'
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€
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12 Noon - 12 Midnight Sun
No one under 18
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846-9808
HASSLE-FREE WEEK
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Pregnancy Terminations
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2909 West Loop South 610
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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