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I won't pretend to be a chemist but... Where does the chlorine go if it just turns to CO2? Wikipedia says you get HCl and Polymers and Carbon Monoxide. And i

I won't pretend to be a chemist but... Where does the chlorine go if it just turns to CO2? Wikipedia says you get HCl and Polymers and Carbon Monoxide. And in an open fire in an uncontrolled environment with impure inputs, who the fuck knows what is actually being released? That might ultimately be fine. But I think this is a much much more complex problem than C2H3CL+O2->CO2 I think the right answer to all of this is (1) to be really up front about what is happening and (2) for independent respected experts (EPA? MIT?) to be taking samples and testing them. Has that happened? (Edit: Just the fact the cloud is not transparent proves it is more than CO2...)

shadowgovt 4y ago
The chlorine doesn't turn into CO2. HCL reacts with everything and turns into salt and water. But it reacts so rapidly and so readily that it was basically all used up well before the evac order was lifted (possibly, the area will see a little acid rain, but not as bad as in the era of un-scrubbed fossil fuel plants everywhere. And acid rain doesn't mean "you go outside and melt;" it's hard on paint, plastics, open water, and plants because it effs with the pH, but at the concentrations from a few train cars spread over hundreds of square miles, life will handle it. Better than leaving the vinyl chloride concentrated in one place to do damage and then denature into HCL on its own). Most of the visible chunk of the cloud is soot (solid carbon chains). The EPA has recommended cleaning up the soot where it lands. ... And they are currently doing ongoing air quality testing, yes. The tests continue to show acceptable levels of impurities IIUC.