[m4x]

The widespread reports of smells in the air, headaches, dead fish and other animals makes it hard to believe that "all the readings are at normal concentrations".

Although what they actually said is that all the readings they've recorded are normal.

The most disconcerting thing is that vinyl chloride is a carcinogen, so there may be many people who have been exposed to enough to give them cancer but who won't know about it for some years yet

[KennyBlanken]

It's not just vinyl chloride in the air. It's hydrogen chloride and phosgene, because they decided to set the vinyl chloride on fire to get rid of it.

Phosgene was a chemical weapon in WW1 and was especially problematic because, drumroll please, it's heavier than air and doesn't dissipate readily. That's one reason they roundabout mention checking air in people's homes.

Air readings could be manipulated simply by taking them from the tops of hills, or upwind, or even a relatively low altitude via plane. People who don't know phosgene is heavier than air would not realize what was going on.

[amluto]

Or the readings could be the usual EPA PM2.5, CO, NOx, and ozone concentrations, and phosgene, vinyl chloride, and HCl are none of the above. (Although a cheap VOC sensor could plausibly detect phosgene and vinyl chloride.)

[sp332]

They say they did test for phosgene at least. https://mobile.twitter.com/MahoningCoEMA/status/162338173074... It’s plausible because phosgene should have been a small fraction of what was produced in the burn, and honestly it’s nasty enough that people would probably notice if they were breathing it.

[hedora]

That quote specifically refers to air pollution. Many other leaking cars were carrying liquid hazardous chemicals. They expect a 100% aquatic life die off in waterways the pollutants reach.

The EPA claims they have a multi-stage containment system in place, and that the ground water and Ohio River are not at risk.

I don’t see how that is possible, but since this is HN, I’m hoping someone will point to an article explaining how modern spill containment works.

[goatlover]

Obligatory: 3.6 Roentgen, not great not terrible.