Caustic Soda in Your Favorite Treats?

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Caustic Soda in Your Favorite Treats?

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Did you know that caustic soda is used in the preparation of avariety of foods? Processing of chocolate, cocoa and soft drinks usescaustic soda.Acid Leak in Texas Leaves a Residue of Questionsby Peter ApplebomeSpecial to the New York TimesTEXAS CITY, Tex. - After 4,000 people were evacuated as a result of aleak of hydrofluoric acid from a refinery, questions are still beingasked about potential hazards here and in other cities where the samechemical is used.Those questions center both on the long-term effects on those exposedto the Oct. 30 leak from the Marathon Petroleum Company here and onthe degree of risk faced by workers and residents living near 68plants around the country where the potentially lethal chemical isused. More than 1,000 residents were treated for eye and respiratoryproblems after a pipeline ruptured here, sending a cloud of gas intonearby residential neighborhoods."Airborne fluorides have caused more worldwide damage to domesticanimals than any other air pollutant." - US Department ofAgriculture. Air Pollutants Affecting the Performance of DomesticAnimals. Agricultural Handbook No. 380. Revised. 1972. p. 109."Certainly, there has been more litigation on alleged damage toagriculture by fluoride than all other pollutants combined." -Weinstein LH. (1983)."Effects of Fluorides on Plants and PlantCommunities: An Overview." In: Shupe JL, Peterson HB, Leone NC,(Eds). Fluorides: Effects on Vegetation, Animals, and Humans. ParagonPress. Salt Lake City, Utah. pp. 53-59.Between 1957 and 1968 "fluoride was responsible for more damageclaims against industry than all twenty [nationally monitored airpollutants] combined." - Groth E. (1969). Air is Fluoridated. ThePeninsula Observer Jan 27 - Feb 3.In spite of its serious nature, fluoride pollution has received verylittle attention in the mass media, although the public has heard alot about SO2 and car exhaust.Records of fluoride air pollution go all the way back to 1100 A.D.,when a volcanic eruption in Iceland caused a crippling disease insheep. The disease, which appeared every time the volcano erupted,was identified more than 800 years later as fluorosis, or fluoridepoisoning, and traced to high levels of fluorides in volcanic gases.Aluminum and Fertilizer Industries OffendIn Troutdale, Oregon, Reynolds Metals Co. has been successfully suedfor damages to crops, cattle, and human beings. In the course of onesuch trial, it was revealed that the plant passed nearly two tons offluorides into the air each day. Seven other aluminum companiesjoined with Reynolds in an attempt to overturn the court's decision,arguing that it was impossible to produce aluminum without emittingquantities of fluorides into the air. The companies lost their suitin the Ninth District Court of Appeals.Censorship of Fluoride Pollution NewsLike the BAPCD, the news media have been very reluctant to embarrassindustries by discussing fluoride pollution, both locally andnationally. For example, the town of Garrison, Montana, struggled foryears to stop the Rocky Mountain Phosphate Co. from pouring hugevolumes of fluorides into the air. Vegetation was wiped out for milesaround the town, cattle were crippled and killed, and people weremade so ill that many were literally driven out of their homes.Although many papers carried accounts of the town's problems, veryfew named the pollutant that was the scourge of Garrison.When the Harvey Aluminum Co., in The Dalles, Oregon, was sued for$2.2 million by local fruit growers, the plant was served with acourt order to control its pollution. The company appealed the order,arguing that it would cost $15 million for effective fluoridepollution control equipment, and 100 new employees would be needed tokeep the equipment functioning. Multiply an average cost of severalmillion dollars by the huge number of plants emitting fluorides, andit is apparent that it would cost industry several billion dollars toeliminate fluoride pollution. The amounts paid out in damages eachyear are just peanuts compared to that cost.Fluorides are released into the air in both a gaseous state (ashydrogen fluoride and silicon tetrafluoride) and in solid particles.The particles fall on, and the gases are absorbed by, vegetation nearthe polluting industry. If this vegetation includes forage cropswhich are fed to cattle, sheep, horses, or pigs, serious problems mayensue, since these animals, particularly the cattle, are vulnerableto fluoride. (3) In fact, according to the U.S. Department ofAgriculture, "Airborne fluorides have caused more worldwide damage todomestic animals than any other air pollutant."When the Anaconda Company opened its aluminum reduction plant inColumbia Falls, Montana, in 1955, company officials insisted thatdamage to animals and vegetation from fluoride emissions would benegligible. By 1969, following several expansions of the plant, deadand dying trees were observed over the entire west face of TeakettleMountain, which stands between the reduction plant and GlacierNational Park.(16) Trees on 2,000 acres of US Forest Service landhave been destroyed (17) and fluoride has damaged lodgepole, white,and Ponderosa pines, and Douglas firs in Glacier National Park, eightmiles from the plant.(16) As the data accumulate, the destruction ofthese unique national resources continues unabated. There are alsodocumented reports of damage to trees and crops from fluorideemissions in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and New York.(18)Thus, the fluorine-containing emission is the most dangerous toplants in the presence of atmospheric chlorine and sulphur dioxide.Hydrogen fluoride is a dominant pollutant in the presence of nitrogenoxides or carbon monoxide.Hydrofluoric leak prevention imperativeBy: Vivek ThuppilIssue date: 1/14/05 Section: Sci-TechPrintEmail Article Tools Page 1 of 1 You are in mortal danger! At anymoment, your life could be snuffed out like a faint flame in aJanuary snowstorm. Now that I got your attention, let me get to thepoint of this commentary. Pollution - What do you think of when youhear that word? Giant smoke-stacks belching out thick black smokeinto the air? A giant concrete pipe emptying questionably coloredliquid into a lake or river?Hydrofluoric acid is a highly corrosive substance. A single drop ofHF on the skin can burn all the way to the bone. Inhalation of HF gasis almost lethal. When released, hydrofluoric acid gas would form alethal and dense cloud close to the ground. Now in all fairness toSunoco, let me state that a leak of this substance is highlyunlikely. I'm sure that Sunoco has enough safety regulations andmechanisms in place to prevent this sort of disaster. However, a leakof hydrofluoric acid gas has happened before. In October 1987, a leakat the Marathon Refinery in Texas City sent 1,000 people to thehospital. A few months later, it happened in the Los Angeles suburbof Torrance, Calif. when there was an explosive leak of hydrofluoricacid from a Mobil refinery. In 1990, a court order was passed againstMobil to convert it to a less dangerous form of modified HF. However,the risk of explosion in the L.A. area is obviously higher due to thehigher incidence of earthquakes in that region.Nonetheless, HF leakage is a potential problem anywhere. Manyactivist organizations in Philadelphia are working to pressure Sunocoto convert the HF used in the refinery to a modified form that wouldremain in a gel-like state even after a leak, thereby greatlyreducing the range over which the leak can spread. For moreinformation, you can visit one of these organizations at:

http://www.cleanwateraction.org/pa/clrtc.html.

 

This organization claims that the transition to modified HF would

cost Sunoco as little as $7 million, which, if true, is extremely inexpensive

for a large corporation like Sunoco. On the one hand, the chance of a leak isextremely small, even negligible. But can we afford a negligible riskwhen 4 million people are in potential danger?