Chlorine Can Kill

In the fire service I have to respond to all types of emergencies. Out of those emergencies that I respond to some of them can be very hazardous. In my line of work I never know what will happen from shift to shift. Today’s subject is concerning a hazardous material called chlorine. Chlorine is a widely used product throughout the world. Chorine is used in water purification, bleaching processes, and plastic manufacturing. Chlorine is shipped by railroad, highway, and on our waterway to other parts of the world. Chlorine is a poisonous gas that requires special skills, training, equipment, and knowledge when dealing with this chemical. Chlorine is a toxic gas that is irritating with a strong odor and smells like Clorox. Chlorine is colorless at a low gaseous concentration, yellow/green at high gaseous concentration and dark yellow in liquid form Even though chlorine is nonflammable it is an oxidizing agent that will support combustion. If a cylinder were to leak a mixture of ammonia added with the chlorine would put out a white smoke like appearance. This procedure is very helpful in searching for a leak in any type container with chlorine. The Department of Transportation guide book has labeled this chemical with the number 1017. This guide book is a reference book we as fire fighters use to determine what chemicals are in a container and how dangerous they can be. This book also tells us evacuation distances according to the leak size and wind direction. The placards that display the danger of chlorine is the number 3 with a blue shaded background for health and extremely high.  The next number is 0 with a red background that indicates nonflammable. The last spot on this placard has a white background with the letters OXY that represents oxidizer. When we have a chlorine leak we cannot apply water to the leaking cylinder because water will corrode the steel and make the leak worse. If chlorine is inhaled or comes in contact with the skin it can have an overpowering or fatal effect. As you can read chlorine leaks or incidents are very serious and may become deadly if not responded to quickly and contained.