PRINCETON — A Princeton University researcher was treated for chemical burns to her face today when a glass container of acid shattered in a lab in the campus’ new chemistry building.
The female postdoctoral researcher was taken to University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro for minor burns, said Martin Mbugua, a Princeton spokesman. The university did not release her name.
A graduate student who was in the laboratory at the time was also hospitalized as a precaution, Mbugua said. A public safety officer responding to the scene was also taken to the hospital to determine if tingling he experienced in his arm was related to exposure to the acid.
The accident occurred around 1:19 p.m. in a lab in Frick Chemistry Building, campus officials said.
"Nitric acid had been mixed with a solvent in the container, causing a reaction that built up pressure," university officials said in a statement. "When the container broke, the impact forced open the cabinet door, which struck the researcher, bruising her right knee."
The researcher was wearing eye protection and rubber gloves, campus officials said.
About 300 people evacuated the building for about two hours while rescue crews and hazardous materials teams cleared the spill, Mbugua said. About 150 students taking a final exam were moved to another building.

LSB Industries said its El Dorado chemical facility in Arkansas suffered significant damage to the DSN concentrated nitric acid plant and surrounding equipment when a reactor exploded Tuesday morning.

There were no injuries to employees or anyone in the El Dorado community, the company said, adding that it believes there was no environmental release.

LSB is investigating the cause of the event and the extent of the damages, it said.

LSB said it does not have an estimate on the extent of the damages or the repair time. However, the El Dorado facility is out of operation at the present time due to the damage.

A chemical leak on board a container ship at Sydney's Port Botany has now been made safe.

The German-registered 34,600-tonne California Senator docked on Monday morning from Fremantle with a 1000-litre storage drum leaking nitric acid in the hold.

The ship's captain had called ahead on Sunday to warn authorities.

Firefighters scrambled aboard about 1am (AEST) to decant the contents of the drum and contain the leak.

"The container of nitric acid has now been made safe," Superintendent Ian Krimmer, from Fire and Rescue NSW, said on Monday afternoon.

"One ruptured container inside was located.

"Contents have all been emptied, all the contaminated products have been removed by a contractor.

ARLINGTON — A student suffered minor injuries in an accident Thursday evening in the Chemistry and Physics Building at the University of Texas at Arlington.

UTA spokeswoman Kristin Sullivan said a student was capping a bottle of nitric acid and the bottle broke. The student was treated at the scene.

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.

KENNEBUNK — Cleanup crews are still working today to remove the remains of a chemical explosion that happened Wednesday night at Corning  Inc., an industrial products company on Alfred Road in Kennebunk.

Fire Chief Stephen Nichols said that chemicals, including nitric acid, that were mixed in a drum of disposed material gave off hydrogen gas, which is explosive. A spark, possibly from a light or a fan coming on, ignited the vapors and created an explosion around 9:30 p.m., he said.

The explosion caused minor damage to the building but blew materials around inside, he said. The building was evacuated and three people were taken to the hospital complaining of tightness in their throat, he said. They were evaluated and released, he said.

Other parts of the facility, which manufactures specialty glass and ceramic products for the communications and health care industries, remained open.

Two people were injured by nitric acid Wednesday at a business in Palm Bay

A male suffered acid burns to the hands, face and neck, and a woman, who pulled the male away from the situation, was treated for exposure. Both were taken to Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, according to Palm Bay Fire-Rescue.

Rescue crews responded at 3:03 p.m. to the nitric acid spill at 2320 Commerce Drive NE.

USBid Inc., where the spill was reported, sells hard-to-find, allocated, and obsolete semiconductors and electronic parts.

The spill occured during the re-cycling cleaning process when nitric acid in a quart jar foamed up from an unanticipated chemical reaction.

MAHWAH — A well-water sample treated with a small amount of acid sparked a hazardous materials scare when it was mistakenly delivered to the Jaguar offices on MacArthur Boulevard on Wednesday, authorities said.

An employee at the Jaguar Land Rover North America headquarters at 555 MacArthur Boulevard opened the package, which contained a bottle of well water that had been treated with nitric acid, said Lt. Stuart Blank of the Mahwah police.

A bag wrapped around the bottle was moist, and the woman said her throat became irritated after she came into contact with it, Blank said. The report sparked a response from several agencies, Blank said.

The woman was treated at the scene and was fine, Blank said. About 15 other employees also were examined as a precaution, he said.

Investigators determined that the package had been dropped off at the facility by accident. The bottle was a well water sample from a house being sold in Freehold.

An employee of a metal finishing solution provider company was transported to the hospital Thursday afternoon after his leg fell into a vat of chemicals at Technical Finishes & Coatings Plating Inc., near Johnson Creek Boulevard in Milwaukie.

Firefighters, including a hazmat team, were dispatched about 3 p.m. Thursday after the employee fell into a vat of nitric acid and sodium dichromate, according to Clackamas Fire District #1 spokesman Steve McAdoo.

The man was decontaminated with a rinse down before being transported to Providence Milwaukie Hospital via ambulance, McAdoo said.

The hazmat team, which was sent by the Gresham Fire Department, is still determining how the solution could potentially harm the employee, whose identity and condition are currently unknown.

HARRISON TWP, Ohio (WDTN) - A Hazardous Materials crew was sent to a fire at a Harrison Township business Monday morning.

Fire broke out inside Alpine Products at 2030 Drill Avenue about 8:00.

Firefighters said the flames caused significant damage to the interior.

The HazMat crew was called when firefighters discovered nitric acid leaking from storage drums.

No injuries were reported.

Texas Tech’s vice president for research said he was not concerned two accidental nitric acid explosions on campus in two weeks would hurt Tech’s reputation as an emerging research university.

“I would rather say we are in a situation where the accidents at Texas Tech are being used as an example to other universities of what not to do,” Taylor Eighmy said a day after an explosion prompted about six students and faculty to evacuate a campus building.

Nobody was injured nor contaminated Thursday night, but the explosion prompted dozens of first responders and a Lubbock Fire Department hazardous material crew to clear the building.

Eighmy blamed the accident on a faculty member’s or student’s improper handling of waste material in a storage cabinet under a hood in a laboratory in Tech’s Engineering and Technology Lab.

He said pressure built up in a glass bottle of waste nitric acid, creating a small explosion, sending shards of glass throughout the lab and acid leaking from the cabinet.

The second chemical explosion in two weeks at Texas Tech prompted campus officials to evacuate an engineering building late Thursday.

Nobody was injured or contaminated after what Tech spokesman Chris Cook called a small explosion about 7:15 p.m. in a laboratory in the Engineering and Technology Lab off the school’s engineering key at Canton Avenue and Glenna Goodacre Boulevard.

Cook said nobody was in the lab when nitric acid and an unknown waste product somehow combined to produce the explosion.

A student responding to the noise opened the lab’s door and recognized the smell of nitric acid, Cook said.

“They evacuated the building immediately upon realizing what it was,” he said.

A quick-thinking UA student threw sodium bicarbonate on a chemical spill in a science lab Monday, which helped prevent any injuries.
Tucson Fire Department firefighters responded to the spill involving nitric acid shortly after noon at the Shantz Building and had the incident under control at 1:44 p.m., Tucson Fire Capt. Jeff Langejans said.
Four students were in the lab in the 1100 block of East Fourth Street when the spill occurred, Langejans said. One student threw the sodium bicarbonate on the nitric acid, and then pulled the fire alarm.
All of them left the building, and no injuries were reported, Langejans said.
He said nitric acid is “an extremely harmful chemical,” and it took 23 firefighters 97 minutes to neutralize the acid.
The University of Arizona was to handle the cleanup.

A spilled container of nitric acid forced the evacuation of the Shantz building on Monday.

Officers on scene said no one was hurt in the accident.

The spill occurred when a glass container filled with nitric acid dropped and broke. According to Tucson Fire Prevention Capt. Jeff Langejans, someone tried to neutralize the spill with sodium bicarbonate, causing an exothermic reaction that melted the copper piping on compressed air containers in the lab.

Fourth Street closed while Fire officials and a hazardous materials control team responded to the incident.

“It’s been isolated, it was an accident,” Langejans said.

Sgt. Juan Alvarez of the University of Arizona Police Department said such spills are rare, but establishing a perimeter and ensuring public safety are the most important things when they do.

Lloyd Wundrock, a health safety officer for Risk Management Services, said he believes that anywhere between 500 and 1000 ml of the liquid were spilled. No one was hurt in the incident, according to Langejans, but that doesn’t mean the incident was without risk.

“Nitric acid is a level four on what we call our fire diamond, which means it’s as bad as it gets,” Langejans said.

Workers are being checked over after a chemical spill at a recycling centre in Fife.

Fire crews, ambulance and police were called at around midday on Tuesday after the nitric acid was spilt at Wellwood Recycling Plant near Dunfermline.

Nine people had to be taken to hospital to be treated after they inhaled the fumes from the fluid.


The area around the container has been cordoned off and workers who may have come into contact with or inhaled the fluid are being checked over.

The 10 litres of fluid is 68% nitric acid and cannot be cleaned up by firefighters, who are having to call in specialist company.

Officials evacuated Texas Tech’s Chemistry Building and a Lubbock Fire Department hazmat team responded to clean up after a chemical explosion Friday evening in a laboratory.

Battalion Chief Kelly Morman with the Lubbock Fire Department said a very small explosion sprayed a combination of chemicals, including nitric acid, through a lab on the third floor of Tech’s Chemical Building just after 5 p.m.

Nobody was in the lab when the explosion occurred, and nobody was treated for injuries or chemical exposure, said Taylor Eighmy, Tech’s vice president of research.

“There was a small explosion in a lab hood and the explosion spread some weak acid materials at the base of the hood,” he said.

Officials evacuated several students and faculty members from the building to a sidewalk across the street near Memorial Circle for several hours.

Officials re-opened the Chemistry Building by about 7:30 p.m., but the university planned to keep the lab sealed off until Tech’s Department of Environmental Health and Safety investigates the explosion.

“We hope to have a better understanding of what the cause of the explosion was some time early next week,” Eighmy said.

Eighmy said there was no initial indication procedures were not followed. He said Tech’s Department of Environmental Health and Safety inspected and approved conditions in the lab just weeks ago, though he did not know a specific date.

One person is in the hospital after inhaling a chemical agent while renovating a house on Old Centreville Road, just outside of Manassas Park. 

It happened at 2:30 p.m. when several people were working to renovate and clean a home at 8005 Old Centreville Rd, Prince William County Firefighter Joseph Robertson said shortly after incident.

Someone spilled a cleaning agent later identified as Nitric Acid. The chemical caused a cloud of vapor that made someone sick, he said.

Prince William County Fire and Rescue hazard management personnel responded and contained the incident.

The St. Clair County hazardous materials team has been requested about 8:45 p.m. today at Capac High School for a chemical incident.

The Mussey Township Fire Department is on scene and is reporting there are several packages of nitric acid in a garbage can at the school.

One of the packages has been breached and is leaking. Crews are working to neutralize the acid with baking soda.

Check back for updates.

Workers have been evacuated from a distillery as firefighters deal with a nitric acid spill at the site.
They were called to Diageo's Cameronbridge Distillery in Fife after a leak from a 28,000-litre tank.
Diageo said the plant has been safely shut down while emergency services tackle the incident.
Nearby residents have been advised to keep their doors and windows closed as a precaution.
A chemical tanker from Glasgow has been sent to the site to pump out the affected area.
Fife Fire and Rescue Service said the alarm was raised at around 5.30am and three fire engines and a fire service decontamination unit were sent to the grain distillery, near Windygates.

Firefighters and hazmat personnel responded to a chemical spill on Old Chemstrand Road in Gonzalez on Friday afternoon.

Shortly after 3 p.m., an 18-wheeler traveling down Old Chemstrand Road, near Pauline Street began leaking nitric acid onto the road.

Escambia County EMS officials said between 5 and 10 gallons of the toxic substance leaked onto the road.

Within an hour and a half, Escambia County Fire Rescue crews had washed the chemical away with water.

Two University of West Florida students were burned this afternoon after a flask exploded in a chemistry lab.

One student was burned on the arm, and the other was burned on the leg, said Kelly Russ, a UWF spokeswoman.

The students were taken to West Florida Hospital.

The accident happened about 3 p.m. in the Life Sciences Building.

The undergraduate students had been in the lab conducting independent research and were finishing up for the day when the incident happened, Russ said.

The students had handled a flask with nitric acid in it, she said.

After cleaning the flask and sealing it, it exploded, Russ said.

The explosion did not cause a fire.

A truck carrying a thousand litres of corrosive liquids, including nitric acid, crashed on the Pacific Highway this morning.

Chris Bishop, from Fire and Rescue NSW, says the spill has been contained.

He says no evacuations were necessary, but breathing equipment is being used.

"The only requirement at the moment is for people who are up close," Mr Bishop said.

"We were monitoring that and we had police located in the nearest residences which were, I believe, about 150 yards away.

"We haven't needed to follow that path because there was initial fuming but that's died down."

Fire crews from Portland, Clackamas and Gresham responded to a hazardous cloud emitting from a steel cast parts company on Wednesday evening.

The vapor--originally described as orange in color--came from the Precision Castparts Corp., at the 5000 block of Johnson Creek Boulevard and drifted northwest from there, according to Paul Corah with Portland Fire.

The spill was something of a hydroflouric nitric acid combo, said Corah, and was caused around 6:15 p.m. when "A huge chunk of titanium got spilled into a vat of acid."

The initial call came in at about 5:30 p.m. and the incident was "still off-gassing" after 7 p.m., according to Corah.

Steve McAdoo with Clackamas Fire said most chemicals of that substance dissipate when released into the air.

FRIDLEY, Minn. — Chemicals mixed at a plating facility in Fridley set off a small explosion Tuesday that burned three employees and prompted the building's brief evacuation, authorities said.

The "flash explosion" occurred shortly after 11 a.m. at Incertec Plating on 83rd Avenue NE., just west of University Avenue, police said.

The three employees, all men, were splashed with acid. They were rinsed by firefighters at the scene, then taken to a hospital, where they were treated for their injuries and released, the company said.

Fire Chief John Berg said it was not known what caused the chemicals to explode. He identified them as phosphoric and nitric acid.

Minnesota OSHA was notified and will investigate.

FRIDLEY, Minn. -- Three people were injured, and dozens of employees evacuated after a reported nitric acid explosion at a Fridley metal plating plant.

First responders got a 911 call shortly after 11 a.m. about an explosion and fire at Incertec Plating located at 160 83rd Ave. NE in Fridley.

The fire was put out, but three employees were injured with chemical burns.  One of the three also suffered an injury from an exploding container. 

Rob Clark, director of operations for Incertec Plating, says the evacuation was ordered mostly as a precaution. He says an undisclosed material under pressure blew at Incertec's Fridley facility.

Clark, who is based out of Incertec's Kansas facility, says no one was seriously injured but that three people who were nearest the incident were taken to the hospital for evaluations.

Authorities say two chemicals were improperly mixed causing the explosion. They do know what those chemicals were at this time.

GRAFTON —  A worker at a trucking company who accidentally emptied nitric acid into a drum containing water caused a vapor cloud to erupt, which led to the evacuation of nearby homes and businesses and North Grafton Elementary School yesterday.

Fire Chief Michael Gauthier said when authorities received a call from Dana Transport at 88 Westboro Road at 11:06 a.m., they thought there had been a spill of the hazardous chemical. But it was later determined that a worker had accidentally emptied nitric acid into a wastewater drum that was sitting beside the one he should have used.

MILWAUKEE -- Milwaukee's hazardous materials team responded to a call at UW-Milwaukee on Thursday night.
Crews were seen outside the chemistry building near Cramer Street and Kenwood Boulevard.
A spokesperson for the fire department told 12 News a janitor spilled nitric acid and was taken to St. Mary's hospital for treatment. His injuries are not life-threatening.

A FAULTY tank valve was the cause of a major chemical spill at a Nuneaton factory.

Fire crews were alerted when nitric acid poured out at Technic UK, on the Attleborough Industrial Estate.

One worker suffered minor burns in the incident, which led to all neighbouring units being evacuated.

The alarm was sounded at 9.30am on Tuesday and the whole cul-de-sac around Liberty Way was cordoned off for several hours because of the danger of escaping fumes.

Gareth Davies, technical sales manager at the firm, said: “A valve on a mixing tank blew out. It was a complete accident and is something that has never happened before.

"We managed to contain the chemical within the unit but needed to call in the fire brigade.

“The man who was operating the tank was slightly burned on one arm and went to hospital for treatment. A specialist contractor was brought in to take away the spilled chemical.”

RANCHO CORDOVA A business in Rancho Cordova has been evacuated after reports that a 55-gallon drum of acid has spilled and caused a hazmat situation. Firefighters are saying there are no injuries, and the spill in contained.

Just after 8 a.m. Tuesday morning the PSC Environmental along White Rock Road was evacuated. Workers wearing all of their protective gear were mixing chemicals when a small incident happened.

Sacramento Metro Fire Spokesman Christian Pebbles says the spill is low level, and it happened in a facility that can handle this type of material. Firefighters are responding to it as a hazmat situation.

Nitric acid is a corrosive and toxic acid, commonly used as a strong oxidizing agent.

BUSINESSES on Winwick Quay industrial estate were evacuated after a chemical spill at Cameron Court on Tuesday at 1.55pm.

Twenty litres of nitric acid spilled into a contained drainage system and reacted with steel.

All fluid was contained on site and there were no casualties or injuries reported.

A Cheshire Fire spokesman said: “The premises were ventilated and the quality of air was sampled by an on-site chemist.

“Adjoining properties were evacuated as a precaution.

“The buildings were declared clear and staff were allowed to re-enter the buildings.”

SPARKS - Streets are back open in the Coney Island area after Wednesday's hazmat incident.

Officials say a barrel of nitric acid began to smoke for unknown reasons when it was moved into a plastic barrel.

Advanced Composite Technologies uses the chemical in production, and hired H20 Environmental to dispose of the chemical waste.

Fully-suited hazmat teams had to siphon the chemical out of the barrel and dilute it with water.

Nitric acid can be a dangerous chemical.

"It's an industrial grade nitric acid. If it got onto your skin, it would cause severe burns. It can cause a lot of reactions with a lot of different chemicals," said Tom Garrison, Sparks Fire Department.

Teams were able to mitigate the situation without incident.

The chemical is still in several barrels at Advanced Composite Technologies. H20 Environmental wil return to the scene Thursday morning to finish the removal.

A roadside service station has been closed on the M1 near Sheffield following a chemical leak.

The fire service said a parked lorry carrying 4,000 litres of nitric acid had leaked some of its load at Woodall Services.

The car park was evacuated at about 0930 GMT. A 50m (164ft) cordon has been put in place around the lorry.

The police and fire service are involved in the incident. It is not known how much acid has leaked.

A Nickerson Road electronics firm where 19 people suffered respiratory trouble following a chemical explosion Monday reopened for business yesterday. Nineteen employees from Spectrum Microwave were treated at area hospitals yesterday and released, a fire official said.

Workers suffered minor respiratory ailments when a plastic drum of waste nitric acid apparently ruptured under pressure around 7 a.m., the Fire Department said. The rupture sprayed about a gallon of the chemical around the laboratory, said Ed Coletta, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The spill was contained to the room where it happened, Coletta said.

HATFIELD — A woman working at Laboratory Testing Inc. was airlifted to Lehigh Valley Hospital for treatment of chemical burns she suffered in a workplace accident Monday afternoon.

The accident occurred shortly before 1:30 p.m., according to township Fire Marshal Mikele Waldron.

“She was working with nitric acid and had some type of boil over in the container she was working in, and it splashed her on the head,” said Waldron.

“She did have safety glasses on when it happened, and that probably saved her a lot more pain and agony,” he said, adding that she remained conscious, alert and oriented the entire time.

The accident took place while the woman was working alone in a room at the company’s headquarters, located on Topaz Drive off Sandstone Lane.

WAUSEON — Eastbound lanes of the Ohio Turnpike were closed in Fulton County Thursday afternoon due to a leak of nitric acid from a box truck.

RYE — Rye Country Day School was evacuated this morning after a teacher reported the smell of nitric acid in the building, fire officials said.

There were no injuries.

Fire officials responded to the school on Grandview Avenue around 10:25 a.m.

Nitric acid is yellowish liquid. It is highly corrosive and toxic. Its fumes are dangerous.

Construction workers, working in the chemistry room, may have tried to move one of the containers of acid and dropped it, fire officials said.

The container was removed by fire officials and students were able to go back into the school around 11:30 a.m.

Two people were injured in a chemical spill about noon today at a Richardson business.

Acid spill at business
One employee was taken to Methodist Richardson Medical Center, and the other was treated at the scene, said Assistant Chief Steve Dossett of the Richardson Fire Department.

The accident occurred when a valve on a nitric acid tank broke, spilling about 90 gallons of the toxic, corrosive material at the business in the 600 block of International Parkway, near Alpha Drive.

Dossett said he was unsure what type of business the incident occurred at. He said firefighters have contained the spill and are waiting for a contractor to clean up the acid.