How to Handle a Chlorine Bomb (Chlorine is more hype than hurt)

[Ian David]

Kris Alexander is a Captain in the U.S. Army, with experience in intelligence, homeland security, hazardous materials, and weapons of mass destruction. His March, 2005 story for Wired, "We Need Spy Blogs," has quietly become one of the most influential articles on intelligence matters in recent years. Everyone here at the DANGER ROOM is beyond psyched to have Kris contributing.

Chlorine is to weapons of mass destruction as Run/DMC is to rap: old school. The OG of WMD is making a comeback on the mean streets of Baghdad, and it isn’t good. Fellow DANGER ROOM contributor Jason Sigger has pointed out the media hype that has followed these attacks. And he’s right so far. Chlorine is more hype than hurt, but it does add an ugly new facet to the war. So let’s put on our thinking hats and learn a little about our nasty little friend chlorine.



It’s everywhere and sometimes in large quantities. One of its primary uses is water purification so everywhere that there is water production, there is chlorine. Good news: in the US, Hazmat teams spend a lot of time dealing with it and training for releases. Lugging around a chlorine kit in a Level A suit is not fun (trust me), but dealing with chlorine releases is part of the curriculum for all Hazmat Technician training. There are releases, but fire departments with hazmat teams are ready.

This is not to say that these releases aren’t significant emotional events. According to the 2004 Emergency Response Guide (which every concerned citizen should know and love) the impact of chlorine release is as follows:

More:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/02/chlorine_bombs__1.html

[Little Wing]

1. Isn't a chlorine explosion what killed a lot of Indians in Bhopal?

[seriousstan]

2. No, it was methyl isocyanate.

Methyl isocyanate (MIC) is extremely toxic. The threshold limit value set by the American Conference on Government Industrial Hygienist was 0.02 ppm which is an extremely low concentration. MIC can damage by inhalation, ingestion and contact in quantities as low as 0.4 ppm. Damage includes coughing, chest pain, dyspnea, asthma, irritation of the eyes, nose and throat as well as skin damage. Higher levels of exposure, over 21 ppm, can result in pulmonary or lung edema, emphysema and hemorrhages, bronchial pneumonia and death. Although the detectable odor of methyl isocyanate is a concentration triple the permissible exposure, its potent lachrymal properties provide an excellent warning of its presence (at a concentration of 2-4 parts per million (ppm) subject's eyes are irritated, while at 21 ppm subjects could not tolerate the presence of methyl isocyanate in air)(Kimmerle and Eben 1964).

Proper care must be taken to store methyl isocyanate because of its ease of exothermically polymerizing (see Reactions) and its similar sensitivity to water. Only stainless steel or glass containers may be safely used; the MIC must be stored at temperatures below 40ºC.

The toxic effect of the compound was apparent in the Bhopal accident, when around 43,000 kilograms of methyl isocyanate and other gases were released over a populated area on December 3, 1984, killing thousands of people.

[azurnoir]

3. If I remember 8th grade science

Can't you make small amounts of chlorine gas (or ammonia gas for that matter) by distilling common household bleach? If so most of us have WMD's in our laundry roms.

[BadgerKid]

5. Maybe..more so, don't mix ammonia and bleach

or else you will get chlorine gas.

[Ian David]

7. I've done that by accident trying to clean Rottweiler poop out of grout. n/t

[AnnieBW]

4. Shoot, some blew up in our house once

Dad poured swimming pool chlorine into a bucket that remnants of ammonia in it from Mom cleaning earlier in the day. Ka-BOOM! Our garage still has the singe mark.

[provis99]

6. didn't chorine gas kill thousands of soldiers in World war I?

It may be "old school", but there's no school like the old school. I lost my sense of smell when I accidently mixed ammonia and bleach in my toilet bowl, creating chlorine gas that sent me to the hospital. Pretty dangerous stuff.

[Ian David]

8. When the insurgents drop thousands of toilets across Baghdad with "Smell Me" signs on them...

then we have a big problem.

[Ian David]

9. breathe through a cloth soaked with urine (ammonia) to nullify the effects of the Chlorine gas.

During WWI, a quick solution was to breathe through a cloth soaked with urine (ammonia) to nullify the effects of the Chlorine gas.
Posted by: MJ | Feb 23, 2007 4:20:58 PM
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/02/chlorine_bombs__1.html#comment-61349720