Six years ago, I set up this website in order to tell the true story of how a major local scandal of industrial pollution involving a banned rat poison and chemical weapon (white phosphorus) had been buried under water and had gone unchecked for decades, ably assisted it seems by regulators and the authorities over that time.
It started with seeing a single dead swan, (twenty years ago), a juvenile that I had followed and seen in other locations perfectly healthy until it landed on this “hazardous waste site”. More birds followed and so the long quest to proving that the company that owned the site had been responsible for all the deaths all along by poisoning them with their waste dumped white phosphorus.
There are those who I offer a debt of thanks in helping to uncover this disgusting immoral tale. Chris Adams has always been a dependable friend and ally, and there are other rescuers (you know who you are), who have helped along the way. Ellen and Peter of The National swan convention. Wychbold swan Rescue took in many birds and I am grateful to Jan Harrigan and her team, who were as much in the dark as I was about what was going on in the early days. I am grateful to Marianne Walsh and her husband Michael of the US Army Corp of Engineers whose guidance due to their expertise in dealing with white phosphorus poisoning at Eagle River Flats in Alaska put me on the right track that I knew I was on. Professor Bill Roebuck and Alan Hunt who similarly gave advice on the wildfowl deaths.
There are locals like Jim Price, Malcolm Edge , David Wilson and Roy Martin who have shared their stories with me and I have passed these important memories on. Others have also helped in circulating the dire situation that exists and will still exist through blogs, social media and other avenues. I also thank Tony Larner and Adam Aspinall of the Sunday Mercury, whose pieces broke important ground and threw light upon an area that many would have like to have seen buried. The website What do they know? has offered an opportunity to ask awkward questions in the public domain and revealed a great deal that had previously been buried or restricted in private meetings.
I have been to different parts of the country on a jigsaw puzzle quest to piece together events, pictures of the past , and other information relevant to exposing the truth, and I have to say, I am not nearly done yet with that!
But I would also like to take this opportunity to say “thanks for nothing” to the following organisations.
The Environment Agency.
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council.
Defra.
The Health and Safety Executive.
The Parliamentary Ombudsman.
Natural England (English Nature).
Public Health England/Health protection Agency.
and of course last and by all means least Albright and Wilson,Rhodia and Solvay.#liarsofthechemcialindustry
Collectively the former civil servants, (and no doubt some still current), belonging to these public bodies were a bunch of idiots, chemical industry idolaters, cretins and scum bags. Dozens of letters I sent out over the years, asking awkward questions, stating facts and getting dozens of excuses, buck passing and waffle. Your university degrees were worthless and your claimed education and scientific experience shown to be null and void in this case.
If you think that I am a conspiracy theorist or tin foil hat wearer, just consider the following email between civil servants concerning the white phosphorus testing of a swan on rattlechain, which I only obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. One wonders to whom they serve and why they were so desperate for a member of the public NOT to learn the truth about white phosphorus poisoning and swans?
I still maintain that the company at the centre of all this had the ability to pull strings, influence policy making and get what they wanted, when they wanted. There was certainly an insidious post war Quaker “society of friends” enterprise at work, a conspiracy among this cult, which permeated civic society,monopolised business, financial institutions, the judiciary and politics- Cadbury, Lloyds, Frys, Barclays, etc- The Albright and Wilson’s were related to them all, and together they set about control of all of these areas . As a former military contractor for The British Government , The British Government also has face to lose in all this with their wartime mess- but to what extent do the latter day civil service wankers get to cover it up? For those fixers, particularly of a political persuasion who may have helped in this matter, this issue will follow you to your graves- you are all cursed.
In going forward I have now set up a facebook page to reach a larger audience. The link to this page can be found HERE.
Please give it a like and share and become part of the chain gang. The more people know the truth about what lies beneath rattlechain lagoon, the more people will hopefully be able to stop more victims of the chemical industry.
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A few days late, but here it is folks…… The alternative to Solvay’s calendar which they annually distribute around the fall out zone of their COMAH Top tier hazardous site. I might even distribute a few in the area, cause I’m such a generous and giving kind of fella. 😛
2019 marks another milestone in the unfolding story of how an industrial polluter in an urban setting interfaced with the community in which it unfortunately rests.
It is also a decade tomorrow when the same company who denied the bird deaths and lied about the chemicals in the lagoon that were really poisoning them made international headlines with the release of the same related chemicals and their breakdown products. This toxic assault on surrounding homes and businesses in the Langley area around the vile Trinity Street plant took nearly a decade in itself to be investigated by The Health and Safety Executive, and the foreign company fined, “Rhodia”, morphed into “Solvay”.
But whatever the name brand on the buildings, the former Albright and Wilson and their propaganda techniques have never really gone away.
Local residents still get a calendar through their doors promoting the toxic polluter who position themselves at the “centre” of the community, ignoring the fact that their COMAH top tier status puts every one of those people at great personal risk of harm.
When the practice drills and platitudes are put aside with the crackers of exploding BS , Solvay/Rhodia/Albright and Wilson failed to sound the alarm when it really mattered. THIS WAS PROVEN WHEN THEY FAILED TO SOUND THE TOXIC GAS ALARM ON 2ND JANUARY 2009, WHEN ER… A TOXIC GAS PHOSPHINE WAS RELEASED.
From the Health and Safety Executive’s report into the Rhodia phosphine fire.
SELF APPOINTED CIVIC SOCIETY
From the days of the two founding families and their political connections, those at Trinity Street have always relied on their political friends for doing them favours. They are in with the police, and they are in with the Labourite union political class. Not surprising perhaps when so many union barons are themselves middle aged white men of privilege, but “up the werrkers” eh comrades.
Take for example their boasts about the Langley lights and providing backing for this Sandwell Labour council event. You don’t have to look very far to see the connections.
yawn………
You also don’t have to look very far at how this company present their phoney “residents group”- supposedly made up of randomised local people who are able to ask questions and table issues about the factory and its effects on the local area. Many people unfortunately in Sandwell question little and are too thick to ask incisive questions about the local chemical industry and its dire effects on human health and the environment. But when you have some people in a “residents group” to whom you have given money to groups to which they belong, the symbiont promotion is not difficult to see. Do you ask difficult questions of a host organism that provides you with financial support?
The same can be asked about “local history” and its links with civic society, and how some history can be airbrushed to present only a rose tinted series of anecdotes by people too close to see the bigger picture, or even present a balanced viewpoint. This is certainly the case in Oldbury and how the chemicals made there negatively affected the area. The smells, the industrial pollution, the fires, the deaths, the environmental pollution are never really vividly recalled and accurately sourced as they have been chronicled on this website, except framed within some form of cosy post war context that allows the present day polluter to appear as though they currently are much better than they used to be, and that this was something that just happened so many years ago. Phosphine fires are not a one off at Trinity Street.
Albright and Wilson were in the past shamelessly given advertising space within local history books, not surprising however when you learn that it is they who paid for the print run of these volumes. When the crap hit the fan in January 2009 in Langley, it was difficult to get away from the fact that very little had really changed in the dirty and dangerous polluting phosphorus factory, and also that with the advent of social media, local people had began to question more than the propaganda flyers could silence.
Oh how reassuring it must be that in 2019, 80 years since the beginning of the second world war, Langley still has an air raid siren to warn of a potential European assault on homes in the area and the prospect of toxic chemicals falling in the Midlands mist.
Langley is a place that always reminds me somehow of the Clint Eastwood film High Plains Drifter- especially in how the main protagonist moulds and grooms people into painting their town red at the end of the movie.
More homes are soon to be built on the doorstep of Trinity Street, passed by Solvay’s best mates Sandwell MBC, but I have no idea of who would possibly want to live next to a frequent hazard sounding level crossing and this top tier chemical hazard site. But I’m sure that the occupants of these “quality homes” will be comforted that on their doorstep, a Belgian outfit gives money to cancer research and sends out Christmas cards with polar bears on.
2019 is also hopefully the year in which this country will emancipate itself from the dictatorship of EU politicians and business mandarins. Solvay’s CEO, Jean Pierre Clamadieu, an ex French Government civil servant is a prime example of a Brussels based Europhile warning of impending doom and gloom about Brexit.
Should Solvay decide to close its British based factories after Britain leaves the EU in March, it would truly be a prosperous new year for the area; at last free from the grip of phosphorus based man made pollution.
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Sometimes Karma just happens, well at least in part. Two old news articles reveal that two of the founding families’ members, whose empire can be said through war to have killed thousands with their chemical weapons produced for the British Government, were not entirely protected from accident.
As I have already pointed out, the quaint imagery of the poor downtrodden Quakers who made good and gave much is a fallacy perpetuated by their latter day chronicling lackies and phosphorus fellators.
The first “unfortunate” accident- well it wasn’t really, involved one of the worst of the pack- George girls name Albright- a moustached moron of a man usually found clad in red on horse back pursuing that which was inedible.
What a prick
The Birmingham Mail article of 22nd October 1881 recounts how this creature fell into a tank of boiling water being scalded about the legs and lower body. “One for the pot” you might say- good result. The company propaganda book “100 years of phosphorus making” concurringly recounts that “he had walked into a tank which contained white phosphorus under scalding water, and had had to keep his leg there until it could be extricated.” – even better that the chemical that maimed thousands made to keep these money grabbing cult of weirdos in cheddar should have found him out and burnt his lower regions.
Just twelve years later, the co founder John Edward Wilson, (uncle Albert), also met with a fall during a horse accident when his carriage went off the rails. According to this report from the Birmingham Daily Post of November 4th 1893, he was “much injured” when riding around in Torquay after a horse had been startled by a passing train- ironic that his son J.W Wilson was so heavily involved in this industry.
I have no sympathy for either of these two as a latter day reader, and if by some chance you are a direct descendent of the Albright and Wilson’s reading this, perhaps consider how the firm that put you in a strong financial position was founded on the harm it did to others through the changing nature of chemistry.
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If the 1950’s were terrible for stinks, spills and chemical fire mayhem, then things didn’t really improve at The Trinity Street Albright and Wilson site in the next decade either.
Where else can we start than with the main chemical of concern- white phosphorus, and a serious explosion at the vicinity of the production plant. The Birmingham Daily Post article from 9th March 1960 reveals that the local brigade had a three hour fight on their hands to deal with the major hazard.
“ “there is always danger at this type of factory”, a fire brigade spokesman said.”
The following day March 10th 1960 Birmingham Post added further detail in that the single storey building destroyed was “near to” the phosphorus plant. As well as claiming that production had not been affected, it is incredible that the AW spinner does not even mention that they were presumably glad that no one had been killed or injured but that “we are grateful that expensive installations were saved from harm”!
There is also the comment
“The fire brigade had a lot of fumes from the chemicals to contend with. “
Perhaps one should consider that the poor buggers living around the site, who would not have had breathing apparatus to rely on, would also have had “a lot of fumes from the chemicals to contend with” , and probably the health effects too!
One wonders how close this episode came to destroying the entire site, because if the phosphorus plant had been reached, there would have been no putting it out.
Having already had leaks of toxic gases such as phosphine and phosphorus pentoxide to contend with, the Birmingham Daily Post of 27th November 1963 gives us yet another in the form of Toluene. This gas if inhaled in large doses can cause both dizziness and potentially “fatal highs”. Perhaps that is what they were trying to do to put some “atmosphere” into the otherwise terminally depressing environment of Langley. 😛
Toluene is not nice
What is most interesting about this article aside from the fact that four firemen were injured, is the discrepancy of the two statements made by the fire service and then Albright and Wilson.
The fire brigade stated that Albright and Wilson had told them NOT to turn off the escaping gas supply for fear of explosion, yet the AW spinner claims that they had NOT said this. SO WHICH WAS LYING?
Toluene is most definitely an explosive gas , so I have no idea why the chemists were lying. What is also interesting is why so much of this chemical was detected in high concentrations in the rattlechain lagoon sediment.
Another small snippet is given in The Birmingham Daily Post of Friday 10 March 1967. Once again firemen were required with breathing apparatus to put out a “leakage” of the unnamed chemical.
These repeated incidents only provide evidence that this serial environmental polluter were at large throughout the latter part of the Twentieth Century, indeed the name “Albright and Wilson” is associated with nothing but toxic risk to the Oldbury area.
But not so concerned about trespassing their chemical risks on the local community.
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on Albright’s toxic archives #18 Oldbury under fire #2
The nature of the unnatural chemical materials stored at the site in Trinity Street Oldburymake it a major hazard to avoid. Unfortunately for those living around this spralling site, along with the vile smells and putrid pea supor substance mists, the main risks to human health remained the threat of fire, as well as explosions.
Numerous articles on fires that occurred, putting local people at personal risk, as well as the hapless bribed workforce of Albright and Wilson are not hard to find. The first of these is revealed in The Birmingham Daily Gazette of 11th August 1952 and concerns the main chemical which of course we know all about- white phosphorus.
Off site risks of course would be toxic gases being released as well as damage from phosphoric acid forming in contact with mucous membranes.
Less than a year later, another fire on the site was also recorded in the same paper on 3rd March 1953. This fire involved damage to a single storey building and the mention of “flares” is interesting (not the baggy trousers). These were no doubt part of the Government work undertaken for the Navy by this company- just a covered up risk to which many people locally were unaware.
Fast forward to 1959 and the article in The Birmingham Daily Post of 24th March reveals that breathing apparatus was used by firemen to put out a sawdust fire.
On 7th September of the same year, and again in The Birmingham Daily Post, a more serious “chemical fumes peril” fire is recorded. This involved firemen putting their lives at risk from three brigades to fight a phosphorus pentasulphide fire at the works.
The article describes how an “artificial fog” reached Oldbury Town centre- in reality a dangerous breakdown product acid mix from this chemical weapons precursor that would have affected anyone exposed to it.
The pentasulphide reaction with water produces the toxic gas Hydrogen sulphide as well as phosphoric acid.
P4S10 + 16 H2O → 4 H3PO4 + 10 H2S
It is not clear how firemen therefore fought this fire, but water would definitely NOT have been a safe option.
From these four examples, I’m sure there are many more from this period of time which were covered up and not reported, one can see how people living in Oldbury were being exposed to unnecessary risk. They were also being left out of pocket in rates by having to pay for a fire service to fight these chemical fires, and all to make one company which claimed to be part of the community a shed load of dough.
You have to hand it to Albright and Wilson in that they continued to devise novel ways in which to kill off and maim their employees, as well as offer a string of smelly and toxic assaults on the wider community of Oldbury. If it wasn’t with chemical explosions and gas leaks it was with rotting jaws and asbestos.
But as this article from the Birmingham Post of January 8th 1973 shows, the hapless workforce employed at Trinity Street were not even safe in their own homes from the curse of “The Devil’s element.”
Poor AW employee Gurdev Singh of Old Park Lane had a bloody phosphorus tanker crash through his front door and also wreck the house of his neighbour! The potential consequences of carrying such material could have been catastrophic given the nature of the chemical being carried- literally an incendiary bomb on wheels.
I’m not sure how the lorry skidded or what enquiry Albright and Wilson made into this fiasco, but when he signed up to work for this rotten firm , I’m sure that Mr Singh was not looking for this particular form of *Guru spiritual enlightenment! 😆
Gu means Darkness and Ru means Light. Literally translated, “Guru” means ‘The Light that dispels darkness.’
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on Albright’s toxic archives #16 A phosphorus ride and Sikh
It certainly appears that the company were keen to take charge of employee health as regards potential chronic poisoning via phossy jaw, though conned them into believing that this was somehow all linked to “bad teeth”.
But this post deals with the main risk associated with the chemical in that it burns like hell, melts away the flesh and then sets about the bones. There are several reasons why a phosphorus fire and burns associated with it are much, much worse than any other type.
It is difficult to put out as it keeps burning in air until there is none left.
It is a sticky substance that clings to anything
It spits violently when burning meaning that several areas of fire can occur
It burns for a long time , and even when seemingly extinguished, can restart again in contact with air
Not only is the chemical itself highly toxic but when burning, phosphorus pentoxide smoke and phosphoric acid in contact with water also poisons you. This is particularly the case in contact with the mucous membranes or the eyes.
It is lipophilic and therefore attracted to fatty tissues
Here’s a quick video which demonstrates some of this.
Some online sources also reveal patients presenting with white phosphorus burns, often associated with military activities. Of course we also know about the Albright and Wilson’s toxic legacy of their disastrous “AW bombs”- made in the millions at Oldbury.
“Phosphorus burns are typically severely painful, necrotic, and yellowish in colour with a characteristic smell of garlic. They are commonly full-thickness burns, resulting from chemical and thermal insults. Systemic toxicity manifests in 3 phases:
(1) In the first 8 hours, patient may experience gastrointestinal symptoms such as abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea;
(2) From 8 hours to day 3, patient may be asymptomatic;
(3) From day 4 to day 8, multiorgan failure and central nervous system dysfunction may result in death. Clinicians should also be wary of predictable complications such as hypocalcemia, hyperphosphatemia, and cardiac arrhythmia. Therefore, close monitoring of electrocardiogram and serum electrolytes are important.”
To demonstrate that this was not a one off, the following article appeared in The Birmingham Post on 18th December 1972, where the unfortunate individual received burns to the face, neck and buttocks. I am not aware of the long term issues that these two men may have faced.
With accidents like this and to prevent them from being sued, is probably the main reason why AW were so keen to discharge their duty of care by ramming home the PPE issues, as well as stating they provide things like baths and shower systems in the video if any white phosphorus gets onto their workforce; the chemical industry meets John Haigh and Norman Bates.
Where’s rubber ducky?
But it is the military use of this destructive and unnatural chemical for which burns with white phosphorus are more commonly seen today. It is a chemical weapon by proxy, and those poor buggers on the ground where it has been dropped in the theatres of war do not get ppe or waiting baths.
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on Albright’s toxic archives 15 # Phosphorus burns
It appears that Rhodia/Solvay’s environmental contractors and stooges have carried out a seasonal Halloween “Texas chainsaw massacre” on all trees, bushes and vegetation at their and Albright and Wilson’s mothballed Gower Tip– located next to a children’s sports field and now unfortunately another housing estate built by Morris Homes, who have long since fled the scene of the grime.
Barren wasteland.
But still surrounded by razor wire and fencing under the “Rhodia” brand
“Quality homes, in just the right place.” LOL
I have previously outlined the waste disposal history of this siteand the contaminants still present there under the soil that have never been removed. I will go over these below once again for clarity and as a timely reminder. This is important as to what may happen next with this hellish site, and the likely lies and distortions of truth put forward by any subsequent soil testing by “environmental consultants” and “remediation” for an ulterior motive- that motive being to dupe more people into buying a house on such contaminated surroundings. “Environmental consultants” are as I frequently point out really development of housing consultants under a fake guise, and when you have a CEO of a company who wrote policy for the EA , you can see how they can get around any legislation, safe in the knowledge that the Hopeless EA are not ever going to validate any test or conclusions drawn in any report whereby “the environmental consultants” disclaim any responsibility for inaccuracies in the preface.
The waste disposal licence for the Gower Tip, SL32, a tip which dates from 1938– note the wartime connections of this military supplier, can be read HERE. The map for this site at the time revealed that a confused land border was evident between the local authority land and AW land, ie, between the tip and the sports field. This was supposedly bunded up, and it appears from the photograph above of the field that this is still the case.
Licence SL32 allowed the following to be disposed into the landfill, though it should be stressed that what went into here before this date in 1977 is not exactly clear.
“Methylphosphonothioic dichloride (also known as SWS) (The phosphorus pentasulphide which Iraq had imported into its VX programme had been used as a source, not of phosphorus, but of sulphur in making methylphosphonothioic dichloride, this then being reacted with the precursor which Iraqi workers called “choline”, in fact 2-N,N- diisopropylaminoethanol. In a variant production process being studied late in the programme, the end-product was VX hydrochloride, known as “VX syrup”, a molasses-like liquid, stable in storage, from which VX could readily be generated when needed; dual-use; schedule 2B)
Phosphorus pentasulfide (Phosphorus pentasulfide can be used to introduce a phosphorus bonded to a sulfur into an organic compound, such as V-type nerve agents including VX.The most significant commercial use of phosphorus pentasulfide is in the manufacture of zinc dialkyldithiophosphates additives for high performance lubricants. It is also used in the manufacture of insecticides including chlorpyrifos and in the manufacture of thiophosphates used in mining for ore flotation; Like another nerve agent precursor, phosphorus trichloride, it is prepared by the reaction of two elements: molten sulfur and molten phosphorus. Annual production and consumption in the US is about 50,000 tons per year.”
Any residues down the Gower Tip at 30 tonnes per year ?
One wonders which company in the UK certain foreign moustached bastards were happy to do business with in “defence” export deals, and which conceited bastards of politicians in this country were also happy for them to do business with at certain times with their revolving puppet show game of thrones allies to enemies Middle Eastern regimes?
Of course we currently have a Government and civil service who are happy to villainise Russia for allegedly dropping WMD around the country as well as current villain/ex Gulf war “allie”Assad in Syria cropping up from time to time surrounding chemical weapons, yet the actions of the despotic tea towel heads from Saudi Arabia appear to go muted when their war machine butchery goes into overdrive.
The chemical Ali’s at Trinity Street have always been good at covering up their waste dumping activities, somehow turning white phosphorus contaminated sludges into “the stuff used in toothpaste” at Rattlechain lagoon and other such nonsense designed to conceal their past military activities.
Oldbury’s “baby milk factory”
BACK TO GOWER
I reported in a blog of September 2014, that ERM, Rhodia’s environmental consultants were messing around on the site and apparently taking readings. Boreholes were clearly visible at this point, and now are even more so with the levelled vegetation.
There were two operatives messing around last week appearing to inspect the Gower Tip site, and of particular note they appear to have exposed some form of trapdoor vent, which may be part of a sewer system running through the hazardous waste site. Indeed they were having difficulty putting the lid on it to close afterwards, despite banging it down several times with their feet.
Measurements?
Down the shaft
Looking for rotten eggs?
All of this I would suggest has much to do with the ludicrous so called “Dudley port Supplementary Planning document” , which put forward this none Dudley Port site for housing developments around this “hazardous” contaminated land. This “garden city” branded plan is a complete and utter joke and ignores the significant industrial damage that has been left behind.
Not a single mention of The Gower Tip
Two of these sites in this monstrous prospectus form a direct land border with The Gower Tip, with the other opposite, an infilled canal basin across the canal.
No doubt this will be presented by developers as offering “stunning canal side views” in a wonderful setting, or the like, and perhaps the Rhodia warning notices will conveniently disappear as they did at Rattlechain when it comes to marketing the new houses.
Who in their tiny minds would want to live next to this?
This site is a former clay marl hole which has been used as an industrial tip since 1938. The site has received large quantities of toxic and hazardous waste since this time. These are mostly comprised of various compounds of phosphorus together with some radio-active wastes, laboratory chemicals, solvents etc. The site represents the major disposal outlet for the Company’s waste phosphorus pentasulphide and phosphorus susquisulphide.
These waste arisings are the main problem associated with this site since they are highly reactive especially with water. “
The pentasulphide reaction with water produces the toxic gas Hydrogen sulphide as well as phosphoric acid.
P4S10 + 16 H2O → 4 H3PO4 + 10 H2S
The sequisulphide reaction with water also produces highly toxic and flammable gases.
Claims made about the drums being buried on arrival at site only show how this company dealt with their toxic wastes. It offers an opportunity to never deal with the wastes at the Gower tip by surrounding the site with more human shields. Albright and Wilson were a firm who made a packet out of war and Britain’s war machine and weapons of mass destruction, like the firestorm of phosphorus that rained down on Hamburg melting the flesh of babies and all in its wake. Their British Government agent and chief engineer Alf Loveless toured the German Nazi phosphorus factories after the Second world war had ended, and thus the spoils of war and the fruits of Nazi knowledge incorporated into their designs.
One of the named new roads “Gower Croft”, will no doubt be viewed as some form of romantic throwback to The Gower brickworks, whilst ignoring the toxic tip next door which filled its space.
Another blighted B69 street
I’m just surprised that the boffs at Trinity Street have not tried to invent a new name for the Gower Tip as they attempted to with the quite ridiculous “rattlechain mere” . Perhaps “The Gower Hamlet” or The Gower Peninsula” have a certain ring, though I think the latter may already be taken. 🙂
For clarity to show where this shithole is, here is an overlay 1904 map showing how the brickworks, buildings/pit were once sited within the fenced off hazardous Albright and Wilson landfill of today. The Brades brick and Tile works were situated behind this.
In the newly named “Bullah Way” (who knows), (fullashit way? ) ,Morris Homes considerately left a piece of “green space” complete with a sewer, which may well give some clue as to the trap door in the Gower tip itself, or was it a home guard bolt hole?
The dip between the houses forming a fence line with a view of Albright and Wilson’s toxic and hazardous The Gower Tip
Where does this go, bearing in mind the issues surrounding water and phosphorus pentasulphide?
I’m just surprised that the site wasn’t considered by Sandwell Council for its Commonwealth games aquatics centre, though they appear happier to build on green space without having to pay for remediation.
A tip blighted by the spoils of war, and surrounded by houses in planning applications conceived in sewage. A “Garden City” of Eden, or the entrance to the gates of Hell? 😈
What could possibly go wrong this Halloween? Something thought lost coming back to haunt us all? Stay away from that trap door….cause there’s something down there…..
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If you thought that the threat of coming into contact with chlorine gas was something from the history of the World War 1 trenches, think again. In Oldbury and from the source of a British Government military supplier, it was a very real threat facing the surrounding population from the vile Albright and Wilson Trinity Street chemical factory.
British soldiers were gassed with chlorine
Firstly lets look at the chemical itself. A number of online Health Protection Agency (now Public Health England) pdfs have been published on the nature and risks associated with this chemical.
Concerning the toxicological overview they state the following.
“Summary of Health Effects
Exposure of unprotected personnel to chlorine gas may initially result in eye and lung irritation, the severity of which will be dependent on the concentration and duration of contact.
Relatively minor exposures may result in sensory irritation such as burning of the eyes and throat. These initial symptoms are caused by free-radicals, hypochlorous or hypochloric acid formed by the reaction of chlorine with water in lung or eye tissues.
More significant exposures may lead to coughing and breathing difficulties due to the development of pulmonary and/or laryngeal oedema.
Clearly, exposure to a large concentration of chlorine in an enclosed or poorly ventilated area may cause asphyxiation as a result of decreased oxygen availability.
There is some evidence to suggest that acute exposure may result in long-term pulmonary sequelae (reactive airways dysfunction; RADs) in a small proportion of individuals.”
Albright and Wilson’s use of chlorinestemmed from their production ofphosphorus trichloride, phosphorus oxychloride and ethyl P.C.T . It was delivered to the factory via a private rail line spur which was a direct boon from their second world war production supply as a military contractor.
The effects shown in war were clearly a major risk to anyone living near to the site, as well as the hapless employees.
The following article from The Birmingham Post 26th January 1974 shows how 27 employees of Albright and Wilson required hospital treatment after an uncontrolled cloud release of this toxic gas from the oxychloride plant.
“A green cloud of chlorine started to come into the plant where we were working. We all struggled out somehow.”
The threat of the gas was confirmed when the company were required to publish material under new CIMAH legislation, though this was an opportunity to merely promote themselves. Hazardous substance consent legislation also confirmed how the chemical was delivered into the works and the quantities involved. In 1992 the application HS/008 applied for 360 tonnes rising to 720 tonnes.
A plan of the storage area is shown below.
A subsequent consent HS/009 was a much heralded back slapping exercise between this company and the deluded black country development corporation. This removed the threat from rail and instead replaced it with chlorine being delivered by road instead. The quantity on site was reduced, but as evidenced by the factory uncontrolled release, this risk was not depreciated by the continued use of the chemical on site.
This only achieved the desired human shield increase in development land for both parties. Alarms and sirens and leaflets would remain in the consciousness of those living anywhere near to the site, just as they had during wartime raids.
“Because of the quantities of chlorine, phosphine, and phosphorus used, the site falls under the Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazard Regulations 1984 (CIMAH), and the Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazard (Amendment) Regulations 1990. An Off-Site Emergency Plan has therefore been produced by West Midlands Fire Service Emergency Planning Unit, with the assistance of the Company. “
The production of phosphorus trichloride and oxychloride is explained.
reference made to “a licensed landfill site”- we all know which one!
The report interestingly makes reference to another chlorine incident, but also interestingly the manner in which Albright and Wilson sought to conceal what occurred during such events.
“Z408 Report No 96/296 was reviewed. This incident occurred in the chlorine storage/transfer area; the initial incident report, summarised in the SAG minutes, stated that following maintenance a vent valve on the chlorine main had been left open, resulting in a chlorine discharge to the scrubber for approx. 90 minutes. The scrubber was overloaded, resulting in a release causing an operator to report “a horrendous smell of chlorine” in the local area.
Albright & Wilson had unquestionably taken appropriate action to identify the cause and prevent a recurrence; however, the incident clearly constituted a “malfunction or breakdown of plant, equipment, technical means or technology where the malfunction or breakdown has potential to cause serious pollution of the environment”. It should therefore have been reported to the Agency under condition 1.13 (c) (as given above) of the authorisation, even though modelling indicated no significant environmental impact and the incident did not cause off-site complaint. “
As a final footnote to this post it is worth publishing how the emergency services were tasked with the event of a major incident of such a chlorine release at the site. Not only does the author confirm his recollections of rattlechain lagoon, but as a former police officer, how gas masks were carried in the patrol car and how information was not communicated to the general public.
“Basically the civilian population would have been helpless, the only advice was to tell people to stay in doors and shut their windows. “
It would appear that very little has actually changed about “advice” in the intervening years, though there are no longer bulk deliveries of Cl2 down the rail tracks and according to Solvay, production of the two chloride plants was shut down, though no amendment to the substance consents ever appears to have been made.
Today the political class and Government agents are quick to tell us about “threats” from foreign lands. 100 years ago it was the Germans. At times when it suited them, it has been Middle East “allies” who then morph into enemies with “weapons of mass destruction”. Today it suits them to have the pesky vlads dropping canisters in the vain hope that they think that we believe they are making us feel safe- but never talk about the chemical industry of Britain and its real undiminished threat to civilian populations- perhaps that would not be patriotic- even though the current site operators are Belgian owned.
Perhaps beyond the bullshit “reassurances” of calendars pushed through doors and emergency practice drills, this might help local residents, 100 years on after World War one actually ended. You can buy them on ebay quite reasonably. All the best of British! 😛
All quiet on the Western Road front?
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on Albright’s toxic archives #14 -Chlorine gassed
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