What can we learn from East Palestine?
How chemists should learn to deal with spills in the lab and in the plant
As chemists, we should be appalled at what happened in East Palestine, Ohio, US. If you’re not aware, the Norfolk Southern Railway had a derailment accident, and a number of chemicals stored in railcars began burning. Some of the railcars contained vinyl chloride, which is a hazardous and toxic reagent. Authorities at the scene decided to vent the vinyl chloride into a trench and burn it, which provided literally hellish pictures. Rightly or wrongly, people will be thinking of these pictures for the rest of their lives, and associating chemicals – all chemicals – with this incident.