4-methylcyclohexane methanol spill (Update I and II)
What the hell is 4-methylcyclohexane methanol? I have no idea. I have a BA in chemisty. I took organic chemistry a thousand years ago, but I surely don’t remember anyone mentioning 4-methylcyclohexane methanol.
We live in a society in which we can argue over bridge closures as political payback because for the most part we don’t worry about the basics. We KNOW that we have water which is reasonably clean. It is cheap and comes out of the tap every time we turn it on. We also live fairly close to a grocery store which has rows and rows of bottled water.
Just a few counties over, there is a huge problem.
From NYT:
At a news conference here on Saturday evening, officials said tests had begun to show concentrations of the chemical dropping below the one part per million threshold considered safe by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The concentration must remain that low for 24 hours before the water system can be flushed out and the do-not-use ban can be lifted. Officials said they planned to conduct at least 100 additional tests of samples overnight and on Sunday. (more…)