{"id":11009,"date":"2015-08-14T08:22:24","date_gmt":"2015-08-14T13:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=11009"},"modified":"2015-08-14T08:22:24","modified_gmt":"2015-08-14T13:22:24","slug":"china-scrambles-to-hide-toxic-fallout-of-tianjin-chemical-explosion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=11009","title":{"rendered":"China Scrambles To Hide Toxic Fallout Of Tianjin Chemical Explosion"},"content":{"rendered":"

China Scrambles To Hide Toxic Fallout Of Tianjin Chemical Explosion<\/a><\/h3>\n

Two days after an “apocalyptic”\u00a0explosion<\/a>\u00a0in the port city of Tianjin killed at least 50 people and vaporized a bit of\u00a0excess auto inventory<\/a>, Chinese officials are struggling to explain what happened and reassure a nervous public.<\/p>\n

The blast – footage of which is reminiscent of a nuclear detonation – likely stemmed from what The New York times called a “witches brew” of toxic chemicals warehoused in the industrial zone. That has residents on edge, as many wonder if the air is safe to breathe. Here\u2019s\u00a0The Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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They wondered if even the air was safe because of the smoke, still billowing hours later from vestiges of the inferno, which destroyed an industrial zone near the port. Many people wore masks.<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n

\u201cRight now, we don\u2019t know anything,\u201d said Sun Meirong, 52, an office cleaner who descended 13 flights of stairs with her 1-year-old grandson after the explosions blew in her apartment windows and front door.<\/em><\/p>\n

Questions loomed over the precise reasons the chemicals had ignited, detonating in frightening fireballs that registered on earthquake scales, engulfed hundreds of new cars awaiting export and shattered windows in high-rises a mile away.<\/em><\/p>\n

At least one chemical known to have been stockpiled at the site, calcium carbide, can emit flammable gases when it becomes wet.<\/strong>Some outside experts speculated that firefighters, in their effort to douse the flames, may have inadvertently contributed to the explosions.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIf enough water gets in there, calcium carbide is going to very quickly decompose,\u201d said Chris Weber, president and chief executive of Dr. Hazmat Inc., a hazardous-chemical consulting concern in Longmont, Colo. \u201cThe most likely and most violent reaction would be the calcium carbide.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China Scrambles To Hide Toxic Fallout Of Tianjin Chemical Explosion Two days after an “apocalyptic”\u00a0explosion\u00a0in the port city of Tianjin killed at least 50 people and vaporized a bit of\u00a0excess auto inventory, Chinese officials are struggling to explain what happened and reassure a nervous public. The blast – footage of which is reminiscent of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8073,8072,130,8074,1921,8071,4318],"class_list":["post-11009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-calcium-carbide","tag-chemical-explosion","tag-china","tag-hazardous-chemicals","tag-new-york-times","tag-tianjin","tag-zerohedge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11010,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11009\/revisions\/11010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}