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Pennsylvania Acid Spill

Do we have anyone on the TFP who was affected or knows anyone who was evacuated by the Pennsylvania hydroflouric acid spill? This article makes it sound like the authorities removed everyone from the vicinity quickly, but I'm curious how much this incident upturned residents' lives.

Quote:

Acid spill evacuation ends for 5,000 Pennsylvania residents (CNN) -- Some 5,000 residents in eastern Pennsylvania were allowed to return to their homes Saturday afternoon, some 12 hours after they were evacuated when a tractor-trailer carrying 33,000 pounds of toxic hydrofluoric acid overturned after the driver tried to avoid a deer, authorities said.

State police identified the driver as Raymond Leblanc, 54, of Harrow, Ontario, Canada. Leblanc, who initially was trapped in the truck, was taken to a hospital where he was treated and released. Police said a passenger in the truck was unhurt.

No other injuries were reported.

The truck flipped over on its side and slid along northbound State Road 33, which was closed in both directions from Belfast to Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, from the time of the early-morning accident until about 6 p.m. Saturday.

Most of the acid in the tank was in the form of pressurized gas, but there also was some water, said Northampton County spokesman John Conklin.

State and federal hazardous materials experts stopped the leak by noon. The wreck occurred at 3:30 a.m. near Wind Gap.

Conklin said many evacuees -- those living within a mile of the accident site in Plainfield Township -- went to a shelter set up at nearby Pen Argyl High School in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania.

A dispatcher with the Northhampton County Division of Emergency Management said residents were allowed to begin returning to their homes about 3:45 p.m. Saturday.

Hydrogen fluoride is a hazardous chemical compound used mainly for industrial purposes such as etching glass, and is extremely corrosive. It also is an ingredient in high-octane gasoline, refrigerants, aluminum and light bulbs.

Contact with concentrated solutions can cause severe burns, according to medical authorities. Inhaling the gas causes respiratory irritation, severe eye damage and pulmonary edema.

That's a beautiful scenic stretch of Rt. 33 that I've been on plenty of times but I don't live close by...I'm about 70 miles due south. I think some of my fellow car forum buddies live close to there but nobody has posted about it yet, I even looked for posts after I saw your thread here.

Wow. HFl is terrifying stuff. I wouldn't want to be within 1,000 miles of an truck full of it. (The stuff apparently seeps through skin and liquifies bones in a repeating reaction)

I'm scared of it.

A lot.

That's a sparsely populated area of Northampton County. I have been through there many times and have done some work at sites in the area. I have family not far from there who had no idea that the accident occurred.

Good to hear that there are few people who live in that region. I hope that there will be more communication about the spill so if any respiratory or other appilcable health concerns creep up later they will think to connect the two.

There was a spill around my area like 20 years ago. One of my earliest memories is evacuating and going to the next county over. Since everything was closed there was nothing to do so we just set in the car for a few hours listening to the radio for when it was safe to go back home. I'm going to have to ask my parents if I'm remembering it correctly because I was quite young. They should remember what was spilled. I wanna guess it was chlorine or something..

Anyways, I've noticed my little area has a higher occurrence of certain cancers than neighboring places. With no proof, I've always suspected that had something to do with it.