CEO of Texas chemical plant that just exploded: "Toxicity is a relative thing."

[dixiegrrrrl]

From Juanita Jean:

Arkema Group, one of the world’s largest chemical companies, warned us yesterday that their chemical plant, 30 miles from Houston, was likely to explode this morning because the plant has been without electricity since Sunday. As a precaution, a one and half mile area around the plant was evacuated.

Early this morning the first in what is expected to be several explosions sent plumes of smoke in the air.

Brock Long, administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Thursday that evacuations are based on “plume modeling,” which is used to predict the geographic extent of a hazard area from an explosion.

“By all means, the plume is incredibly dangerous,” Long said of what’s occurring in Crosby.

However ….

Company officials said the smoke is believed to be a “nontoxic irritant,” authorities added.

This morning, the CEO of the company responded on tv — “Toxicity is a relative thing.”

No it is not. Either it’s gonna hurt you or it ain’t. And whether it hurts you or kills you ain’t even relative — it’s one or the other.

Remember when Texas decided it was not going to monitor chemical plants any longer because that was too heavy a burden on free enterprise? So this right here is your Dan Patrick Memorial Toxic Plume.

http://juanitajean.com/

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Texans purposely want chemical plants to NOT have to tell them what is inside, SIGH

but has this prick told everybody yet what is inside?

[jberryhill]

3. Organic peroxides

http://www.luperox.com/en/safety/

[Eliot Rosewater]

5. Thanks, so if they are telling the truth, we must have people in our

government who can predict what will happen. Within a certain scope anyway.

[jberryhill]

11. Yes and no

Organic Peroxides can decompose if not kept cold, and then some of the decomposition products are themselves flammable vapors.

Acrylic resin hardener - which is what this stuff sounds like from the media descriptions - is typically methyl ethyl ketone peroxide (MEKP):

http://www.aristechacrylics.com/wp-content/uploads/Catalyst-MEKP-9.pdf

"Combustion products may include carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and acrid smoke and fumes."

[Eliot Rosewater]

14. But it is just like standing over a campfire, at least that is what he told me and I love

campfires so I am not going to worry.


sigh

Anyway, every single homeowner, occupant and business owner within 100 miles of that plant if they suffer ANY property damage, loss of use, loss of income or bodily injury, need to hire attorneys and sue the bastards.

You can still sue people for negligence in Texas?

[jberryhill]

15. The Arkema CEO did not make that comparison

"within 100 miles of that plant if they suffer ANY property damage, loss of use, loss of income or bodily injury"

Well, it's a given that there's already a whole lot of that within 100 miles of that plant. It might be a good first step to find out if Arkema's insurer is going to pay any claims attributable to the chemicals before suing.

[Eliot Rosewater]

20. They are legally liable due to negligence, you can see the negligence already.

Based on what they could have done that they didnt.

Their insurance will pay if a court tells it to, but they may not have much.

[jberryhill]

2. They kept asking him "is the smoke toxic"?

As if there is any kind of "non-toxic smoke" in the first place.

Yes, all smoke is "toxic".

[hamsterjill]

7. Makes me so mad.

The effects of the "smoke" may not be known for quite some time, too.

[Iggo]

10. I think they meant "poisonous."

And if they didn't mean that, they should have meant that.

I would also accept "lethal," but then he still would have done his "relativity" two-step.

But they should be making him talk about poison and death.

[jberryhill]

13. Well, yeah, but what smoke isn't "poisonous"?

Benzoyl peroxide is an organic peroxide. I wouldn't suggest lighting a tube of Clearasil on fire and breathing it in to see what happens.

[marylandblue]

16. Tje difference toxic and "non-toxic" smoke is

None toxic smoke kills you at high concentrations by smoke inhalation. Toxic smoke contains a poisonous vapor that can kill you at low concentrations.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

4. He's channeling his inner Don Blankenship. nt

[Petrushka]

18. + 1

[Whiskeytide]

6. The "no tell" policy applies to...

... the public. They're still supposed to tell the government. Their rationale is that they don't want potential terrorists to know where they can get the biggest bang for their improvised explosive buck. I suspect that's really just a pretext for a "no oversight" philosophy, but you can at least make the argument with a reasonably straight face.

But at this point, that's bullshit. It's already a public crisis. There is no excuse for anything but full disclosure of everything there.

[NightWatcher]

8. Put him in the back of a pickup truck and start driving towards the plant

I'm sure his actions as you get closer will let you know if it's safe or not.

[Leith]

19. Excellent Idea

It would be nice to know just how close to the plant he and his family live and if they have evacuated (and when).

[Louis1895]

9. Technically speaking, Toxicity is a relative thing

I am not being flippant, but the CEO is technically correct. Toxicity is a relative thing; even water can be toxic if you drink too much of it.

That said, it would be nice to know what exactly is burning up at the Arkema Chemical plant. This reminds me of the Seveso disaster of 1977.

[Lee-Lee]

17. That is true

Is like radiation. There is always radiation around you every day, it's the dose date that maters.

But you say radiation and people flip out and assume it's either nothing or they will all be glowing in the dark with cancer instantly.

[asiliveandbreathe]

12. Didn't Christie Todd Whitman - then head if EPA say the air was A okay..

Then said this in 2016..

“I’m very sorry that people are sick,” she said. “I’m very sorry that people are dying and if the EPA and I in any way contributed to that, I’m sorry. We did the very best we could at the time with the knowledge we had.”

- the NO regulation state of TX - hell, we don't need NO info re: what is burning..

[dixiegrrrrl]

21. That is exactly what I thought about.

And how our chicken shit Fed. gov then refused to help the ill first responders and others.
Just as the Navy is now refusing to help the crews of the contaminated US ships that were
sitting offshore too close to Fukishima, and got hit by a radiation plume.
The crew members described it as falling like snow, and there are pictures of crew washing down the decks of the ships, wearing only cloth around their mouth and noses.

[raven mad]

22. "Alternative truth"............. n/t