Hazmat Hounds

Now this is the sort of thing that is just tooo strange to make up: What do you do with dog vomit after Fido eats the rat poison you stupidly left lying around? Question from health official: We have had two cases in the state recently where a dog has eaten zinc phosphide rat poison. The dog is rushed to the vet, they make it vomit and are overcome by the phosphine. We are going to send out an advisory suggesting that this procedure be performed outside of the facility, think behind the building, so we can get adequate ventilation. The issue then becomes what to do with the dog barf? Do we have them direct the dog to a plastic garbage bag and seal it up? Since we have had two cases of this there must have been others somewhere in the US, do you know of anyone who has an experience with it? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Response from EPA: Inducing vomiting is the right treatment. But acid or water causes decomposition and release of phosphine gas. Recommendation is to flood away barf with copious water, while wearing respirator. (Look up respirator in NIOSH) They recommend disposal in a DRY soil pit, but you have to get it there. Level B, or at least supplied air, is my best guess. What about Baking Soda, the all-purpose solution? At least it's not an acid. The following is from Google search on decontaminating sodium phosphide: SYNOPSIS A rodenticide of high mammalian toxicity which in the presence of dilute acid will decompose to liberate phosphine. It is not cumulative in body tissues. SELECTED PROPERTIES Physical characteristics: A grey powder of high melting point which sublimes when heated in the absence of oxygen. Solubility: Practically insoluble in water and ethanol. Soluble in benzene and carbon disulfide. Stability: Stable when dry but decomposes slowly in moist air. It reacts violently with acids with decomposition to the spontaneously inflammable phosphine gas. Vapour pressure: Very low. Phosphine odour detectable at 1.5-3.0 ml/m3 of air, depending on its purity.

Chrality & smell

D-form amino acids tend to taste sweet, whereas L-forms are usually tasteless. Spearmint leaves and caraway seeds, respectively, contain L-carvone and D-carvone - enantiomers of carvone. These smell different to most people because our olfactory receptors also contain chiral molecules that behave differently in the presence of different enantiomers. how odd - I really like spearmint, and I absolutely loathe the taste and smell of caraway seeds. This applies to chemical enantiomers, as well. Hence the stark difference between n-butanol and t-butanol. I recall seeing some chiral compounds being sold as "artificial" sweeteners. Whatever the compound was, it tasted sweet, but it was the wrong handedness to be metabolized. I wondered why that didn't take the place of aspartame (which was at the time the big new 'sweetener' in the wake of sacchrine's PR downfall).

Process Man (a.k.a. Chemical Worker's Song)

Well, if you're from Newfoundland, you've likely heard of these men: Great Big Sea. I've loved their music since I saw them on some Canadian channel playing outdoors at a ski resort in shorts in the Winter while it was snowing. This is also one of my favorite of their songs. The original version on Up (and that I heard live, about 12 feet from the stage in Ann Arbor) was powerful in the way that a capella music can be. This recording has either poor audio detail, or the lead singer was having vocal problems & slurring a bit, just a bit. I mention this only in that - if you like this - the standard studio recording is even better for the clarity (as is often the case). Process Man - the ballad of a fellow stuck in the chemical manufacturing world. work & breathe among the fumes that trail across the sky... and it's go boys, go, they'll time your every breath ... 'cause every day you're in this place you're 2 days nearer death ...

HF leak on highway

The picture is far more impressive than the text: managed to stop the slowly dripping liquid . Of course, I'm curious: How slow is 'slowly dripping' compared to 16 tons [just over 14,500 kg] ?

Mercury increase in Great Lakes

Levels of mercury in pike and walleye increasing from: Minnesota Public Radio

February 17, 2009

St. Paul, Minn. — Mercury levels are increasing in pike and walleye in Minnesota. Minnesota Pollution Control Agency scientist Bruce Monson studied data from the past 25 years.

Monson found that from the 1980s through the mid 1990s mercury levels decreased, but since then they've been on the rise. Monson says that corresponds to an increase in global mercury emissions from 1990 to 1995.

"We're affected by global emissions. 90 percent of the mercury that gets deposited is actually from outside the state." [READ: China]

Minnesota has already greatly reduced its mercury emission levels, and it will cut emissions again by 93 percent by 2025. The state is also working with other states to push the federal government into take action to cut mercury pollution globally.

100 pounds of Hg

largest mercury spill in 20 years the fact that this isn't simply the largest is scarier. Reading the idiocy posted by idiots reading the papers is even scarier. "He said he was unaware of any damage to workers' health." It's amazing what you can be unaware of, simply by not being told. No one could possibly know within 24 hours whether or not the workers' health is impaired. Still ... I had a job once where I was explicitly told to "take your time getting back here", so that the corporate president could go on TV and say "we don't have that information yet". Of course not, I had it. So, I'm not really impressed anymore with "I'm unaware of ...." He added he did not know which company employed the supervisors who gave his employees their instructions. -- this is just a prime example of failure to stay on top of your employees' safety. If anyone is giving my employees directions involving their health, I damn well want to know who they are. I might now know what was said/done, but I would at least know who ran my safety program. ...notified the state's Office of Emergency Services about a spill of one pint of mercury - equal to 14 pounds. About three weeks later, the company amended its report to 90 pounds. ... reported the [second] spill to the state as six pounds and about a week later amended that amount to 90 pounds do you think someone might have checked into this, after the first amendment? Changing it to a larger amount doesn't surprise me - once you have a better idea of what happened, I would expect the number to increase. But from 14 to 90? That's not just a little blip, that's a 500% increase. Under laws effective last year, any company failing to notify the center promptly about a reportable spill could face a fine of up to $32,500 a day, EPA officials said. come on ... does ANYONE actually think the EPA will even try to fine these people? He added that the law now requires a professional survey assuring asbestos has been removed from a site, but "there is no similar requirement to have a professional survey for mercury and other hazardous materials." I might understand this, in a general sort of way. Tearing down the Gustavus Adolphus building on 16th & Lake really wouldn't warrant one's attention for hazardous materials. But a manufacturing site, which is known to have used hazardous chemicals in large quantities? Anyone who has ever dealt with older companies and especially older facilities in disrepair knows that it is almost a sure-fire guarantee to find 'unexpected' items. (I could tell you horror stories about cleaning a deep freezer which had, at one time, belonged to an infectious disease laboratory.) Hazardous materials assessment should precede demolition or major construction activities at any facility. That could be as simple as "looked around, it was an office, no asbestos, no radon, check" - or in the case of an old pesticide plant, like the one just west of me in the Philips Neighborhood: "um, old pesticide manufacturing plant, no one owns it anymore, it's a Brownfield, there's arsenic all over the neighborhood ...".

Drugs in Drinking Water

Environmental concerns about the quality of source water suddenly include the active ingredients from pharmaceuticals/drugs. And people wonder why they're told they ought not dump old prescriptions in the toilet as a disposal method? Or put them in a landfill? Hmmmm ... where are they supposed to go? One recommendation I saw a couple years ago was to return it to the pharmacy where you bought it, since they will have a disposal program for their own waste. Of course, theirs could be going into a landfill, too - it just won't go in the ordinary trash. oooh, any my home town is on the map with a cute red "tested positive" dot. Yum yum. cholesterol medication nicotine derivative carbamazepine tranquilizers hormones "We plan to put this into some kind of context other than just scientific nomenclature, so folks can get some level of understanding about what it means," said Grubb. Wow ... what a concept. How are they going to explain parts per trillion? really, really small? Apparently since most of this stuff gets into the waters and sewers through human excretion, it might be an added incentive for more patient-specific dosing.