AHC: Philadelphian Industrial Catasrophe

In the 1940s, Philadelphia churned out ships, bombs, and a menagery of items for their troops over in Germany and France. Unfortunately, they did not possess the Chemical safety knowledge we have now. Many industrial and chemical plants were built inside Center City.

Now what if something like Bhopal or Baia Mare occurred in Philadelphia at the time?

What would be the impacts on Americans fighting in World War Two?
 

mowque

Banned
In the 1940s, Philadelphia churned out ships, bombs, and a menagery of items for their troops over in Germany and France. Unfortunately, they did not possess the Chemical safety knowledge we have now. Many industrial and chemical plants were built inside Center City.

Now what if something like Bhopal or Baia Mare occurred in Philadelphia at the time?

What would be the impacts on Americans fighting in World War Two?

Nasty. How many dead/sick are we looking at here? Might see a boost in regulations and agencies to implement them.
 
Nasty. How many dead/sick are we looking at here? Might see a boost in regulations and agencies to implement them.

While the Baia Mare incident only killed a couple people, but mostly fish.

Bhopal killed thousands, so you might see thousands, millions in a worse case scenairio
 

mowque

Banned
While the Baia Mare incident only killed a couple people, but mostly fish.

Bhopal killed thousands, so you might see thousands, millions in a worse case scenairio

ASB. Bhopal was half a million and doesn't get much worst case then that. However, the impact might be less then you'd think.

July 17, 1944: Port Chicago Disaster. A munitions explosion that killed 320 people occurred at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in Port Chicago, California.

pril 16, 1947: Texas City Disaster, Texas. At 9:15 AM an explosion occurred aboard a docked ship named the Grandcamp. The explosion, and subsequent fires and explosions, is referred to as the worst industrial disaster in America. A minimum of 578 people lost their lives and another 3,500 were injured as the blast shattered windows from as far away as 25 mi (40 km). Large steel pieces were thrown more than a mile from the dock.

Have you even heard of these? I havn't.
 
ASB. Bhopal was half a million and doesn't get much worst case then that. However, the impact might be less then you'd think.





Have you even heard of these? I havn't.

I know Texas City and Houston have had an unsettling number of chemical & industrial accidents, but I haven't heard of those.
 
In the short term, a few less liberty ships, a few less tanks, possibly extending the war by 5 days. With a war on and soldiers dying in their thousands in Europe and the Pacific any move to improve safety that would reduce production is not going to happen.
Longer term there would be stronger, earlier regulation of the chemical industry, possibly meaning that it is one of the first to move overseas in the 70's rather than one of the last.
 

Bearcat

Banned
The US cleans up the mess, and moves on.

1944 was before the current hysteria about environmental chemicals, etc. - the country was at war, was largely united, and was uninterested in much of anything that detracted from that.

Seriously, folks back then had a very, VERY different mindset than today.
 
The US cleans up the mess, and moves on.

1944 was before the current hysteria about environmental chemicals, etc. - the country was at war, was largely united, and was uninterested in much of anything that detracted from that.

Seriously, folks back then had a very, VERY different mindset than today.

Still, thousands of people dying is what one might call tragedy.
 
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In the 1940s, Philadelphia churned out ships, bombs, and a menagery of items for their troops over in Germany and France. Unfortunately, they did not possess the Chemical safety knowledge we have now. Many industrial and chemical plants were built inside Center City.

Now what if something like Bhopal or Baia Mare occurred in Philadelphia at the time?

What would be the impacts on Americans fighting in World War Two?

Industrial, yes: but we're talking about such things as Disston (saws) and the granddaddy of them all, Baldwin Locomotive on Spring Garden Street (before moving to Essington). But chemical? Not really. Philadelphia's chemical/refining industrial locations are either in the northeast (the one-time Allied/now Sunoco Chemical near I-95) or south Philadelphia (the Sunoco refinery on Passyunk at Pt. Breeze; the Atlantic/Arco/Gulf/Sunoco refinery immediately adjacent).

Hard to imagine an accident at Baldwin causing a major disruption unless it happened to be a multi-alarm fire. And a refinery upset...well, again likely we're talking a fire that might well disrupt northeast corridor rail traffic at a very inopportune time, rather than a Bhopal-like incident.

Now, if it's something like that you want, I refer you instead to du Pont's Chambers Works at Deepwater, NJ (in the shadow of the present-day Delaware Memorial Bridge). In those days, du Pont was engaged in (among other things) the first industrial scale production of elemental fluorine, which was essential to production of uranium hexafluoride for the Manhattan Project. You want trouble? A massive release of fluorine gas would be devastating between its poisonous qualities and the fires induced by its virulent reactivity. And when such gas passed over water--namely, the neighboring Delaware River--you'll get clouds of pernicious hydrogen fluoride gas, which, in a mist form, can carry for miles. Philadelphia may not get in trouble, but depending upon prevailing winds, Wilmington, DE very well might.
 
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