Accidents Do Happen

A heavily lined tanker filled with a chemical so toxic that it can eat through road surfaces and solid steel will soon be travelling up the Pacific Hwy, along the Oxley Hwy, through Wauchope and then up Beechwood Rd and a left into Rosewood Rd to deliver the first batch of hydrofluorosilicic acid to the Port Macquarie-Hastings’ newly constructed, tax-payer/rate-payer funded fluoridation plant.

Has anyone considered the danger to all road users, from drivers to pedestrians, those who live along these roads, as well as the local wildlife and environment, should one of these tankers spring a leak?

In September last year a tanker “lost” 2000 litres of highly corrosive and volatile fluoridation chemicals in Maffra, Victoria. Ambulances were called to the scene and a nearby primary school was evacuated. After an initial brief report on abc.net.au, there was mysteriously no more news on the incident.

We’re talking about a chemical, so dangerous that a splash on skin causes severe chemical burns for which there is no cure.  Fluoride burns victims who do not succumb to heart attacks within 24 hours of being splashed are permanently disfigured when muscles, nerves and blood supply dissolve. Simply inhaling deadly fluoridating chemical fumes will also dissolve lung tissue.

With the increasingly poor state of our roads, it will only be a matter of time before a disastrous accident makes people ask, “Why didn’t anyone tell us this could happen? How could our government put us in such danger?”

In addition to potential tanker accidents, fluoride spills can result from valve malfunctions, hose rupture, leaking storage tanks, faulty pumps, operator errors, computer errors and dosage equipment failure.

For more about the many different types of fluoride chemical accidents, or “hazardous waste” spills that have actually happened and will continue to happen, take a look at this Fluoride Chemical Acccidents summary of incidents in the US and Canada alone.