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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 16, 1979)
' Page 6 THE BATTALION MONDAY, APRIL 16, 1979 What’s mm mm| and how it can hurt you Here’s a through the train and what <me of the chemicals A&M they can do gas is highly flammable, and the flame may be invisible. Ammonia: Causes bums to skin and eyes. Harmful to be fetal. Based on a sp.« square and 6-12 mph winds, the U S. Depart ment of Transportation recommends evacuating a downwind area of half a mile. Bromine: A corrosive and an oxidizer, this gas is extremely poisonous. P tion distance is an area miles wide downwind. Chlorine: Similar to bromine, this gas was the one released in the derailment in Florida April 8. Recommended evacuation distance is 2 miles long and 1% miles wide. Ethyl Chloride: Bums skin and eyes, is harmful if inhaled, and is highly flammable. An area % mile around the site must be evacuated to assure safety from flying fragments in case of explosion. liquid Petroleum Gas (IJPG): Highly flammable. An area at least % mile around the site must be evacuated to protect people from flying fragments in case of explosion. liquid Hydrogen: May bum skin and eyes. This Hydrogen Chloride: This corrosive is harmful if inhaled, and bums the skin and eyes. Recom mended evacuation distance: 1 miles by 1 mile. Hydrogen Cyanide: Highly flammable and ex tremely poisonous. Recommended evacuation distance: % mile by % mile. liquid Methane: The explosion danger of this chemical requires evacuation at least % mile in all directions. Vinyl Chloride: This gas, eon tain ted by a car which derailed but did not leak in Bryan Jan. 5, is highly flammable, poses an explosion hazard, and a fire may produce poisonous gases. A tank car of vinyl chloride is sometimes called a "rol ling time bomb.” Nitric Acid: May ignite other combustible mate rials. Vapors can be fatal. Recommended evacu ation distance: % mile by % mile. Phosgene: This gas was used as a weapon in World War I. It is extremely poisonous. Recom mended evacuation distance: 5 miles by 3 miles. Sulfur Dioxide: The vapors are extremely irritating and are harmful if inhaled. Recommended evacuation distance: % mile by % mile. Derailment would mean troubl Sun Theatres Battalion Classifieds Call 845-2611 By SCOTT D. HARING Battalion Reporter Nobody likes to think about train disasters. But 13 to 15 trains go right through the Texas A&M University campus every day, and on each of them could be any of 1,650 hazard ous chemicals. Right now, there’s not an estab lished evacuation plan for the cam pus dormitories, and a new plan con cerning the evacuation of classrooms and offices is still under study by a committee. The railroads, as a general rule, have done very well at safely han dling dangerous cargoes. But there are always exceptions. About a week ago, 28 cars of a Louisiana & Nashville train derailed four miles from Crestview, Fla. More than 4,500 people were evacuated from an 80-square-mile area around the wreck because of chlorine gas pouring from some of the cars. Tank cars carrying anhydr ous ammonia, acetone and sulfur ex ploded and burned, and a car of poisonous carbolic acid hung off the side of a bridge over the Yellow River. In a train derailment in Bryan Jan. 5, five cars filled with vinyl chloride went off the tracks. The derailment was on the same track that runs along Wellborn Road through the Texas A&M campus, and was about two This derailment of five tank cars carrying vinyl chloride gas occurred Jan. 5 in Bryan, on the same tracks that run through the Texas A&M campus. They didn’t leak, but 250 people* evacuated from the area as a precaution, Battalion photo by Lee Roy Lesclip] 333 University 84€ The only movie in town Double-Feature Every Week Open 10 a.m.-2 a.m. Mon.-Sat. 12 Noon - 12 Midnight Sun No one under 18 Ladles Discount With This Coupon BOOK STORE & 25c PEEP SHOWS 846-9808 HASSLE-FREE WEEK Free Pregnancy Testing Pregnancy Terminations West Loop Clinic 2909 West Loop South 610 Houston, Texas 622-2170 = MONDAY - APRIL 16 == Hassle-Free's Monday Afternoon Recess. 12:30-2:30 Dnll=E §= Field ^TUESDAY - APRIL 17 President Miller’s Student Forum — Hassle-Free will ==§ present Dr. Miller in a question and answer period at noon Hi at Rudder Fountain. !WEDNESDAY - APRIL 18 Root Beer Chugging Contest” noon at the academic building on the library side. A 50c entrance fee-will be | charged. •' ^ ^ v ^ jTHURSDAY - APRIL 19 \ Jim Locke, the Student Legal Advisor will hold a question ! and answer period in the MSC Lounge at noon. [FRIDAY - APRIL 20 i ^acuity Reception hosted by Hassle-Free and OSA in the j Off-Campus Center. 2:00-4:00 p.m. [ 11 xriTuxxxiximixi in in MSC Political Forum RALPH NADER Corporate Power in America Monday April 16 Rudder Auditorium 8 p.m. Students - $1.00 Non-Student - $1.50 Tickets on sale at MSC Box Office miles north of the campus. Bryan authorities evacuated ap proximately 250 people from nearby homes and businesses, but there was no chemical leak and they were al lowed to return a few hours later. A spokesman for Dow Chemical, the manufacturers of the vinyl chloride, said that if such an explo sion happened, "it would be a terrific force.” According to the Texas Transpor tation Institute, 46 percent of all the chemicals shipped by rail in the United States in 1972 were shipped from, delivered to or passed through Texas. Due to the constant expansion of Texas industry, especially the chem ical and petroleum industries, the percentage may be even higher to day. A TTI report says, “The poten tial of catastrophic accidents from the movement of hazardous materials in Texas is among the highest in the nation.” In the event of a hazardous chemi cal spill near the Texas A&M cam pus, what would the local authorities MANOR EAST 3 Buck Rogers Fast Break Young Frankenstein SKYWAY TWIN WEST Firepower Plus Eat My Dust EAST Halloween Plus The Driver CAMPUS Midnight Express do? Brazos County Civil Defense has set up a Hazardous Material Emergency Team to deal with just that situation. Jake Cangleose, county civil defense director and chairman, said that the team is made up of the chiefs of the Bryan and College Station fire departments, the towns’ police chiefs and the sheriff If a chemical spill occurred, the fire department would be the first to take action. Charles Yeager, assis tant chief of the College Station fire department, said that all College Station firemen have received hazardous chemical training. To find out just what chemical they would be dealing with, Yeager said, both the engineer conductor carry a waybill listing the cargo of every car. In the past, however, Yeager said that railroad person nel have been reluctant to hand over the waybill to the fire depart ment. Yeager said that there is also a toll-free number, set up by the chemical manufacturers, that can be called. Using this group’s com puters, he said, information on the chemical spilled and how to deal with it can be obtained within min utes. The fire chief is the person who determines if an evacuation is neces sary and how extensive it should be. It is the responsibility of the police and sheriff to carry it out. Thomas R. Parsons, director of se curity and traffic for Texas A&M, said that the standard evacuation procedure includes sirens and loudspeakers to alert the public, along with door-to-door checks to make sure that everybody has left. If a hazardous chemical spill hap pened right next to Texas A&M, however, the problems would be tremendous. Parsons said there is no evacuation plan for the campus. Howard Perry, associate vice president for student services, is the head of a committee that has been created to look into the problem. Perry said he wrote toanui other institutions with siti similar to Texas A&M’s, but blank. "We’re plowing newgroud, 1 said. The details of a plan, Perr depend upon the circumstau the accident. If the accident occurred at the dormitories would be ol concern. Perry said the nw being written would involve resident advisers in the don alert students and get then common meeting place farei away from the fumes thatl would be no danger. Just to away that would be, Perr) sail pends on what chemical was Right now. Parsons said, i jj, and loudspeakers would be i r rj; alert dorm residents incasei no railment. He also said thatl • (j), sity police would go throfljjji dorms making sure that eu had been evacuated. pu If a hazardous chemical spfl curred during the day, PemH evacuation would be a “trtj dously complicated process. | an only would the dorms havefl evacuated, hut all the buikli : hi campus that officials deter 50 were in danger would havei ov evacuated, too. « Perry said there would befl^ plan drawn up concernMjf evacuation of classrooms add (j, but “I don’t know what it s be. If an accident were tohaj fore this plan was drawn up, vefsity Police has what it Jj}, "ready phone list. They wo this list to call the supervisotiL m the buildings and tell themlt|$j cuate the people in that to a particular area. Parsoi™ that right now either heorIi| er sity Police Chief Russ McF depending on who was avail r nt the time, would make the (k|] e concerning which build sc would be evacuated, andwkfjj people from them wouldbesL SI