BRAITHWAITE, La. – A highly corrosive acid that leaked from a storage facility at a chemical plant could have eaten through adjacent storage tanks to cause a "catastrophic" mix of toxic chemicals. . . The dangerously corrosive material can irritate or burn the skin, eyes, lungs and other mucous membranes.
Last week's story in the New Orleans Times-Picayune sure sounded scary. To keep the acid from breaching storage tanks for other chemicals, workers at Stolthaven New Orleans LLC dumped almost half a million gallons of the chemical into the Mississippi River. Emergency personnel wore respirators and hazmat suits. The Coast Guard kept all vessels out of the contaminated area until midnight.
The chemical? It's called fluorosilicic acid. But most Americans, if they think of it at all, know it as fluoride, added to water supplies nationwide in the name of reducing tooth decay. Los Angeles is the latest addition to the club, adding fluoride to the water of 18 million customers of the Metropolitan Water District last fall.
Set aside for a moment the mounting evidence that fluoride not only does little for dental health, but increases chances of a rare bone cancer in teenage boys who drank treated water as children. Set aside the assurance of Louisiana officials and MWD that there's no harm if its diluted to parts per billion. Just think about whether you want a "dangerously corrosive" chemical that almost caused a "catastrophe" – one that is a waste product of manufacturing phosphate fertilizer – in your drinking water, where it affects not just your teeth but your whole body.
I didn't think so.