Environmental Chemistry Experiment in Fredericton

This is the basis for an ongoing environmental nightmare in Fredericton.

First you spill some chemicals (LINK to story): namely 2,700 litres of chromium trioxide spilled by Custom Machine & Hardchrome.

Second you MAIL the following notice to the affected people (LINK to announcement): "The Department of Health continues to advise about a dozen homeowners and several businesses in the Evergreen Park area outside Fredericton not to consume their well water, or use it for cooking, bathing or any other use which would bring it into contact with their body."

Third you ignore the affected people so that an older couple ends up drinking the rainwater from their roof downspout. (LINK to story).

This is really as bad as it gets environmentally speaking. This is a citation from the Wikipedia page on CrO3:

"Chromium trioxide is highly toxic, corrosive, and carcinogenic. Chromium trioxide may cause cancer and/or heritable genetic damage. It is explosive when mixed with combustible material. It is toxic in contact with skin and if swallowed and very toxic by inhalation. CrO3 causes severe burns and may cause sensitisation by inhalation and skin contact. It is also toxic: danger of serious damage to health by prolonged exposure through inhalation. There is a possible risk of impaired fertility. CrO3 is very toxic to aquatic organisms may cause long-term adverse effects in the aquatic environment."

This is the stuff that made Erin Brokovitch famous. I just hope that Custom Machine & Hardchrome has very very good insurance and that this won't just be a case where the company just folds up and the province is left with the clean-up. I do however wish that someone would offer the old couple a cup of cold water in Jesus' name.

X-rays in your life

I love this paper on X-rays generated from unrolling Scotch tape in a vacuum. They even proved it by using the X-rays to take a picture of a researchers finger. To do that the researcher would have to have his hand in a vacuum chamber long enough to expose the film. That is loving your research. This is the kind of work I would love to be involved in. Absolute genius.

LINK to Article

National Chemistry Week Crystal Growing

It is National Chemistry Week (LINK) and the highpoint of the week will be Mole Day (October 23 ... 10.23 ... you know .... Avogadro's Number ... 6.02 x 10(23) ... man, it kills the mood when you have to explain everything).

So, in the first year chemistry class we tried growing crystals of Potassium Aluminum Sulphate ...


And Copper (II) sulphate.

All in all the crystals were very nice. The class set of crystals can be seen by following the link below.

2008-10-21(CH1013XL)