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from the nothing-to-see-here-read-the-summary dept.
A toxic onslaught from the nation's petrochemical hub was largely overshadowed by the record-shattering deluge of Hurricane Harvey as residents and first responders struggled to save lives and property.
More than a half-year after floodwaters swamped America's fourth-largest city, the extent of this environmental assault is beginning to surface, while questions about the long-term consequences for human health remain unanswered.
[...] In all, reporters catalogued more than 100 Harvey-related toxic releases—on land, in water and in the air. Most were never publicized, and in the case of two of the biggest ones, the extent or potential toxicity of the releases was initially understated.
Hurricane Harvey's toxic impact deeper than public told
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(Score: 2) by fritsd on Saturday March 24 2018, @05:39PM (1 child)
I'm not sure, but I think crude oil itself is just a lot less chemically reactive and carcinogenic than some of its derivatives used in plastic, textile etc. industries.
What does crude oil contain for shit? Benzene, toluene, anthracene? OK toluene is bad and benzene is very bad.
But now compare with styrene monomer [wikipedia.org] (precursor to polystyrene; toxic and flammable), and the very stable petrochemical waste products PCB's, dioxins.
I remember learning in Analytical Chemistry class that dioxin [wikipedia.org] was a special challenge to measuring techniques, because it was already carcinogenic at the parts per billion level, so it was very difficult to determine the signal of poisonous amounts of dioxin above the background noise of other compounds.
The Wiki page says that the WHO recommends that a person weighing 80 kg will probably not have any bad effects, from a dioxin exposure per month of 0.0000000056 grams.
That's not much. Are they going to take blood samples of every inhabitant of the industrial region of Houston TX, to determine if they should sue the petrochemical industry and their government?
Dioxin poisoning looks like this: Viktor Yushchenko [wikipedia.org]. You won't die from it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 24 2018, @09:19PM
Not really. It's just that crude oil seepage in some places is natural, so it doesn't get the bad press that a human release of 'chemicals' does.