There are lots of important things to consider when choosing an apartment, house or trailer: commute time, distance to retail centers, public schools -- but perhaps the most important thing of all is, "How do I get rid of that stagnant meth-lab odor?"
Well, thanks to companies like USA Decon, you too can make sure your new abode is suitably free of residues left behind by any former occupants who engaged in the fine art of meth manufacturing. Had we known this sorta thing existed years ago, we never would've agreed to live in that one trailer in the desert for six months. Here are some things USA Decon's CEO, John DiGulio, told us in an e-mail about former meth lab cleanin':

Waste byproducts: "The danger of chemical fires and explosions extends beyond methamphetamine manufacture. After producing the finished methamphetamine, clandestine lab workers are typically left with 5-6 pounds of hazardous waste for each pound of finished methamphetamine produce."

MIDLAND, Mich.—May 22, 2012—The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) and The Pennsylvania State University are expanding their strategic partnership by launching a pilot program to increase safety awareness and practices in the university’s Departments of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering. The program will leverage key elements of Dow’s best-in-class practices to help elevate university laboratory safety.

In April, Dow announced a similar safety partnership pilot program with the University of Minnesota. This new partnership with Penn State reinforces Dow’s commitment to stimulate collaborative innovation with U.S. universities. Dow announced in October 2011 it would invest $25 million per year for 10 years among 11 academic institutions, including Penn State, to strengthen research in scientific fields important to Dow and to the nation’s future.

“A core part of our mission at Dow is to support universities and help them continue the tradition of excellence in chemical engineering, chemistry, and materials science,” said Dr. William F. Banholzer, Ph.D., executive vice president and Dow’s chief technology officer. “Dow recognizes that laboratory safety is a continuing challenge for universities everywhere, and we have the expertise to be part of the solution. This pilot program leverages Dow’s strength in creating and sustaining a culture of safety in our labs — a culture that centers on driving behavior toward incident prevention, with a high level of employee engagement.”

The chemical that sent a dozen people to the hospital Tuesday following an explosion in an Arlington Heights factory demands caution when working with it, even in laboratory conditions, a chemistry professor said Wednesday.

Kristen Leckrone, an associate professor of chemistry at Roosevelt University, said people expecting to encounter the substance, potassium hydroxide, normally wear gloves, goggles, and sometimes even a respirator if there’s a possibility of it being released into the air.

“It can dissolve and damage lung tissue,” Leckrone said.

According to its material safety data sheet, potassium hydroxide has a fire hazard of 0 on a 4-point scale, Leckrone said. But it has a reactivity rating of 2 out of 4, and a health risk rating of 3 out of 4.

Though not flammable itself, it can react with metals or other substances to produce potentially explosive hydrogen gas, Leckrone said.

As with a strong acid, a strong base like potassium hydroxide can have a caustic effect on the skin and lungs. But what makes a base different from an acid is that it’s more readily absorbed by tissue and thus easier to neutralize than to wash off, Leckrone added.

A dilute solution of weak acids such as vinegar could be used to treat skin burned by potassium hydroxide. But the treatment of potassium hydroxide inhalation or ingestion would be more complicated, she said.

PLAQUEMINE, La. — Four Georgia Gulf contract employees are recovering after being exposed to chlorine at work.

WAFB TV reports (http://bit.ly/KnT0FD ) the accident happened at the chemical and vinyls plant in Plaquemine around 9 p.m. Tuesday.

A Georgia Gulf spokesman said the four were near a railcar when the chlorine was being offloaded, but they were not the ones handling it.

Parish officials said there was no need for road closures or evacuations.

After a science class fire at Maple Grove Junior High last year left several students injured, Osseo School District did an audit on its teacher-led science classroom demonstrations.

A May 17, 2012 memo from Osseo School District Assistant Superintendent Keith Jacobus to Superintendent Kate Maguire outlined the audit process as well as the results. The demonstration reportedly used in the ninth-grade science class at Maple Grove Junior High on Dec. 1, 2011 was suspended immediately in the district following the accident.

MAPLE GROVE, Minn. - The Osseo School District is making changes to its teacher-led science demonstrations after four students were injured in a classroom accident several months ago.

In the 71-page report, the methanol demonstration that burned the students back in December will not be allowed pending further review. It has not been used in the classroom since the accident.

It's called the "Whoosh - Flash Bottle" demonstration where someone drops a match into a jug of methanol.

The report also calls for a more stringent approval process for science demonstrations, a detailed list of approved demonstrations, and all secondary science teachers will now have to watch videos on science safety.

Chemical companies should always assess and, when possible, adopt inherently safer manufacturing processes that minimize or eliminate hazards, says a National Research Council (NRC) panel in a May 10 report. The committee says chemical manufacturers don’t always consider inherently safer processes and many lack a clear, consistent corporate policy to conduct an adequate analysis.
Inherently safer processes are a hierarchy of manufacturing practices—such as minimizing or finding substitutes for toxic materials—that lower the threat of plant hazards or accidents, which affect workers and community residents. The goal is to eliminate hazards, dangerous materials, or processes, rather than to manage and control them, explains Elsa Reichmanis, the NRC committee’s chair and a chemistry professor at Georgia Institute of Technology.

At least four workers at the toxic chemicals site in Mapua could have been made sick from working on the cleanup and they may suffer further work-related health problems, a report has revealed.

The Environment Ministry, as the main resource consent holders of the project, has accepted the report, and says it is taking steps to offer workers medical assessments.

The controversial $12 million cleanup finished five years ago and the four workers interviewed in the report have been waiting four years for acknowledgement of their health issues.

The Environment Ministry is also taking steps to contact others who worked at the site, previously considered New Zealand's most toxic, and offer them health checks. Thirty people are believed to have worked at the project.

MIDDLETON, Mass.—A Massachusetts adhesive manufacturer will pay $600,000 in fines for numerous safety infractions after a March 2011 explosion that injured four workers.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration initially had sought fines in excess of $917,000 for Middleton, Mass.-based Bostik Inc. after a six-month investigation revealed several violations of the agency’s rules governing the treatment of hazardous chemicals.

In a statement released Thursday, OSHA officials said the agency ultimately reduced the fine amount, in part to expedite the implementation of improved safety practices at Bostik’s plant.

“This resolution speeds corrective action that might otherwise have been delayed through lengthy litigation,” Michael Felsen, regional solicitor for the U.S. Department of Labor in Boston, said in the agency’s statement.

According to the settlement, Bostik has agreed to certain corrective actions to address failures in its chemical safety protocols and to submit proof of those actions to OSHA.

In March 2011, an open valve resulted in the release of flammable acetone vapors, causing the explosion. Bostik since has stopped using acetone in its processing operations.

Research to be published in Science on May 18, 2012, sheds light on a hot-button political issue: the role and effectiveness of government regulation. Does it kill jobs or protect the public?

The new study, co-authored by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Toffel, Professor David Levine of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and Boston University doctoral student Matthew Johnson, examines workplace safety inspections conducted by California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA). The authors carried out the first evaluation of a "clinical trial" of the state's mandated randomized inspections to discern their effect on both worker safety and companies' bottom lines.

The results overturn conventional wisdom: Workplace inspections do reduce on-the-job injuries and their associated costs, and the researchers could not detect any harm to companies' performance or profits.

"The randomized inspections provided a perfect natural experiment that uses the power of randomization just like a medical clinical trial," Toffel said. "Because Cal/OSHA typically inspects facilities following complaints or recent accidents, you can't study those inspections to get an unbiased understanding of whether they make a difference. By studying the inspections Cal/OSHA conducted at workplaces selected at random, we were able to overcome this problem to learn the actual impact of inspections."

The study found that within high-hazard industries in California, inspected workplaces reduced their injury claims by 9.4 percent and saved 26 percent on workers' compensation costs in the four years following the inspection, compared to a similar set of uninspected workplaces. On average, inspected firms saved an estimated $355,000 in injury claims and compensation for paid lost work over that period. What's more, there was no discernible impact on the companies' profits.

BOSTON — The Labor Department says it has reached a $600,000 settlement with adhesives manufacturer Bostik, Inc., over workplace safety citations related to a March 2011 explosion at its plant north of Boston.

Four workers had nonlife-threatening injuries. Investigators said a valve had accidentally been left open, causing acetone vapors to fill the building and ignite. The explosion rattled a surrounding neighborhood, and damaged two buildings at the plant complex in Middleton.

Things I Won't Work With: Selenophenol
Posted by Derek
This fine reagent was mentioned here (disparagingly) in the comments the other day, and I knew that it was time to add it to the list. I've had some other selenium entries before, and they're all here for the same reason: their unsupportable stenches. Everyone, even people who've never had a chemistry class in their lives, knows that sulfur compounds are stinky, of course, but it's a problem that continues as you move down Group XVI of the periodic table.

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.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) will be prohibiting international shipments of devices containing lithium ion batteries starting May 16th. After coming to grips with serious financial problems last year, USPS has now decided that lithium batteries pose too great of a risk to be shipped overseas. Devices like smartphones, laptops, and tablets will fall under this ban, but domestic shipment of these products will be unaffected.

USPS has revised its Domestic Mail Manual — an official document outlining shipment policies — after evaluating recent discussions by the International Civil Aviation Organiza­tion and the Universal Postal Union. Meanwhile, UPS and FedEx are not changing their stance on the matter, which isn't surprising considering how much money is involved. The international shipment of electronic goods is a multi-billion dollar industry, and the added risk associated with transporting devices with lithium batteries is a gamble these companies are willing to take. The only problem is that neither of these couriers will deliver to APO, FPO, or DPO addresses overseas, meaning that troops abroad will not be able to receive Kindles and iPads to fill the downtime between combat.

An outright ban on air-shipping lithium batteries may seem like an exaggerated response to this ambiguous problem, but there have been several plane crashes directly attributed to exploding lithium batteries in the last few years. There are two reasons why a lithium battery might experience a runaway thermal expansion, or explosion. The first reason lies with the battery's chemistry, and the second is contingent on physical or environmental stress.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The chemical industry needs guidance in choosing alternative processing methods to reduce or eliminate hazards, a national panel said in a report released Friday.

U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations require chemical companies to follow certain procedures to ensure manufacturing processes are safe. But the report by the National Research Council said the industry lacks common practice protocols and understanding to identify safer processes.

It recommends that the U.S. Chemical Safety Board or other entity develop a plan to help chemical plant managers choose alternative processes to reduce or eliminate hazards.

One method, known as an "inherently safer process" assessment, aims to minimize or eliminate a hazard. But the assessment does not always provide clear guidance. The report said switching to a non-flammable solvent in a process would remove a fire hazard. But if the solvent is toxic, a new hazard is created.

Use of inherently safer process strategies would reduce the number of vulnerable areas around a company's facilities, which would decrease the scope of emergency preparedness programs. But it potentially could narrow the focus too much and overlook certain outcomes, the report said.

Pressure from a failed drip vessel started a fire which in turn caused the April 30 explosion at a natural gas plant southeast of Canadian, said Todd Johnson, Eagle Rock Energy Partners vice president of environmental health and safety.

The blast occurred at Houston-based Eagle Rock Energy Partners’ Phoenix-Arrington Ranch processing plant in Hemphill County, and no one was hurt, spokesman Craig Brown said.

A drip vessel is a small tank that collects liquid from a gas field, which is required to process the gas, Johnson said. The vessel failed to release pressure, causing it to rupture and starting a fire that led to the explosion.

“There are some lessons that we are learning, and we are going to incorporate those lessons into our design standards and our safety procedures,” Johnson said.

Flame retardants in furniture foam – weighing the evidence
by ANDREW MAYNARD on MAY 10, 2012
The Chicago Tribune launched a hard hitting investigative series this week on the downsides of flame retardant chemicals. Opening with the line “The average American baby is born with 10 fingers, 10 toes and the highest recorded levels of flame retardants among infants in the world”, the series paints a picture of corporate greed, misinformation and questionable decisions as it takes a critical look at the possible health consequences, questionable benefits and alleged underhand business practices that in their words have “led to a proliferation of these chemicals, which don’t even work as promised”.

Not surprisingly, the series has attracted a lot of attention this week. Compellingly written, it tells a story of how cynical manipulation and misinformation has led to potentially harmful fire retardant chemicals being used widely in household products without clear evidence that they save lives.  But how accurate is the science behind the story?

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.

The number of meth manufacturing cases in Kansas rose 43 percent last year, but the jump hasn’t alarmed state law enforcement officials.

Deputy KBI Director Kyle Smith said a part of the increase — from 143 incidents in 2010 to 204 in 2011 — was the result of a change in the way reports are counted. The 17 incidents reported after Jan. 31, 2011, would have gone into the 2012 total under the old system of reporting, he said.

And while the raw numbers are still up, he said, the operations that were uncovered by law enforcement officers last year were generally smaller than the ones that were commonly found in previous years. He said a review of the 2011 cases found that more than 40 percent were “one-pot” operations that involved much smaller amounts of meth than are found in traditional meth-making operations.

WATERBURY, Conn. (WTNH) -- State environmental investigators are investigating a factory fire that burned for days in Waterbury.

The former Nova Print & Dye factory went up in flames last month. It burned for days inside the 86,000 square foot building.

The owners had abandoned the building and left the city with a $2 million tax lien , so the city is stuck footing the bill.

Officials say there could have been any number of toxic chemicals inside the factory when it caught fire. State environmental experts are now investigating.

Federal officials were on the scene Thursday to help get rid of the rubble and hopefully redevelop the property.

Firefighters say the fire, which took hours to control, is suspicious .

Folks who live in the area said the burned out factory is dangerous.

Dow Chemical and the University of Minnesota (UMN) announced on Monday a pilot program to improve laboratory safety in the university’s chemistry and chemical engineering laboratories.

UMN is one of the universities benefiting from a program Dow announced last year in which the company is investing $25 million per year for 10 years in research programs at 11 academic institutions. The new safety program is independent of that effort but germinated in the relationship established between Dow and the university, says Frank S. Bates, head of UMN’s chemical engineering and materials science department.

The safety program also extends beyond research programs sponsored by Dow. Central to the effort is a Joint Safety Team (JST) made up of the safety officers from every chemistry and chemical engineering research group. “All of those safety officers will be interacting with Dow and working together to learn best safety practices” from the company, says William B. Tolman, chair of the chemistry department.

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.

The University of Vermont and the city of Burlington have been fined by the Department of Environmental Conservation over environmental violations.

In August 2010, inspections by a DEC hazardous waste inspector found records violations at several of the university’s laboratories, which are subject to the state’s waste regulations.

The university was fined $19,660.The inspector found that records of self-inspections in the sampled laboratories were not consistently maintained, that the records used for laboratory self-assessments were not those that are required, that some storage containers were mislabeled and that laboratories didn’t take adequate corrective actions after learning of violations.

The university subsequently implemented corrective actions for all labs involved in the DEC inspections and implemented a new healthy and safety policy and compliance oversight procedure.

SPARTA — Water from wet paper towels that accidentally mixed with a chemical compound used during a chemistry experiment at the Sussex County Technical School has been determined to be the cause of a fire at the Sparta school in March, the county prosecutor’s office said today.
Zinc metal powder was being used in an electroplating experiment when it was mixed in a 30-gallon plastic trash container with wet paper towels used by students during the cleanup of the experiment, said First Assistant Prosecutor Gregory Mueller.
The mishap occurred despite a warning on the jar containing the zinc metal powder that says there is a danger of spontaneous combustion if the chemical becomes damp and comes in contact with air, he said.
No charges have been filed in connection with the blaze.
The fire broke out in a science lab on the second floor of the school at about 8:30 p.m. on March 14 when a fire alarm was activated by smoke alarms, police said. The Sparta school was closed from March 15 to March 26, postponing graduation until June 21.

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.

On Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010, a gardener was seriously injured when he stepped on some gravel in the yard of a San Diego-area home and the ground exploded beneath his feet. Subsequent investigation of the house and its grounds revealed what authorities called the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in the U.S. They deemed the house too dangerous to clean out and burned it down instead.
At the American Chemical Society national meeting in San Diego last month, in a symposium organized by the Division of Chemical Health & Safety, officials described how the incident unfolded.
Fire and ambulance crews initially responded to the scene; then they called the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department when they realized that the gardener’s injuries were from an explosion, said Nick Vent, an environmental health specialist in the Hazardous Materials Division of the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health.
Sheriff’s officers subsequently took the house resident, George Djura Jakubec, then 54, into custody for questioning; brought in bomb squad and hazmat crews; and evacuated the neighbors. The property is in a residential area, on unincorporated land but surrounded by the city of Escondido in northern San Diego County. It is also a few hundred feet from Interstate 15.

Northern Vanderburgh County farmer Randy Kron nervously grinned while explaining his plan this year to grow crops on about 2,000 acres across Southwestern Indiana.

Kron said he took a gamble by starting the growing season early. This year's warmer temps and sunnier skies put him roughly a month ahead of schedule to plant corn. By Easter weekend, the majority of his crop was planted and the anhydrous ammonia applied.

Kron said hopefully his luck with temperatures will be the same as keeping the ammonia out of the hands of eager old-fashioned methamphetamine cooks.

Four years ago, the white cylindrical wagons he uses to apply the ammonia were a target for meth cooks. But this year, Kron said ,he's had more time to worry about the weather. Law enforcement and anhydrous co-op managers around the region said the same.

Today, more meth cooks continue to opt for the more portable one-pot method than risk stealing the ammonia from area farms. And with a new additive to help early planting tainting supplies, anhydrous thefts have been nonexistent. But like the weather, members of the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Drug Task Force said it may be too early to determine the impact.

Over the past two years, the one-pot meth lab surpassed the larger and more confusing anhydrous version. Meth cooks now use a first-aid cold pack to create the ammonia they once stole. The new method brought the drug manufacture into urban areas such as Evansville, where there are more places to hide and supplies are available at most local drugstores.

"The one-pot method is more user-friendly, so more people tend to use it," said Brock Hensley, an Evansville Police Department detective assigned to the Drug Task Force. "But it may be too early to tell."

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.

General Motors Co. officials say damage could hit $5 million following an explosion last week in a battery-testing lab at its Tech Center in Warren, according to a police report obtained by The Detroit News. The blast injured an employee who remained in the hospital Tuesday.

GM Facility Manager Mo Abraham, and Krishon Davis, who works in GM fire prevention, told Warren police that damage "could reach the $5 million mark."

A separate Warren Fire Department report from last Wednesday's explosion estimated $3 million in damage, with property losses at $1 million and contents at $2 million. Warren Fire Commissioner Skip McAdams said Tuesday he estimates the loss is closer to $3 million than $5 million. The figure could change when a full fire investigation report is completed.

GM said last week the explosion was created by gases that vented from an experimental battery pack inside an enclosed room in its battery lab in the Alternative Energy Center building. GM likened the incident to a natural gas explosion, as gases from a battery gathered in the room during extreme testing and ignited.

GM would not comment directly Tuesday on damage estimates cited in the reports.

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.

A crude method for manufacturing methamphetamine is putting the safety of the general public in jeopardy, including those who would never intentionally get anywhere near the drug, according to police.

The so-called “shake-and-bake” method involves combining raw, unstable ingredients in a container and leaving it somewhere to bake, typically outside. Manufacturers often use two-liter plastic soda bottles and place them near walking trails and rural roadsides.

Steuben County Undersheriff Ray Dell said ingredients such as cold medicine are mixed with common household chemicals, and they produce enough meth for the user to get a few hits.
“It’s a cocktail of hazardous chemicals, and its use, especially in southern Steuben County, is growing at an unbelievable rate,” Dell said.

Not only are the chemicals toxic, but the mini meth labs can explode with enough force to maim.
“(An explosion) occurs if the appropriate formula is not used,” said Mike Sprague, the director of the Steuben County Office of Emergency services. “People often toss the two-liter bottles on the side of the road so if it doesn’t react properly, it won’t blow up at their residence.”

General Motors Co. was quick to fend off new fears about electric cars Wednesday, after the company said an explosion was caused by gases venting from an experimental battery pack inside a battery lab at the General Motors Tech Center in Warren. The explosion led to the hospitalization of one employee.

The 8:45 a.m. incident inside a small room at the lab was likened by GM to a natural gas explosion, as gases from a battery gathered in the room during extreme testing and ignited. GM said the battery pack remained intact.

One worker who was injured was being kept for observation overnight at an area hospital, said GM spokesman Alan Adler. He declined to release the extent of the man's injuries, nor what he did in the lab.

Four other people were evaluated by medical personnel after the explosion blew out windows and damaged at least part of the global battery lab inside the Alternative Energy Center.

The Detroit automaker, just a few hours after the incident, was quick to point out that the battery being tested was unrelated to the Chevrolet Volt or any other production vehicle.

University laboratories in the United States have suffered nearly 120 explosions, fires, and chemical releases in the past decade, according to a federal tally. But until late last year, the number of criminal charges filed over lapses in laboratory safety was zero.

Frustrated safety experts see a connection between those two statistics. Universities and their researchers don't take lab safety seriously, the safety experts say, and nobody has really ever forced them

ince the advent of the so-called “shake and bake” or “one-pot” meth-making process, the number of incidents involving explosions and fires — and serious injuries — has increased dramatically in Franklin County.
“We’ve worked more of these (meth-related fires) in the last two years than we did in the previous decade,” remarked Detective Sgt. Jason Grellner, head of the Franklin County Narcotics Enforcement Unit.
Last month, two people were burned, one seriously, when a one-pot meth lab exploded as they were driving in a car near St. Clair. A third suspect in the car was not injured. The vehicle was destroyed.
The man who sustained serious injuries had been holding the lab — contained in a 2-liter plastic bottle — on his lap when it exploded.
County authorities do not keep specific records on the number of people who have been burned or otherwise injured in meth lab explosions and fires, but they agree that it’s much higher since the one-pot meth burst on the scene in 2009.
“In the last two years, 80 percent of the meth lab fires I’ve investigated have involved one-pot labs,” said Jim Schuhmacher, Franklin County arson investigator.

ROCK HILL, SC (WBTV) - It was not the first stop to cook meth for the suspects, Robert Catoe and Heather Latham in York County.  The Multi Jurisdictional Drug Task Force Commander Marvin Brown says they've discovered now six different motels in York County where they know the duo had been making the drugs.

He also told WBTV's Trent Faris through the course of the investigation that number could triple.

Brown said Catoe and Latham would check into the motels under aliases, moving their meth making materials around by van.

Friday, while she was cleaning the room the owner of the Hillside Motel told WBTV when Catoe and Latham checked in last week they told her they were moving to Rock Hill from Arizona and need a place to stay while they looked for a house to buy.

"They jumped from motel room to motel room cooking meth and we knew that so we tried to hone in on them to try and stop this before someone got hurt," said Brown

The owner who didn't want to be identified went on to say Latham would pay for their stay every day, and three days prior to the bust Catoe paid the bill.  The change prompted her to have her house keeper check on the room and nothing was out of the ordinary.

General Motors employee who was seriously injured in a battery lab explosion Wednesday is expected to stay in the hospital for another day, a spokesman said this morning.

The unidentified man was taken to a St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit after chemical gases ignited during battery tests Wednesday morning at the GM Technical Center in Warren.

GM spokesman Alan Adler confirmed that the injured man would stay at the hospital today but did not have any more details.

The battery lab sustained “significant” structural damage and equipment was also damaged in the blast, a fire department official said.

GM said the Alternative Energy Center, where the explosion occurred, would be open today – except for the battery lab and nearby offices.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the explosion involved batteries manufactured by A123 Systems for the forthcoming electric version of the Chevrolet Spark.

GM declined to confirm the source of the battery that was involved in the incident.

A123 has come under scrutiny after reporting manufacturing defects in batteries delivered to electric vehicle start-up Fisker Automotive.

But GM has said researchers put batteries through rigorous stress tests – and analysts said accidents weren’t altogether uncommon in the early days of a new technology.

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.

KALAMAZOO  (WKZO) -- A judge has dismissed two charges against a Texas Township man who used his residential property on O Ave. to store thousands of containers of lab wastes in 500 steel drums. The Judge felt the charges, releasing a hazardous chemical, were inappropriate.

Some of the waste was toxic, some of it was caustic and some of it was radioactive.  The Judge ruled that no case was made that the neighbors were in any danger because of the chemicals.

A fire believed to be sparked by a chemical reaction exposed the situation to authorities in 2008.

It’s not known if prosecutors will file new charges, but it’s a possibility.   

The EPA and DEQ thought the situation was dangerous enough in 2008 to initiate an emergency remedial cleanup and extensive testing of the groundwater.

It also sparked a great deal of concern from neighbors, fearful that their water wells might be contaminated by the wastes.  

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.

GEISMAR, La. (AP) - State environmental officials say an explosion and fire last month at the Westlake Chemical Corp. complex in Geismar was the fifth and most significant release of chemicals at the plant since the beginning of 2010.

The Advocate reports that the March 22 fire primarily released hydrochloric acid, chlorine and vinyl chloride monomer. Records of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality say those release exceeding the one-hour permit level for those chemicals and at least three other compounds.

No one was injured in the explosion. The cause is still under investigation.

Westlake said it bought the complex in 2002 from Borden Chemical and spent nearly $20 million for environmental and safety improvements. The plant was built in the mid-1970s.

Federal and state environmental officials have discovered a potpourri of thousands of pounds of chemicals – many of them potentially hazardous – at a Tacoma Tideflats site that was engulfed by a sudden fire March 28.

Those chemicals, most of them stored in two old trucks untouched by the blaze, included 15 pounds of mercury, several hundred pounds of highly flammable sodium and mildly radioactive uranium.

That site at 4111 E. 11th St. near Marine View Drive drew some three dozen firefighters and a dozen pieces of equipment when it burst into flames about 10:30 a.m. The smoky fire destroyed a single-story house used by a chemical recycling company and threatened a nearby warehouse and two trucks used for chemical storage.

Firefighters initially attacked the fire in the house but withdrew to defensive positions when it became apparent that the building and the surrounding areas contained unknown quantities of chemicals. The site is in an industrial area adjacent to the Hylebos Waterway, but homes are atop a hill overlooking the site.

When the fire department received the call, responders thought the site might be a pallet-recycling company. Later investigation showed the site was used by a company, NW Chemical Recycling, to repackage surplus chemicals for sale.

Neighboring businesses said workers from the company told them the fire had begun with a flaming can of paint. Later investigations showed the blaze started when sodium chlorite that was being repackaged into smaller containers burst into flame. The chemical is used in bleaching and stripping of pulp and paper, among other uses.

CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. (WTW) — Inside a Crawfordsville rental property, the tenants liked to cook.

But what they were cooking got them busted, Indiana State Police say. In the kitchen, police found everything it took to make meth.

At the Days Inn in Anderson recently came a fiery explosion. Police say the same thing was cooking. But this time, it burst into flames.

Methamphetamine labs are more than just dangerous and illegal. They leave a mess -- an environmental hazard that, according to state law, must be cleaned up.

And it takes a special process, certification and inspectors who scour the property in full-gear Hazmat suits and respirators to do the dirty work.

Welcome to the world of meth lab cleanup companies, a growing and profitable business, especially in Indiana, where certain pockets of the state are hotbeds for labs.

The state, which ranks in the top five for meth production, has 22 companies certified by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to decontaminate properties.

Several houses were evacuated about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday after materials used to make methamphetamine and chemicals for making explosives were found in a house near Chandler Park, officials said.

The materials, found in a house near 22nd Street and 61st West Avenue, could have been volatile enough to explode and damage nearby homes, police said.

The Police Department's bomb squad began searching the house shortly after 11:30 a.m., Capt. Jonathan Brooks said.

"Six one-pot method (meth) labs were discovered along with lab equipment reminicent of labs used to make meth 10 to 15 years ago," Tulsa Fire Department spokesman Stan May said Wednesday night.

"Toulene, acetone, peroxide, alumium powder, and sodium hydroxide were just a few of the chemicals found at and removed from the residence," he said.

Don Morris Alexander, 41, was arrested on complaints of endeavoring to manufacture drugs and manufacturing or selling bombs or explosives, Tulsa Jail records show.

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.

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited the Magnablend Chemical company for seven serious violations and and levied a $45,000 fine for last year’s explosion and fire at the company’s Waxahachie factory.

The report concludes a six month investigation, in which OSHA says workers at the plant were exposed to fire hazards by a ventilation system that was far inadequate for what the company was doing.


“Magnablend exposed its workers to fire hazards by failing to provide adequate ventilation that would have removed flammable hydrogen and other vapors,” said Jack Rector, OSHA’s area director in Fort Worth. “OSHA’s standards must be followed to prevent injuries and illnesses. It is fortunate that no one was injured.”

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A hazmat call last week at the East Lake Landfill in Clearlake led to the discovery of four methamphetamine labs.

Sgt. Steve Brooks of the Lake County Sheriff's Office said that on Thursday, March 22, at approximately 12:30 p.m. the Lake County Narcotics Task Force responded to the landfill at the request of the Lake County Fire Protection District HAZMAT Team.

Brooks said the Lake County Fire HAZMAT team had responded to the landfill after the operator of a bulldozer had run over a black plastic garbage bag as he was moving garbage.

The contents of the bag began to off gas, which produced a large visible chemical cloud, Brooks said.

The narcotics detectives located several two liter bottles containing both solid and liquid materials, according to Brooks.

SPARTA -- The Sussex County Technical School Board of Education took several steps at Thursday's meeting to move forward from a science lab fire that closed the school for seven days.

The board unanimously voted to revise the school calendar to tack these seven days on to the end of the school year rather than interrupting the spring recess. The last day for students will now be June 21, and the third marking period will be extended to April 18.

"(The fire aftermath) was handled beautifully. Even the decision on what to do with those school days (was done well)," board member Susan Shake said. She said the administration talked to parents and teachers to reach a decision on the school calendar revision.

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.)

SAN DIEGO ---- It sounded like the craziest idea. But the plan to burn down an Escondido house full of explosives and hazardous materials went off so well it has become a model studied by safety professionals nationwide.
That was the judgment of industrial safety expert Neal Langerman, who spoke about the daring plan's long-term impact Monday. The house at 1954 Via Scott in northwestern Escondido, known as the "Escondido bomb house," no longer exists. Its destruction on Dec. 9, 2010, was carried out with no loss of life or injury, and without contaminating the neighborhood.
Public safety agencies worked together superbly, even though there was no precedent for dealing with such a powder keg in a residential neighborhood, Langerman said at the American Chemical Society convention.
Held at the San Diego Convention Center, it continues through Thursday.

In 1912, Masten Park High School in Buffalo was totally destroyed by fire in the afternoon. All the pupils responded to the fire drill signal sounded by Principal Frank S. Fosdick immediately after the discovery of the fire and escaped. The boys and girls marched out of the building without a trace of confusion. As the last line of children was leaving, falling bricks which came down from the roof hit several of the pupils and the mother of Janitor Funk. They were taken to the General Hospital. The fire was caused by an explosion of chemicals in a laboratory on the fourth floor. Prin. Fosdick displayed great heroism as he made three trips into the burning building to rescue pupils he thought still inside. On his third trip out of the burning building he was stuck by a falling timber and hurt although it was said his condition was not serious.

GONZALES — Workers removed the last remaining chemicals Sunday from a damaged production unit that exploded and caught fire last week at Westlake Chemical Corp. in Ascension Parish, state environmental regulators said Monday.

Meanwhile, the first lawsuit has been filed alleging residents who live in communities near the plant were harmed by chemicals released during the fire.

The emergency at the 184-acre Geismar Vinyls Complex ended Sunday after a leaning production tower was stabilized by a crane that arrived Saturday and chemicals were removed the next day, a Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality official said.

BUCHANAN – Entergy, the company that owns the Indian Point nuclear power plants at Buchanan, will pay a $1.2 million civil penalty to the state based on a consent order with the Department of Environmental Conservation.

The fine stems from violations of the Clean Water Act, Chemical Bulk Storage Regulations and Navigation Laws, when a 2010 explosion and fire at the plant resulted in petroleum released into the Hudson River.

Entergy also agreed to upgrade its containment systems which protect the river from accidental spills and unpermitted releases.

In November 2010, the #21 main transformer failed and resulted in an explosion that breached the walls of the transformer causing a fire and release of petroleum used to cool the transformers into the Hudson River.

The DEC said its investigation revealed long-standing structural conditions prevented the containment moat from retaining the petroleum as designed. More than 10,000 gallons of oil were recovered from the transformer, the containment moat and areas outside the containment moat including the discharge canal, the Hudson River shoreline and the river.

Numerous vehicles carrying poisonous or even potentially deadly chemicals travel through Butler County daily, but not every accident involving these hazardous materials is reported to the Emergency Management Agency, county and state officials say.
A study of procedures at county and state agencies shows that there is not always a uniform way of reporting accidents involving hazardous material. Some don’t get reported at all.
A tally of hazardous material responses by the Butler County EMA totaled 15 in 2011. However, the number of actual hazardous materials incidents likely more than doubles that number, at about 36, said Jeff Galloway, the executive director of the agency.
“We need to come up with a better reporting system,” he said. “This report has 15 calls, but there were a lot more than that.”
That’s because fire departments will sometimes respond to smaller incidents that don’t warrant a response from the county hazmat team, Galloway said, adding, “There is no clear set database that enters all the calls.”

Inside a Crawfordsville rental property, the tenants liked to cook.

But what they were cooking got them busted last month, Indiana State Police say. In the kitchen, police found everything it took to make meth.

At the Days Inn in Anderson last week came a fiery explosion. Police say the same thing was cooking. But this time, it burst into flames.

Methamphetamine labs are more than just dangerous and illegal. They leave a mess -- an environmental hazard that, according to state law, must be cleaned up.

And it takes a special process, certification and inspectors who scour the property in full-gear Hazmat suits and respirators to do the dirty work.

Following three safety incidents -- including explosions in October 2011 and January 2012 that occurred in the same laboratory -- the chemistry department at the University of Florida is placing new emphasis on safety, reports the Alligator, an independent, student-run newspaper affiliated with the university.

"We're trying to change the culture so people will take safety as seriously here as they do in an industrial lab.  Where we've fallen down is really stressing the importance that safety is everybody's responsibility, all day, every day," says department chair Daniel Talham, quoted in the article.

Among the steps taken is organizing a committee including people representing the departments of chemistry and chemical engineering and the office of environmental health and safety to review potentially hazardous experiments.

The chemical explosion at The Pods leisure centre happened after a worker mixed 5kg of chlorine tablets with another chemical, an official report has revealed.

The step was taken despite clear instructions warning the dangers of mixing the substance, the Telegraph can reveal.

​Opening day: The main pool in use at The Pods on its first day open to the public for bathing last July

Opening day: The main pool in use at The Pods on its first day open to the public for bathing last July

The explosion delayed the opening of the swimming pool by seven days.

The accident and incident investigation report, carried out by the council’s corporate safety unit, gives details of what happened at the Ashby Road site on June 18 last year.

The papers reveal that the incident was drawn to the attention of staff when the duty manager at The Pods walked into a cloud of chlorine gas after investigating the cause of an activated fire alarm.

At around 10.30am, he walked into the swimming pool plant room, which had been shown on the fire panel as the location of the blast, via the dryside fire exit.

The report reads: “As he opened the fire exit, he walked into a cloud of chlorine gas. He immediately shut the doors, exited the building via the main entrance and tried to access the service compound to gain entry to the rear outside plant room door.”

MONROE, Ohio - The Monroe Police Department made four arrests Wednesday in connection to the manufacture and detonation of chemical bombs in Lemon Township.

Steven Bolin, 19, Michael Akers, 18, and Brian Carr, 19, all of Middletown, are accused of setting off the homemade bombs on Hickory Street Tuesday morning. Police later arrested and charged a fourth suspect, Klair Garrett of Hamilton, Wednesday night.

Police were originally called to the street for a report of possible shots fired. Officers quickly noticed the various soda bottles lying in the street and in yards. Investigators recovered a total of nine 'chemical reaction' bombs. A tenth was not activated.

KENNEBUNK — A chemical reaction led to a gas explosion at Corning Inc. last week, sending three people to the hospital.

Kennebunk Fire Chief Stephen Nichols said chemicals, including nitric acid, were mixed in a dispensing barrel in a waste room, giving off explosive hydrogen gas, on the night of Wednesday, March 14.

"Either an electric motor or a switch or something triggered it to ignite and caused the explosion," Nichols said. "The explosion, it burned up all the gas. It was a gas cloud and that was the end of it."

Three employees were transported to Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford, but were released without injury, Nichols said. The explosion happened around 9:30 p.m.

A hazardous materials team was brought in for clean-up, Nichols said. There was no residual fire from the explosion, and damage was confined to the waste room.

"It was just a matter of, unfortunately, something that shouldn't have been introduced that was introduced into the barrels," Nichols said.

Three chemical incidents have called fire and police department officials to Sisler Hall in this school year, and the chemistry department is reacting.

The first two events — both explosions, one on Oct. 11 and one on Jan. 11 — happened in synthesis labs. The third, which happened March 15, involved a student who felt faint, according to a University Police report.

In response, the department and UF’s Environmental Health & Safety division of Business Affairs have partnered to emphasize the significance of staying safe. Their focus is training students to always think about safety, said Daniel Talham, chair of the chemistry department.

“We’re trying to change the culture so people take safety as seriously here as they do in an industrial lab,” he said. “Where we’ve fallen down is really stressing the importance that safety is everybody’s responsibility, all day, every day.”

After the October explosion, EHS representatives came to synthesis labs and ran special review sessions about handling hazardous materials and using protective equipment.

The students were concerned and cooperative, said EHS Director Bill Properzio.

SPARTA -- Sussex County Technical School will remain closed through Thursday, as the school continues to clean up from a fire that started last Wednesday night in a science lab.

The school is tentatively scheduled to reopen on Friday.

The fire, which was caused by a chemical reaction in a 30-gallon garbage can, has forced the district to close for at least six days and will lead to the relocation of eight classrooms and several lockers for the remainder of the school year, according to Interim Superintendent Anthony Macerino.

"Clean-up has commenced and is proceeding well," Macerino said on Monday. "As with any fire or emergency facility situation, air quality tests have been completed."

SKOWHEGAN -- A short circuit in the wiring of a fire suppression system at the Irving Circle K service station Sunday was the apparent cause of a plume of white powder released onto cars and people.

No one was seriously injured, but several people, including three young children, were taken to the hospital to be checked out for possible respiratory problems. Others were examined at the scene of the incident on U.S. Route 201, which is also Madison Avenue.

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."

SAN ANGELO, Texas — An OSHA investigation into an explosion that injured three people in January has led to a nearly $5,000 fine for the business.

A conference on March 2 ended with a penalty for two "serious" citations being assessed for S&S Steel Industries, according to a citation and notification of penalty from the U.S. Department of Labor.

In January three people were sent to Shannon Medical Center after a pressurized air tank explosion in the 3800 block of Christoval Road, according to fire officials.

"They were pressure testing a tank that had been built, and it broke loose and exploded," fire Capt. Fred Barnett said in an article published Jan. 17.

According to the OSHA document, "workers were using air to pressure test large noncode vessels. This created an explosion hazard. Workers were exposed to the hazard of being struck by 10,000 lbs. of steel."

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.

Virginia Tech, UCLA, the Courts, and Accountability
Here in Washington, DC, where I live, the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, aka VPI&SU, or VA Tech [Editor's note: Thanks to the commenter for the correction] shooting massacre and the just-ended trial that grew out of it are heartbreakingly local.  The killer grew up around here, as did 6 of his 32 victims.  Many families hereabouts send their kids to study in Blacksburg, and thousands of alumni live in the metropolitan area.  At strategic points in the athletic calendar, maroon-and-orange Hokies banners go up all over town.

But that hideous day in 2007 has important national implications as well, as the Chronicle of Higher Education points out.

A former graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin is enmeshed in a US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) inquiry after he was stopped for a traffic offence and found to have lab chemicals and equipment in his car.

Karl Jasheway was pulled over by Travis County police near Austin in December 2011 and charged with driving while intoxicated. The FBI's interest in Jasheway only emerged on 9 March as a result of a public-information request filed by Austin-based biosafety advocate Ed Hammond.

At the time of the incident, Jasheway was studying for a PhD in the laboratory of biologist Jon Robertus, known for his pioneering work on the structure of transfer RNA. Jasheway’s research was part of the lab's federally funded work to develop an antidote for ricin, a highly toxic protein found in the castor oil plant Ricinus communis and a potential bioterror agent. Jasheway's work involved using a non-toxic component of the protein called the ricin A chain.

BELLEVUE, Ohio --
Investigators say lightening most likely started a chemical fire earlier this week at a magnesium plant in a northern Ohio town.

The state fire marshal's office ruled Thursday that the fire at MagReTech Inc. in Bellevue was natural. No one was injured in Tuesday's blaze at the plant, about midway between Toledo and Cleveland.

The office made its findings based on lightning strike data from the National Weather Service, the fire scene investigation and interviews with witnesses.

Four semitrailers containing scraps of magnesium were ignited and burned for more than five hours before the fire was controlled.

HERMISTON -- People living in Eastern Oregon and Washington can sleep a little safer now that the Umatilla Chemical Depot officially has been put to rest.

To celebrate the occasion, the Army's chemical materials agency held a celebration Thursday night marking Umatilla's end of an era for storing dangerous chemical agents used in warfare since World War II.

About 300 people attended the event and listened to military and corporate officials pay tribute to the community's support for the depot since 1941.

"This is a historic milestone," said Gary Anderson, project manager for the site. "All the secondary waste has been removed, which brings a preservation of peace to the depot."

The 20,000-acre site eventually will be turned back into public use and hopefully provide some job opportunities, he added.

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.

WEST POINT, Miss. (WTVA) - Local law enforcement officers and firefighters are taking a class to learn about meth labs.

"It can be very deadly," says Ted Krayer, program coordinator with the Alabama Fire College. "It can be very explosive. It has all the hazards that you can think of with chemicals from corrosive to flammability."

For those attending the two-day seminar, the information will teach them the warning signs that could save a life.

"We're trying to help our firefighters learn more about what to look for and what the hazards are," adds Mark Moss, senior instructor with the state Fire Academy. "[This way,] they don't get contaminated or injured by dealing with any type of lab or activites that they may have."

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -
The city of Jacksonville has condemned a Baymeadows hotel that was the site of a meth lab bust Monday.

Officials said it will be up to the Homestead Studio Suites on Western Way to pay for testing and cleaning by a certified outside company, and it's not clear how long all of that will take.

The company must have licensed environmental hygienists and contractors. Environmental hygienists have to conduct testing of the hotel's interior and determine the effects, if any, of a meth production for the building to be reopened and what, if any, items need to be replaced.

According to Code Enforcement, if any structure is proven to have a meth lab in it, the structure is condemned.

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.

Hash of all kinds is more popular than ever in Sacramento. But a lot of it is made with butane: Is this safe for patients to consume? Or even make?

On February 7, a woman shattered all the windows in her San Francisco apartment and was sent to the hospital, along with a 12-year-old boy, for treatment of burn wounds. And on February 19, three people in Tracy were rushed to the hospital, critically wounded after an explosion in their apartment. Authorities have said that these explosions resulted from failed attempts to make butane hash oil.

Butane hash oil, often referred to as BHO, is a concentrated form of cannabis prized for its smooth flavor and strong effects. According to Jeff Hatley at Sequoia Analytical Labs in Sacramento, most concentrated forms of cannabis, such as cold water hash or kief, contain between 15 to 60 percent tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive chemical in cannabis. But BHO regularly tests much higher, at 30 to 75 percent.

WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- The Missouri Emergency Response Commission, in cooperation with New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control has developed a course called "Chemical Suicide: Information for the Emergency Responder," which will be held March 22 from 6-9 p.m. at the University of Central Missouri's Wood Building, room 100.

Chemical suicide is happening across the U.S. and has already happened in Missouri.

This method of suicide has grown rapidly in Japan since 2007 and experts agree that it will continue to grow here in the U.S. over the next several years. This form of suicide creates some very dangerous hazards for the emergency responder due to the highly toxic gasses that are created.

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.

Holes in the floor of James Weir large enough for people to fall through and flames stretching a full 30 metres along each side of the building were just a few of the lasting sights of last month's blaze at Strathclyde University.

The campus blaze tore through the six-storey structure on Montrose Street for almost five hours before being extinguished with the building now, only four weeks on, back to the slimmest semblance of normality.

In an exclusive interview with The Journal a week on from the fire, Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Deputy Assistant Chief Officer, Jim Doyle, who was in command of the incident, revealed the situation threatened to spiral out of control as crisis levels were raised and more firefighters called in to keep a handle on the blaze.