Expert: Traces Of Sodium Cyanide Near Tianjin Port
China faces the grim challenge of cleaning a vast 10 sq km of area filled with highly toxic chemicals, including around 700 tons of sodium cyanide, after the blasts in Tianjin, in which 114 people were killed with another 70 -most of them firefighters -are unaccounted for.
Traces of sodium cyanide was on Monday found in waters near Tianjin port indicating that it has spread to the sea, even as experts raced against time to clear the area of toxic chemicals stored at a warehouse ravaged by blasts.
The State Oceanic Administration acknowledged that minute traces of cyanide have been detected and that it was spreading into the waters of the port which is on the western shore of the Bohai Bay .
Sodium cyanide is among the most rapidly acting of all known poisons -it's a potent inhibitor of respiration, which decreases human body's oxidative metabolism and oxygen utilization. Lactic acidosis occurs in the event of inhalation or contact, and an oral dosage as small as 200-300 mg is often fatal. Other chemicals, including magnesium particles and sulphur, remain scattered in some buildings near the core.
Nearly five days after the explosions on Wednesday , investigations indicate most firemen who rushed to the scene were contract workers with little knowledge or training about handling chemical fire.The explosions were caused when firefighters threw water on chemical fire, regarding them as a case of ordinary fire.Chemicals stored in the warehouse and surrounding areas in Tianjin were of a kind which explodes on contact with water. “Rescuers are now using hydrogen peroxide to neutralize toxins and building cofferdams to enclose the damaged barrels,“ said Shi Luze, chief of staff of the Beijing Military Area Command.
“Navigating through the blasts zone is extremely dangerous because of the burning chemicals and twisted containers, which could collapse at any time. We had to make marks in order not to get lost,“ Wang Ke, who led a group of chemical specialist soldiers, said.
(With agency inputs) For the full report, log on to http:www.timesofindia.com
