House Bill Seeks Terrorist-Proof Chemicals

The House recently passed legislation giving the government the authority to force companies to replace chemicals that terrorists could use in attacks with safer alternatives.

Chemical-industry lobbyists say mandating substitutions in chemicals and manufacturing processes, as the House measure would do, could cause shortages of some products.

The Senate will be taking up a similar version of the legislation sometime next year.

Four Taken To Hospital After Chemical Leak At Plant

Four people were taken to a hospital after a chemical leak at an Archer Daniels Midland plant in SW Cedar Rapids. Two were reported to be in serious condition, and two with minor injuries.

Officials are still not sure of exactly what happened at this point but are suspecting the chemical was sulfur dioxide.

The incident started in the refinery department and spread to the Fructose Building. Workers called 911 around 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday. About 75 workers were evacuated from the areas involved. Those workers were allowed back in just after 1:00 p.m.

Officials say the workers are most likely suffering from sulfur dioxide inhalation, but the problem could be hydrochloric acid. Sulfur dioxide is used to soften corn at the plant.

Around 80 trucks hauling corn to the plant were backed up for a mile on Willow Creek Drive SW, unable to deliver their loads because of the incident.

It is events like this that remind us of the importance of having business continuity plans in place. For more information and FREE report Refer to our earlier post Create a Business Continuity Plan for Your Business.

Al-Qaeda Experiments with Weapons of Mass Destruction Goes Badly, Kills Operatives

UPDATE: In the post I put up yesterday Plague Killing off Al-Qaeda Terrorists it appears that as I suspected it may have been a botched case of Al-Qaeda experimenting with unconventional weapons.

Though unconfirmed reports are now coming in stating that it is not plague, it only states that it was either biological or chemical in nature, but intelligence sources are unsure of the exact nature of the agent.

We will update this story further as information becomes available.