This is sadly one of those incident types we seem to report a lot of. An explosion at a firecracker factory in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, killed at least 11 people on August 31st, including eight children, all between the ages of four and 13. According to the Hindustan times, the explosion the collapse of several nearby houses where most of the dead resided. A case against six people for ‘laxity’ was brought by police, and according to police sources, the main accused was the alleged owner of the factory, Nauhad Ali. He had fled the scene after the explosion and was on the run, he was found the same day hiding in a brick kiln, and opened fire at a police team after being asked to come out, and was injured in retaliatory fire. Other sources said the factory’s licence had been suspended in 2025, and the owner jailed. He posted bail, however, and started operating the factory again.

More than 40 people fell ill after a chlorine gas leak at a water treatment plant in India in the early hours of the morning, which prompted the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to launch an immediate rescue operation. According to reports, the incident occurred at 1am when chlorine gas started leaking from a 900-kg tank at a council run plant. The gas spread rapidly across residential areas, causing many residents breathing difficulties. The NDRF and Fire department removed the leaking thank and submerged it into a water tank containing a caustic soda solution to neutralise the gas. Some of those residents affected were taken to hospital for treatment.

Kana Fujiki, a 46-year-old woman from Higashiomi City, Japan, has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after she gave a 30-year-old male acquaintance a poisoned muffin. Police have said Fujiki is accused of attempting to kill the man at a shopping centre in Kyoto on July 24, by giving him a muffin containing acrylamide, a substance designated as a hazardous chemical that can damage the nervous and reproductive systems in high doses. Fujiki allegedly passed the muffin to the man through a mutual acquaintance, saying, "It's a souvenir, so please give it to him.” The man ate only a bite of the muffin and later suffered impaired consciousness and was taken to hospital. He remained in hospital until early August.

A chemical reactor explosion at a pharma company has killed two workers and injured at least nine others and triggered a huge fire. According to reports fire fighters had a difficult task getting the blaze under control. Initial investigations suggest that mixing of different chemicals led to the explosion. Local police have registered a case and launched a formal investigation. This is apparently the second accident at the same factory in the past two months. The Telangana Pollution Control Board has shuttered the facility citing non-compliance, environmental violations and the fatal accident. During an inspection after the incident they found structural damage, chemical spillages, contaminated wastewater runoff and unresolved odour complaints.

A fire on a vacant lot in a residential area led to the injury of three firefighters and 10 residents in Taiwan on August 22. Reports state that an intense fire broke out on a lot containing waste materials, which exploded during firefighting operations, which spread flames to eight homes and damaged 11 cars, six fire trucks, one ambulance and two disaster relief vehicles. The materials on the lot apparently included waste oil and aluminium-magnesium alloy, which in contact with water can release flammable hydrogen gas and may ignite spontaneously.

In the second case of explosives used for fishing causing death and destruction this month, one person was killed and two others were missing after an explosion struck a residential compound in Linyi City, China, local authorities said. Others were injured by the explosion and were taken to hospital with non-life threating injuries.  A preliminary investigation pointed to the explosion being caused by allegedly illegally stored explosives used by the resident for fishing. Our advice, use a traditional fishing rod, a hook in the hand is far less dangerous than dynamite!

Seven people have died and at least 30 more have been hospitalised after consuming counterfeit liquor containing toxic levels of methanol, sadly not an uncommon occurrence in places where alcohol is banned. Six of the victims died in hospital whilst the 7th was found dead at home. Investigators reportedly recovered a half-filled bottle bearing an IMFL label from his kitchen. Forensic tests found the liquid contained 38.59% methanol. Police detained four bootleggers, and the investigation since has named 21 suspects and arrested 13 people.

It may be banned in around 70 countries, but in Bangladesh Paraquat has become a serious public heath threat. A study published in American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, looking at 10 years of data from ten of Bangladesh’s largest tertiary hospitals, covering over 65 percent of the population. Paraquat poisoning has exploded from a single reported case in 2013 to nearly 500 cases in a single year by 2024, and the number keeps rising. Hospital sources at Jhenaidah Sadar Hospital told reporters that most of the 117 patients admitted in July this year had consumed herbicides. Paraquat poisoning is not an easy way to die, but with ease of access it has also become an easy suicide method.

On August 14th, 10 workers died from exposure to a toxic gas whilst undertaking the dismantling of a ship at a recycling facility. The vessel had been certified as safe for recycling by four different government bodies as well as a state-appointed private safety agency, and the dismantling process officially approved. At the time of the incident, it was unknown what toxic substance caused the deaths, subsequently an inquiry committee established by the Ministry of Industries confirmed the cause of death to be hydrogen sulphide.

Four people, including three workers, died after allegedly inhaling toxic gases inside an underground water tank at an under-construction building. The incident happened when workers were engaged to clean the underground water tank. One worker first entered the tank but did not return. Two other workers then climbed down to check on him, but they too failed to come out. A local resident saw the incident and entered the tank to rescue the others but also lost consciousness. More residents managed to pull all four men out of the tank and called the police. They were transferred to hospital where they were all declared dead. This is one of those incidents we see repeatedly, in India in particular, where workers enter enclosed spaces like tanks and wells and are overcome by gas build up and subsequently lose their lives.

Two children died, and 13 more members of the same extended family are receiving treatment after suspected aflatoxin poisoning. According to police a man bought a sack of maize on July 12, and on August 5, three of his children became unwell. They were taken to hospital and diagnosed with suspected aflatoxin fungal infection and admitted for treatment. Sadly, both children later died. Police then received reports that more members of the family were unwell, they attended and rescued 13 people, most of them children, and all are undergoing treatment in hospital. Investigations continue into the suspected source of the contaminated maize.

A story in Health Policy Watch recently highlighted some comments from Africa CDC’s Prof Yap Boum, who stated that the current number of Ebola cases, standing at > 5000 confirmed cases and > 2000 confirmed deaths, is the estimation of various experts and academics, as “only 30-40% of cases” were being detected. He also stated that part of the reason is that Bundibugyo symptoms are milder than Ebola Zaire and “you don’t have the bleeding”, which makes it harder to distinguish from other illnesses. It is also noted that many deaths are taking place in the community, inducing health facilities, and not in Ebola treatment centres. In some good news DRC is set to receive 70,000 doses of the Ervebo Zaire vaccine. Although not proven to be effective against Bundibugyo, it may have some effect, which at this point is better than none.

Four pupils at a Qur’anic school in Kano, Nigeria, died on August 16th after consuming food suspected to have been contaminated. According to one report, one of the students brought the fish out and shared it with four others, after finding it beneath a chair during his cleaning duties. Initially they began eating the fish together but that one of the students stopped after tasting it because he noticed that it did not taste right. Another friend also declined to eat the fish because he suspected that it was unsafe. Shortly after the students ate, four of them became unconscious and fell seriously ill. The Kano State Police Command confirmed the incident, saying an investigation was underway to establish the cause of the deaths.

In an odd story for August, a family in North Carolina required the assistance of a Hazmat team when a ‘potion’ created to ward off ghosts proved more hazardous to the occupants of the house than anticipated. According to reports, a Winston-Salem Fire Department official said that “Someone associated with the home bought a book on psychic home safety practices, then went to Amazon and bought a 68% concentrated nitric acid and set it by the door to ward off the haints”. A “haint” is a malevolent spirit, and the term derives from the African American Gullah Geechee Culture in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, experts say. The potion’s pungent odor is what prompted a plea for help, officials said. The Hazmat team neutralised the acid and no haints or humans were harmed.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is working in conjunction with ATF on the investigation into a deadly explosion killed two people on August 28th. Investigators have said the explosion was chemical-related and occurred during the THC extraction process at a legal extraction facility, which sits in a business complex. The explosion was large enough to damage at least 25 local businesses. A spokesman for the Tulsa County district attorney’s office said prosecutors believe the employees were unlawfully manufacturing hazardous chemicals that wound up creating an explosion. The owner of the business turned himself after being charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

A graduate student at MIT recently triggered a major hazmat response after they claimed they had synthesized dimethylmercury whilst working in a lab on campus. Dimethylmercury is an extremely toxic organomercury compound, and one of the strongest known neurotoxins. The unnamed student presented themselves to the ER on August 26th and told medics about the dimethylmercury, this information made its way to MIT management who subsequently announced closure of the building the student claimed to be working in and hazmat cleanup. We say ‘claimed’ as since first reporting this story has taken a few turns. The student was not authorised to work with dimethylmercury, and the compound was not part of their research. The university also later stated that “emerging information called into question whether this compound was in fact synthesized”, and that the student’s blood work showed no signs of mercury exposure. The building at MIT has since been reopened.

Two workers were killed and several others injured after two explosions tore through an industrial recycling facility in Toledo, Ohio, on August 18th. The explosions sparked a massive fire and sent black smoke billowing across the local area. A statement by Toledo Fire Chief Allison Armstrong, said the blast ruptured chemical tanks, which toppled over. Another reporting source stated one of the first firefighters on scene radioed that the rear of the property was "full of chemicals that will ignite and explode violently," according to a dispatch recording. Hazmat crews were subsequently summoned to the scene. Investigators are still working to figure out what exactly caused the explosion.

Who knew Texas had an area referred to the “Anthrax Triangle”, a region in Southwest Texas where Bacillus anthracis spores naturally live in the limestone-rich soil. With a name like that it is unsurprising when you see reports of a second goat in the region to contract anthrax. Animal health officials have quarantined the affected property. This marks the third case in the U.S. this year. Although not highly unusual, it is always good to highlight these things.

A recent study has found that Kratom-related poison centre cases have surged more than 65-fold in the U.S., raising new concerns about serious health risks and whether tougher regulations are needed. According to the study, kratom exposures reported climbed from just 19 cases in 2010 to 1,242 cases in 2023. That represents an increase of more than 65 times (6,500%). Lead author, Dr. Ryan Feldman, of the Medical College of Wisconsin, commented on how Kratom is not scheduled under the US Controlled Substances Act and “several US states do not regulate kratom at all, and they consistently had worse outcomes in this study than states that banned kratom use.”

The FDA has upgraded a recall of nearly 19.1 million eggs to its highest risk category as health officials investigate a multistate Salmonella outbreak. The new classification of the Midwest Poultry Services recall is now Class I, meaning exposure to the product could cause serious health consequences or death. The recall is tied to an ongoing Salmonella investigation involving 98 illnesses in 17 states, including 26 hospitalizations. No deaths have yet been reported.

On August 25th, news stories broke about a pyrolysis fire at an under-construction gas chemical complex in Russia’s far east. At the time of initial reporting, it was suggested that around 120 people had been injured, 19 were hospitalised and one was dead. The facility said work was ‌continuing at the site to extinguish the blaze and specialists ‌were carrying out a controlled burn ⁠of the remaining ‌industrial gases. The cause of the fire and the extent of the damage are being investigated.

In an update to the story of the explosive laden drone found at Leipzig airport on August 5th, German authorities found a third drone and more explosives on August 25th at an additional location near the airport. According to local outlets, on August 14th a previously unknown drone was discovered in a field to the west of Leipzig/Halle Airport. Investigators analysed the device and subsequently found around 50 grams of the explosive hexogen at the same site. The Federal Criminal Police Office’s (BKA) are investigating the case on behalf of Federal Prosecutor General.

The Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) of Ukraine recently reported that Russia has restored to operation a biological weapons research facility known as the “Center for Experimental Physiology,” located on Lisyi Island in the middle of the Vyshnevolotsk Reservoir in Russia’s Tver Region. According to the report, the biological research facility has been rebuilt on orders from Putin as a high-priority project aimed at “ensuring Russia’s defense capabilities and security.,” but is allegedly operating under the cover of veterinary and physiological research. HUR as yet, has not published any images or documents to support the claim, and of course Russian authorities have not commented on it.

A leak of 3,500 litres of anhydrous ammonia at a turkey and poultry slaughterhouse in Suffolk, UK, had 10 crews from around the county in attendance. Upon arrival, the leak from ruptured pipeline within a plant room was found. Site engineers worked to isolate the leak while firefighters established specialist monitoring, breathing apparatus and decontamination arrangements. During the operation the ammonia levels decreased significantly, and the response scaled down to two fire appliances.

Just 48 hours after the explosive laden drone incident in Leipzig, security at the Bundeswehr base at Mechernich, which maintains and repairs Patriot air defence systems reportedly recorded six drone overflights, which were reported to civilian police. A fuller picture, gathered by German news outlets, report that police were on site before the final overflight, and they saw at least one drone themselves. According to a confidential report cited by one outlet, a drone circled above the police officers before flying off.

On the evening of August 5th, Leipzig airport declared an emergency when a drone fitted with explosives and a detonator appeared near a cargo aircraft operated by Ukrainian Antonov Airlines. It was reported that ammunition destined for Ukraine was on board. New findings, reported by Die Zeit, show CCTV footage of the drone deliberately flying towards the Ukrainian aircraft and slamming into its wing. The drone, laden with Semtex, did not explode on impact and instead bounced off the aircraft and hit the ground, and explosives detached from the drone. Reporting states that the drone was not picked up by any security system instead, an airport bus driver noticed the dangerous device four hours after the collision.

On August 2nd, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (SES) posted to Facebook saying, "Following a Russian strike, a hazardous chemical leaked from damaged containers at a critical infrastructure facility," Reports following on from this stated the chemical was methanol, and CBRN specialist attended the site to seal damaged containers and leaks.

French authorities declared an urgent security and health emergency on August 2nd, when a fire broke out at a dangerous industrial site in eastern France. Official authorities called on 30,000 people to stay in their homes immediately. The damaged facility is in the municipality of Gandrange, which is classified as a highly dangerous industrial zone. Emergency services deployed one hundred firefighters supported using fifty specialized vehicles, whilst field crews worked to prevent the fire expanding toward adjacent high-risk industrial facilities. Crews extinguished the fire the same day.

Three people were killed and six more were injured when an explosion occurred in a house in Syria’s Idlib province. According to Syrian Civil Defence their initial findings indicate that explosive materials, used for fishing apparently, were being stored in the house and caused the explosion. The dead were a man, his wife and his brother, while six others were injured, including four of the couple’s children. Civil defence also stated the death toll, as of August 21, was preliminary.

At least 30 workers and four firefighters were injured on August 18th when a large fire broke out at a fuel facility in Iraq. According to reporting the fire involved tanks containing petrol, diesel and bitumen (which releases aerosols, VOCs, and polycyclic aromatic compounds when heated), which exploded as a result of the fire. A spokesman for the Sulaymaniyah Civil Defense Directorate said that teams rushed to the facility and managed to bring the blaze under control. Around 20 people received treatment at hospital and were discharged, one remains critical.

A man has been arrested, and has reportedly confessed, to the poisoning of nearly 300 people at a restaurant in Shirqat on August 17th. Reporting states a pest-control substance was put into the restaurants drinking water tank. The National Security Service identified and detained the suspect after surveillance and preliminary investigations, the suspect told investigators he acted out of jealousy and revenge after the restaurant grew successful. Initial reports put the number of people affected around 80 before it rose to nearly 300. Most have been discharged after treatment and 48 remain under observation.

At least 18 people were injured when several industrial sheds exploded at an industrial estate in Tehran on August 4th, with five individuals transported to the hospital. Reporting also states the force of the blast destroyed a nearby Emergency Services station. An emergency services spokesperson stated as rescue and relief operations remain ongoing, the number of casualties may rise. They also reported the deployment of seven ambulances, two bus ambulances, and a command vehicle to the scene. No official reports on potential fatalities have been released yet, a full investigation into the scope of the incident is underway.

Scorching temperatures in early August caused the explosion of an ammunition depot at Camp Taji in Iraq. The Iraqi MOD released a statement saying that severe temperatures resulted in a fire breaking out inside the weapons and ammo storage facility, which in turn lead to stored explosives and projectiles exploding. Civil Defense units were dispatched quickly to contain the fire and keep it from spreading to other depots. No immediate injuries or deaths were reported.