chemical

Crews in Michigan respond to chemical release

The Associated Press — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 17:15:47 +0000

ADRIAN, Mich. (AP) - Police in southern Michigan say crews are responding to a chemical release and people nearby are being asked to stay in their homes as a precaution.

No injuries were reported Friday morning in Adrian, about 60 miles southwest of Detroit. Police say there's no immediate threat to the public.

Police say in a statement that a barrel containing 30 to 35 gallons of nitric acid was letting off gas after reacting with a small amount of sodium hydroxide.

Roads nearby are closed and the fire department is asking residents and others within one-tenth of a mile of the area to stay where they are. Police say that could last until 1 p.m.

The Lenawee County hazardous materials team is on the scene along with the county's emergency management office.

Dow Chemical Co. ranked second-largest toxic waste producer in the nation

Rebecca Williams — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:40:57 +0000

The Dow Chemical Company is the second-largest producer of toxic chemical waste in the nation. That’s according to a new report by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The report shows that Dow produced more than 600 million pounds of toxic chemical waste in the reporting year 2010.

Ben Morlock is a spokesperson for Dow.

Morlock says 97% of that toxic chemical waste was treated, recycled or reused.

“We have on-site wastewater treatment plants, we have air pollution control equipment that incinerates contaminants so they’re not released into the air, we have equipment used in our manufacturing processes that captures chemicals and recycles them back into the process for reuse.”

He says the rest of that waste – the remaining three percent – was disposed of in accordance with the company’s state and federal permits.

“It is safe to say that most of that three percent is handled through land disposal, so for instance, it might go to a licensed secured landfill that is equipped to properly handle certain types of waste. So, I can tell you we audit the facilities we use for disposal and we make sure our waste is being handled properly if it leaves the site.”

He says Dow’s ranking on the EPA list reflects the size of the company. Dow is the nation’s largest chemical manufacturer.

The EPA’s report analyzes data from the Toxics Release Inventory. Industries in certain sectors are required by federal law to report their toxic chemical releases each year. This includes chemical manufacturers, metal mining, electric power companies and hazardous waste treatment.

Study: flame retardant chemicals affect development in frogs

Rebecca Williams — Thu, 05 May 2011 14:56:36 +0000

Flame retardant chemicals help keep foam and plastics from catching on fire. They’re called PBDEs. That stands for polybrominated diphenyl ethers.

They’re in our couches, our office chairs and the padding under our carpet.

Aircraft chemical found in Great Lakes fish

Rebecca Williams — Thu, 05 May 2011 14:49:07 +0000

New research finds that fish in the Great Lakes are contaminated with a chemical used in aircraft hydraulic fluids.

Researcher Amila DeSilva works for Environment Canada, which is like the EPA in the U.S.

She says there have been studies on a number of perflourinated chemicals. They’re used to make textiles, upholstery, paper, and many other things. Studies have shown these types of chemicals can have toxic effects in humans. But not much is known about a chemical called perfluoroethylcyclohexanesulfonate - or PFECHS for short.

DeSilva says no one has really studied whether it's toxic.

She wanted to see if PFECHS was in the environment, so she and her colleagues sampled water and fish in the Great Lakes, specifically lake trout and walleye:

“We were really, really surprised to find it in fish. Because, just based on the structure and our chemical intuition we thought, ‘okay, it would be more likely to be in water than in fish’ so when we found it in fish, when you find anything in fish, it’s a whole other ballgame because humans consume fish.”

DeSilva says other perflourinated acids are endocrine disruptors. That means they create hormone imbalances in humans, and they have other toxic effects. She says once these chemicals are released into the environment they don’t degrade, they just build up. That’s why use of some chemicals in this class is highly restricted in the U.S. and Canada.