Latest Chemicals Headlines
All the headlines from our Chemicals Topic Page, ordered by recency.
County Official: No Plans to Sue over Texas Chemical Plant Fire
Dec 4 2019 // The top official of an east Texas county that evacuated 60,000 residents last week after a petrochemical plant exploded and caught fire said on Dec. 3 he does not plan to sue the company, and will leave potential...
Texas Plant Rocked by Explosions Was Declared High Priority Violator by EPA
Dec 3 2019 // The Port Neches, Texas, chemical plant where two explosions and a fire prompted widespread mandatory evacuations on Nov. 27 has a years-long history of state and federal environmental violations. The facility owned by...
3 Hurt At Texas Chemical Plant Hit By Two Massive Explosions
Dec 2 2019 // Two massive explosions 13 hours apart tore through a Texas chemical plant last week, and one left three workers injured. The blasts blew out windows and doors of nearby homes and prompted a mandatory evacuation of a 4-mile...
Texas Chemical Plant Fire Brought Under Control
Nov 29 2019 // AUSTIN, Texas , NOV. 29 —Officials lifted evacuation orders Friday for around 50,000 people on the Texas Gulf Coast, determining a massive fire was finally under control at a chemical plant rocked by two major explosions...
Massachusetts Attorney General Issues Asbestos Safety, Enforcement Report
Nov 26 2019 // Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has released a report highlighting her office’s ongoing efforts to protect children, families and workers from the health risks posed by exposure to asbestos. The report...
EPA Eases Safety Requirements Enacted after Texas Fertilizer Plant Explosion
Nov 22 2019 // Days before President Barack Obama left office in 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule aimed at preventing tragedies like the 2013 explosion and fire in the tiny Central Texas town of West that...
13 Workers from a New Hampshire Company Treated at Hospital After Chemical Incident
Nov 22 2019 // Authorities say 13 people from a New Hampshire company were taken to hospitals and more than 50 others were evacuated after being exposed to a chemical. The incident at Fluid Air, a subsidiary of Spraying Systems Co., in...
Ex-DuPont CEO Backtracks, Says Chemours Liabilities ‘Uncapped’
Nov 15 2019 // DuPont de Nemours Inc.’s ex-top executive is backtracking on claims the chemical maker never intended to saddle its spinoff Chemours Co. with “unlimited exposure” for liabilities. Ellen Kullman, who...
Explosion Shakes Dow Chemical Plant in Louisiana; No Injuries Reported
Nov 4 2019 // No injuries are being reported after an explosion shook a Dow chemical plant in Louisiana. Dow Louisiana Operations said in a Facebook post that a “vessel” had ruptured at its facility near Plaquemine on Sunday...
U.S. Safety Board: No Alert System at Texas Petrochemical Facility Damaged by Fire
Nov 1 2019 // A company that owns a Houston-area petrochemical storage facility which burned for days in March didn’t have an alert system in place to warn of releases from its tanks, a federal agency investigating the blaze said...
Indiana Environmental Regulators: Steelmaker Too Slow to Act on Chemical Spill
Oct 31 2019 // The state environmental agency said a northwestern Indiana steel mill knew it was leaking dangerous chemicals into Lake Michigan but failed to report the spill or act quickly to mitigate the risks. The cyanide and ammonia...
Alabama Power to Pay $222K Over Chemical Spill, Dead Fish
Oct 29 2019 // Alabama Power Company has agreed to pay about $222,000 to settle a chemical spill that killed hundreds of fish near its coal-fired plant about 30 miles northwest of Birmingham, according to a notice Wednesday from the...
Ex-DuPont CEO Claims No Intent to Burden Chemours with Unlimited Liabilities
Oct 24 2019 // DuPont de Nemours Inc. never intended to saddle its spinoff Chemours Co. with “unlimited exposure” to its liabilities, DuPont’s former chief executive officer said, sending Chemours stock up...
Explosion at Chemical Plant in Southern China Kills at Least 4
Oct 17 2019 // An explosion at a chemical plant in southern China on Tuesday [Oct. 15] killed at least four people and injured six, the local government said, in the latest of a string of such accidents. The Guangxi regional emergency...
Study Points to Toxic Chemicals as Likely Cause of Vaping Lung Ailments
Oct 3 2019 // Vaping-related lung injuries are most likely caused by exposure to toxic chemicals rather than fatty substances like mineral oils, according to a new analysis of patient tissue by Mayo Clinic pathologists. The results,...
Buffett-Owned Chemical Firm Lubrizol Faces Lawsuits After Fire in Rouen, France
Oct 2 2019 // More than 5,250 tonnes of chemicals, oil and fuel additives have burned in a massive fire at U.S. specialty chemical firm Lubrizol in Rouen, France, last week, the local prefecture said in a statement on Tuesday. Following...
Following Chemical Plant Fires, Texas’ Harris County to Hire More Environmental Experts
Sep 13 2019 // Harris County plans to hire additional environmental personnel to better respond to dangerous chemical plant and refinery fires like ones that occurred this year near the Houston Ship Channel. The Houston Chronicle reports...
Alaska Grand Jury Indicts GE’s Baker Hughes for Exposing Workers to Toxic Chemicals
Sep 13 2019 // A grand jury in Alaska this week indicted General Electric’s Baker Hughes, two of its subsidiaries and an employee, for 25 felony charges of assault relating to toxic chemical releases at a construction site,...
Toxic Chemical at PES Refinery Mostly Cleared, Aiding Probe of June Blaze
Sep 3 2019 // Most of a highly toxic chemical stored at a fire-damaged Philadelphia oil refinery has been rendered inert, clearing the way for closer inspections of the site following a June blaze that led to the plant’s closure,...
DuPont Says It Will No Longer Buy Firefighting Foam With Suspect Chemicals
Aug 28 2019 // Industrial materials maker DuPont said on Wednesday it would stop buying and using firefighting foams made with a controversial class of chemicals, which are at the center of multiple environmental lawsuits, by the end of...
