Hydrofluoric leak prevention imperative
Vivek Thuppil
Issue date: 1/14/05 Section: Sci-Tech
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You are in mortal danger! At any moment, your life could be snuffed out like a faint flame in a January snowstorm. Now that I got your attention, let me get to the point of this commentary. Pollution - What do you think of when you hear that word? Giant smoke-stacks belching out thick black smoke into the air? A giant concrete pipe emptying questionably colored liquid into a lake or river?
On a crisp, clear January morning, when you're looking at the Center City skyline with a bright blue sky as the background from the Drexel campus, do you ever think of pollution? Probably not. Well, in a fairly industrial area like southeastern Pennsylvania, you're probably being subjected to a fair amount of pollution every day, and are in danger of being subjected to much more.
More than any pollutant in the air, what isn't in the air probably poses the biggest threat to your health. I'm talking about hydrofluoric acid. Hydrofluoric acid is used in the industrial processes of a vast majority of oil refineries nationwide, and the Sunoco refinery in Philadelphia is no different. The biggest danger from HF is in the case of a leak or explosion, when it gets out into the environment. The acid is highly corrosive, and depending on wind conditions, everyone within a 40 kilometer radius would be affected. In the densely populated Philadelphia area, this includes 3.9 million people potentially at risk.
Hydrofluoric acid is a highly corrosive substance. A single drop of HF on the skin can burn all the way to the bone. Inhalation of HF gas is almost lethal. When released, hydrofluoric acid gas would form a lethal and dense cloud close to the ground. Now in all fairness to Sunoco, let me state that a leak of this substance is highly unlikely. I'm sure that Sunoco has enough safety regulations and mechanisms in place to prevent this sort of disaster. However, a leak of hydrofluoric acid gas has happened before. In October 1987, a leak at the Marathon Refinery in Texas City sent 1,000 people to the hospital. A few months later, it happened in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance, Calif. when there was an explosive leak of hydrofluoric acid from a Mobil refinery. In 1990, a court order was passed against Mobil to convert it to a less dangerous form of modified HF. However, the risk of explosion in the L.A. area is obviously higher due to the higher incidence of earthquakes in that region.
Nonetheless, HF leakage is a potential problem anywhere. Many activist organizations in Philadelphia are working to pressure Sunoco to convert the HF used in the refinery to a modified form that would remain in a gel-like state even after a leak, thereby greatly reducing the range over which the leak can spread. For more information, you can visit one of these organizations at http://www.cleanwateraction.org/pa/clrtc.html. This organization claims that the transition to modified HF would cost Sunoco as little as $7 million, which, if true, is extremely inexpensive for a large corporation like Sunoco. On the one hand, the chance of a leak is extremely small, even negligible. But can we afford a negligible risk when 4 million people are in potential danger?
Vivek Thuppil is a junior majoring in environmental science and bioscience.
On a crisp, clear January morning, when you're looking at the Center City skyline with a bright blue sky as the background from the Drexel campus, do you ever think of pollution? Probably not. Well, in a fairly industrial area like southeastern Pennsylvania, you're probably being subjected to a fair amount of pollution every day, and are in danger of being subjected to much more.
More than any pollutant in the air, what isn't in the air probably poses the biggest threat to your health. I'm talking about hydrofluoric acid. Hydrofluoric acid is used in the industrial processes of a vast majority of oil refineries nationwide, and the Sunoco refinery in Philadelphia is no different. The biggest danger from HF is in the case of a leak or explosion, when it gets out into the environment. The acid is highly corrosive, and depending on wind conditions, everyone within a 40 kilometer radius would be affected. In the densely populated Philadelphia area, this includes 3.9 million people potentially at risk.
Hydrofluoric acid is a highly corrosive substance. A single drop of HF on the skin can burn all the way to the bone. Inhalation of HF gas is almost lethal. When released, hydrofluoric acid gas would form a lethal and dense cloud close to the ground. Now in all fairness to Sunoco, let me state that a leak of this substance is highly unlikely. I'm sure that Sunoco has enough safety regulations and mechanisms in place to prevent this sort of disaster. However, a leak of hydrofluoric acid gas has happened before. In October 1987, a leak at the Marathon Refinery in Texas City sent 1,000 people to the hospital. A few months later, it happened in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance, Calif. when there was an explosive leak of hydrofluoric acid from a Mobil refinery. In 1990, a court order was passed against Mobil to convert it to a less dangerous form of modified HF. However, the risk of explosion in the L.A. area is obviously higher due to the higher incidence of earthquakes in that region.
Nonetheless, HF leakage is a potential problem anywhere. Many activist organizations in Philadelphia are working to pressure Sunoco to convert the HF used in the refinery to a modified form that would remain in a gel-like state even after a leak, thereby greatly reducing the range over which the leak can spread. For more information, you can visit one of these organizations at http://www.cleanwateraction.org/pa/clrtc.html. This organization claims that the transition to modified HF would cost Sunoco as little as $7 million, which, if true, is extremely inexpensive for a large corporation like Sunoco. On the one hand, the chance of a leak is extremely small, even negligible. But can we afford a negligible risk when 4 million people are in potential danger?
Vivek Thuppil is a junior majoring in environmental science and bioscience.
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