Short Takes – 7-5-25

Disposable E-Cigarettes More Toxic Than Traditional Cigarettes. UCDavis.edu article. Pull quote: ““Our study highlights the hidden risk of these new and popular disposable electronic cigarettes — with hazardous levels of neurotoxic lead and carcinogenic nickel and antimony — which stresses the need for urgency in enforcement,” said senior author Brett Poulin, an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Environmental Toxicology. “These risks are not just worse than other e-cigarettes but worse in some cases than traditional cigarettes.””

Dust devils on Mars may spark lightning — possibly threatening NASA's Perseverance rover. Space.com article. Pull quote: “Dust devils are frequent on the dry and dusty Martian surface. Mars has lower gravity and a thinner atmosphere compared to Earth. This allows the wind there to kick up dust higher than wind on Earth can. As a result, Martian dust devils can be thrice as large as their terrestrial analogues.”

Unleashing phosphorus mononitride. Nature.com article. Very chem-geeky. Pull quote: “Overall, the interstellar diatomic molecule, phosphorus mononitride (P≡N), offers singular access to phosphorus-nitrogen multiple bonded constructs, serving as exemplars in structure, bonding, and reactivity. Only a few synthetic strategies to stabilize P≡N have been reported. We have demonstrated how P-atom transfer from Na(OCP) to an osmium nitride assembles a terminally bound P≡N ligand (3). We envisage this strategy can be generalized to other nitride precursors, provided that they are electrophilic in nature, and thus give access to a wide array of transition metal P≡N complexes.”

Air Force Halts Project With Musk’s SpaceX. TheDailyBeast.com article. Article does not claim that this is an anti-Musk move. Pull quote: “In response to that report [link added], the Air Force had said it would conduct an environmental assessment, but is now instead exploring alternative locations for the program, a spokesperson told Stars and Stripes. A petition calling for the Air Force to abandon its plan had garnered more than 3,800 signatures by Wednesday.”

Measles cases surge to record high since disease was declared eliminated in the US. CNN.com article. Summary type article, not much in the way of new disclosures. Pull quote: “There have been at least 1,277 confirmed cases of measles reported in the US in 2025, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Outbreak Response Innovation. Just halfway through the year, the case tally has already surpassed the last record from 2019, when there were a total of 1,274 cases.”

Review - HR 4249 Introduced – FY 2026 Legislative Spending

Last month Rep Valadao (R,CA) introduced HR 4249, the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2026. The House Appropriations Committee published their Report on the bill. The bill includes one cybersecurity related discussion and two brief mentions about drone spending. The Committee report has an additional discussion about legislative branch cybersecurity.

The FY 2025 version of this bill was HR8772 introduced by Valadao on June 17^th, 2024. That bill was taken up by the House on July 11^th, 2025, and failed by a vote of 205 to 213. There were 10 Republicans (the usual suspects in the 118^th Congress) voting against the bill.

Moving Forward

As we saw with last year’s version of this bill, there is no real requirement for this spending bill (or any of the other remaining ten bills) to pass in the House. A series of continuing resolutions and maybe a year end omnibus bill will keep the government funded, especially this year since the Republicans will have no one to blame but themselves for failure to keep the governmental gelt coming; they do ‘control’ the House, the Senate, and the White House.

For more details about the provisions of this bill, including an expanded spending commentary, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-4249-introduced-fy-2026-legislative - subscription required

Chemical Incident Reporting – Week of 7-3-25

NOTE: See here for series background.

Yolo County, CA – 7-1-25

Local News Report: Here, here, and here.

There was a warehouse fire with multiple explosions that killed at least one person (7 people still missing). Fireworks were stored in the warehouse.

CSB reportable.

Lithonia Springs, GA – 7-1-25

Local News Report: Here, here, and here.

There was an anhydrous ammonia leak at a food processing facility. A shelter-in-place order was set for the area surrounding the facility. No reports of injuries or damages.

Probably not CSB reportable.

Review – Public ICS Disclosures – Week of 7-28-25 – Part 1

This week we have 11 vendor disclosures from ABB, Contec, Delta Electronics, Endress+Hauser, HP (2), HPE, ifm, and Pilz (3).

Advisories

ABB Advisory - ABB published an advisory that describes four vulnerabilities in their web UI REST Interface.

Contec Advisory - Contec published an advisory that describes two vulnerabilities in their CONPROSYS HMI System.

Delta Advisory - Delta published an advisory that describes two deserialization of untrusted data vulnerabilities in their DTM Soft products.

Endress+Hauser Advisory - CERT-VDE published an advisory that discusses 19 vulnerabilities in the Endress+Hauser MEAC300-FNADE4.

HP Advisory #1 - HP published an advisory that describes a stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability in their Universal Print Driver.

HP Advisory #2 - HP published an advisory that discusses 46 vulnerabilities in their Device Manager.

HPE Advisory - HPE published an advisory that discusses a server-side request forgery vulnerability in their Telco Service Orchestrator software.

Ifm Advisory - CERT-VDE published an advisory that describes a missing authentication for critical function vulnerability in the ifm Smart PLC AC4xxS.

Pilz Advisory #1 - CERT-VDE published an advisory that describes an incorrect type conversion or cast vulnerability in the Pilz IndustrialPI 4 with IndustrialPI webstatus.

Pilz Advisory #2 - CERT-VDE published an advisory that describes a missing authentication for critical function vulnerability in the Pilz IndustrialPI 4 with Firmware Bullseye.

Pilz Advisory #3 - CERT-VDE published an advisory that discusses an authentication bypass by primary weakness vulnerability in the Pilz Software PiCtory.

 

For more information on these disclosures, including links to 3^rd party advisories, researcher reports, and exploits, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/public-ics-disclosures-week-of-7-cff - subscription required.

Short Takes – 7-4-25

NOTE: SpaceNews.com has apparently gone to a paid-subscription-only service, so I will probably not be commenting on their articles in these posts for the foreseeable future. As an author I can sympathize with the need to financially support the collection of this news, but I only have a limited amount of budget for subscriptions.

Websites hosting major US climate reports taken down. APNews.com article. Pull quote: “Harvard climate scientist John Holdren, who was President Obama’s science advisor and whose office directed the assessments, said after the 2014 edition he visited governors, mayors and other local officials who told him how useful the 841-page report was. It helped them decide whether to raise roads, build seawalls and even move hospital generators from basements to roofs, he said.”

Trump Officials Want to Prosecute Over the ICEBlock App. Lawyers Say That’s Unconstitutional. Wired.com article. Pull quote: “According to the Apple listing for ICEBlock, the app does not store any data on its users. Since it does not collect user data, Aaron doesn’t know how many people have used the app in Los Angeles, for example, or even where past sightings have been posted. Individual users can only see what’s been reported within a 5-mile radius and the sightings auto-delete after four hours.”

Major reversal in ocean circulation detected in the Southern Ocean, with key climate implications. ICM.CSIC.es article. Pull quote: “According to the research team, the consequences of this reversal are already becoming visible. The upwelling of deep, warm, CO₂-rich waters is believed to be driving the accelerated melting of sea ice in the Southern Ocean. In the long term, this process could double current atmospheric CO₂ concentrations by releasing carbon that has been stored in the deep ocean for centuries—potentially with catastrophic consequences for the global climate.”

A new ‘eye’ may radically change how robots see. Sciencenews.org article. Pull quote: “The system, known as LENS, consists of a sensor, a chip and a super-tiny AI model to learn and remember location. Key to the system is the chip and sensor combo, called Speck, a commercially available product from the company SynSense. Speck’s visual sensor operates “more like the human eye” and is more efficient than a camera, says study coauthor Adam Hines, a bioroboticist at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.”

CSB Adds Monaca, PA Butadiene Release Investigation

Yesterday, without any fanfare or announcement, the Chemical Safety Board added a new chemical incident investigation to its ‘Current Investigations’ webpage. The new investigation looks at a butadiene and benzene release that took place at the Shell Polymers Monaca facility in Pennsylvania on June 4^th, 2025. According to local news reports (here, here, and here) there was an explosion and fire at an ethane cracking unit at the facility. There was one minor (heat related) injury.

This brings the total open investigations listed on the page to six. The investigation into the two Austin Powder incidents that was announced by the CSB on June 24^th has still not made it to the ‘Current Investigations’ page.

NOTE: I briefly discussed this incident on June 14^th, 2025.

Transportation Chemical Incidents – Week of 5-31-25

Reporting Background

See this post for explanation, with the most recent update here (removed from paywall).

Data from PHMSA’s online database of transportation related chemical incidents that have been reported to the agency.

Incidents Summary

• Number of incidents – 643 (604 highway, 38 air, 1 rail, 0 water)

• Serious incidents – 2 (1 Bulk release, 0 evacuation, 0 injury, 0 death, 1 major artery closed, 0 fire/explosion, 38 no release)

• Largest container involved – 32,104-gal DOT 111A100W1 Railcar {Flammable Liquids, N.O.S.} Missing manway gasket.

• Largest amount spilled – 200-gal DOT 406 Tankwagon {Diesel Fuel} Overfilled storage tank during unloading.

• Total amount reported spilled in all incidents – 1936.6 gal

NOTE: Links above are to Form 5800.1 for the described incidents.

Most Interesting Chemical: Sodium Nitrate: A white crystalline solid. Noncombustible but accelerates the burning of combustible materials. If large quantities are involved in fire or the combustible material is finely divided an explosion may result. May explode under prolonged exposure to heat or fire. Toxic oxides of nitrogen are produced in fires. Used in solid propellants, explosives, fertilizers, and for many other uses. (Source: CameoChemicals.NOAA.gov).