As chemicals incinerated, emotions also cook

[Wonder]

snip

Army rids itself of leftover weapons of mass destruction, distributing plastic sheeting to Alabamans nearby.
By Patrik Jonsson | Special to The Christian Science Monitor
ANNISTON, ALA. – What the Army's got buried in the nooks of Alabama's sand hills reads like a twisted tyrant's Christmas wish list: Nearly a million pounds of sarin gas, 1.5 million pounds of VX gas, and about 2 million pounds of mustard gas.

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For many in this populous region an hour east of Birmingham, it's high time the Army got rid of chemicals that have been the stuff of legend for 40 years. The overarching sentiment is one of support, an awareness that the Army is trying to fulfill its promise and put toxic weapons to bed as quietly and safely as it can. But some here speak bitterly of a strange irony: Even as the US searches out WMD around the world, they say, it's rarely put so many of its own people at risk.

Now, as a federal judge hears a final injunction request Friday from an environmental group trying to keep the incinerator from starting up, unease besets many, from the commissary to Wellborn Middle School, where a pressurized cafeteria is expected to guard children from any accidental chemical release. In court Friday, critics will argue that the Army has not done enough to protect the area's infirm, and has broken protocols on using the safest technology.

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Most here support the incinerator - both for destroying the toxins and for bringing jobs. But there's a palpable disappointment for a town that has been the unwitting stage for America's toxic weapons. Many acknowledge that the Army shared an "innocence" over the dangers of chemicals that were still new and strange when the program was founded. Still, critics say, a lack of forthrightness has tainted the project, shaking confidence in its safety. They argue that the Army has not adequately protected residents - or even considered safer options like underwater neutralization, which is in use at a Maryland site. "The question is whether the Army is putting people at risk unnecessarily," says Richard Futrell, a sociology professor at Eastern Kentucky University.

more...
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0808/p03s01-uspo.html

[DuctapeFatwa]

1. It will get more coverage when Wolf starts twitching in Atlanta

We don't really know how many people will get gassed, they've never burned 2000 tons of nerve gas in a populated area before.

[Wonder]

2. Overall People don't seem too concerned about this

The pragmatics seem to conclude that the filtration systems are AOK. Personally, I am a bit more cynical than that, especially if it turns out these emissions are consistently being burned in brokendown and minority communities. It just doesn't sit right with me this, yet it just lurks on the periphery like a no thing important. I beats me.

[DuctapeFatwa]

3. No nerve gas has not been burned in a populated area before

It has been stored down in Anniston for a while, the people who have seizure disorders from it are poor, rural southerners.

Those of you who are religious, please pray for the people of Anniston and all those to whom the wind brings the nerve gas.

==============
She never knows when the seizures will come. Perhaps in mid-sentence, as she is describing the warm, windy morning eight years ago when the first one struck, turning her lively face into a twisted, frozen mask.....

"If this were Westchester or Nassau County, this would not be happening," said Craig Williams of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, an advocates' group based in Kentucky that has sued to try to block the burning....

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uschem043402921aug05,0,7548216.story

[Wonder]

4. where is the outrage?

see this is the stuff that really goes over my head... I think this is a horror waiting to happen... and so far not a real peep about it... what does it take... I guess it is a no win situation it causes problems if it is stored... but incinerating it certainly has as horrific a consequence if not more horrific. Why not batch it in sealed containers and set it adrift on barges in the sea... of course that also have environmental ramifications if the barges should sink... but this incineration is truly symbolic of great idiocy if not the subtlest of showing that hey the DOD just doesn't GIVE A FUCK about lower class and minority communities. Truely. It is not like polluting in lower income and minority communities is new news, Monsanto, pfizer, dupont have been doing it for decades now... why the hell should this be any different? Is that it?

[DuctapeFatwa]

5. They say it would cost to much to neutralize it safely

So they will just burn it. I guess they want to see what happens when you gas a lot of people.

[Wonder]

6. what a peculiar rationale.

Than it is true regardless of how safe they say this filtration methods are this will be poisonous once these gases are incinerated into the environment. I apologize if I seem dense on this, but I raised this issue in GD and it seemed from a pragmatic perspective most seemed to believe these filtrations methods are safe and therefore there will be no horrific fall out from this experiment. At least that was the impression I was left with reading through many of the responses.

Let me be clear...

1- isn't it a form of denial to believe that even the most expensive filtration methods will render sarin nerve gas completely non-toxic, would that be a fair assessment?

2-Or are there safer methods that indeed to render the nerve gas non-toxic but are just too expensive to consider?

my apologies for my ignorance here, but, in my book, this is a real head scratcher.

[DuctapeFatwa]

7. There isnt anything they can do about it, it is just a self defense thing

What you are asking people to deal with is that the government is going to gass possibly millions of people tomorrow.

That's not a pleasant thought for lots of people, so it is just more comfortable emotionally to say that it is safe nerve gas and everything will be ok.

And if you're in the area that will get gassed and you don't have money for a plane ticket, what can you do but hug your family and ask people to pray.

[Wonder]

8. umm yah I understand that...

I was just trying to get a read on just how nefarious this is. the general take on it is that oh it's held up in court until they can get the DOD to neutralize it safely like they've don't somewhere in colorado. Me I just scratch my head and wonder WAIT they can neutralize the effects of nerve gas? Okay if you say so!!

However now that you say it like that: it being a defense thing. I think I have a better handle on what is actually going on here. Gee it's like killing two birds with one stone... they get rid of the stuff and empty out broken down communities all at the same time. hmmm. I guess my next question would be... well... what is the mortality rate once they are gased... will people just start dropping like flies... or is it a lingering kind of thing that will back up into our healthcare and court systems...?

And in considering that as a possibility... actually... GEE perhaps it will kick in a kind of corralling of these lepers and DOD can also begin monitoring FEMA's capabilities in regard to quarantine... nah... that's taking it a bit too far... the lepers will not be contagious after all... so theRE will be no need for quarantine... nix that last thought... which also means there will be no need for a vaccine either...

Fuck!

[DuctapeFatwa]

9. Not held up in court, judge said OK today, they start tomorrow

A lot of people won't even know what it is all about, and I guess in a way that could be a blessing.

[Wonder]

10. well I guess that ends this discussion than

eh?