If terrorists filled a subway with chocolate syrup, would it kill people?

[SoCalDem]

Well..that question was not asked, but it might as well have been..

This morning I caught a bit of a hearing from Thursday where congresscritters were questioning "experts" about the recently "found" WMDs.. Didn't catch which genius it was, but one of them went through a convoluted scenario about water treatment facilities and how the last procedure was when they add chlorine to the water before they "release" it into the water supply, and how terrorists "could" get hold of this chlorine. he asked if dumping that chlorine into the subway "would kill people".. The "expert" of course said.. "Why, yes it would"...

Weldon was one of them..of course he's still waxing poetic about the invisible, and apparently vanished evidence he's been pushing..

These guys need a new line of work.. There are "B" movies to be made, and they could certainly get work as "writers/scenario advisers"..

They are all so damned desperate.. they are reminding me more and more of "Get Smart"... "would you believe?....."

RIP, Maxwell Smart..

[Mojambo]

1. Ah, but what a way to go. n/t

[benburch]

2. You understand exactly. nt

[Cassandra]

3. The tunnels or the cars?

I suppose you could drown in anything liquid. Chocolate syrup...what a way to go!

[SoCalDem]

4. yep.. it beats au jus all to hell

and experts say chocolate is actually good for you :)

[Ezlivin]

5. The syrup wouldn't, but the fat people clogging the entrance would

Are you in darkface or just licking a subway train?

[Eugene]

6. If they can release the chlorine as gas, it can injure and kill.

Chlorine gas was used as a chemical weapon early in World War I.
As for chocolate syrup, google the Boston molasses flood.

[eppur_se_muova]

9. Beat me to it!

"Would water be harmful, if you stuck your head in a bucket full of it for several minutes?"
"Yes, I guess you could say it would be."

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807050210/qid=1151704666/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-2855237-0684057?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

[Ian David]

7. Many people have peanut allergies. Are peanut shells a WMD? n/t

[Lost-in-FL]

12. My co-worker is highly allergic to Chocolate

Can you believe that? She used to eat lots of it when she was a child. One day when she was in College, she ate chocolate and broke out in hives but didn't thought much of it. Then she ate chocolate again and had a seizure. She almost died!

[damntexdem]

8. Yes it would:

just contemplate all of the coronaries, cases of diabetes; and if the car were actually FILLED, then some riders would presumably drown. (Wow, imagine drowning in chocolate syrup!) ;-)

By the way, the chocolate syrup would then qualify as a WMD: a Weapon of Messy Dessert.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. Would you say it's time to panic?

Yes I would, Kent.

[ima_sinnic]

11. 21 killed in sudden flood of molasses in Boston, 1919

. . . At 529 Commercial Street, a huge molasses tank (50 ft (15 m) tall, 90 ft (27 m) in diameter and containing as much as 2.3 million US gallons (8,700 m³ or 8,700,000 litres)) collapsed. The collapse unleashed an immense wave of molasses between 8 and 15 ft (2.5 to 4.5 m) high, moving at 35 mph (56 km/h) and exerting a pressure of 2 ton/ft² (200 kPa). The molasses wave was of sufficient force to break the girders of the adjacent Boston Elevated Railway's Atlantic Avenue Elevated structure and lift a train off the tracks. Several nearby buildings were also destroyed, and several blocks were flooded to a depth of 2 to 3 feet. Twenty-one people were killed and 150 injured as the molasses crushed and asphyxiated many of the victims. Rescuers found it difficult to make their way through the syrup to help the victims. . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Molasses_Disaster


Excellent account in Smithsonian Magazine from 1983:
http://edp.org/molpark.htm

[LiberalEsto]

13. dibs for dark, semi-sweet syrup

and just a hint of mocha

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

14. There was the Great Molasses Flood back in the teens

I think in Boston. A large tank holding molasses ruptured, sending gallons of the gooey stuff down streets in a wave. I forget exactly how many people were killed.

[JuniperLea]

15. Distract! Distract! Distract! Before anyone connects the dots...

and realizes that the evidence they keep finding supports Saddam Hussein's claims that he destroyed all that stuff!