Re: WNV Research Container Explodes @ Ohio FedEx Office

<x-flowed>At 09:28 AM 3/20/2003 -0500, Lois Levitan wrote:
>New York Times -- March 20, 2003 (Associated Press)
>
>BOX OF VIRUS BLOWS APART AT FED EX SITE
>
>
>-----------
>Could anyone offer insight into (a) accuracy of this report, (b) risk from
>this type of exposure, (c) risks of this kind of explosion?

a) No clue.

b) Probably minimal

c) This kind of explosion can happen easily. If you put dry ice in a
sealed plastic container, it will explode. The force of the explosion is
related to the strength of the container, up to a point. Obviously if you
have a strong enough container it will hold the building gas pressure
in. If not, it explodes. I had friends in grad school who used to destroy
hanging ashtrays in the hallways (remember those times?) by putting in them
a small, screw-top nalgene bottle containing a hunk of dry ice. The
nalgene bottle was pretty strong, and held in enough pressure to knock the
ashtray off the wall when it gave way. That is enough force to hurt you if
you are right next to it, but not if you were 30 feet away. It makes a
loud noise, though, and can scare the bejeezus out of you. If the dry ice
was in a sealed plastic bottle with the tissue, the explosion would fling
the stuff all over, but this isn't shrapnel, and it isn't a real explosive,
so the damage should be minimal (although the mess could be pretty big).

Kevin

*****************************************************
Kevin J. McGowan, Ph.D.
Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology
159 Sapsucker Woods Road
Ithaca, NY 14850
607/254-2432
fax 607/254-2111
kjm2@cornell.edu
http://birds.cornell.edu/crows/

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Received on Thu Mar 20 14:15:30 2003