Case Study
Exothermic Reaction Jacksonville Florida
December 19th 2007
Joseph Haag
Columbia Southern University
Advance Interactions of Hazardous Materials
On December 19th 2007, a small chemical manufacturer T2 Laboratories suffered a catastrophic failure and release while in production of a compound that is produced to increase octane in gasoline and is a common additive in fuel production Methyleclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl or MCMT. The failure occurred during production and resulted in the death of 4 and injuries to 32 people, 28 of which were members of the community. (CSB, 2009) The incident began on December 19th at approximately 07:30 am when the one of the facilities operator began production of the MCMT compound. The process began in a clean reactor and started with the operator loading the reactor with specific quantiles of raw materials through use of an automated control system. This was completed at the same time as an employee hand-loading several blocks of sodium metal into
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A better understanding of the process they were utilizing at their facility and risk involved with the product being manufacture could have drastically influenced the outcome of this incident. While both owners had a chemistry / chemical history, reactive chemistry is not commonly part of the curriculum for most chemical degree programs. The owner’s limited knowledge of reactive chemistry was apparent in the lack of redundancy in the cooling process of the reactor. This created a single point of failure to allow for a catastrophic incident. This single point in which the failure likely occurred was probably the largest contributing factor to the accident. If a secondary source or systems had been available the cooling process likely would have been
- If all of the options were explored, and patient is given antibiotics and is treated without any pain or suffering than the treatment identifies with the ethnical principles of autonomy, non-maleficence, and veracity. In turn, Mrs. Dawson will be happy with the outcome of the procedure.
dangers in the nuclear plant because the bosses just ignored it. The bosses and workers are not
The Nuclear Metals Incorporation or the Starmet Corporation is located on a 2229 Main Street in Concord, Massachusetts. The site produced depleted uranium products for armor piercing ammunition. They also created metal powders for medical applications, photocopiers, and specialty metal products, such as beryllium tubing for aerospace needs. From1958 to 1985, the holding basin that contained all the industries waste such as depleted uranium and copper was unlined, which caused issues.
This paper discusses pharmacology and terminology related to “Pharmacology” which is the branch of medicine concerned with the uses, effects, and modes of action of drugs“ pharmacology. 2015. In Merriam-Webster.com. The study of different classes of drugs, routes of absorption, and drugs have effects on those consuming them. There are drugs that are necessary for illnesses and healing but, there are medicines that cause concern regarding interaction and harming the body.
The United States Enrichment Corporation (Producer). (2013). USEC issues WARN act notices to Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant workers [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.usec.com/news/usec-issues-warn-act-notices-paducah-gaseous-diffusion-plant-workers
Service Corporation International (SCI) is an international company that owns and operates cemeteries, funeral homes, crematories and sells caskets, urns, and vaults. SCI is the largest owner of funeral homes and cemeteries in the United States and also operates in Germany, South America and Canada. According to Business Week the funeral or deathcare industry makes over $16 billion a year in the United States and is made up of approximately 25,000 small businesses that are sought after by large companies such as SCI, and a handful of larger corporations.
“On March 23, 2005, at 1:20 pm, the BP Texas City Refinery suffered one of the worst industrial disasters in recent U.S. history. Explosions and fires killed 15 people and injured another 180, alarmed the community, and resulted in financial losses exceeding $1.5 billion.” (U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, 2007) There are many small and big decisions and oversights that led to the incident. Underneath all the specific actions or inaction is a blatant disregard for addressing safety violations and procedures that had been pointed out to BP even years before this event. The use of outdated equipment and budget cuts also contributed to the circumstances that allowed this accident to happen.
On April 17, 2013, the community of West, Texas, suffered a devastating and heartbreaking event in the evening hours. After a fire broke out inside the West Fertilizer plant, a massive explosion leveled the facility, caused millions of dollars in damage to surrounding buildings, and took the lives of over a dozen people. Sadly, the majority of those killed were volunteer firefighters who had responded to the fire and were unable to retreat to a safe distance before the explosion. Nearly 200 injuries were also reported to have been treated at local hospitals (Wood, 2013). The explosion was said to be caused by the combination of the fire and large stores of ammonium nitrate fertilizer at the plant.
In terms of net income, Applied Materials is a leader in the semiconductor machinery industry with 2015 net income of $1.377 billion (Applied Materials:10-K 2016). Exhibit 1 shows net income in more detail. ASML Holding, a Dutch company, is consistently comparable to Applied Materials with regards to net income. However, as a Dutch company, some of the financial figures are not easily comparable due to different accounting standards. Another leading semiconductor machinery company, LAM Research, has had significantly less net income over the past five years. However, LAM Research still holds a strong position in the industry as shown by its market share of 13.2% (MarketLine 2014) and relatively high-diluted EPS of $3.7 (LAM Research 10-K 2015).
Hazardous materials can be important in everyday life when properly handled. However, when improperly handled, they can result in injury, death, and destruction as well as have lingering effects that may last for years to come. To address the risk of an uncontrolled hazardous materials release, there must be a coordinated effort to identify, locate, and quantify the hazardous materials in a particular location (Drexel University Safety & Health, 2001). Typically, industry and government agree that a hazardous materials incident is one where
It was clear that the governments in America would not issue a permit to Union Carbide plant under such circumstances, which lacked severe environmental standards and permitted slum dwellers to live near the plant and so on. Such actions were the ones that led to more deaths. Before the major gas leakage from the MCI unit on December 3, 1984, some people were killed because of phosgene gas leakage. However, no one took it seriously, despite the media report. One of the reasons that people ignore this was because people didnt know the potential danger of the chemical plant.
Toxic substances are very dangerous to have in a science laboratory, especially when they are open. The toxic can leak out into the air which can be harmful. Therefore the laboratory must have a separate section where toxic materials are stored. Labo...
Based on the cases discussed above from various authors, it is evident that the most tragic industrial pollution that is, Minamata Bay bears a dark story in history claiming many innocent lives where the methylmercury manifested in various forms, making it an environmental tragedy. Due to the ignorance and negligence of the officials responsible for the dumping of methyl mecury, symptoms such as impaired vision, loss of motor skill and mental retardation was exhibited to people that had very low illness history. The prevalence of this epidemic could have been haltered by the Japanese officials but failure to detect the poisoning at an early stage allowed the disease to manifests itself unto both the Japanese people and the ecosystem.
Story of our lives takes some decisive turns as we make our way through the figments of our imagination towards and over the threshold of reality. It was one such turn and a milestone that was the driving force behind my decision to choose Chemistry as my graduate major and research area.
The crew was working on deck for tank cleaning operation and at the same time hot work was going on. No intervention was done while doing hot work and methanol spray operation simultaneously. The explosion should have avoided if any of the crew members applied stop work policy.