Latest Chemicals Headlines

All the headlines from our Chemicals Topic Page, ordered by recency.

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 sharply.Ellen...

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...

Industry Flexes Political Muscle in States to Criminalize Aggressive Pipeline Protests

Aug 20 2019 // After protesters disrupted construction of an oil pipeline in North Dakota by chaining themselves to construction equipment and pitching tents along the route, oil and chemical companies found a way to keep it from...

Fire at Texas Plant Could Disrupt Exxon’s Chemical Business

Aug 1 2019 // Exxon Mobil Corp.’s suburban Houston refining and chemicals complex erupted in flames on Wednesday, prompting municipal leaders to order residents to seek shelter indoors, shut their windows and turn off air...

New Connecticut Task Force to Begin Study of PFAS Chemicals

Jul 29 2019 // A new interagency task force will soon begin work on a plan to minimize the impact of a group of potentially dangerous industrial compounds known as “forever chemicals” on Connecticut residents.The group of...

From Confined Spaces to Big Buildings, Drones Take On Riskiest Jobs

Jul 29 2019 // Here’s a job any worker would be happy to pass off to a drone: Imagine crawling down a ladder into the vast darkness of a 20-story-high storage tank filled with toxic chemical fumes to spend hours searching for...

Report: Millions of Gallons of Waste Created by Texas Petrochemical Fire

Jul 24 2019 // The cleanup of millions of gallons of waste and polluted water is far from over four months after a large fire burned for days at a Houston-area petrochemical storage site.Intercontinental Terminals Company, the...

Roundup Not Only Monsanto Legal Woe For Bayer; PCB Claims Still Coming

Jul 24 2019 // The widening legal nightmare over Roundup weedkillers isn’t the only potential multi-billion-dollar liability Bayer AG inherited last year when it acquired Monsanto Co.While thousands of damage claims over Roundup...

New Hampshire Committee to Consider Tough Water Standards for Chemicals

Jul 19 2019 // A New Hampshire legislative committee will consider a proposal to create some of the nation’s toughest drinking water standards for a class of toxic chemicals that have caused widespread contamination in the...

Minnesota City Seeking Study of Toxic Chemical After Refinery Blast

Jul 17 2019 // City leaders in Duluth, Minnesota, are taking steps to ensure that residents will be safe following the upcoming reconstruction of a refinery that exploded in neighboring Superior, Wisconsin.The Husky Energy oil refinery...