Burning Vinyl Chloride

[Shank]

Purely to test the exposure of this story as I am quite local to the incident, has this been covered in your areas? Eastern side of Ohio train derailment. Controlled explosion to release 100,000 to 300,000 gallons of Vinyl Chloride and was burned off.

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/06/1154760911/ohio-train-derailment

As always, no politics. Neither side seems to care so I can't see any argument here.

 

[EbS-P]

Controlled is better than an uncontrolled detonation.

Recovery was not an option. As a vapor it’s heavier than air. Combustion byproducts are HCl (nasty) and CO (much less nasty).


I guess it’s the best option? May be some HCl exposure downwind.

 

[Shank]

Controlled is better than an uncontrolled detonation.

Recovery was not an option. As a vapor it’s heavier than air. Combustion byproducts are HCl (nasty) and CO (much less nasty).


I guess it’s the best option? May be some HCl exposure downwind.

Seemingly they chose the best (still terrible) option. Reports of large amounts dead fish in local streams/etc. The one mile radius (and no other suggestion) during the controlled detonation seemed excessively small. Residents from up to 30 miles in many directions could smell the strong smell from it.

 

[peakbagger]

My guess is dioxin will be created. Nasty stuff. Burning PVC is known source.

 

[ABMax24]

My guess is dioxin will be created. Nasty stuff. Burning PVC is known source.

That's all I could think of last night watching the news, I'd be in my car and headed upwind from that one.

Dioxins aren't to be messed with.

 

[Shank]

That's all I could think of last night watching the news, I'd be in my car and headed upwind from that one.

Dioxins aren't to be messed with.

I currently sit 10 miles from the derailment and live approximately 20 miles from it. Fortunately wind very rarely comes from the direction of the site to where I am at/live.

 

[Tonty]

I read about the train wreck and subsequent controlled release here in Kansas. As a volunteer firefighter, it made me question again what we would do if that happened on our watch. We have a fairly busy UP track running through our response area...

 

[Highbeam]

What even is "vinyl" chloride? Chloride I get but "vinyl" really isn't a chemical.

 

[ABMax24]

Chloroethene

Vinyl chloride - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[gthomas785]

What even is "vinyl" chloride? Chloride I get but "vinyl" really isn't a chemical.

In chemistry vinyl refers to this functional group

 

[Poindexter]

I have read about the derailment and the controlled burn from Alaska on national outlets, but not the sort of thing to make my hometown/ smalltown newspaper. ABC, NBC and CNN have all provided some coverage.