[Ads-l] Toxic leak

[victor steinbok]

Most news organizations are reporting on an accident in the Port of Aqaba
that resulted in deaths. Most reports refer to it as some kind of "leak".
That caught my attention because that doesn't match my understanding of the
word "leak". Whether the leak is liquid, gaseous, electric or information,
it implies an undesired but constrained release or escape from relative
confinement. It may lead to "explosion" (scandal, in the case of
information leak) and result in death (e.g., electrocution or suffocation)
but an explosion itself is not a leak. I've verified the OED entry and it
mostly conforms to my expectations.

If you watch the video, you see a large container dropped from a crane,
resulting in an explosion, then people (and a truck) trying to outrun the
toxic orange blast wave. It's an explosion, an instant release. If
referring go this as a "leak" one might as well refer to exploding nuclear
bombs as "radiation leaks".

As a matter of fact, the OED entry should be updated to include radiation
leak - in two senses, in fact, leaking from and leaking into (many Star
Trek points of reference for both, among many other sources).

CNN: Toxic gas leak in Jordan kills at least 12 people, injures hundreds.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/27/middleeast/jordan-toxic-gas-leak-aqaba-port-intl/index.html


VS-)

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