chemical spill, though it wasn't meant to scare students, but broaden their perspective.
"Part of what we do is actually protecting the public and these are the kids that were interested in protecting. We want to make them more aware of what we do and what goes on," said Brian Pitts, Kern County Environmental Health.

DARE COUNTY, N.C. (WAVY) - Deputies on the Outer Banks have made another meth lab related arrest at a motel.

The Dare County Sheriff's Office raided the unidentified motel room in Manteo on Feb. 15. Chief Deputy Steve Hoggard said deputies found a man trying to manufacture methamphetamine in the room.

Deputies said 31-year-old David Blouir was mixing ingredients in a container to get high. The method of manufacturing meth is known as "one pot" or "shake and bake."

hese sorts of explosions have been recorded since 1785, so we now know quite a bit about the combustible properties of dust. But dust, according to the US National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), is defined as a finely divided solid with a diameter of less than 420 μm -- those are micrometres. With the rise of nanomaterials, there's a new type of dust on the scene -- and it's measured in the nanometre range.

Researchers from Dalhousie University in Halifax, in an study for the American Chemical Society's journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, probed these smaller "nontraditional" dusts to see how they compare to old fashioned wheat and sugar.

They found that the energy needed to ignite nanomaterials made of metals, such as aluminium, is less than 1 mJ -- that's less than 1/30th the amount of energy you'd need to make sugar dust explode, or less than 1/60th of the energy required to set wheat dust aflame.

"These low ignition energies may therefore allow nanomaterials to ignite due to electrostatic sparks, collision, or mechanical friction," the researchers write.

SALEM, Ore. - A one-liter pop bottle that turned up following a police chase at an elementary school caused a bit of a stir on Wednesday.

The incident happened around 1:40 p.m. at Mary Eyre Elementary School at 4868 Buffalo Drive S.E.

Earlier in the day, police had been involved in a vehicle pursuit where the suspect fled on foot and ran across the school's property. Officers apprehended the person, cleared the area and activities at the school returned to normal.

A student later found a one-liter pop bottle on the grounds and gave it to a teacher, who then gave it to the janitorial staff. The bottle ended up in a trash dumpster but concerns were raised when it began to swell. The bottle had some type of liquid in it and was sealed with a cap.

Firefighters and a HAZMAT team then responded to the school to check it out. They later rendered it safe and collected the liquid contents for testing. It is unknown at this point what exactly was in the bottle.

Police also do not know if the suspect who ran from them dropped the bottle during the chase or if it ended up on the school grounds some other way.

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.

An Army Bomb Disposal Team made safe a quantity of unstable Dinitrophenylhydrazine at Scoil Caitriona, Mobhi Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 11 this morning.

The Defence Forces deployed the team to the school, where the unstable chemical had been found during a routine audit of chemicals at the laboratory.

The team arrived on scene at 11am and removed the chemical from the building. The Bomb Disposal Team carried out a controlled explosion in order to make the chemical safe.

The scene was declared safe at 12.20pm.

Dinitrophenylhydrazine is a chemical re-agent and is routinely used in laboratories but can crystallise and become unstable and sensitive to heat or friction.

This is the 27th call-out for the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams in 2012 and the first dealing with a hazardous material.

WALTERBORO, S.C. (WCIV)-- Walterboro police rounded up two people for shoplifting from a Walmart, but what they found in the suspect's car brought in Hazmat teams.

Around 5 p.m. on Jan 30th, Walterboro police were called to the Walmart on Bells Highway for a report of shoplifting. The Walmart loss prevention officer was struggling with 35-year-old Alvin Walling who was suspected of stealing a bag of candy.

Also in the store was 25-year-old Kelsie Ammons. Both people were suspected of shoplifting clothing in an earlier case. Ammons' purse was searched and wrappers from the stolen candy was found inside.

When police searched the suspect's car to see if any stolen merchandise was inside, they found what they thought was an open container of alcohol. It turned out to be a portable "meth cook" in the process of cooking and highly unstable.

DEA officers and Hazmat crews were notified and Ammons had to go through a decontamination process before being booked at the Colleton County Detention Center.

WEST CHESTER TWP. — An unknown substance found in a dumpster today has been identified as cleaning solution by the West Chester Twp. hazardous materials team.
Around 2:10 p.m., West Chester Twp. fire officials responded to 4758 Interstate Drive after an employee reported seeing someone dump a 55-gallon drum of liquid into a dumpster, according to Barb Wilson, township spokeswoman.
Wilson said as of 2:30 p.m. units have already cleared the scene after the fluid ended up being cleaning solution. The person that dumped the fluid was found and will properly dispose of the liquid.

LOCAL firefighters are begging residents to leave drums found along the beach well alone after a hazardous materials scare at Mullawarra Beach this week.

Woolgoolga firefighters, Hazmat crews from Coffs Harbour and paramedics were called to Arrawarra Beach R about 7.10pm Monday after reports of a suspicious drum in the car park at the beach.

"It turned out to be a drum that had gone overboard from a ship a very long time ago," station commander Ray Webb said.

The 25 litre drum, property of the Wilhelmsen Ship Service in the Netherlands, was filled with the chemical Rocor NB Liquid - a nitrate/borate based compound used as a cooling inhibitor on ships.

"It is toxic is swallowed and can cause severe irritations to the skin. It's also highly toxic to waterways," Mr Webb said.

A tanker truck filled with propane tipped over in New Britain, Pa. Monday afternoon causing nearby homes to be evacuated for hours as Hazmat crews worked to clean the scene.

The crash happened around 4:20 p.m.

Three homes near New Galena and Trewigtown Roads were evacuated as of 5 p.m. as propane leaked onto the roadway, Bucks County officials said.

The roads were shut down and some power lines were de-energized as crews work to contain the spill, cops said.

A HOSPITAL building resumed normal operation last night after a chemical false alarm caused an evacuation.

A building at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh was emptied after a leaking container of dry ice was found.

The alarm was raised when the milk bottle-sized container was found in a fridge. It appears the lid was not securely fastened, allowing the smoke-like gas to escape from the bottle. The building was cleared for around an hour while firefighters investigated.

A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service said: “We were called to a report of a chemical incident. When we arrived, we found a bottle of liquid nitrogen which a member of staff had put in a fridge.

“The bottle was inspected and appeared to be in a safe condition, so it was handed back to hospital staff.”

A chemical reaction at an industrial packaging plant was contained Friday morning and no injuries were reported, according to officials.
The incident occurred about noon at Greif Inc., 2400 Cooper Ave. The company manufactures industrial packaging systems for carrying products such as steel containers, fiber drums, plastic drums and more, according to its website.
Some mixed products created the chemical reaction, according to Merced Fire Chief Mike McLaughlin, who said the reaction was contained in a 55-gallon drum.
Two fire companies responded and set up a perimeter around the area. The county fire department's hazardous materials team also was called in, McLaughlin said.
"They took some samples of the product and helped define the hazards," McLaughlin said. "It just self-stabilized."

WARRICK CO., IN (WFIE) -
Five suspects have been arrested in what authorities are calling a two county drug ring.

Warrick County authorities arrested two people last night on meth related charges and Posey County Deputies say that lead them to three more suspects who investigators say were stealing anhydrous ammonia from the Posey County Co-Op.

Deputies say the two groups were working together and communicating through text messages.

That's how two arrests turned into five.

LOWELL, Mich. (WZZM) Lowell Public Schools dismissed High School students early today after a routine check turned up an expired science chemical.

Officials with the district say the chemical posed no immediate risk, but as a precaution hazmat was called in to dispose of the material.  Students were released early to ensure their safety.

As a result, the district also dismissed middle school students early so administrators could coordinate bussing.

FOUR canisters holding a toxic chemical, that is fatal if inhaled, were found dumped beside the Calder Alternate Highway at Ravenswood yesterday.
Police set up a 100-metre exclusion zone around the canisters and blocked the highway in both directions.

County Fire Authority biohazard officers, wearing full gas suits with breathing apparatus, placed the canisters and chemical that had spilled onto the ground in recovery buckets around 4pm.

CFA operations officer Alun Hughson confirmed the damaged canisters contained the pesticide fumitoxin used to control rabbits.

He said the dangerous canisters were likely to have been dumped.

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Police have arrested three people they say were in the Arayan brotherhood, accusing them of running a meth lab in Albuquerque

Wednesday night officers responded to an apartment near San Pedro Drive and Kathryn Avenue, after neighbors complained that something smelled so bad it made some of them sick.

Police say they found a man and a woman cleaning up what looked like a meth lab.

They also caught another man they say was involved and called in a hazmat team to clean up the chemicals.

Operations at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport returned to normal following a Wednesday night hazmat incident that delayed passengers aboard some international flights.

About 8 p.m. a Broward Sheriff's Fire Rescue hazardous materials team responded a flight that arrived at the airport from Haiti, the Broward Sheriff's Office said.

A passenger on that flight was carrying a container of liquid that prompted the response, sheriff's spokeswoman Dani Moschella said.

"Hazmat came as a precaution," she said. "A passenger had some sort of insecticide in his luggage."

Several fire engines arrived at Terminal Four near the U.S. Customs area and passengers were not allowed off the commercial aircraft for about two hours. Greeters waited inside the airport for the travelers to deplane.

No terminals were evacuated and nobody was injured, Moschella said.

"It was, again, a very small amount of this substance," she added.

The passenger with the suspicious luggage reportedly told officials that the substance was fertilizer.

EDMOND — The discovery of a potentially hazardous substance in a chemistry lab at the University of Central Oklahoma prompted the evacuation of a science building Wednesday.
Adrienne Nobles, spokeswoman for the university, said a professor was doing inventory in a lab inside Howell Hall when he discovered picric acid, a crystalline solid that can be detonated by extreme heat or electric charge.

Dyer County Sheriff's narcotics officers arrested a suspect in Evansville on Friday evening who was allegedly carrying a working meth lab inside his coat.

The narcotics officers received an anonymous tip that Gourley was cooking meth and went to patrol the area around 5 p.m. Upon their arrival, they observed Gourley walking next to the railroad tracks and approached him for questioning.

Gourley reportedly began acting nervous and started shaking as the officers questioned him. Growing suspicious, the officers asked Gourley if they could search his person and he gave them consent. Officers then discovered an active meth lab on the inside of his coat pocket. The lab was in the form of a plastic bottle with a chemical reaction taking place inside it.
To prevent a possible explosion of the bottle, Jackson placed it on the ground and loosened the top to relieve the pressure and allowed the reaction to continue. The residents were asked to go back inside their homes while the Meth Task Force was called to remove the hazardous chemicals.

Other deputies arrived and searched a wooded area southwest of B Street where they found an old tire with items used in the production of meth. Those items were photographed and confiscated as evidence.

Hazardous material first located at a Churchill Drive business in south-end Barrie on Wednesday night did not pose a public health risk, city officials said Friday afternoon.

The material, known as picric acid, commonly found in laboratories and in dyeing manufacturing, was located Wednesday night and reported to officials by workers cleaning a former waste management plant, 2R Services, which has had its problems in the past.

An explosion there in 2002 resulted in four people being treated at the scene for minor injuries and 10 taken to Royal Victoria Hospital for evaluation.

Picric acid, a pinkish-coloured liquid, was found in four five-gallon drums, but was stable, according to Barrie Fire Chief John Lynn.

"There was no threat to public safety," Lynn said, during a news conference on Friday.

The containers were being X-rayed on Friday to determine how much of the liquid is in each container.

KOB Eyewitness News 4 has learned why a retired Sandia Labs scientist may have been building bombs in the East Mountains before he died.

KOB first reported this weekend about the makeshift lab discovered near Estancia.

Now the Sheriff of Torrance County said it could be a long time before these chemicals are cleaned up.

Sheriff Heath White said it appears former Sandia Labs scientist, 81-year-old David O'Keefe spent his retirement on the outskirts of Estancia on state road 41, continuing his work up until he died a few months ago.

"He was trying to make a new type of explosive so he was experimenting with different chemicals and different compounds to make that explosive," White said.

White said O'Keefe's laboratory was elaborate and potentially deadly.

"Everybody within about a half a mile radius of this house was at high risk everyday…every night," White explained.

Deputies discovered the explosives Saturday when the landlord of the property went to check on the home and found the chemicals.

Now it looks like the owner is going to have to pay for the cleanup, which is an estimated $50,000.

"There's not really any way for her to get back that money so it's placing her in a really bad situation," White said.

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - New Mexico State Police have blown up the final batch of explosives found inside of a personal laboratory.

The man who built the explosives, had them stored in a shed on his property, much to the surprise of police and his neighbors.

His collection of explosives was so large that it filled two large storage sheds as well as a lab. Everywhere you look: dangerous chemicals and hybrid, experimental explosives.

Suffolk County Police have shut down part of Oser Avenue Tuesday after a 55-gallon drum of chemicals delivered to Pall Corporation in the Hauppauge Industrial Park was found to be potentially explosive.

Pall Corp is a filtration, separation and purification leader providing solutions to meet the critical fluid management needs of customers across the broad spectrum of life sciences and industry, according to its website. 

Police said the material underwent a chemical change that tranformed it into a potentially volatile substance due to fluctuations in temperature during its delivery, according to police. Suffolk County police are attempting to get in contact with the out-of-state vendor who delivered the chemical to locate a chemical additive that will stabilize the materials when both substances are mixed together. 

Meanwhile, Oser Avenue has been shut down from Marcus Boulevard east to Plant Avenue. Police and Hauppauge firefighters are on the scene. 

ESTANCIA, N.M. (KRQE) - The discovery of what is being called an explosives laboratory operated by a now-deceased scientist has shut down a state highway and drawn local and federal authorities to a home in rural Torrance County.

Sheriff Heath White said a section of State Road 41 likely will be closed for at least the rest of Saturday and likely into Sunday while explosives experts dismantle the lab.

About four miles of the highway are closed from two miles south of Estancia south to State Road 542, and residents of nearby homes have been evacuated.

The FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and a New Mexico National Guard team are on the scene, White added.

Authorities confirmed a landlord discovered the lab at about 10 a.m. Friday when she went to check on the house, which had been rented by a man who recently died.

Three of five homes where 10 people allegedly produced methamphetamine have been deemed unsafe for habitation because of chemicals found inside the homes that were presumably used to make the drug.

Homes on Rondane Place and Penniman Road in James City as well as a garage apartment behind a home on Wilkins Drive in York County have all been determined to be unsafe because of chemical contamination.

West Australian police have busted their 179th clandestine drug lab for the year, and arrested six men.

The lab was discovered in a suburban home in Kewdale, in Perth's southeast, early on Tuesday morning.

The lab is one of seven uncovered in the past six days and the 179th busted by WA Police this year, police say.

Last year, police uncovered 163 clandestine labs.

AKRON, Ohio - It cost hundreds of thousands of state and local tax dollars to clean up methamphetamine labs in 2011, according to Ohio officials.

There have been more than 300 meth lab busts in Ohio during 2011, said Eve Mueller, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Attorney General's office.

Mueller said it costs about $1,800 per lab to dispose of the chemicals used to make methamphetamine.

A state police hazardous material team removed methamphetamine equipment from a Lansford apartment in the 300 block of E. Ridge Street Thursday afternoon.

A cleaning crew hired by the property owner discovered the drug-making equipment in a duplex apartment, and the owner contacted police around 11:30 a.m., police said.

Lansford police officer Brian Horos said state police removed several bottles coated with a white powdery substance, residue left over from the drug-making operation. Horos said it appeared as if batches of the drug had been made in the bottles, a method known on the street as "shake 'n bake" or "one pot" method.

LONGMONT - An Allenspark man arrested twice before in Longmont on suspicion of buying supplies to create drug labs apparently overdosed on cough syrup Tuesday morning and told police about a lab he was building in a Longmont motel room, according to police.

Trevan Lake was arrested Tuesday morning on suspicion of violating probation after he was treated and released from Longmont United Hospital, said Longmont police Cmdr. Jeff Satur. Lake spoke with detectives at the hospital and told them he was constructing a lab in a room at the motel.

Police responded to the Lamplighter Motel on


Trevan Lake. (Longmont Police)
Tuesday morning and found the chemicals needed for a methamphetamine lab in room 214, Satur said. Most were still in original containers, but he said some were in the early stages of processing to make the drug. Police broke out windows to the second-floor unit for ventilation and were working on Tuesday to inventory, collect, and remove the chemicals in the lab.
Lake has been arrested twice before in Longmont at the ACE Hardware store after employees there noticed that he was buying the ingredients necessary for methamphetamine. The byproducts of the drug's production are highly toxic and labs can explode.

Tulsa fire investigators arrested a man after allegedly finding a working meth lab in his backpack.
Fire officials said James Dillon, age and hometown unavailable, was questioned after investigators were doing more work following recent arson fires near the intersection of 5th Street and Madison Avenue.
They noticed a chemical odor, searched his backpack and allegedly found a working "one-pot method" meth lab.

Thursday’s surprise bust of five home meth labs holds a larger lesson. It points up flaws in the safeguards used to prevent criminals from stockpiling over-the-counter medications vital to making the drug.

York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Capt. Troy Lyons said the Virginia Sheriffs Association will seek legislation in the General Assembly next month requiring pharmacies to report sales of pseudoephedrine to a centralized database.

That would enable retailers to enforce existing limits on the amount of the drug that can be purchased by consumers.

Psueudoephedrine is the crux of meth labs and is circumvented scientifically in the popular TV series “Breaking Bad.”

Two men who appeared to be cooking or preparing to cook methamphetamine were arrested late Saturday inside a Colorado Springs post office, police said.

Officers checking on reports of homeless people staking a claim in the foyer of the post office at 2641 E. Uintah St. say they found Michael Tessler and Garin Shaw at about 10:30 p.m. with materials used to make meth.

A Colorado Springs Fire Department Hazmat crew was called to the scene. Tessler and Shaw were decontaminated and arrested, police said.