Times Beach, Missouri - Dioxin

[Hog]

 A company was aid to dispose of concentrated Dioxin tailings that were leftover from the production of some of the Rainbox Agents, of which one of the herbicides was indeed Agent Orange. Herbicides are bad enough, but some of the processes to make the herbicides result in concentrations of 3-5 parts per million, after reductions, the herbicides were brought in under 0.1 ppm.

Somehow, the oily tailings were sprayed onto properties in order to keep the dust down. The contamination also kept horses and birds "down".  Dioxin is just one of those compounds that normal humans cannot interact safely with.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Beach,_Missouri#NEPACCO_chemical_waste_disposal


Any Missourians recall this story?

peace
Hog

[pate]

A company was aid to dispose of concentrated Dioxin tailings that were leftover from the production of some of the Rainbox Agents, of which one of the herbicides was indeed Agent Orange. Herbicides are bad enough, but some of the processes to make the herbicides result in concentrations of 3-5 parts per million, after reductions, the herbicides were brought in under 0.1 ppm.

Somehow, the oily tailings were sprayed onto properties in order to keep the dust down. The contamination also kept horses and birds "down".  Dioxin is just one of those compounds that normal humans cannot interact safely with.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Beach,_Missouri#NEPACCO_chemical_waste_disposal


Any Missourians recall this story?

peace
Hog

I worked with a functionally retarded guy that inherited some big $$ from his mother's estate, supposedly the big $$ were from her lawsuit against some company that was dumping shit illegally out the St. Louis way.  I think she ultimately succumbed to cancer.

Not to be a dick, but the functionally retarded guy kinda was a dick;  we were never quite sure if his functional retardation was a result of the chemicals or chronic inbreeding.   You couldn't ask the guy about it because HIPPA, and he would get all "REEEEEEEE!" and run to HR to complain about us making fun of him for being retarded.

To be fair, I don't think the guy was clinically retarded by medical diagnosis, but damn he was borderline for sure.  Once he inherited that money, it was damn amusing to listen to his stories about how he was spending the money along with his regular earnings;  coke, booze, questionable ladies, vehicles he would not otherwise be able to afford, a new house in about the worst part of town etc...

Sort of a sick form of workplace entertainment, damn that dude was D-U-M.

So I am going to say I am marginally aware of that Super-Fund Cleanup site.

----

I grew up quite close the the Bannister Federal Complex in Kansas City, MO that allegedly is now on the SuperFund clean-up list.  Local village wisdom was to not eat any fish that you caught in the Blue River because of the effluence from that site.  We generally stayed away from that area, as children we were a bit scared of the place;  always figured "they" were up to other things besides the manufacture of nuclear weaponry, did not want to get caught by the "Feds" and used as a test subject in the huge underground portion of the complex that everyone was certain existed there...  haha.

[Hog]

Hey Pate,

did the guy ever have any skin that looked like this?


That's called "chloracne" and is a skin reaction due to dioxin exposure.  I wonder if his Mother ever developed "chloracne"?

xxx
Those Rainbow Herbicides, of which, only one was named Agent Orange-simply because the 55 gallon barrel had an Orange stripe on it, therefore it was called Agent Orange.
There was:
Agent Green (1962-1964) used 8,208 gallons
Agent Purple  1962-1964 used 145,000 gallons 
Agent Pink  (1962-64)122,792 gallons
Agent White started to replace Orange in 1966; 5,239,853 gallons were used
Agent Blue only Rainbow Agent that was used in large scale crop destruction  2,166,656 gallons
Agent Orange- 11,712,860 gallons all Oranges(1965 to 1970)
Agent Orange-II   
Agent Orange-III
Enhanced Agent Orange or Super Agent Orange which was Agent Orange mixed with some of the chemical from Agent White

"A 2003 study in Nature found that the military under-reported its use of rainbow herbicides by 2,493,792 U.S. gallons." 

4,800,000 people were affected by the herbicides used in Vietnam during Operation

Agents Orange and Agent Purple underwent small scale testing up here in Canada.  Canadian Department of National Defense (DND) did some testing for teh US DEpartment Of Defense(DOD)83 acres of the 180,000 plus acres of CFB Gagetown. "The Canadian Department of National Defense (DND) announced that for three days in
June 1966 (14-16) and four days in June 1967 (21-24), small-scale testing of various
defoliants and desiccants, including Agent Orange and Agent Purple, took place over a
small portion of the Canadian Forces Base (CFB), Gagetown, New Brunswick.
Based on current information, Canadian officials stated that the U.S. supplied only two
barrels of the Agent Orange and Agent Purple defoliants for testing purposes. The testing
did not involve wide-spread spraying. Controlled testing occurred under strict
conditions, ensuring minimal drift, in an area difficult to access. The testing area was
comprised of two small areas covering approximately 83 acres of the 180,000 plus acres
of CFB Gagetown."

peace
Hog

[Hog]

This Ukrainian leader, Viktor Yushchenko



attended a dinner in September 2004.   "Dutch toxicologist Bram Brouwer also stated his changes in appearance were the result of chloracne, and found dioxin levels in Yushchenko's blood 6,000 times above normal."



6 months after the poisoning in April 2005, he meets with US president George Bush.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
At least he wasn't provided with a dose of Polonium-210 as Mr Alexander Litvinenko was. November 1st 2006, he was hospitalized, he died 3 weeks later.


He fled retribution to the UK, being a former Russian Federal Security Service FSU/Soviet KGB agent that became a vocal critic of the Russian state while living in the UK isn't great for longevity. Six years after fleeing, he was poisoned by two Russians in a suspected assassination.  He received the honour of being the first confirmed victim of lethal polonium-210-induced acute radiation syndrome.  He received a 10 microgram dose of Polonium-210. This is about 200 times the median lethal dose of 50 nanograms in cases where the substance is swallowed and then digested via the digestive system.

1 kilogram=1000 grams=2.2 pounds
1 gram=0.04oz
1 milligram=0.001 grams=0.00003527396oz=3.5273962 x 10 exponent -5 ounces
1 microgram=0.000001 grams =3.527396 x 10 exponent -8 ounces 
Medications such as thyroid hormones and super painkillers such as Fentanyl and its analogues(Remfentanyl, Carfentanyl, Sufentanyl are measured in micrograms) Carfentanyl used to be marketed as a "big game" tranquilizer for elephants, Rhinos, Buffalo, Hippos etc. It is 100 times more powerful; than Fentanyl and is about 10,000 times more powerful than Morphine Sulphate. A dart of Carfentanyl is shot into the big animal and in essence gives the animal a massive opiate overdose.  As the veterinarian does his/her work, the animals vital signs are monitored and when the are finished, an opiate antagonist is given to reverse the effects of the Carfentanyl agonist. Narcan(naloxone) is an opiate antagonist. If a person is actively overdosing on opiate agonists(morphine,heroin,oxycodone,hydrocodone, methadone etc are ALL opiate receptor agonists) an opiate receptor antagonist is given to reverse the effects of the opiate receptor agonists.
1 nanogram=0.000000001 grams =3.527396194958 x 10 exponent -11 ounces

He received 200 times the median lethal dose of 50 nanograms. So 200 times 50 equals 10,000 nanograms=10 micrograms

Here is 2 milligrams of Fentanyl powder, a lethal dose for most people, next to a US penny.  That little pile of powder weighs 2 milligrams or 2,000,000 nanograms.

2 milligrams=2000 micrograms=2,000,000 nanograms

If that little pile of Fentanyl were Polonium-210, there would be 40,000 lethal doses sitting there beside that penny.



Unfortunately for Mr Litvinenko, unlike opiate overdoses, there is no "antidote" for Polonium-210 poisoning.  Polonium-210 undergoes "Alpha Decay" and becomes Pb-206(Pb=Lead 206 with a stable half-life of 138.376 days, the longest of all the Polonium isotopes.
It is said that a major detriment to tobacco smoking is all the Polonium/Lead that is ingested from the tobacco leaf's environment, into/onto the tobacco plants leaves.  These leaves are harvested, dried and cured, then cut, rolled and smoked.  Any Polonium absorbed by the plant from the environment(nuclear weapons tests, Chernobyls and Fukashimas) in addition to the agricultural phosphate fertilizers that also supply certain isotopes,  is introduced into the persons lungs during smoking.. 
Normally people dealing with radiation don't usually worry much about alpha decay radiation because air can block it, and if it does make it to your skin, the dead skin cells are a barrier to the radiation harming you.  However, inhaling tobacco smoke into your lungs presents a large problem, the same type of skin cells that cover your body are NOT present inside your lungs, esophagus, mouth etc.  So this normally almost inert alpha particle interaction with your external skin, becomes highly interactive with the skin of your lungs and if you eat any, highly interactive with the tissues of your digestive system.


Plus even more "goodies" in tobacco smoke.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinenko

Ok folks, that's all for now, I'm dieing for a smoke.

peace
Hog

[pate]

Hey Pate,

did the guy ever have any skin that looked like this?
...

This questionable, allegedly semi/borderline 'tart', did have some acne-esque scarring on his pig-like visage;  I doubt it was due to "chloracne," I think he was in his mid-twenties at the time I had the misfortune to interact with him.  I would guess a base-line DOB of 1985, which would place the guy well out of range for exposure to the chemical in question.  He was quite borderline in his retardation, so there does exist the small probability that he ignored sage elder advice to not play in "the woods" that grew on a Toxic SuperFund cleanup site.  My understanding is that his family had vacated the area in question several years prior, and thus his incidental exposure risk would be quite low.

Is the "chloracne" poisoning facial "acne" symptom one that is lingering, or does the body eventually heal after a sufficient amount of time has elapsed? 

This Ukrainian leader, Viktor Yushchenko
...
Ok folks, that's all for now, I'm dieing for a smoke.
...

It is interesting to note the very short half-life of Polonium-210, and its potential decay cycle.  It will never be found in Nature as a readily abundant "resource."  It is a decay-cycle product primarily of Uranium238/234, which have half-lives of thousands of years and therefore are relatively common.



Of interest to me is that Thorium230 is an isotope that is included in the decay-cycle from Ur238 -> Po210.  Thorium230 apparently has a half-life of around 80k years, which seems relatively "safe" when placed next to Po210 which has a stated half-life of around 138 days.

Yowza!  Good luck finding some Po210 just "laying around" in any significant quantity, and if you do run very fast and far away!

Poor Mr Alexander Litvinenko was very probably poisoned intentionally, as the likelihood of he or the individual that served the deadly tea having any incidental contact with that substance in their day-to-day activities approaches asymptotic levels on the probability curve.

138 day half-life, yikes!  But if one were to use a radioactive poison that does not kill the deliverer as well as the recipient I suppose if care is used one could survive the intended victime by a number of years.  Personally, if I were the type to use a poison to effect the death of a political enemy, I would choose one that is not so dangerous to myself, AND one that would have a semi-ambiguous nature.

Po210 is a bright red-hand pointing an index finger at the targeted individual, absolute terrorism!  I shudder at the thought of the evil that exists in this world.

Some interesting music, Hog:

https://youtu.be/DtBcwDY9D_M

https://youtu.be/tHGnIlNtD5o

https://youtu.be/KGD2N5hJ2e0

Man, forget Times Beach, MO take me to Osage Beach, MO...

Disturbating!

-p