[Ads-l] Toxic leak

Dan Goncharoff thegonch at GMAIL.COM
Tue Jun 28 18:33:36 UTC 2022


As far as I know, chlorine doesn't explode. Something else must have
exploded, sending the chlorine outward. So it is possible to have both an
explosion and a leak caused by the explosion.

On Tue, Jun 28, 2022, 1:53 PM victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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-)
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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