the.com/hazardous materials
stuff that ruins your day, then the news cycle, then the ecosystem.
means substances that can harm people, property, or the environment through fire, explosion, toxicity, corrosion, or radiation.
from the term hardened into law with 1970s regulation, as trucks full of chemicals kept turning highways into incident reports, prompting placards, classes, and the orange diamond you see on tankers.
class systemnine hazard classes, from explosives to miscellaneous dangerous goods
placardscolors and numbers encode the danger from a distance
biggest culpritflammable liquids cause more transport incidents than anything else
paperwork mattersmislabeled shipments cause more disasters than bad luck does
for instance
bhopal gas leak — 1984 methyl isocyanate release, india, thousands dead
exxon valdez — 1989 alaska oil spill, 11 million gallons of crude
west texas explosion — 2013 ammonium nitrate blast killed 15, west texas
fukushima meltdown — 2011 radioactive material release after tsunami, japan