WINDER, Ga. — A crash and fire involving a tractor-trailer -- and fears of a toxic chemical release -- shut down both lanes of a nine-mile stretch of Interstate 85 northeast of Atlanta for a time.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the truck caught fire early Tuesday morning near Georgia Highway 211, and authorities were concerned about possibly hazardous chemicals on the truck.

Barrow fire Lt. Scott Dakin tells WSB-TV that a rear tire on the truck caught fire, and the fire spread into the trailer. Barrow County fire officials said the blaze was under control by 5 a.m.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

CINCINNATI - A University of Cincinnati student is in the hospital Wednesday morning after a toxic chemical explosion on campus overnight.

Police say a female student was working with a toxic chemical alone at the engineering building located at 2901 Woodside Place around 1 a.m. when a reaction caused an explosion. The student was working on a process known as aluminum etching when the reaction caused an explosion and sprayed very dangerous chemicals all over the lab and on the student.

Officials say the student wore protective gear at the time of the explosion, but the gear was still covered in the chemical. When she tried to take the protective wear off, some of chemical got on her arms and caused them to burn.

Emergency crews transported the student to the hospital where she was treated, but is being kept for observation because the chemical is slow reacting.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Authorities in Liuzhou, a city of 3.7 million in Guangxi Province in southern China, are battling to contain the spread of the toxic chemical, after elevated levels of cadmium were detected on Friday in the Liujiang River, the main source of drinking water in Liuzhou. Panicked residents were rushing to stock up on supplies of bottled water, after being told not to drink water from the river.
Sluices were being opened upstream in an effort to dilute the carcinogenic cadmium, which was discharged into the Longjiang River and has spread downstream leaving large numbers of fish dead. Earlier in the week, fire fighters dumped hundreds of tons of dissolved aluminium chloride into the Longjiang River in an effort to neutralise the pollutant, but fears remain that it will continue to flow further downstream and affect other cities.
Local officials, though, are insisting that tap water in Liuzhou is safe.
"The water is still up to national standards and is safe for drinking," said Gan Jinglin, the head of Liuzhou's Environmental Bureau. The chemical spill in Guangxi is the latest in a long line of incidents that have rendered China's rivers and waterways some of the most polluted in the world, despite efforts by Beijing to pressure local authorities to shut down polluting industries.
The deadly discharge occurred almost two weeks ago on January 15th, but was only reported by state media on Thursday. The Guangxi Jinhe Mining Company in Hechi City is being blamed for the release of the cadmium. It is not known for how long the company had been discharging the pollutant into the Longjiang River or in what quantities.

A section of Marshall Road, just west of Zeeb Road, in Scio Township will remain closed through Friday morning as an environmental cleanup company proceeds with the cleanup of an oil spill from an old transformer.
Firefighters and the county HAZMAT director were awaiting test results on the spilled oil Thursday evening before they could proceed with the cleanup. The fire department received the call around 4:20 p.m., and by 8 p.m. it was determined that the oil did not contain polychlorinated biphenyls, a highly toxic chemical compound.
...
Scio Township Fire Chief Carl Ferch said the about 6-foot tall, 4-foot wide and 3-foot deep old transformer was being transported on its side by a towing company. It had been picked up from a business near Huron River Drive and Zeeb Road.

Five houses in Bowraville were evacuated after a toxic chemical was spilt at Norco Rural Store on Carbin Street, on the afternoon of January 11.
The spill was contained inside the building, but created a “vapour cloud”, said acting captain of the Bowraville Fire Brigade Max Duncan.

The chemical was a highly toxic pesticide.

“Members of Fire and Rescue NSW attended with breathing apparatus and chemical spill suits on. They entered the building to clean up the spill, and it was placed in a HAZMAT recovery bin,” Mr Duncan said.

Until 'bucket test' and insider tips, polluter said to underreport emissions for years

TONAWANDA, N,Y. — For the past three decades, Jeani Thomson has been pleading with New York state officials to protect her and her neighbors from air pollution that regularly spreads into her yard from an industrial plant a mile away. Many mornings, a foul-smelling, thick fog settles around her modest house in Tonawanda, a working class town of 16,000 just outside Buffalo. The “toxic blue haze,” as Thomson calls it, smells like ammonia, sulfur and “an oily exhaust.”

ENFIELD, Conn., Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Two men face charges they stole a Connecticut power company transformer that leaked a toxic chemical, forcing a hazardous materials crew to clean up the mess.

Robert Simmons, 46, and Richard Simmons, both of Enfield, allegedly admitted stealing the transformer, which they say they found on the ground Tuesday where it had fallen during an Oct. 29 storm, the Hartford (Conn.) Courant reported Wednesday. The men said they intended to sell the transformer as scrap metal.

The two were spotted driving with the equipment in the back of their truck by a Connecticut Light & Power crew who then called police, said Dennis Schain, a state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection spokesman. The men were arrested and released with a court date scheduled this month.

About 5 to 10 gallons of oil with polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCB, was leaked onto the road, the men's clothing and their truck, Schain said. The carcinogen is dangerous after long-term exposure or ingestion.

TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) -- As a fire broke out burning the entire inside of Mt. Vernon Foam Sales on Tuesday, local authorities became worried about what exactly was being burned.

According to fire officials it was pieces of polyfoam that made this fire not only spread quickly but also burned hot and put off a strong odor.

That's when Lee County Emergency Management took action to see if anyone was being affected by possible toxic chemicals.

It was the initial scene when first responders arrived to the fire on Mount Vernon Road that made them realize they could be dealing with toxic chemicals.

"There was an explosion when the first units arrived which blew out the front door and they went and started working on the fire at that time," said Belden Fire Chief, Willy Payne.

THE Premier, Barry O'Farrell, has apologised for the stress caused by the delayed reporting of a toxic chemical leak in Stockton and announced an overhaul of environmental laws in the wake of an inquiry into the incident.

Polluting companies will now be required to notify government authorities of hazardous leaks immediately or face a $2 million fine, while the Environmental Protection Authority has been reinstated as an independent authority.

A report by former bureaucrat Brendan O'Reilly into the Orica leak in August was released yesterday along with the new measures, which also include an industry-funded environmental monitoring network in the Lower Hunter and a strengthening of procedures for public notification.

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The Environment Minister, Robyn Parker, had come under fire for making the incident public only on the afternoon of August 11 in a statement to Parliament, despite being informed the evening before. The company notified the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) at 10.30am on August 9.

The Ridgefield Park Fire Department, members of the Department of Public Works and Bergen County Hazmat drained stain-resistant paint from an open lot drain on Brinkerhoff Street, Sept. 12, to prevent the toxic chemicals from spilling into Overpeck Creek and the Hackensack River.

A Ridgefield Park resident poured five gallons of paint into this drain and said he did not have knowledge that this wasn't allowed, Ridgefield Park Fire Chief Richard LaTour said.

LaTour and several other firemen as well as the Village Police and members of Bergen County Hazmat arrived on Brinkerhoff Street to remove the paint with a vacuum sewer cleaner.

"We evaluated the scene and realized it was latex paint, which is why we called in Hazmat. They're the experts with that sort of thing," he said.

LaTour encourages all residents to call the DPW when they have to dispose of any fluids.

Canberra firefighters hope they will be able to extinguish a huge chemical fire in the Australian capital by Saturday.
The fire broke out at a building in an industrial estate at Dacre Street in the northern suburb of Mitchell about midnight on Thursday, sending a plume of potentially toxic smoke streaming the city.
Fire crews initially brought the blaze under control, but were forced back by a series of explosions which witnesses said sent flames shooting up to 200 metres into the air, the ABC reports.
Emergency services say the fire has been contained within the Mitchell industrial site by late afternoon on Friday.
Atmospheric monitoring shows one possible toxin indicator has been detected, but authorities say it is well within safe limits.
There have been two reported minor injuries and some minor leakage of water used to fight the fire into nearby ponds.
Emergency services say the smoke is potentially toxic but the risk to the public has been described as low. However, residents in Mitchell have been told to stay indoors.

A Boston College chemistry student was injured when a beaker exploded during an experiment this morning, cutting her face and forcing the evacuation of Merkert Chemistry Center, officials said.

The student was working alone in the lab with a small amount of thionyl chloride -- a substance commonly used in organic chemistry experiments -- when it reacted violently, according to fire department spokesman Steve MacDonald.

The student, Hee Yeon Cho, received cuts on her face and minor burns on her hands, he said.

Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn said Cho, who recently finished her fourth year in the doctoral program, subsequently left the lab to take care of the cuts while fellow graduate students notified Boston College police. The university then notified the Boston fire department.

“This was a minor chemical reaction that caused the beaker she was using to break,” Dunn said.

Fire crews and a hazmat team responded to a call at 10:47 a.m., but cleared the scene by 1 p.m., MacDonald said. Throughout the early afternoon, some responders’ vehicles remained at the lab at 2609 Beacon St. in Brighton, but people were allowed in and out of the building.

After going through a series of showers in a mobile decontamination unit, Cho was taken to St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, where she was treated for injuries that do not appear life-threatening, MacDonald said. No one else was injured, Dunn said.

After the beaker ruptured, Cho put a paper towel over the cut on her cheek and then drove herself home, said Chris Schuster, 25, a graduate chemistry student at the scene.

Her return home complicated the cleanup effort: Crews also had to decontaminate her car and her apartment in Brighton, MacDonald said.

“It was more challenging because the student left,” he said.

A chemistry professor came to the lab and determined responders should dilute the thionyl chloride with “large amounts of water,” MacDonald said, and Boston College brought in a cleaning company.

It is still unclear what caused the reaction, he said.

Thionyl chloride reacts strongly with moisture and can be dangerous to humans if vapors are inhaled, said Lawrence Scott, Cho’s professor. The chemical can be used to make mustard gas and nerve toxins.

“Honestly, I think she was probably never expecting this to happen. This seems like a somewhat standard procedure,” Schuster said regarding the experiment.

Schuster said chemistry students at Boston College are required to take a lab safety training course. While it is uncommon for students to work alone, the department’s guidelines for lab safety do not forbid it, according to a document posted online by the Boston College Office of Environmental Health and Safety.

Still, researchers are warned not to work with hazardous or potentially explosive compounds by themselves, said Kai Hong, 26, another chemistry graduate student who was going to the building this afternoon.

Dunn said that to his knowledge, Cho, whom he called a “skilled researcher,” did not violate any safety procedures.

(Reuters) - Thousands of people in eastern China are without tap water after a spill from a factory may have dumped toxic chemicals into a river, state media said on Wednesday.

The spill comes just a week after the Environment Ministry said one in six major Chinese rivers are so polluted the water is unfit even for farmland.

The factory in the wealthy province of Zhejiang is suspected of contaminating the Tiaoxi River with chemicals including benzene and alkene, the official Xinhua news agency cited a government statement as saying.

"The pollution has disrupted the operation of two downstream water treatment facilities and affected tap water supplies in Hangzhou's Yuhang district, which has a population of about 848,400," Xinhua said.

Two water treatment plants in the towns of Pingyao and Liangzhu stopped working on Sunday because of the spill and have not restarted, the report added.

CHARLESTON, S. C. (WCIV) -- The Hollings Science Center on the campus of the College of Charleston has been re-opened after being evacuated due to a reported chemical leak.

According to Mike Robertson, College of Charleston spokesman, a chemistry class was working on an experiment, mixing chemicals and heat when a toxic cloud formed.

Hazmat crews were called to the scene on Coming Street.  According to Robertson, once the chemicals used in the experiment cooled, they were to be removed from the building. 

Robertson says today's incident is something the staff is trained and prepared for.

"It's something we expect."

Additionally, he says, the staff members took the proper precaution to ensure everyone's safety.

"They contacted the officials like they're supposed to and we closed down the area and evacuated everyone in a pretty quick period of time."

No injuries were reported.

Friday's evacuation marks the second time the building has been evacuated due to a chemical or gas leak in less than a month.

On January 11, gas lines in the area of The Hollings Science Center were damaged and the building was evacuated.