POWDERY HAZARD
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NEWS OF THE WEEK INTENSE Polyethylene dust atop a false ceiling triggered a fatal 2003 explosion at West Pharmaceutical Products, Kinston, N.C. WORKPLACE SAFETY POWDERY HAZARD Chemical safety board hearing probes prevention of dust explosions T O PREVENT INDUSTRIAL ΕΧ- plosions from combustible dusts, material safely data sheets (MSDSs) need to include dust hazard information, com- menters told the Chemical Safe- ty & Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) last week. At a CSB hearing on June 22, board Chairman Carolyn W. CHEMICAL SAFETY & HAZARD INVESTIGATION BOARD PHOTO LOW LIGHT Electron micrograph shows photosynthetic bacteria isolated from the sunless environment of hydrothermal vents. Merritt called dust explosions "a serious industrial safety problem" that is preventable. Three sepa- rate catastrophic dust explosions in 2003 that killed 14 people and injured 81 spurred the board to scrutinize this hazard. Industrial dust explosions in the U.S. have had three things in common, said Angela Blair, CSB's lead investigator. One is that the MSDSs for the materials that have startedfiresinadequately de- scribe dust hazards, if they are mentioned at all. Another is a lack of awareness of dust hazards at every level of a company's work- force, from managers to line workers, with people disbeliev- ing that dusts can detonate. A third is the presence of inconsis- tent fire codes throughout the U.S. and uneven enforcement of those codes, Blair said. Several speakers at the hearing suggested an MSDS expansion to include information about the ability of a material to catch fire as dust, even if the material is sold as a large mass or wet product. Speakers also warned that this in- formation may not be easily com- municated because the hazard that a dust poses depends on the size of the particles. Thomas R Hoppe, director of process safety at Ciba Specialty Chemicals, said his company views training about dust hazards for its employees and customers as part ofits product stewardship under the chemical industry's Re- sponsible Care program. CSB is studying combustible dust incidents in the U.S. manu- facturing sector since 1980 and expects to issue a report in mid- 2006.—CHERYL H0GUE MARINE BIOLOGY LIFE WITHOUT SUN Photosynthetic bacteria apparently use radiation from deep-sea vents N EWLY DISCOVERED PHO- tosynthetic bacteria may get all the light they need for metabolism from the dim ra- diation emitted by deep-sea hy- drothermal vents. If thefindingis confirmed, the organisms would be the first known to use a light source other than the sun, sug- gesting the possibility of life in other sunless environments, such as Jupiter's moon Europa. A group that includes micro- biology and immunology pro- fessor J. Thomas Beatty at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver; marine biology pro- fessor Cindy L. Van Dover at the College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Va.; and chemistry professor Robert E. Blankenship at Arizona State University, Tempe, isolated the photosyn- thetic green sulfur bacteria from several hydrothermal vents in ocean depths not reached by sun- light and cultured them in the lab (Proc. Natl. Acad. Set. USA 2005, 102, 9306). Their announcement comes with some strong caveats, how- ever. The authors can't say for sure whether the bacteria are ac- tually indigenous to the vents. There's a chance, they note, that the organisms could have drift- ed into the collection area from elsewhere, where sunlight could have supported them. Other marine biologists con- cur. Colleen M. Cavanaugh, a bi- ology professor at Harvard Uni- versity cautions that the bacteria need to be linked to their envi- ronment before the discovery can be validated. "But this would certainly be cool, if real," she says. Lindajahnke, a microbiologist at NASAs Ames Research Cen- ter in Moffett Field, Calif, notes that the violent, unstable condi- tions surrounding a deep-sea vent don't seem amenable to the bac- teria's survival. Beatty hopes their work will stimulate other groups to look for similar bacteria at other vents. "If we keptfindingthese organisms repeatedly, then there would be guilt by association," he says.— ELIZABETH WILSON 10 C&EN / JUNE 27, 2005 WWW.CEN-0NLINE.ORG
Transcript of POWDERY HAZARD
NEWS OF THE WEEK
INTENSE Polyethylene dust atop a false ceiling triggered a fatal 2003 explosion at West Pharmaceutical Products, Kinston, N.C.
W O R K P L A C E S A F E T Y
POWDERY HAZARD Chemical safety board hearing probes prevention of dust explosions
TO PREVENT INDUSTRIAL ΕΧ-plosions from combustible dusts, material safely data
sheets (MSDSs) need to include dust hazard information, com-menters told the Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) last week.
At a CSB hearing on June 22, board Chairman Carolyn W.
CHEMICAL SAFETY & HAZARD INVESTIGATION BOARD PHOTO
LOW LIGHT Electron micrograph shows photosynthetic bacteria isolated from the sunless environment of hydrothermal vents.
Merritt called dust explosions "a serious industrial safety problem" that is preventable. Three separate catastrophic dust explosions in 2003 that killed 14 people and injured 81 spurred the board to scrutinize this hazard.
Industrial dust explosions in the U.S. have had three things in common, said Angela Blair, CSB's lead investigator. One is that the MSDSs for the materials that have started fires inadequately describe dust hazards, if they are mentioned at all. Another is a lack of awareness of dust hazards at every level of a company's workforce, from managers to line workers, with people disbelieving that dusts can detonate. A
third is the presence of inconsistent fire codes throughout the U.S. and uneven enforcement of those codes, Blair said.
Several speakers at the hearing suggested an MSDS expansion to include information about the ability of a material to catch fire as dust, even if the material is sold as a large mass or wet product. Speakers also warned that this information may not be easily communicated because the hazard that a dust poses depends on the size of the particles.
Thomas R Hoppe, director of process safety at Ciba Specialty Chemicals, said his company views training about dust hazards for its employees and customers as part of its product stewardship under the chemical industry's Responsible Care program.
CSB is studying combustible dust incidents in the U.S. manufacturing sector since 1980 and expects to issue a report in mid-2006.—CHERYL H0GUE
M A R I N E B I O L O G Y
LIFE WITHOUT SUN Photosynthetic bacteria apparently use radiation from deep-sea vents
N EWLY DISCOVERED P H O -tosynthetic bacteria may get all the light they need
for metabolism from the dim radiation emitted by deep-sea hydrothermal vents. If the finding is confirmed, the organisms would be the first known to use a light source other than the sun, suggesting the possibility of life in other sunless environments, such as Jupiter's moon Europa.
A group that includes microbiology and immunology professor J. Thomas Beatty at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver; marine biology professor Cindy L. Van Dover at the College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Va.; and chemistry professor Robert E. Blankenship at Arizona State University, Tempe, isolated the photosynthetic green sulfur bacteria from several hydrothermal vents in ocean depths not reached by sunlight and cultured them in the lab (Proc. Natl. Acad. Set. USA 2005, 102, 9306).
Their announcement comes with some strong caveats, however. The authors can't say for sure whether the bacteria are ac
tually indigenous to the vents. There's a chance, they note, that the organisms could have drifted into the collection area from elsewhere, where sunlight could have supported them.
Other marine biologists concur. Colleen M. Cavanaugh, a biology professor at Harvard University cautions that the bacteria need to be linked to their environment before the discovery can be validated. "But this would certainly be cool, if real," she says.
Lindajahnke, a microbiologist at NASAs Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif, notes that the violent, unstable conditions surrounding a deep-sea vent don't seem amenable to the bacteria's survival.
Beatty hopes their work will stimulate other groups to look for similar bacteria at other vents. "If we kept finding these organisms repeatedly, then there would be guilt by association," he says.— ELIZABETH WILSON
1 0 C & E N / J U N E 2 7 , 2 0 0 5 W W W . C E N - 0 N L I N E . O R G
