 production unit at Formosa Plastics in Illiopolis, Illinois, east of Springfield.)
Five workers were fatally injured and two others were seriously injured when an explosion occurred in a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production unit at Formosa Plastics in Illiopolis, Illinois, east of Springfield.
Image: U.S. Chemical Safety Board
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The Best Science Writing Online 2012
Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...
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Beverly Martinez was sitting at her desk in the office of a California scrap metal recycling plant when she felt the blast rattle her window.
One of her co-workers, Leonardo Morales Zavala, rushed through her door, struggling to breathe. “Run!” he yelled. He had just cut into a one-ton tank to recycle it in the yard – a football field away – and out poured a noxious substance. He didn't know what it was.
The workers ran as fast as they could toward the street. But they couldn't escape the giant, greenish-yellow cloud. A couple dozen people – workers and customers – dropped to the ground, gasping for air. Martinez fell, too.
"I couldn't get up. I felt like I was being strangled. I thought, 'I'm going to die. I'll never see my granddaughter grow up,’ ” Martinez said.
As she struggled to reach the building across the street, she heard a voice. "Bev, Bev, help!" It was Ricky Mejia, a 23-year-old inspector, calling to her from the ground.
"Ricky couldn't breathe, he couldn't walk. I'm stocky, and I told him to grab my side. Myrna Navarro was already hanging on my shoulder. She was praying enough for everyone. In my head, I was getting to the Firestone tire warehouse across the street. It seemed like an eternity,” she said.
“Then, I couldn't do it anymore. I said to Ricky, 'Your wife is pregnant. You've got a baby coming. Get up!' " They finally made it to the warehouse, where Mejia collapsed.
More than a year later, the ghost of a chlorine cloud lingers like a vivid nightmare at Tulare Iron and Metal Inc., located in the heart of California’s Central Valley.
On that June afternoon in 2010, 23 people were taken to hospitals and six were kept for treatment, including Mejia, who was hospitalized for 11 days, two of them on life support. Sixteen months later, the workers are still beset with health problems, including lung, stomach and Post Traumatic Stress Disorders.
Over the past 10 years, chlorine has been involved in hundreds of accidents nationwide, injuring thousands of workers and townspeople, and killing some, according to federal databases. It is second only to carbon monoxide when it comes to the percentage of accidents that cause injuries, according to the newest federal data.
Chlorine is one of the most widely used industrial chemicals in the world today, with 13 million tons produced annually in the United States alone.
An element that is abundant in the Earth’s crust and oceans, the powerful, corrosive substance is considered essential to an array of products. It is used in manufacturing plastics, synthesizing other chemicals, purifying water supplies, treating sewage and making refrigerants, varnishes, pesticides, drugs, disinfectants, bleaches and other consumer products.
In recent years, accidents have occurred when chlorine leaked or spilled, pressurized tanks were punctured, train cars derailed or when other chemicals were improperly – and often unknowingly – mixed with it. In some cases, thousands of people have been evacuated after an accident at a factory or during transport of liquefied chlorine. Janitors, housekeepers and others also have been exposed when they mix acidic household chemicals with bleach or swimming pool chemicals.
The worst chlorine gas accident in the country occurred in 2005, when 18 freight train cars derailed and released 120,000 pounds of chlorine gas in the mill town of Graniteville, S.C. Nine people were killed and at least 1,400 people were exposed, resulting in more than 550 people treated at hospitals, including some with serious lung injuries. More than 5,000 people were evacuated from their homes.
Chlorine gas is particularly insidious. Even small exposures can trigger coughing, choking and wheezing, and burn the eyes, skin and throat. Inhaling large amounts constricts the airways by inflaming the lining of the throat and lungs. At the same time, fluid accumulates in the lungs, making it doubly hard to breathe. People can literally drown in their own body fluids. At high exposures, a few deep breaths are lethal.
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13 Comments
Add CommentWhat exactly is the point of this article? I read it all the way through - to the point where it just abruptly stopped. Is there some kind of conclusion or proposed plan, or something at all?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTo raise awareness and let people know that this is a problem and a much greater risk than most might have assumed. The article is the action - Increase Awareness.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisnote the source:
This article originally ran at Environmental Health News, a news source published by Environmental Health Sciences, a nonprofit media company.
Honestly. In Scientific American? Which readers didn't know chlorine is dangerous? Who hasn't heard of the accidents, injuries, and fatalities? I feel I'm bout average in scientific knowledge and media exposure. I don't think I learned one new thing. It's a weak article for SA; Filler
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thislamorpa, "In Scientific American? Which readers didn't know chlorine is dangerous?" you are kidding right? This is the site whose comment sections are full of B.S. from climate deniers, creationists, UFOlogists, anti-environmentalists, anti-scientists, anti-sciamists, etc. So not only would I expect few of those people to know anything about the dangers of chlorine (the deniers would argue that it isn't a toxin but instead a nutrient in sea water), even fewer would know about the relative frequency of accidents, which is the main point of the article. I would argue that few sciam readers know about how often accidents occur. I certainly learned something and I have clients in some of those industries.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLast time I checked, sciam doesn't use you as the measuring stick with which they determine if an article is too obvious for consumption. Get over yourself.
RS, two thumbs up.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisChlorine! It's for your drinking water!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisReally. Ask your city government. Florine, too. Plus, now, UV light. Won't surprise me when they find a drinking water use for CFC's.
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Two thoughts related to the article: First it seems curious that there is no reference to military chlorine-exposure experience, particularly of WWI. Second, it seems that, even in county/municipal dumps, within short distance of major population centers, I have not seen controls which would identify similar hazards and eliminate the possibility of similar accidents, and I don't think my experience is unique.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo, because you feel that the article was unnecessary, it shouldn't have been published? Perhaps there are others out there, like me, who would want to read it. It seems obvious that you are critisizing for no good reason.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe article failed to mention the many unreported small accidents caused by careening pool service trucks loosely loaded with chlorine and muratic acid.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHazMat Experts and Firefighters petition Dow Chemical and Union Pacific for safe rail tank cars transporting gas chlorine. Secondary containment is a necessary improvement that must be implemented. See- PETITION C KIT for First Responders Comments.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHazMat Experts and Firefighters petition Dow Chemical and Union Pacific for safe rail tank cars transporting gas chlorine. Secondary containment is a necessary improvement that must be implemented. See--PETITION C KIT for First Responders Comments.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWARNING: FIRST RESPONDERS’ use of THE CHLORINE INSTITUTE “C” KIT may cause the catastrophic failure of a chlorine tank car, instantly creating a toxic gas plume with a distance of not less than seven miles. The first mile will have chlorine concentrations of 1,000 ppm, causing death after one or two breaths with no opportunity for escape. To learn more, see PETITION C KIT, click on “First Responder Warnings.”
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWARNING: FIRST RESPONDERS’ use of THE CHLORINE INSTITUTE “C” KIT may cause the catastrophic failure of a chlorine tank car, instantly creating a toxic gas plume with a distance of not less than seven miles. The first mile will have chlorine concentrations of 1,000 ppm, causing death after one or two breaths with no opportunity for escape. To learn more, see PETITION C KIT, click on “First Responder Warnings.”
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this