AMMONIA LEAK IS A NASTY BUSINESS

First off apologies for not posting yesterday. My internet (Rogers) was down from just after lunch until sometime last night.

The worst case scenario modelled situation at the Chemtura plant in Elmira is a leak of Anhydrous Ammonia. Anhydrous means without water and also I therefore presume it refers to ammonia as a gas. In a liquid solution it is of course a cleaning agent.

Well Tuesday they had a major leak at the Schneiders plant on Courtland Ave. in Kitchener. Apparently both an air conditioner and a drainage line on the roof were leaking. One person was hospitalized and the plant was evacuated. Of interest to me is the intent to shut the plant down later this year. It would be extremely tempting to be avoiding the cost of normal maintenance procedures under those conditions.

It seems as if most of the workers and neighbours dodged a bullet on this one thanks in great part to emergency response workers. We must be constantly vigilant in our everyday use of many chemicals. "Living better with chemistry" a well known adage of the chemical industry could also be known as "Living carefully with chemistry". The K-W Record story is titled "Ammonia leaks force Schneiders to evacuate".