Explainer: How Dangerous Is the Sodium Cyanide Found at Tianjin Explosion Site?

Officials investigating a huge explosion at a warehouse in Tianjin in China have discovered a store of 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide – more than 70 times the legal limit allowed.
Explainer: How Dangerous Is the Sodium Cyanide Found at Tianjin Explosion Site?
This photo taken on August 16, 2015 shows smoke rising from the site of the explosions in Tianjin. STR/AFP/Getty Images
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Officials investigating a huge explosion at a warehouse in Tianjin in China have discovered a store of 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide – more than 70 times the legal limit allowed. Cyanide has a particularly unpleasant reputation and finding it at a major disaster site is far from welcome. However, if officials act fast they should be able to limit its damaging effects.

What is Sodium Cyanide?

The term cyanide is clearly understood in the public consciousness to be almost synonymous with poison itself. This is largely because of its use as lethal suicide pill (L-pill) in World War 2, most notably with the suicide of Nazi army officer Erwin Rommel. The cyanide used in the L-pill was potassium cyanide but the properties of sodium cyanide are nearly identical.

Benjamin Burke
Benjamin Burke
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