Manona [sic Monona] notes that "at 10 ppm or so it is pretty innocuous by ingestion" is an unsupported claim even for acute toxicity unless you can find an accepted LD50 some where which is not on the SDSs. And I sure would like to know who ingested it and got the runs. Now that's a story. Tell the industry to provide the DATA--nice neat references and I'll back off.

It reminds me of the guy who in 1858 first synthesized phenolphthalein, drank some and got a raging case of the Aztec two-step. His response was "Eureka, I've invented a laxative," and it immediately became the most common laxative sold world wide. FDA finally got around to studying it 130 years later. When the data came out in 1992, it was found to be not only a carcinogen, but one of the most potent ever studied producing multiple types of cancer at multiple sites. It was banned with no fanfare. The public was not even aware that the Ex-Lax they used for decades was a carcinogen.

So who knows what this rotten, licorice-smelling, ore floatation chemical can do to people? There is an experiment going on in West Virginia, and guess who the lab rats are? And instead of providing them with information so they can provide "informed consent" they are being told it is pretty innocuous. I object unless the industry can provide references. And my question to everyone, is why don't we ALWAYS demand to see the data? Aren't we chemists?

-----Original Message-----
From: Melissa Charlton-Smith <charltonsmith**At_Symbol_Here**WVWC.EDU>
To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Sent: Sat, Jan 11, 2014 9:10 am
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Chemical Leak in WV