An article from the (admittedly slightly politically left) “Center For American Progress”:
HOMELAND SECURITY
Sanitizing Toxic Trains
When Iraqi insurgents recently blew up trucks carrying chlorine – sickening at least 356 people in Baghdad – the attacks conjured up frightening images of chemical warfare transported by terrorists to American shores. “Chlorine gas attacks the eyes and lungs within seconds, causing difficulty in breathing and skin irritation in low-level exposure. Inhaled at extremely high levels, it dissolves in the lungs to form hydrochloric acid that burns lung tissue, essentially drowning a person as liquid floods the lungs.” Every year, massive railcars traverse 300,000 miles of freight railways, carrying highly toxic chlorine gas through almost all major American towns and cities. A U.S. Homeland Security scenario drafted in 2004 estimated a large chlorine tank explosion on U.S. soil could lead to 17,500 deaths, 10,000 severe injuries, and 100,000 hospitalizations. In a new report entitled “Toxic Trains and the Terrorist Threat,” the Center for American Progress surveyed water utilities that still receive chlorine gas by rail and utilities that have eliminated chlorine railcars by switching to a less hazardous disinfectant. The analysis found that since 1999, some 25 water facilities that formerly received chlorine gas by rail have switched to safer and more secure water treatment options, such as liquid bleach or ultraviolet ligh