Sodium cyanide spill into Birmingham canal

[55palfers]

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/maj...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yk7nd8r9do

This is scary. Actually happened on 11 August. First I've heard of it.

How on earth does stuff like this happen these days?

That's a huge volume of water to be treated and removed.

Edited by 55palfers on Tuesday 13th August 23:03

[Mobile Chicane]

How the Hell did that happen?

There are established protocols for dealing with hazardous waste - none of which involve entering watercourses untreated.

[andy43]

Used for chrome plating afaik.
Advice is to avoid Birmingham. No problem

[55palfers]

Mobile Chicane said:

There are established protocols for dealing with hazardous waste - none of which involve entering watercourses untreated.

Unless you're one of the UK water companies of course..........

[dudleybloke]

Well, I won't be kayaking there!

[leef44]

Mobile Chicane said:

How the Hell did that happen?

There are established protocols for dealing with hazardous waste - none of which involve entering watercourses untreated.

Yes this was what I was thinking so I will be interested to hear about the investigation.

[dudleybloke]

leef44 said:

Mobile Chicane said:

How the Hell did that happen?

There are established protocols for dealing with hazardous waste - none of which involve entering watercourses untreated.

Yes this was what I was thinking so I will be interested to hear about the investigation.

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/wal...

[motco]

andy43 said:

Used for chrome plating afaik.
Advice is to avoid Birmingham. No problem

Used in steel case hardening.

[808 Estate]

Someone's insurance company is going to get a nasty shock.

[leef44]

dudleybloke said:

leef44 said:

Mobile Chicane said:

How the Hell did that happen?

There are established protocols for dealing with hazardous waste - none of which involve entering watercourses untreated.

Yes this was what I was thinking so I will be interested to hear about the investigation.

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/wal...

Thanks for that. So it seems like it came from a leaking tank. Will have to wait to see what unfolds from the investigation. However, hazardous material storage tank would normally have enclosed area for spillage with alarm system to avoid any outside contamination.

It could be poor maintenance or human error during maintenance work or operation but this is just speculation so will have to wait to see what comes out.

[otolith]

It will, I expect, come down to cost cutting negligence. If so, someone is in trouble.

[otolith]

Yes, it’s the same stuff. A large enough dose will kill you very quickly, a smaller dose will make you very ill.

[hairykrishna]

nuyorican said:

Forgive my ignorance, but is this the same cyanide that is like, deadly? The stuff the nazis topped themselves with when caught by crunching a tiny ampoule and swallowing. The BBC article just says 'may cause seizures'. Or is this a kind of derivative/isomer?

Same stuff. Used in a bunch of industrial processes.

Having seen the state of some of the small coating and plating companies I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.

[ATG]

No one saying how much was spilled at what concentration and into how much water it has spread. I.e. no indication at all whether this is a serious problem in the first place or one that can actually be cleaned up rather than just diluted away until it is eventually a non-issue.

[juice]

nuyorican said:

Cheers.

BBC updated. Offending company has been identified.

"quality conscious and environmentally aware organisation."

Chinny Reckon.

[ATG]

hairykrishna said:

Same stuff. Used in a bunch of industrial processes.

Having seen the state of some of the small coating and plating companies I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.

I did some work experience in one many years ago. If memory serves, they used copper cyanide as an electrolyte to plate copper onto steel wire. The wire ran out of the electrolyte bath, through a water bath that was supposed to remove the bulk of the electrolyte wetting the surface of the wire, and then the wire ran into an acid bath to etch the freshly plated copper. A small amount of the cyanide solution would make it into the acid bath, with the result that a small amount of hydrogen cyanide got released from the bath into the shop floor's air. As a result there was a massive amount of fresh air blasted into area next to the baths, and if you were standing in one of those blasts of fresh air, you could breath. If you stepped out of the air column, your lungs would lock up. Your body involuntarily refused to breath. And if you were new to the shop floor, after a few days you'd get some nose bleeds. Happy days. The work experience student got sent out to take samples from the baths to check the concentrations of the electrolytes and acids. Because it was such a great job.

[otolith]

ATG said:

No one saying how much was spilled at what concentration and into how much water it has spread. I.e. no indication at all whether this is a serious problem in the first place or one that can actually be cleaned up rather than just diluted away until it is eventually a non-issue.

Enough to cause serious damage to the wildlife in the canal, by the looks of it.

[ATG]

Without knowing how many fish have actually been killed and how close they were to the spill, it's hard to say.

[otolith]

BBC reporter not very close to the source and saying lots of dead fish. Likely not all visible yet, and likely a lot of invertebrates also done for.

[wolfracesonic]

Will all the shopping trollies in the canal be nice and shiny now?