But some of the old-timers warned me that if one of those tanks ever really blew, those respirators wouldn’t do much good.
If there’s not enough oxygen in the air (e.g. because it is mostly chlorine gas), the filter can’t help. It can prevent lung damage (which is good), but if you don’t get somewhere with sufficient oxygen, you’ll be unconscious quickly (and, potentially, dead within minutes).
Yeah, exactly. Chlorine is significantly more dense than air, and the plant was on low-lying land on the waterfront. So basically, we’d all be blanketed with chlorine gas and suffocate unless we could get to higher ground fast enough.
If there’s not enough oxygen in the air (e.g. because it is mostly chlorine gas), the filter can’t help. It can prevent lung damage (which is good), but if you don’t get somewhere with sufficient oxygen, you’ll be unconscious quickly (and, potentially, dead within minutes).
Yeah, exactly. Chlorine is significantly more dense than air, and the plant was on low-lying land on the waterfront. So basically, we’d all be blanketed with chlorine gas and suffocate unless we could get to higher ground fast enough.