The message from big blast after a freight train derailed 3 February in the United States, in Ohio, it made its way to the Italian media only about ten days later. There was talk of an “apocalypse” for a catastrophe of which very little is known, but which could prove extremely serious for a large part of the territory.
I’m sure you remember them Viareggio disaster of 2009when an explosion caused by a freight train derailment claimed lives 32 people and a hundred wounded. In this case it was liquefied petroleum gas (LPG); flammable, but not highly toxic per se. However, in the case of the Ohio disaster, the four cars it contained did the most damage vinyl chloride, a material from which the common plastic we call “Pvc” (polyvinyl chloride) is made. It is a liquid that evaporates quickly and is known to be highly carcinogenic.
Imagine four wagons full of vinyl chloride burned out by the derailment that are scattered carcinogenic liquid This contains. And that this happens in one inhabited area, fortunately not densely populated. Given this situation, the emergency services handling the emergency deemed it appropriate to set the liquid on fire, at least to avoid itcarcinogenic effect immediately.
Also read Environment & Toxins | by FQ.
Worry in Ohio after the train wreck 9 days ago. The charge is still burning, animals are dying
The old adage “falling out of the pan into the fire” comes to mind. Little is known about them effects of combustion of liquid vinyl chloride, but there is data on the combustion of PVC, which has the same chemical formula. Combustion is known to be released hydrochloric acid (HCl) in large quantities. It is also believed to produce phosgene (carbonyl chloride) and dioxins, although (hopefully) not in large quantities. Both are very toxic substances. Essentially, the result is something like Toxic Clouds used to gas enemy trenches during World War I. Fortunately, no human deaths are being reported in Ohio at the moment, although pets appear to be dying in large numbers.
It really isApocalypse? Probably not, but the images seen on the web of hydrochloric acid clouds covering the horizon certainly are impressive. There had never been anything like it, at least to this extent. But at this point the damage has already been done and we will see in a few years whether it will be permanent and what impact it will have on human health. More than anything, these things convey a sense of consternation. The feeling is that things are getting out of hand. Of course there are also trains loaded with vinyl chloride in Europe and in Italy. And here the population density is much higher than in the United States. Can you imagine what could happen if a Accident like the ones in ohio?
Also read Environment & Toxins | by FQ.
Plastic, we eat 5 grams every week with water and food: “Eat like a credit card”
Vinyl chloride is for manufacturing plastic. As long as there is a market for plastic, someone will produce it. And to make it, we need precursors, and so someone’s going to make vinyl chloride that’s going to go around in trains and trucks, with all that fall risks. But that’s not even the main problem. Currently, almost 500 million tons of plastic are produced annually worldwide, and production continues to increase. In Europe we are beyond that 100 kg of plastic per person and year. Impressive when you consider that a hundred years ago you hardly knew what plastic was.
Where is all that plastic? Partially burnedpartially scattered, only a small fraction come recycled. In the form of microparticles of plastic, it ends up in food and then we eat it in amounts that some have calculated to be the equivalent of a Credit card per week. It’s unknown what effect it has on health, but it’s unlikely to be a tonic. It won’t be the apocalypse, but maybe it’s time to think about putting a stop to certain things. Do we really need all this plastic?