Post Your Favorite Chemical Calamity

Greetings I was in the market for some really awesome ATS humor. So I thought I should create this post. Please post your favorite chemical calamity. This can include disasters involving government research or anything that would bring light to the developement of naturalization of science and weaponry. I dont have anything to contribute but I will be sure to think of something as time progresses.

Pretty lame really, so I'll keep it short.

In secondary school, probably aged 15, I was heating some hydrochloric acid over the Bunsen flame, the beaker was held in tongues in my right hand. Some one said something to make me turn, imagine a robot turning, my arms followed my shoulders, my left hand found it's self in the flame - I did a comedy ARRAGH throwing the very hot acid over my self ... luckily none in the face - just a shirt and a sweatshirt. I knew I should strip my top half off, I tossed them on to the side and started washing my torso with tap water and paper towels - my clothes were in a steaming pile on the side... I thought the acid would just eat right through them! - turns out the acid was not all that strong, the steam was mostly due to the heat - had to toss the cheap nylon shirt, but the dark sweat shirt was intact after being soaked in water - just the dye turned pink / orange over the front - just used it for working in the garage after that.

Told you it was lame

I need something just a little bit better, it is good that you added personal experience but I wanna find some stuff in history when things blow up in peoples faces.

reply to post by First Sergeant Kent A. Tr

. . I wanna find some stuff in history when things blow up in peoples faces.

LOVE CANAL, INDIA

December 3, 1984: Thousands die in a Bhopal, India, chemical accident which leaked deadly gases from a chemical factory near the central Indian city of 900,000 people. The accident happened at the American owned Union Carbide Pesticide Plant. Mr Y P Gokhale, managing director of Union Carbide in India, said that methyl isocyanate gas (MIC) escaped when a valve in the plant's underground storage tank broke under pressure. Because of the hypothesized reactions that took place within the storage tank and in the surrounding atmosphere, it is thought that apart from MIC, phosgene, and hydrogen cyanide along with other poisonous gases all played a significant role in this disaster.

The lethal gas leak from the Bhopal factory in 1984 killed as many as 7,500 people immediately and caused tens of thousands of people in the area to have severe medical problems. Testimonies from doctors who provided medical assistance during the tragedy claim over 15,000 were dead in the first month alone.

How Cheap Is Life In India? Union Carbide only paid out an average of $370-$533 per person in February, 1992. As many as 100,000 people are still in need of urgent medical attention and have missed out on compensation. The abandoned factory remains, with toxic waste and pesticide residue strewn about the property. The groundwater in the area is still contaminated.
www.commondreams.org...
en.wikipedia.org...

[edit on 3/18/2008 by donwhite]

Here's a funny one...

Times Beach, Missouri was a small town of 2,240 residents in St. Louis County, Missouri, 17 miles (27 km) southwest of St. Louis and 2 mi (3 km) east of Eureka, Missouri. The town was completely evacuated in the mid-1980s due to a dioxin scare that made national headlines. It was the largest civilian exposure to dioxin in the United States.


en.wikipedia.org...

There is a federal prison near there are those facility built to withstand these type of oxidized contaminents?

query.nytimes.com...

April 21, 1994
Woman Buried, Mystery Lingers In Emergency Room Fumes Case

Gloria Ramirez was buried today, surrounded by friends, family and the camera crews who have become an ever present reminder of the strange and still unexplained circumstances of her death.

It has been two months since Ms. Ramirez, 31, died on an emergency room gurney, while fumes, emanating perhaps from her body or blood samples, felled six emergency room workers. Ms. Ramirez, who had recently been diagnosed as having cervical cancer, was taken to Riverside General Hospital complaining of chest pains.

Dr. Bradley Gilbert, the Riverside County Public Health Officer who released Ms. Ramirez's body to her family, said two autopsies by the county coroner had produced no clues. "The tests did find chemicals," Dr. Gilbert said about one battery of air samples taken near the body. "But those chemicals would occur if they did air testing from any area."

Tom DeSantis, the county's spokesman, added, "There is a chance that the mystery may remain a mystery."

Medical officials have speculated that Ms. Ramirez may have ingested pesticides before her death, but her family has firmly denied that.

Even if pesticides were not found in the body, Tom Sneath, head of toxicology at National Laboratories Inc., a Bakersfield forensic testing firm, said these substances might have been present at first.

"Over time, some types of pesticides can be degraded by the enzymes in the body and may not be there in the same quantity as they would be if sampled fresh," he said.

This was one of the first memorable things I viewed on the internet. Imagine the amazing story that a woman in the emergency room gets treated, and emits toxic fumes that overcome many people. It looks to me that chemotherapy fumes were what caused the problem, and so far I have seen nothing on that one.

reply to post by SkipShipman

Tom Sneath, head of toxicology at National Laboratories Inc., a Bakersfield forensic testing firm, said these substances might have been present at first. "Over time, some types of pesticides can be degraded by the enzymes in the body and may not be there in the same quantity as they would be if sampled fresh," he said.

It looks to me that chemotherapy fumes were what caused the problem, and so far I have seen nothing on that one.

Perhaps it is as the toxicology man - Tom Sneath - said above. By the time her body got to the morgue and an autopsy, then the specimens transferred to National Labs for testing, hours or days may have passed. I suppose it is because of these limits we will never know what "happened" to her. That is why you have heard nothing more. There is nothing more. Fini.

[edit on 3/19/2008 by donwhite]

en.wikipedia.org...

The Boston Molasses Disaster, also known as the Great Molasses Flood or The Great Boston Molasses Tragedy, or the "Molasses Spill" occurred on January 15, 1919, in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. A large molasses tank burst and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150. The event has entered local folklore, and residents claim that on hot summer days the area still smells of molasses.[1]

Wing_Nut

reply to post by SkipShipman

If I remember right, the report released by Livermore Labs stated the oxygen in Gloria's body had mixed with the cervical cancer drugs and possible DMSO2(which is used similar to IcyHot) which when all blended together at just the right tempature(approx 66 degrees) created the enzymes within her body, and with the induced fluids to stabilize her during her cardiac arrest, caused a chemical reaction of DMSO4. Which is a lethal gas used in chemical warfare. Which then, when the blood was removed from her arm and the needle was removed from the seringe it released enough gas to overcome the emergency room personnel. I believe there were 23 hospitalized and 5/6 colapsed, including the doctor.

reply to post by First Sergeant Kent A. Tr
This is a good one I think.
The Texas City Explosion Of 1947
www.essortment.com...
A cargo ship with ammonium nitrate fertilizer destroyed almost an entire city and killed almost the enitre Texas City Fire Dept.
August 16,1947



[edit on 29-8-2008 by spookjr]

reply to post by spookjr


The ship in Texas City also had cotton on it and was below the ammonium nitrate fertilizer. The ammonium nitrate was washed into the cotton making nitrocellulose.