Eyes streaming on a beach at Eastbourne, we thought nothing of it - maybe the pollen count was high today. Later we found out we had ventured out obliviously into a chemical haze. We had not seen the news, checked on Facebook, Twitter or been given any indication of what was going on.
credit: Jacob Ward took this picture of the haze over the sea
I only happened to read about it today. It makes me feel sick to the stomach that me and family have been exposed to a chemical that the local hospital deemed necessary to decontaminate people.
"By 10.30pm 233 patients had been treated at Eastbourne District General Hospital where they were being "decontaminated on site" by hospital staff. "
(Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/27/birling-gap-beauty-spot-evacuated-chlorine-gas-leak-causes-breathing/)The immediate area around Birling Gap may have been evacuated, but there was absolutely no concern for the surrounding areas that were being affected too. People (like my family) were still on beaches and there was no-one (or signs) there to tell us to go home, get away from the beaches, coast and stay safe in our house with windows and doors shut.
It is not known what what causes the chemical haze or what chemical is in the actual haze.
Although the East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service has advised that
" it is 'extremely unlikely' that it was chlorine, as was being suggested on social media."
(source:https://www.sussex.police.uk/news/hundreds-affected-as-gas-cloud-hits-sussex-coast/)From a personal standpoint, it certainly felt and smelt like chlorine. My eyes and nose felt a lot like I feel after coming out a swimming pool after a couple of hours.
Other potential explanations include that it's a meteorological phenomenon that is ozone related:
"There was also the so-called smell of chlorine," he said. "That was almost certainly not chlorine, it was the smell of ozone which is a very similar smell."
(source: http://news.sky.com/story/danger-from-sussex-gas-cloud-has-passed-police-say-11009906)That it came from France. I don't think this is the case because it didn't smell of cheese and garlic. But seriously, the weather conditions have ruled out this possibility:
“However, weather models suggest that an onshore source in northern France is very unlikely.”
(source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/27/birling-gap-beauty-spot-evacuated-chlorine-gas-leak-causes-breathing/)One local resident has speculated about this event at the beginning of the year:
A HUNT is underway for a Syrian scientist posing as a refugee and plotting a chemical attack on a British seaside town.
(source: http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/751419/Hunt-Syrian-refugee-scientist-plotting-chemical-attack-British-seaside-town-terror)And other comment I noticed on this source thought it could be mustard gas that was disposed of in the sea after the World Wars.
"Probably WW1/2 munitions- lots of nice stuff like mustard gas was dumped off shore in the channel"
And a whole host other therories. I could be here all night.
But the real question I want to discuss is this....
What if this chemical haze had happened in America?
Everyone goes on about the US and how dire it is now Trump is president, how their health care is the pits, but you know they have some things right and it's not nearly as bad as some people make it out to be.
They would care if there was a chemical haze and would let the whole area know about it.
In the States THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN people checking the beaches, putting warning signs up and physically evacuating people from the beaches until the haze was gone.
In the UK they posted a few tweets and a couple of Facebook alerts and maybe something on the television. I don't know, I didn't see or hear any of them.
@novaatebatman describes this lack of action to keep people in the area safe to a tee:
It's like when someone's running off to do something that'll get them killed, and you just go "wait, no, stop, don't go" but you're not even speaking at full volume when you should be screaming it.
But most of all the UK needs forced emergency alert notifications, because if this happened in the States, then they'd be all about protecting the citizens from a chemical attack.
If you are not from the US, here what emergency alert on the phone is like:
@novaatebatman tells me that you don't even get a sense of how loud it is in real life from this video.
But your phone goes absolutely crazy, even it's vibate to let you know about the alert and you have to acknowledge the alert or it will continue blasting depending on the severity of the situation.
You choose to have an additional app on your phone, that will cover local situations that the national alerts may not, but all smart phones in the US has the national alerts as there is no way to turn them off.
So folks, America has definitely got something right here and I applaud them for that. And UK government take note!
This post was inspired by a very interesting conversation with @novaatebatman earlier today