Policy Concentrates INDUSTRIAL SAFETY
POLICY
Lack of safety management system led to fatal explosion
Chemistry jobs and H-1B visas President Donald J. Trump on April 18 directed federal agencies to revamp policies so H-1B visas are distributed on the basis of merit rather than through a lottery. This could be good news for highly trained chemists seeking jobs in the U.S. if the final changes end up expanding opportunities for scientists. Currently, U.S. companies seek H-1B visas for computer technology workers far more often than for any other kind of employee. But dozens of organizations apply for visas for chemists each year. In 2016, these 10 institutions applied for the most visas for jobs with titles that include the word “chemist.”—ANDREA WIDENER NUMBER OF H-1B APPLICATIONS FOR CHEMISTS IN 2016 39
AVERAGE SALARY
Battelle Memorial Institute
33
76,044
Novel Laboratories
31
74,743 55,613
ORGANIZATION Amneal Pharmaceuticals
$66,444
Appco Pharma
28
Sciegen Pharmaceuticals
28
51,105
Akorn
25
78,470
KVK Tech
25
67,533
Ascent Pharmaceuticals
21
53,286
Dow Chemical
20
112,238
Harvard University
20
49,321
A 2016 Airgas facility explosion that killed one worker reveals a gap in federal process safety requirements for facilities that manufacture hazardous substances, a new report says. The plant in Cantonment, Fla., which makes nitrous oxide, was not in violation of federal regulations when the explosion happened, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) says in an investigation report released last week. OSHA and EPA regulations that require chemical facilities to have process safety management systems largely do not apply to facilities that manufacture nitrous oxide. “Airgas lacked a safety management system to identify, evaluate, and control nitrous oxide process safety hazards, which led to the explosion,” CSB concludes. “Since 1973, the nitrous oxide industry has averaged one major explosion about every seven years,” says CSB, an independent federal agency that investigates serious chemical accidents in the U.S. but does not regulate. CSB says the explosion at the Airgas facility was most likely caused when a pump heated nitrous oxide above its safe operating limits during transfer from a holding tank to a transport tanker. But damage to the facility, minimal process data, and absence of a surviving eyewitness kept investigators from making a definitive determination. Nitrous oxide manufacturing has not resumed at the facility. Airgas says it is implementing a process safety initiative for its nitrous oxide business.—JESSICA MORRISON
Source: www.myvisajobs.com
CHEMISTRY IN PICTURES
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Selections from cen.chempics.org, where C&EN showcases the beauty of chemistry
Some light chemistry Under an ultraviolet lamp, this compound glows aquamarine. Matas Steponaitis of Kaunas University of Technology made the fluorescent molecule through condensation of bromotriphenylamine and bis(methoxyphenyl)acetaldehyde using an acid catalyst. Steponaitis hopes that the work will lead to materials that help capture light in solar cells. Molecules like this one can be used to make hole-transporting materials, which allow electrons to move through a solar cell after they’re excited by sunlight.—MANNY MORONE Submitted by Matas Steponaitis APRIL 24, 2017 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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