From the AP this morning: A tanker carrying chlorine gas crashed near Exit 21 on the New York Thruway, near Catskill, around 1:50 am. The spill closed I-87 northbound for almost seven hours:
Sgt. Michael Kopp says it wasn't immediately known how much chlorine the tanker was hauling or how much had spilled. A hazardous materials team was called to the scene.
The northbound lanes were closed between Exit 20 at Saugerties (SAW'-ger-teez) and Exit 21. They reopened around 9 a.m.
Tip to the Daily Freeman: When reprinting AP stories about preposterously-named local burgs, you might want to edit out the pronunciation notes.
All levity aside, chlorine is a very bad thing to spill. The worst chlorine-spill disaster in US history was in 2005, when a train crash released 90 tons of the stuff into a residential neighborhood in Graniteville, SC and killed nine people. Emergency response expert Stephen Brittle has an informative breakdown of what went wrong at the Graniteville disaster on his website. One important takehome message: If you've been exposed to chlorine, tell your doctor.
This aforementioned woman did not go to an emergency room until Sunday the 9th of January, four days after the incident, because she did not get any better. There was no notification to her and others about potential health effects to watch out for. The hospital, unfortunately, diagnosed her with pneumonia and merely gave her antibiotics, which did not help at all. She saw her primary care physician on Tuesday, the 11th of January, who realized her chlorine exposure, and prescribed something to ease the inflammation of her lungs and allow her to breathe easier.
