Biggest Chemical Injury Stories of 2019: Key Lessons We Can Learn:
As 2020 gets underway, it’s a great time to reflect on the lessons we’ve learned over the last 12 months. And trust us, there are some big lessons to take away from the year, particularly when it comes to some of the most important stories involving chemical injuries in the United States in 2019.
- Vaping Injuries
Many young people feel like they’re invincible, but if anything has made our youthful friends and loved ones stop and take notice of their mortality, it is the vaping story of 2019. Earlier this year, a rising number of young people ended up in the hospital with lung injuries related to vaping or e-cigarettes. As of December, vaping injuries landed more than 2,400 people in the hospital, and 52 people died. The culprit may be vitamin e added to marijuana vaping cartridges, leading to oil trapped in the lungs. But the more significant lesson to be learned here is that we don’t know the long-term effects of vaping on the lungs. As the use of e-cigarettes among teens and twenty-somethings continues to rise, this may be just the beginning of the crisis.
- Explosion at Texas Chemical Plant
On the day before Thanksgiving, an explosion rocked a Port Neches, Texas chemical plant, injuring three people and shattering the doors and windows of nearby homes. After several hours, another explosion sent a huge fireball shooting into the air. Residents within a half of a mile of the blast faced a mandatory evacuation while everyone downwind was asked to shelter in place. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality stated that the explosion was releasing “volatile organic compounds” that could cause eye, nose, and throat irritation, as well as shortness of breath, headaches, and nausea. The lesson we can all learn is to demand that our local and state governments hold manufacturing businesses to the highest safety standards and to be aware of industrial plants and the chemicals they store in our communities.
- Philadelphia Oil Refinery Explosion
Last June an explosion at a Philadelphia oil refinery injured five workers, drove up gas prices, and scared city residents. The explosions happened in the plant’s alkylation unit, which converts butane and other chemicals into heavier hydrocarbons to increase the octane rating of gasoline. The process uses hydrogen fluoride, also known as hydrofluoric acid, a corrosive chemical that needs special equipment to prevent its release into the environment. Luckily the Philadelphia explosion did not result in the release of the 420,000 pounds of hydrogen fluoride stored at the plant, which could have been catastrophic to hundreds of thousands of people living in the area. The lesson learned is that regulatory agencies should more closely monitor industrial plants using hydrogen fluoride to avoid a potential disaster.
