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From: larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman)
Newsgroups: net.columbia
Subject: Re: Re: Deadly green canister?
Message-ID: <795@kitty.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 8-Feb-86 11:06:58 EST
Article-I.D.: kitty.795
Posted: Sat Feb  8 11:06:58 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Feb-86 07:35:58 EST
References: <8632@ucla-cs.ARPA> <9054@amdcad.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, NY
Lines: 28

> ... 
> Hmmm.. *Small* green canister...From The San Jose Mercury News, Fri Jan 31:
> "In particular, officials of the National Aeronautics and Space 
> Administration warned beachcombers about cylindrical green tanks ...
> Far more dangerous is the hypergolic system oxidizer, liquid nitrogen
> tetroxide. Nitrogen tetroxide is so exotic a substance that is not
> even listed in the Merck Index, a standard reference volume that
> summarizes the properties and toxicity of thousands of compounds.
> However, nitrogen tetroxide violently oxidizes almost any organic
> substance it touches, including skin and all other human tissues.
> The burns it causes are instantaneous and likely to be quickly fatal ..."

	Apparently someone at the San Jose Mercury not only can't read, but
has an almost non-existant knowledge of chemistry.  Nitrogen tetroxide is
indeed listed in the Merck Index, and carries registration number 6425.
Nitrogen tetroxide is a very common chemical, and hardly qualifies the
term "exotic".  You can see a nice reddish-brown mixture of nitrogen dioxide
and nitrogen tetroxide if you drop a piece of copper into some nitric acid.
	My point in the above diatribe is not to pick apart some newspaper's
individual article, but to illustrate a much wider point:  Beware of ANYTHING
technical which appears in the daily press!  

==>  Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, New York        <==
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