MCI declared in Spencer, MA

[Glorified]

http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070425/ALERT01/70425003


Sodium hydroxide got in the drinking water. People taking showers developed chemical burns and an MCI was declared.

 

[Chimpie]

Makes you think...

 

[bstone]

Interesting. Soidium Hydroxide is NaOH. When put into solution (like water) they disassociate into their ionic parts, Na+ and OH-. OH- is a base (tho a mild base) used for deprotonation (among other things). The Hydroxide (-OH) certainly would raise the pH making the water more basic.

In the end...whoa.

 

[jrm818]

Someone's got thier facts a little wrong - suprise suprise....as far as I know sodium hydroxide has never been considered a "buffering agent."

If there is a buffering agent involved I'm a bit confused as to its purpose - why would they add something that buffers the water to an alkaline pH....wouldn't you buffer the water to neutral?

 

[bstone]

By buffering I guess they mean it raises the pH and makes the water more basic. Too much and you get ouch ouch. Just glad they didn't add something like concentrate H2SO4.

 

[Raf]

Interesting MCI, in a sense that the location of patients could be anywhere in that town rather than just one place.

And this all happened 20 minutes from me..I didn't hear about it until I read it just now.