MetaFilter posts tagged with chlorine

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Mitheral — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 22:37:10 -0800

A Primer on the agents of Chemical Warfare part One, Two, Three, Four and Five.

Wait, I don't think this is the right bridge.

radwolf76 — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:23:34 -0800

Last Friday morning, two men managed to crash their pickup truck by attempting to drive 60 mph down the Sixth Street Railroad Bridge in Augusta, Georgia. Police believe alcohol was a contributing factor to the accident, but the fact that the railroad track in question is an active street-running line may have also played a part. While the next scheduled train was able to see the crashed truck and stop in time, previous trains on this line have not been so fortunate. Just 12 miles down that exact same track is Graniteville, South Carolina, where in November of 2004, a train-auto collision at a gate-less crossing caused five fatalities, followed three months later by the worst derailment in South Carolina history, resulting in a chlorine gas spill that killed nine and almost bankrupted the town. This time around, the collateral damage was much less severe: in addition to the damage to the bridge itself, the truck managed to land on the Augusta Riverwalk Perennial Garden once the crew from Norfolk Southern had dislodged it.

Reservoir ball pit

LobsterMitten — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 15:10:37 -0800

For millennia, man has yearned to block the sun (with black plastic balls). If an un-covered public water reservoir contains bromide, sunlight will combine the bromide with the chlorine used for reducing bacteria -- thus poisoning the water with carcinogenic bromate. Blocking the sunlight is the answer, but building a permanent cover for a huge reservoir is very costly. The solution for LA-area reservoirs, a few years ago: cover the entire water surface with millions of floating "bird balls", in effect turning the reservoir into a 10+ acre ball pit. The company that makes the balls switched production over entirely to this monster order, shipping in batches of a few hundred thousand balls at a time (which were to be dumped in as they were received) until the full order of 6 million balls was in. This all began in 2008, but I don't know what the updates are. more pictures still more pics Griffith Park Blog coverage (raises objections about whether the plastic is safe when exposed to heat for long periods) BloggingLA coverage

Roses are red / Violets are blue / Sugar is sweet / And so is... WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU EATING?

Faint of Butt — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 03:58:33 -0800

"Splenda's advertising claims that it is 'Made from Sugar, so it Tastes Like Sugar.' What they don't tell you is that Splenda is not natural, it's a chlorinated artificial sweetener." So states The Truth About Splenda, a site devoted to saving us from this chemical menace. But who are the good samaritans behind this truth-telling campaign? Why, none other than the good people of The Sugar Association, who only want to promote the consumption of sugar as part of a healthy diet and lifestyle. McNeil Nutritionals, the maker of Splenda, fight backs with SplendaTruth.com.