The recent train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which has resulted in a chemical catastrophe from spills and burnoffs, and yesterday's crash of a truck carrying nitric acid in Tucson, Arizona, have caused widespread disruption, a great deal of speculation (some of which has been well informed, but much of which has been panic- and fear-mongering of the worst kind), and debate about this country's transportation network and how safe it is (or isn't) for the transportation of such dangerous goods.
Both incidents attracted my attention, because we live in a town that's between an Interstate-level highway (US Route 287, the main road link between the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and Amarillo in Texas, from where it goes all the way north to the Canadian border, and is a major trucking route), and a major east-west railroad (BNSF Railway). We see chemical cargoes along each route on a daily basis. Either a rail and/or a road accident involving such cargoes might drive my wife and myself out of our home without much warning at all.
That being the case, it behooves all of us in that situation to be aware of what the threat may be from such accidents. There are two very important resources we should know and use.
1. The US Department of Transportation Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG).
PHMSA's 2020 Emergency Response Guidebook provides first responders with a go-to manual to help deal with hazmat transportation accidents during the critical first 30 minutes.
DOT's goal is to place an ERG in every public emergency service vehicle nationwide. To date, more than16 million free copies have been distributed to the emergency response community through state emergency management coordinators. Members of the public may purchase a copy of the ERG through the GPO Bookstore and other commercial suppliers.
The ERG is free to read and download online at the link above. I think everyone should have a copy stored on their computer; and, for those in high-risk locations, I suggest obtaining a printed copy as well, in case the Internet is overloaded or not available after an accident. (You can also print out the downloadable .PDF copy.)
2. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards.
The NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards (NPG) informs workers, employers, and occupational health professionals about workplace chemicals and their hazards. The NPG gives general industrial hygiene information for hundreds of chemicals/classes. The NPG clearly presents key data for chemicals or substance groupings (such as cyanides, fluorides, manganese compounds) that are found in workplaces. The guide offers key facts, but does not give all relevant data. The NPG helps users recognize and control workplace chemical hazards.
NIOSH offers four versions of the NPG: print, online, PDF, and mobile web app.
Again, the Pocket Guide is free to read and download at the above link. Instructions for getting a (free) print copy and/or the cellphone app are also available there.
Sadly, given the official ineptitude and general indifference publicly displayed by the authorities over the East Palestine incident, it's up to us to inform ourselves of the dangers of such disasters. I'd much rather hear about the chemical involved and make an instant, informed decision to get the heck out of Dodge until the situation was resolved, rather than wait for an official warning or evacuation order that might not reach me in time. The same applies to going back home - officials may tell me it's safe, but if I know the risks involved with a particular chemical, my wife and I might decide to wait a while longer before risking returning. It won't do much good to argue with the authorities about early or late warnings if we're too dead to complain!
That, by the way, is a very real danger. As Tucker Carlson points out:
So after that controlled burn of the deadly chemicals, officials told residents within East Palestine that if you live within a two-mile radius of the derailment, you had to shelter in place and keep your windows closed. Residents closer to the mushroom cloud were put up in a hotel. Within days, they were all let back into their home without the Department of Transportation in Washington saying a word. As one hazardous material specialist put it, "The whole town may be unsafe as a result of this." Watch.
SIL CAGGIANO: The railroad company is responsible for this and for these people wjho went back to their homes. Their homes should have been tested. Their homes should have been cleaned. From the onset, These people were being marginalized in an effort to mitigate this. And at first, they're being told, you know, "Go get a hotel and keep your receipts and we will reimburse." East Palestine is a very poor community. Some of these people don't have the money to go get hotels and do all of this ****. And, you know, all this stuff. This really looks like a nuclear winter. And well, you know, pretty much, yeah, we nuke this town with chemicals, and this is what they're getting.
Now, imagine if this had happened in, well, the favored cities of Philadelphia and Detroit. Lots of poor people in those cities. Everyone feels for them. Everyone wants them to be safe. Imagine at the same time this had happened in Washington D.C., in say Georgetown. Well, the National Guard would be called in. There would be no mushroom cloud of toxic chemicals on the horizon. We can promise you that.
And of course, in both cases, if this affected the rich or the favored poor, it would be the lead of every news channel in the world. But it happened to the poor benighted town of East Palestine, Ohio, whose people are forgotten And in the view of the people who lead this country, forgettable. So no big deal.
The hazmat specialist in that video, Sil Caggiano explained to local media that it's such vinyl chloride on the train, that's not the only threat. There's also ethylene gas and we're quoting. "You're looking at five, 10, 15, 20 years down the line until you see potential long-term effects. This stuff seeks low lying areas. It could be in sewers, it could be in nooks, crannies and crevices. Of course, that's how poison gas works. Ask anyone in Verdun.
And that would explain the effect that the chemical weapons expert just outlined. it would explain why fish and animals are dying in the area without explanation.
There's more at the link.
Some of us live in areas with trained, competent local authorities and emergency services to deal with such incidents. Sadly, some of us do not. In either case, it's probably a very good idea for us to have on hand the necessary information to evaluate the situation for ourselves, so that we can make a judgment call on what to do next without waiting for someone else to make it for us.
Peter
The ERG is also available as a phone app. When I get bored waiting at a crossing, I look up the UN numbers I don’t recognize. Lots of hairy stuff moving on aging tracks.
ReplyDeleteKudos for the resource links.
ReplyDeleteStep One in any hazmat emergency, is to figure out where the incident is, and then which way the wind is blowing, and then get out of the downwind plume and upwind of the incident location, as rapidly as possible.
Everything else is small potatoes compared to this.
Hazmat is one of those times you may not get a second chance in life to do things over, if you screw it up the first time.
One of the things they taught us in Ambulance operations was UPWIND and rule of thumb.
ReplyDeleteHold your thumb out at arm's length. If you can see any of the HAZMAT site YOUR TOO CLOSE.
Chemical spills are a very good reason to have a functional BUG OUT Plan.
Anda place to GO. Thus, my harping on trusted friends. Invaluable.
Also realize like a bad house fire, preps in your home may be GONE.
Thus, the trusted friends holding some for you and vis versa.
Having more than the maybe contaminated clothes on your back and your credit cards is a good idea.
For what it may be worth we got our paperback orange Emergency Response Guides for our vehicles at truck stops here in NC. redclay7
ReplyDeleteEast Palestine, OH: You have deadly chemicals that are toxic to all type of life in the train wreck burning and they do nothing contain it, makes all levels of government and the train company at fault. The MSM is not reporting. The question is why? This makes the whole area toxic and the questions are: 1) how far is it toxic, 2) who and what is affected and how are they affected, 3) how long is the area affected, 4) why was the response so bad, 5) was the train derailment planned and by who, 6) are people going to die due to this or the handling of this?
ReplyDeleteTrain derailments are not as uncommon as you might think, but only make the news when there are hazardous cargos involved near populated areas. I used to be on an incoming chemicals accident response team for a major chemical corporation back in my engineering days, and we studied these things. Rail car fleets log a lot of miles and only get so much maintenance. Yes, there are modern ways to monitor them that might reduce the frequency of these things, but they aren’t that economical and also prone to their own failures. Think … does your car have sensors to tell you when your wheel bearings or transmission are heating up? U-joints giving out?
ReplyDeleteThe old rule of thumb at a railcar accident was that if you held up your thumb at arm’s length and couldn’t cover the railcar, you were too damn close. Some small towns have lost every single one of their volunteer firefighters when a railcar with propane BLEVE’s at a derailment. Too damn close.
Being on that accident response team has made me sensitive to truck chemical transport. I keep a copy of the Hazardous Materials Emergency Response Guidebook in my vehicles, and if I recognize certain chemicals by their placards in transport, I make sure I am not driving anywhere close to them. I’ll either pull ahead or drop back a few miles.
Living within a half mile of a major North/South railway, with freight running 24/7, this scenario is enough to keep me up at night.
ReplyDeleteRe the toxic disaster Ohio train derailment; don't think what happened in Ohio would not have happened if the railroads were only regulated, well, at least half a dozen or more federal agencies regulate the living shit out of the railroads – off the top of my head, there's the DOT, ICC, FRA and the NTSB, as well as OSHA, Dept. of Labor and the EPA. This accident happened in spite of the presence of the aforementioned. Whatever problems that might have existed with the rolling stock, the track, the loading of the chemicals at the plant, the competence of the train crew and freight handlers at the time notwithstanding, how would the addition of one more bureaucrat in any of the departments and agencies that deal with this have made any difference at all to what happened? Spoiler Alert: Fuck-all. See also: Gun control as the cure for shootings, mass or otherwise.
ReplyDelete- Excerpted from Ace of Spades
Ask anyone who was at Verdun? Good look with that. BTW Vinyl Chloride is a Class 1 carcinogen, ethylene is not. Ethylene gas rises not sinks.
ReplyDeleteYears ago, I was with Rogers County Emergency Management. We were home to a major Rail Road intersection that ran very close to down town and we were one the one of the main routes to/from one of the only international seaports in Catoosa, OK. I have clear recollections of running a train derailment drill, down town, with a derailment of several tank cars of anhydrous ammonia (ID 1005, Guide No. 125), as we have several dozen move thought town every day going to the fertilizer plant at the port. We wound up killing way more people than we liked (virtually) during that drill (it was a hands on drill at the actual R&R crossing) but that was nothing compared to the drill we ran at the port, which has some entities that have unbelievably dangerous chemicals. In that drill, we wound up killing over 100 responders and several hundred local residents. It scared the hell out of me and I still avoid the port.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, I have the ERG app on my phone and I usually have a hard copy in the Bubba Truck.
And yes, the key to remember is "Upwind, Upstream, and Uphill" and as far away as you can get!
ReplyDeleteI'd suggest 2 free phone apps that make identifying chemicals and hazards quick
ReplyDeleteThe first is Placards, a simple app that lets you look up placards numbers and other common markings to see what is in trucks and train cars near you.
The second is Wizer, which gives details on toxic effects and safe distances based on spill size, wondering direction, etc. I like how once a chemical is selected, you point your phone into the wind and it gives the evacuation are on a map for that spill.
Jonathan
Here is a link to a discussion about the spilled chemicals with the air and groundwater dispersal. From the discussion, it appears the contamination will be measured in years.
ReplyDeleteOne additional observation.
ReplyDeleteThe last letter on the placard code represents the recommendation for human management in the vicinity.
“E” stands for “EVACUATE”
So when you see that capital E at the end of the code, get the hell away from it (as others have said, upwind and uphill). THEN, pull out your guide and start deciding what else you need to do.
From the comments in the link I posted, but it is worth repeating:
ReplyDeleteOhio residents, if you live anywhere near this accident, schedule a baseline health screening right now. The Norfolk Southern railroad, with the help of the Ohio GOP, will absolutely try to claim that any resulting health problems from chemical exposure was preexisting, which is why it is so important to gather as much evidence as possible now to demonstrate otherwise.
I grew up in Minot, ND. When I was in high school, 1987, we had an agricultural warehouse catch on fire and send toxic smoke over town and up into Canada (Canadia? KJP). That site is now home to a Denny's and a Menards.
ReplyDeleteIn 2002 my family, and my fiance (now wife) and her family were still living there when the worlds largest anhydrous ammonia leak happened, killing one man. My wife, MiL, and BiL lived half a mile from the derailment. Rather than shelter-in-place they drove out of it and to a medical facility in another town. My godfather is Ken Moe, one of the worst affected by the spill. One of the papers did an article on him about a year and a half later.( https://www . inforum . com/newsmd/lost-in-the-cloud-ammonia-spill-leaves-minot-in-blind-panic )
East Palestine will now be etched in my brain with the Minot anhydrous spill and Bhopal, India as monumental chemical disasters.
A nitric acid spill? I once was diluting nitric acid from the concentrated stuff that gets shipped, and spilled a single drop onto my gloves. I immediately stopped and pulled off the glove, just as it burned through. I had a red area on my hand.
ReplyDeleteThat's bad enough. It is a building block of a lot of explosives, some of which are simply dissolving common [redacted] and are not particularly stable. A tanker of that stuff busting open is frightening.
Local dude here. Was not a tanker, rather a box trailer. I suspect that is why it was so bad. I would think cartons of acid in gallon jugs. Of course they made no mention of how it was packaged. Local news gave a safety tip. Never pour water into acid, but always pour the acid into the water. Frippin geniuses!
Delete