New petrochemical plants intended to improve city environments by producing “lead-free” petrol have created another, more deadly, environmental hazard. Accidents at the plants could lead to lethal clouds of hydrofluoric acid (HF), putting “tens of thousands at peril”, according to the Washington-based Environmental Policy Institute. The new process for making unleaded petrol involves using HF […]
Abstract Aluminium and fluoride in the water supply and their removal for haemodialysis have been investigated in the Trent Region, U.K., and wide variations noted. The efficiency of removal of these elements from the mains water supplying home haemodialysis units by different water treatment systems currently installed has been assessed and a follow-up study performed […]
All Christy Carton wanted to do was prevent her town’s ground water from being contaminated with cyanide. (and fluoride) She ended up doing a bit more than that. The Frederick County mother and environmental champion won a court battle that will change how dozens of U.S. companies dispose of the wastes from smelting metals. The […]
NEARLY four decades after the battle erupted over fluoridating the water to combat tooth decay, the issue rarely makes news. But it continues to simmer. A recent special report in the American Chemical Society’s weekly Chemical and Engineering News documents growing concern about the health risks of fluoridation. There is also continuing debate about the […]
Torrance City Council members expressed surprise Tuesday that an $88,000 study on safety of the Mobil Oil refinery will not answer their key question: What is the risk of the plant continuing to use hydrofluoric acid — an acutely toxic chemical — in the refining process. “That was the most important aspect of the whole […]
When it comes to herbicides, preservatives and other chemicals, the public can be mighty choosy about what it allows in its food and drink. Except, that is, when it comes to putting fluorides in its drinking water. Half the American population and hundreds of millions more people around the world now quiescently accept the presence […]
Cubatao, Brazil – Quality of air, water improves in ‘valley of death’ Thanks to perhaps the biggest anti-pollution program ever mounted in Brazil, this industrial city nestled in the Serra do Mar mountains is on the way to losing its reputation as ”the valley of death.” With the Sao Paulo State environmental agency, Cetesb, mandating […]
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. — When Dr. Willard VerMeulen came here in 1924, this industrial city was filled with the penniless Dutch immigrants who turned out much of America’s furniture. As a dentist he had expected to see suffering, but even he was shocked by what he found. “Not one person in 10 had a mouth […]
Use of sulfuric acid instead of hydrofluoric acid at the Mobil Oil Corp. refinery in Torrance could pose less danger to area residents in the event of an accident, according to a preliminary report prepared by the Torrance city staff. But it also would mean a substantial increase in truck traffic and hazardous-waste disposal problems, […]
Citing a November explosion at the Mobil Oil Corp. refinery in Torrance, South Coast Air Quality Management District officials have warned that the possibility exists for a “significant release” of hydrogen fluoride gas at facilities that use the chemical. An AQMD staff report obtained Monday calls for creation of a “high-level, multiagency” task force that […]
