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Few-Ganache1416 OP t1_j8ugg3v wrote

Reply to comment by shesgotmoxie in IAMA Environmental Engineer AMA about cleaning up after chemical spills! by Few-Ganache1416

The total VOCs they are measuring wouldn't capture dioxin concentrations in air, they would need to be evaluated separately. I haven't seen any dioxin measurements yet and I am not aware if they are measuring them at the moment.

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painlesspics t1_j8umbvh wrote

This is a problem, combustion byproducts should be the primary thing they're looking for if they torched it... right?

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Few-Ganache1416 OP t1_j8v4fru wrote

I'm not saying they aren't paying attention to it, just that I haven't seen anything in the public space at the moment.

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[deleted] t1_j9pmmwt wrote

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painlesspics t1_j9pysgb wrote

Aside from prevention measures that nobody wants to pay for to keep them from happening in the first place? Not a whole lot.

The sampling equipment/testing supplies have a shelf life and are super expensive... To the point where it's prohibitive to keep them in stock in local communities.

Perhaps having a kit associated with different cargo to keep with the engineer that can detect cargo and their byproducts, or to add reaction byproducts (including combustion) to SDSs in the manifest would give better Intel on evacuation requirements.

Overall, in my opinion, the system needs to not only punish/fine when preventable incidents happen, but reward prevention actions when they do occur. Otherwise fines become the cost of doing business and are part of the decision matrix when deciding where to spend money on prevention.

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