Hospitals locked down in mass panic in St Louis

[rpicardi1]

An alert was broadcast on Fox News when four people were brought into two hospitals that were turning blue and covered in a white powder when those emergency rooms were promptly locked down. Then, the story was tucked into the background.

The fear is this might have been some kind of terrorist anthrax attack as the rest of the hospitals were alerted to expect mass casualties.

Further news this morning now indicate that this was an industrial accident involving a drum of nitroaniline

(Some quick research, There are two classifications of this industrial chemical.
http://www.osha.gov/dts/chemicalsampling/data/CH_256800.html
http://www.osha.gov/dts/chemicalsampling/data/CH_256799.html
That's interesting, all data has seem to have vanished.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-Nitroaniline
White powder? NOT! Toxic? Yes under certain conditions.
Something stinks here:mad:)

who's lid popped off after it was dropped thus sending a cloud of the highly toxic dust into the air that promptly covered nearby workers. Two workers later died from the exposure. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,414041,00.html

This will raises a ton of questions about work conditions at this chemical plant and the warehouse where the accident occurred. Where were the emergency decontamination aid stations? the decontamination showers? Why were workers brought directly to the hospital without being decontaminated first? Did the workers have any hazmed training? Any OSHA warnings about the chemicals that they were working with on a daily basis? Wasn't Saturday a holiday? Was somebody being pushed to hurry up because it was getting late?

It is most certain that there will be a huge OSHA investigation during the following days. Executive heads will roll at Ro-Corp. The company will face a huge fine. People will be fired. And the "Leaches" will be salivating over the huge lawsuit they are planning on behalf of the survivors and the hospital emergency staff that were needlessly exposed to this nasty stuff.

[bnsf1959]

Hmm, this is an interesting. What I mean is I work in the hospital and I have been trained for this kind of stuff. The first thing that they did wrong was to bring those people directly inside the hospital ER without a scrub down or decontaminate. This should had been done at the site or outside of ER before they are brought in for treatment. It doesn't matter if it's life threaten or not. They should have been decontaminated. Now, they have been inside ER, Just imagine now they have to decontaminated the whole ER before they can re-open it. I'm sure someone is gonna get fired for procedure not followed by OSHA guidelines. It's the person directly involved working in ER, RN, Doctor, security guard, or nursing supervisor should have said no to bring them in before decontaminated. The fire dept. and the hazmat team should came to ER and scrubbed those patient outside the ER or at the site before they are brought in to ER. They probably have to scrub down the ambulances that they were in. This is gonna be one of those investagation by OSHA. I'm sure a lot things went wrong there.

[inflammable]

'Covered by a white powder'.

Good job on the company for educating it's workers on the hazmat. If only there was a law regaurding such education...

If only there were a list of things to do it such a bad chemical got on you.

If only people had forseen unlikely occurances happening, and made plans for what to do if it happened.

I normally tend to stay on the company's side of things, and blame the dumb people, but when you get dumb people and dumb companies, well, the leaches should come in and feed.

James

[moose49]

Good job on the company for educating it's workers on the hazmat. If only there was a law regaurding such education...

If only there were a list of things to do it such a bad chemical got on you.

If only people had forseen unlikely occurances happening, and made plans for what to do if it happened.
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There are laws and rules covering all of the above. To bad so many companies and employees ignore them.

[Andy J]

Good job on the company for educating it's workers on the hazmat. If only there was a law regaurding such education...

If only there were a list of things to do it such a bad chemical got on you.

If only people had forseen unlikely occurances happening, and made plans for what to do if it happened.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are laws and rules covering all of the above. To bad so many companies and employees ignore them.


Yep, duh, no one thought to go look for the "MSDS" book.. That ALL places that deal with chemicals, are REQUIRED by law, to have on hand, and freely available to anyone, at anytime. :rolleyes:

[rpicardi1]

Around here, the chemical giants Dow Corning, Dow Chemical, and Hemlock Semiconductor, have their own private fire department and rescue services. They are kept in constant training and are the first responders to any industrial accidents on the site. They also train and train with the local fire and rescue services.

OSHA is also very anal about local businesses posting and maintaining their Material Safety Data Sheets for any chemical in use in a workplace in Michigan even down to the cleaning supplies, the bottle of whiteout in the office, and the Magic Markers. I know, I have had to organize all of this stuff at my former workplace when OSHA first set up this program.

The problem with those MSDS is that they require a collage education in organic chemistry to make any sense of the several sheets of statistics presented about any chemical in use. I also wonder if there is sufficient training on what the hazard placard is and the meaning of the symbols in use on each of the four corners that pertain to flammability, toxicity, biological, and radiation hazard of each chemical in use.

Additionally, I had to file a report for the local fire department pertaining to what chemicals would be present on the business property, their location, and the expected quantity that would be present. This, of course, would be needed in case of a fire, for the protection of firefighters.

In the case of the furniture retailer, expected products would be several dozen cans of spray laquers, several gallons of various solvents, and a drum or two of fabric protection product - at that time it used a rather toxic trichloroethane solvent base. (Today's fabric protection products use a water alcohol solvent base which is far less toxic and doesn't require a ventlated spray booth for application.)

The product in question, at this industrial accident, is a yellowish brown powder used in the manufacture of aniline dyes and other chemical products. It is a common chemical in use in most collage organic chemistry labs. Under normal handling procedures it poses little hazard to the user.

Either something extraordinary took place at Ro-Corp, or we are being fed false information about this fatal accident.

[rdamurphy]

'Covered by a white powder'.

Good job on the company for educating it's workers on the hazmat. If only there was a law regaurding such education...

James

There is. It's called "Hazardous Communication (http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/hazardcommunications/index.html)." We just finished updating our yearly training in HC here at work. And we don't even work with Haz Mats...

Robert

[bnsf1959]

Yep, duh, no one thought to go look for the "MSDS" book.. That ALL places that deal with chemicals, are REQUIRED by law, to have on hand, and freely available to anyone, at anytime. :rolleyes:

We do at the hospital I work at. It's a mandatory training every year for our department because we deal with just about all kinds of chemicals. There is MSDS books in throughout the hospital and especially ER and on hospital's intratnet.

[robertreedy]

In all the questions raised above, you've forgotten one small fact.

If this took place in Missouri as it appears, we rank close to the bottom in everything except *meth* production where we do hold our own with the best.

Unfortunately, that is probably the most accurate explanation possible.

[bnsf1959]

In all the questions raised above, you've forgotten one small fact.

If this took place in Missouri as it appears, we rank close to the bottom in everything except *meth* production where we do hold our own with the best.

Unfortunately, that is probably the most accurate explanation possible.

I think it happened in East St. Louis, Illinois according to the news source.

http://cbs2chicago.com/national/chemicals.hospitals.saint.2.806920.html

[pmcn]

We do at the hospital I work at. It's a mandatory training every year for our department because we deal with just about all kinds of chemicals. There is MSDS books in throughout the hospital and especially ER and on hospital's intratnet.

That's good news. Most of the local hospitals around here are clueless when it comes to industrial chemicals. It's a scarry thought that a Hazmat team can stabilize a victim for transport, but the hospital would not know the proper way to treat them quickly in many cases. Glad to hear things are getting better.

Paul

Edit: It would be my guess that the material was packaged in a plastic liner and placed inside a cardboard 30 or 55 gallon open top drum with a thin metal lid. Most likely the drum fell off of a forklifted pallet while retrieving it from storage and burst open upon hitting the floor. Those closest to the spill would have inhaled a good quantity of dust, or they may have inadvertantly tried to sweep the powder up with out knowing the dangers. Reading that these people arrived at the hospital in cars seems to point to a severe lack of knowledge and training pertaining to the material. It is quite possible that certain managers of the company may be facing jail time over this. OSHA and the EPA become very serious when fatalities occur, especially due to sloppy management.

[kilchisriver]

Very strange - reports from KMOV and KSDZK, television stations in the St. Lousis area (checked a few minutes ago) talk about sick employees being released to go home with one kept for further observation - but absolutely not a single word about a fatality(s). Can someone provide a current link (last 24 hours) to confirm the deaths? If there were fatalities I would like to follow the story in the future. -Mike :confused:

[bnsf1959]

This is what I found; http://www.myfoxstl.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=7334036&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=3.1.1

and

http://www.myfoxstl.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=7329927&version=5&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.1.1

[kilchisriver]

Thanks - those confirm the info I found on the net. Even tho I'm retired I still like to stay current with Occupational Safety and Health matters. Mike :)

[pmcn]

No fatalities. That is excellent news.

Paul

[rpicardi1]

Locally, there was an incident in a Midland Salvation Army collection center when a worker there set off a canister that sprayed an irritating orange gas into the work area. The Tri City Hazardous Response Team, working with local area fire and rescue services, was quickly on the scene where they set up their portable decontamination center and processed the 15 victims prior to transport to area hospitals for further treatment. A quick analysis of the suspect chemical confirmed that it was pepper spray from a personal security device.

The response team was originally set up with Federal funds as part of an overall security system to respond to terrorist attacks.