Bad Chemistry: Safe Ice-Melt

“Emotions can certainly be misleading: they can fool you into believing stuff that is definitely, demonstrably untrue.”  — Francis Spufford Places that rarely experience snow and are ill-prepared to deal with it have seen debilitating snow storms this year. In response, broadcast meteorologists and local news anchors offered advice on choosing ice melt that was [...]

By |2025-02-27T08:33:58-06:00February 27th, 2025|Chemicals|Comments Off on Bad Chemistry: Safe Ice-Melt

Heavy Metal: What Is It?

“Heavy metal? Like Rock of Ages?”  — Isis Hainsworth in Metal Lords It’s hard to pin down a definition of heavy metal, whether you are talking about the rock-n-roll genre, or elements from the periodic table. Serious fans (of either the music or the elements) can argue at length about what is meant by the [...]

By |2025-01-16T12:39:27-06:00December 28th, 2023|Chemicals, Process Safety|Comments Off on Heavy Metal: What Is It?

The Dose Makes the Poison

“All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; the dosage alone makes it so a thing is not a poison.”  — Paracelsus Have you ever noticed that news accounts about incidents in the process industries never talk about “chemicals”? No, the writer always refers to “toxic chemicals”. As though you can’t say one without [...]

By |2025-01-16T15:41:00-06:00March 25th, 2021|Chemicals, Process Safety|Comments Off on The Dose Makes the Poison
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