121–130 of 226 posts
> Residents are concerned about long-term effects of low-grade exposure. > “There’s all that smoke and all those chemicals in there,” said Mason Shields, who lives in East Palestine and visited an aid center outside the evacuation zone. “I’m wondering if it’s even going to be safe for people to return within the next week or month or however long.” Generally speaking, I read the news because I want to learn facts abo…
I see all the staunch supporters of deregulation across the board that normally come out of the woodwork on HN are strangely absent.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I was young, I assumed the 401k had been around forever. But it was introduced in 1978! We're nearing the end of the 50-year period that the guys who invented it would really need to get staggeringly rich off of the concept, and now that they're getting ready to die everyone's overreliance on the system they set up is causing total gridlock in American life. You can't do ANYTHING that threatens the stock market.…
What’s the alternative? Pensions? If your retirement is dependent on a pension, and the pension goes belly up, then you’re left with a fraction of what you planned for (since PGBC doesn’t cover it all)
In Germany, we have a "rollover system" - you pay a government-mandated fixed percentage of your income into pensions system in exchange for pension credits. The contributions from all current payers (plus a sizable chunk of tax money) are then distributed to current pension receivers, and the worth of a pension credit point ("Rentenpunkte") is regularly-ish adjusted for inflation.
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Make these companies government owned and operate them like the post office.
From: https://www.levernews.com/rail-companies-blocked-safety-rule... >Documents show that when current transportation safety rules were first created, a federal agency sided with industry lobbyists and limited regulations governing the transport of hazardous compounds. I really don't think government owning the company is going to help.
Regulatory capture is a lot harder if there is no industry with corporate interests to do so.
Here's something for your daily dose of "that's strange:" In 2021 residents of East Palestine, Ohio were extras in filming a train derailment scene for the movie "White Noise"(2022). "Ratner, 37, is in a traffic jam scene, sitting in a line of cars trying to evacuate after a freight train collided with a tanker truck, triggering an explosion that fills the air with dangerous toxins." https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/11/he…
White Noise is way older than 2021. I read the book last century. I guess it's a coincidence that this was filmed a bit before an actual airborne toxic event, but I wouldn't think too much about it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What’s the alternative? Pensions? If your retirement is dependent on a pension, and the pension goes belly up, then you’re left with a fraction of what you planned for (since PGBC doesn’t cover it all)
The realistic alternative is multigenerational family units sticking together. Grandparents help raise the grand kids instead of day care and baby sitters. Kids take care of their aging parents. Communities pull together to help each other. There are complexities to it, but without a lot of the artificial financial structures that we have in place (loans, insurance, stocks, government programs) that’s probably what s…
This accident is America in a nutshell: 1. Rail companies slashed their workforce for short-term profits and share buybacks, cheered on by Wall Street [1]. Rail workers do not get paid sick leave because of those cuts, prompting Congress to step in an kneecap industrial action aimed at improving safety and working conditions [2]; 2. Obama era rules were proposed for safer brakes (that would've prevented this incident…
Also, I can't help but wonder how many headlines this would have cause if it happened during Trump. For the party that says to be taking the high road, the democrats sure do lack a spine. Democrat supporters own 80% of the media consumed by Americans, they could have warned the people of Ohio and Pennsylvania.
So they deliberately ignited it? Knowing vinyl chloride when burned releases hydrogen chloride, a chemical weapon?
Hydrogen chloride is not a chemical weapon.
https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Chemical-Weapons-Freq...
How much should people care about this who live in various radiuses? I.e., within 200 miles, is there zero cause for concern? Or is the type of thing that will do something like remove five years of life on average for people within five miles, one year within 100 miles, one month within 300 miles, etc.?
I know nothing about this field but I remember when California had really bad wildfires, when it was happening (in 2020 or 2021? It all blends together) there were charts showing air quality levels across the US. I'm in NY and I visibly saw different colored clouds when the "smoke clouds" made their way over here. I have no idea if the same thing applies to this train's chemicals but that is a case where there was a…
The western wildfires were absolutely mind-glowingly immense in ways we don't really deal with normally.
Five tank cars is 30,000 gallons * 5 = 150,000 gallons, roughly 600 cubic meters.
Safe exposure is 0.1 part per million, so 600 cubic meters * 10 million circle (assume the stuff never gets more than a meter off the ground, spherical cows and all that) = 45 kilometer radius circle. Obviously it's much more concentrated near the epicenter but let's assume it dispersed equally.
So 200 kilometers should be well outside the danger zone UNLESS a cloud of it doesn't disperse and instead heads in your direction.
How much should people care about this who live in various radiuses? I.e., within 200 miles, is there zero cause for concern? Or is the type of thing that will do something like remove five years of life on average for people within five miles, one year within 100 miles, one month within 300 miles, etc.?
We should all be concerned no matter the radius. This will happen elsewhere if nothing is done to address the issues. And right now, far too many people are silent on this.
I want to believe a burning river will get movement on this stuff but with the political climate I could see that being shrugged off since it's happened before so no big deal.
It's all quite insane. We are shortening our live expectancy as a nation in a measurable ways with proven solutions but instead we just shrug it off and do nothing.