Hacker News Reader

Comment by jlmorton | Hacker News Reader

It seems like the implication is that this is toxic pollution, but methane is safe to breathe even in large quantities. It's biologically inert, and not thought to be a carcinogen.

I'm not sure I understand the outrage. Methane is a very strong greenhouse gas, but it's not dangerous to residents in the area, unless the leak was so extremely large as to pose a fire hazard, or displace oxygen.

View on HN

> I'm not sure I understand the outrage. Methane is a very strong greenhouse gas

You answered your own question.

If they covered up this, what else would they cover up? The coverup itself is cause for concern because it proves they're dishonest.

Honestly I'd be worried if a power plant was leaking gas and they didn't talk about it. Having good maintenance is a good thing, if you don't do this maintenance and cover up problems instead of fixing them you end more likely to get situations like the Longford Gas Explosion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esso_Longford_gas_explosion. The other thing is that continuity of energy supplies are important, I remember clearly the 3 weeks where there was no hot water or heating after that explosion due to the interruptions to supply.

There was a massive gas leak, of something that's very, very bad for the environment, and the government hid it from the people. Why shouldn't we be outraged?

The entire article is about residents in the area breathing in the methane. There is no danger to them breathing in the methane, even in very large amounts. It does nothing to you.

It's a potent greenhouse gas, and of course we should try to eliminate leaks. But that is a global effect, and on a global scale, this was not a massive leak at all, it was infinitesimal.

Since when is industrial methane 100% pure as if this is some kind of hospital gas supply. No doubt that methane leak was putting a whole lot of undesirable things into the air people shouldn't be breathing.

Sure, and I'm not saying they shouldn't fix it. But in terms of what we should be outraged about, this is pretty far down the list.

Each and every well-maintained, perfectly-functioning coal-fired power plant in this country is worse. The million of cars in the LA-area are worse.

I just think the article is giving an improper impression of the dangers of methane (or even benzene, or whatever else is leaking).

>There is no danger to them breathing in the methane, even in very large amounts. It does nothing to you.

Some info about methane for you:

>Methane is nontoxic, yet it is extremely flammable and may form explosive mixtures with air. Methane is also an asphyxiant if the oxygen concentration is reduced to below about 16% by displacement, as most people can tolerate a reduction from 21% to 16% without ill effects.

So not totally harmless.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com