40,000 people under evacuation orders for a chemical tank leak in Southern California (apnews.com)
from morysal@lemmy.world to world@lemmy.world on 23 May 13:18
https://lemmy.world/post/47248638

#world

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MrNesser@lemmy.world on 23 May 13:27 next collapse

I’ve seen too many Sci FI shows where a chemical leak is the cover story to believe this

SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca on 23 May 13:37 next collapse

Found RFK’s new swimmin’ hole.

homes@piefed.world on 23 May 14:27 next collapse

We took this trip to Garden Grove,

Smelled like methyl methacrylate inside the van,

Oh yeah…

This ain’t no funky record party,

Five dollars at the door…

Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus on 23 May 16:34 collapse

It’s already on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_methacrylate#Environmental_issues_and_health_hazards

QuandaleDingle@lemmy.world on 23 May 16:50 next collapse

Those wiki mfs don’t MISS! 😤

frongt@lemmy.zip on 23 May 17:20 collapse

Huh, so it’s not really as hazardous as the evacuation might lead you to believe. It’s a mild irritant and it’s flammable, but it’s not going to outright kill you unless you inhale a lot of it or have existing respiratory problems, or if it builds up somewhere and is ignited.

Still, precautionary evacuations aren’t a bad idea.

Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works on 23 May 17:41 collapse

The reason for the evacuation is that it’s a very large tank (6-7,000 gallons) with broken valves and potential for runaway heat buildup, leading to possible explosion, between very large tanks of volatile chemicals. They’re keeping it stable-ish by directing a constant stream of cold water on it while trying to find a safe way to vent and/or drain it.

Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus on 23 May 17:43 collapse

Yeah, i don’t want to be close when a tank designed for this amount of a flammable chemical gets under enough pressure to blow up.

Strangely, this stuff has a boiling point of 101°C - had expected it to be lower if hot weather is enough for such an event, even the vapor pressure at standard conditions is only about 19% high than water.