Major incident in West Midlands after sodium cyanide spill into Walsall canal

[The_DADDY]

A major incident was declared on Wednesday after authorities said a spill of sodium cyanide into a West Midlands canal posed a serious health risk to the public.

 

Members of the public are being advised to avoid a 12-mile stretch of canals and towpaths centred in Walsall after the toxic spillage, understood to have happened on Monday.

The risk is to people and pets who have direct contact with the canal water. According to the UK Health Security Agency sodium cyanide can cause headache, nausea, dizziness, nervousness, confusion, changes in heart rate, drowsiness, fitting, vomiting, low blood pressure and loss of consciousness.

 

Sodium cyanide consists of “white crystal-like solids with a faint almond odour” and are, the agency said, “used in industry for metal cleaning, plating and extraction and photography”.

 

Walsall council said it was notified of a spillage in the canal at Pleck, which stretches for more than a mile from Spinks Bridge to Birchills Street Bridge, on 12 August.

 

Garry Perry, the leader of Walsall council, said the priority was the safety of residents.

 

“I share their concerns and hope to see this incident resolved as soon as possible,” he said. “We are working closely with our partners to manage this situation, which has been declared a major incident. For your own safety please avoid this area of the canal and its towpaths.”

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/aug/14/west-midlands-uk-major-toxic-chemical-spill-sodium-cyanide

[lavery549@yahoo]

28 minutes ago, The_DADDY said:

A major incident was declared on Wednesday after authorities said a spill of sodium cyanide into a West Midlands canal posed a serious health risk to the public.

 

Members of the public are being advised to avoid a 12-mile stretch of canals and towpaths centred in Walsall after the toxic spillage, understood to have happened on Monday.

The risk is to people and pets who have direct contact with the canal water. According to the UK Health Security Agency sodium cyanide can cause headache, nausea, dizziness, nervousness, confusion, changes in heart rate, drowsiness, fitting, vomiting, low blood pressure and loss of consciousness.

 

Sodium cyanide consists of “white crystal-like solids with a faint almond odour” and are, the agency said, “used in industry for metal cleaning, plating and extraction and photography”.

 

Walsall council said it was notified of a spillage in the canal at Pleck, which stretches for more than a mile from Spinks Bridge to Birchills Street Bridge, on 12 August.

 

Garry Perry, the leader of Walsall council, said the priority was the safety of residents.

 

“I share their concerns and hope to see this incident resolved as soon as possible,” he said. “We are working closely with our partners to manage this situation, which has been declared a major incident. For your own safety please avoid this area of the canal and its towpaths.”

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/aug/14/west-midlands-uk-major-toxic-chemical-spill-sodium-cyanide

Doesn't Cyanide kill , is it same stuff used as poison ? 

[cressida]

It kills

[geared]

Nasty as it comes and not something joe public can easily get their hands on.

 

Can't fathom why someone would consider dumping large amounts into a public body of water.

[melthebell]

1 hour ago, lavery549@yahoo said:

Doesn't Cyanide kill , is it same stuff used as poison ? 

Oh boy does it kill, lots of people instantly, as worse as it comes below radiation.

I used it when I worked in a PCB factory, i had to analyse the gold plating tank then add the additions to make up the correct chemical make up of the bath, and add a full ( I think it was) 25g tub of gold potassium cyanide, if it accidently got mixed with acid it would've created a poisonous gas cloud and killed everybody in the building

[hackey lad]

11 minutes ago, melthebell said:

Oh boy does it kill, lots of people instantly, as worse as it comes below radiation.

I used it when I worked in a PCB factory, i had to analyse the gold plating tank then add the additions to make up the correct chemical make up of the bath, and add a full ( I think it was) 25g tub of gold potassium cyanide, if it accidently got mixed with acid it would've created a poisonous gas cloud and killed everybody in the building

Pah , when I worked for Mr Oppenheimer I was in charge of wiring and strategically placing the detonation device 

[Padders]

34 minutes ago, hackey lad said:

Pah , when I worked for Mr Oppenheimer I was in charge of wiring and strategically placing the detonation device 

We've heard all about your Detonater H

[Delbow]

3 hours ago, geared said:

Nasty as it comes and not something joe public can easily get their hands on.

 

Can't fathom why someone would consider dumping large amounts into a public body of water.

 

The source has apparently been identified - as Mel said, it has industrial applications. Hopefully someone is going to get fined to hell and back for this.

[hackey lad]

2 hours ago, Padders said:

We've heard all about your Detonater H

It’s been known to go off prematurely  😀

[lavery549@yahoo]

3 hours ago, melthebell said:

Oh boy does it kill, lots of people instantly, as worse as it comes below radiation.

I used it when I worked in a PCB factory, i had to analyse the gold plating tank then add the additions to make up the correct chemical make up of the bath, and add a full ( I think it was) 25g tub of gold potassium cyanide, if it accidently got mixed with acid it would've created a poisonous gas cloud and killed everybody in the building

OMG , I knew it was deadly , but hell that is one hell of a thing to work with