Panic in Ohio as huge NITRIC ACID spill grounds flights, sparks mass evacuations and creates ominous dust cloud

UK Daily Mail ^ | 6/11/2025 | Emma Richter

[fruser1]

Thousands of gallons of nitric acid, a hazardous chemical compound that can irritate eyes, throats and lungs, leaked from a tank at the Austin Powder Red Diamond plant in McArthur on Wednesday morning.

The company produces industrial explosives used for construction and mining purposes. It is unclear how the leak started - but thick orange plumes of smoke were seen billowing across the blue sky in the area.

[fruser1]

At least with Trump in charge, any required emergency action will actually be taken.

[metmom]

What’s with Ohio and chemical spills?????

Yes, indeed, there will be a different response.

[jerod]

The good news... You can see it and smell it. The bad news... Unless you have a gasmask or a fast car... You’ll likely be sucking it into your lungs.

[Tijeras_Slim]

What’s with Ohio and chemical spills?????

They secretly long for the days when their rivers caught fire.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

PANIC?? Sheesh...

[ABStrauss]

Does anything bad ever happen in the United Kinkdumb?

[Ezekiel]

Thousands of gallons of nitric acid, a hazardous chemical compound that can irritate eyes, throats and lungs...

I hadn't seen that Dragnet movie in a while.

Dragnet 1987 Train Tanker Cars & Missing Toxic Chemicals

(actually it was trichloronitromethane and the pseudo-halogenic compound Cyanogen)

[Cold Heart]

It’s the square cube law. The further away you are the easier to be dismissive.

[No name given]

Good.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

East Palestine deja vu all over again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q49ga0ARkAM&t=43s

[No name given]

Unlike the Xiden regime.

[Bobbyvotes]

Ohio is highly industrialized. I recall many visits to Cleveland to shop for numerically controlled machine tools.

[Drago]

They ended up making “Smog”...a better article:

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2025/06/11/vinton-county-ohio-explosives-austin-powder-evacuation-ordered-after-leak/84150510007/

https://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/mim/environmental/html/nitric.htm

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

:: They ended up making “Smog” ::

Nailed it
...cubed

[kosciusko51]

“Ay, oh, way to go, Ohio”

[NavyShoe]

Time to break out the NIOSH guide.

[packagingguy]

I had to develop a passivation protocol for stainless steel using nitric acid.

That stuff is very scary because not only is it an acid it’s an oxidizing agent as well.

Unlike sulfuric acid it’s relatively volatile, a little more than ethanol.

This will be an ecological disaster.

[metmom]

Thank you.

I cannot believe how callous some people can be to a very serious situation.

What it reveals about a person is NOT pretty.

[Rural_Michigan]

At least thay didn’t make “Smaug”. Hasn’t been a dragon around these parts for an age.

[SpaceBar]

Fortunately simple mineral acids are easily neutralized and leave little ‘toxic waste’ other than their relatively harmless inorganic salts.