Tag: Pollution

A TRAIN-WRECK in EAST PALESTINE.

no agency came to the scene.

NO DISASTER RELIEF.

THERE’S NO NEED TO DEBRIEF.

“THEY VOTED FOR TRUMP: that’s obscene.”

According to Pete Buttijieg the secretary of transportation there are a thousand train derailments every year, so he can’t be bothered with such minor incidents. The United States has an aging infrastructure, The so called “Inflation Reduction Act” concentrated on green technology such as solar panels, bought from China and wind turbines from China and Western Europe rather than real infrastructure and cleaning up the waterways and modernize the air traffic system. No, they concentrated on social equity, gender equity and other pet projects.

But here is the kicker: It used to be much worse as pollution is concerned. The difference is that now there are so many carcinogenic and unhealthy chemicals rather than spilled oil and soot.

In 1868, 1883, 1887, 1912, 1922, 1936, 1941, 1948 and 1952 the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio caught fire. Here is a picture of the 1948 fire.

( Cleveland Press Collection, Cleveland State University Library)

The river caught fire a few more times, but nobody cared until 1969, the last time it happened. I remember in 1965 hearing thee song ‘Pollution’ by Tom Lehrer

In the second World War the oil refineries dumped the unwanted products from the refining process in the Delaware River, and things got so bad it stripped the protective paint from the hulls of ships coming in to the Philadelphia harbor.

We tend to forget how bad things were before there were any substantial environmental regulations. Factories solved their exhaust problems by building higher chimneys, spreading the poison over a larger area.

The content of the derailed tank cars.

There were five tank cars in the derailed part containing Vinyl Chloride. Vinyl Chloride is a gas, stored under pressure ( 3,5 atmospheres at room temperature). When the cars derailed, there was fire from burning and Norfolk Southern were afraid the cars would overheat and explode, so they drained them and dumped the vinyl chloride in a trench and set fire to it rather than hosing down the cars with water to lower the temperature. Vinyl Chloride when burning produces hydrochloride and carbon monoxide. Combined with water vapor it produces hydrochloric acid, which causes instant emphysema among other things. In addition it is a known carcinogen.

There was just one problem. The tank cars were mislabeled. Thy did not contain vinyl chloride, they contained 1,1-Dichloroethene, commonly called vinylidene chloride. Vinyl Chloride is bad, vinylidene chloride is far worse. The health effects from exposure to 1,1-DCE on fish, animals and people are primarily on the central nervous system, including symptoms of sedation, inebriation, convulsions, spasms, and unconsciousness at high concentrations. When the dug trench containing the drained volatile liquid was deliberately set on fire, who knows what substances that generated. The gas is a potent oxidant and a class 2B carcinogen.

One tank car contained Ethylene Glycol Mono-butane Ether. It is a known health hazard but not a carcinogen as far as I know.

One car contained Ethylhexyl, Acrylate and the tank was breached and the content spilled. There should be no particular health hazard from this tank car.

One car contains Isobutylene, a flammable gas. Most of it is still in than car.

One tank car contained ButylAcrylate and al its content was spilled on the ground. It is now being leached into the soil and has now been detected in the Ohio river just upstream from Cincinnati. It is not particularly toxic in the small concentration moving down the Ohio River, but yet.

And there was to tank cars containing benzene, a known carcinogen, but none of the benzene has leaked out.

The question is:What are the long term effects of this major spill and fire? Time will tell. It sometimes takes decades for cancer and respiratory diseases to develop.

Oh, and by the way, it is simpler, safer, much cheaper and more efficient to use pipelines. With a thousand derailments a year it is a wonder these types of catastrophes do not disrupt the supply chain more than they do.