Sulfur smell in city Tuesday night
By Martin Weil
A sulfurous odor was reported Tuesday night in many sections of Washington near the Potomac River, as well as in Arlington, authorities said.
The smell was noted in Foggy Bottom and Georgetown as well as along the Southwest Waterfront, in park areas near the river, and in Anacostia, according to Pete Piringer, spokesman for the D.C. fire and emergency services department. Arlington County's emergency communications center said reports were also received there.
Piringer said authorities were trying to find the source of the odor. He said they were investigating whether the cleaning or draining of sewage or water supply facilities might have created the smell.
Last week the smell of smoke in parts of the Washington area was attributed to a fire in the Great Dismal Swamp in southeastern Virginia.
It was not immediately clear if that fire also caused the smell detected Tuesday night.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post_now/post/sulfur-smell-in-city-tuesda...
Sulfur dioxide
According to Claude Ribbe in The Crime of Napoleon, sulfur dioxide gas was used as an execution poison by the French emperor to suppress a slave revolt in Haiti early in the nineteenth century.
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Sulfur_dioxide
There will be no climate treaty to emerge from the conference in Copenhagen this month, global leaders now concede. But there may be alternative ways to help combat global warming. Various methods of geo--engineering employ unorthodox means to cool the planet. Advocates say that some of these proposals could be implemented quickly and cheaply. One concept is known as stratospheric aerosol insertion. A primer:
How It Works
Military planes (or helium balloons) spray the stratosphere with sulfur gases, which disperse and oxidize. The particles scatter back into space some of the sunlight that would have been absorbed by the planet's surface. As more sunlight is deflected, the planet cools. It's like an artificial version of an erupting volcano.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/11/27/copenhagen-schmopenhagen.html
http://www.railyardmodels.com/catalog/trnmoltensulfurtank.html
Gassing and poisoning: The Ustase, in following the Nazi example, as set in Auschwitz and Sajmiste, tried to employ poisonous gas to kill inmates that arrived in Stara-Gradiska. They first tried to gas the women and children that arrived from camp Djakovo with gas vans that Simo Klaic called "green Thomas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasenovac_concentration_camp
Health effects of sulphur
All living things need sulphur. It is especially important for humans because it is part of the amino acid methionine, which is an absolute dietary requirement for us. The amino acid cysteine also contains sulphur. The average person takes in around 900 mg of sulphur per day, mainly in the form of protein.
Elemental sulphur is not toxic, but many simple sulphur derivates are, such as sulphur dioxide (SO2) and hydrogen sulfide.
Sulfur can be found commonly in nature as sulphides. During several processes sulfur bonds are added to the environment that are damaging to animals, as well as humans. These damaging sulphur bonds are also shaped in nature during various reactions, mostly when substances that are not naturally present have already been added. They are unwanted because of their unpleasant smells and are often highly toxic.
Globally sulphuric substances can have the following effects on human health:
- Neurological effects and behavioural changes
- Disturbance of blood circulation
- Heart damage
- Effects on eyes and eyesight
- Reproductive failure
- Damage to immune systems
- Stomach and gastrointestinal disorder
- Damage to liver and kidney functions
- Hearing defects
- Disturbance of the hormonal metabolism
- Dermatological effects
- Suffocation and lung embolism
Read more:
http://www.lenntech.com/periodic/elements/s.htm#ixzz1VIYDFOP6
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