Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Chemical spills put Italy's underground physics lab in jeopardy
Scientists fear for the future of Gran Sasso National Laboratory, a world-leading underground physics lab in central Italy, after prosecutors charged four lab leaders with endangering drinking water supplies. Sparked by a number of accidental spills that released small amounts of toxic chemicals into groundwater feeding a local aqueduct, the 28 September legal action could lead to at least two major Gran Sasso experiments being shut down.
Gianpaolo Bellini, a particle physicist at the University of Milan in Italy and a former spokesperson for Borexino, one of the lab experiments in jeopardy, says fears of contamination are “groundless.” But he says the lab itself is in a “very delicate situation.” He worries that research groups, particularly from abroad, might be put off by the possibility of legal action and delays to their work. “This [investigation] damages the reputation of the lab,” he says. “People will be more cautious about coming and therefore more cautious about investing their money.”
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 12 2018, @06:51AM (4 children)
Yeah, right, pollute the drinking water multiple times through aggravated carelessness in handling highly toxic substances, and then go all "BUT THE INVESTORS!!" when people start complaining. Good plan, really.
You know, science as a concept is already beleaguered enough without scientists *actually* acting like irresponsible jerks :-(
Don't you think that, after the _second_ spill at the very very latest, there should have been draconian safety procedures in place for handling those substances?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 12 2018, @06:54AM
Safety procedures don't need to be draconian, but they do need to be effective and followed with the same kind of exactness necessary to produce viable results.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday October 12 2018, @07:48AM (2 children)
Not pleasant, yes, but let's put the things in perspective...
[Citation needed] for the "highly toxic".
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Pseudocumene entry in NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards [cdc.gov]:
Sorta like... I don't know... gasoline?
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Umm... like painstriper, no?
Heh, used in food industry?
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Right!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 12 2018, @09:41AM
The Bill Cosby experiment.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Friday October 12 2018, @05:48PM
[Citation needed] for the "highly toxic".
The NIOSH pocket guide tells first responders what to do, but not really why to do it (and they mostly assume you're not going to be drinking it). For toxicity information you want to look at the MSDS.
Here's one. [t3db.ca]
It lists the LD50 (lethal dose for 50% of the test animals) at 5 gm/kg for rats.
So that would make it slightly or moderately toxic depending on which scale you use. [ccohs.ca] The probable lethal dose for a person would be about a pint of the stuff.
So it's not great but not as bad as claimed. But, they're storing 1300 tons of the stuff. A bad spill would be bad.
I think what's really driving this is the fact they they never implemented their corrective actions from the first spill. So you spill something, ok not great, but you need to clean it up and make sure it doesn't happen again. So then you have a second spill. And then on your third spill it turns out you never corrected the issues from the first one.
Regulators don't look too kindly on that sort of thing as well they shouldn't. That's getting close to 'willfullness' which is when shit gets real.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 12 2018, @06:52AM
I can't say I have much sympathy. If they are spilling toxic material into the groundwater, then fears of contamination are entirely justified. Inadequate and ineffective safety protocols are good reason to be cautious, because if they are sloppy handling toxic chemicals, they are likely sloppy about other things. They either need to clean up their act, or have it cleaned up for them.
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Friday October 12 2018, @07:08AM
Wow. I didn't know, until a quick search of ancestry.com, that the Green Goblin was Italian!
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 12 2018, @07:17AM (2 children)
The Dutch television had a documentary about toxic waste dumps in Italy in 2015. The maffia obtains toxic waste against a lower price than normal processors and dumps it in agricultural areas. Was pretty shocking when I saw that, since then I avoid Italian imported vegetables in the store.
Link to the documentary (might not work): https://www.2doc.nl/documentaires/series/2doc/2015/december/de-gifcirkel.html [2doc.nl]
Youtube trailer (in Dutch): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dkZcTNhgR0 [youtube.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Unixnut on Friday October 12 2018, @10:24AM
I remember a particular campsite back when I was a student on a road trip across Europe. It was somewhere in southern Italy, and while it all looked fine, staying one night I found myself waking up coughing with an awful smell in the air and lungs that were stinging.
I had the most irritated throat in my life the next morning, and my camping friends fared no better. What I found strange is unlike other sore throats, this persisted for months after. I don't remember exactly but it must have been a good 3 months before I was back to normal. Never had something lingering for so long after such a short exposure.
When I asked some Italian friends, they said the mafia tends to go to fields at night and burn all kinds of toxic waste, if you are unlucky the wind will blow it over places like campsites (which are basically an unprotected field with tents). God knows if there are any long term effects of my exposure, or if it shortened my life, but some things are beyond my control.
Needless to say, I never went camping in Italy again. Still visit, but tend to stay in hotels and towns, where there is less likelihood someone can get away with burning stuff next door. A lovely country, great roads, beautiful scenery and weather, but not very well taken care of by its inhabitants.
Judging by the number of Italians I have met that are desperate to get out of there (and many saying they will never go to live there again), I don't think the picture is looking rosy for the place overall.
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Friday October 12 2018, @02:02PM
Just look up Seveso.