I Told You, No Liars!

One of the chemicals Sherwin-Williams is venting on the people of Rochester—or perhaps leaking—is Methyl Methacrylate or MMA, a liquid, which wants to be a gas as badly as I want to see Heidi Petz held responsible for the venal avarice of her personage.

Monty, that means I think she’s an asshole too.

At room temperature MMA contains a vapor pressure of 40 millimeters of Mercury (mmHg), so that evaporation happens even at that temperature.  Twice as fast as water and there’s no catching it after it escapes, making each open container that Sherwin-Williams received fines for a direct point source of atmospheric pollution.  Wafting their plant so that employees can be unsafe too.

Like the more than 250 employees working at Rochester’s sister plant in Garland, Texas, who were lucky enough to be home sleeping when that plant exploded.

MMA’s flashpoint is a dangerously low 50 degrees Fahrenheit, putting basements in Rochester at risk of explosion, were the MMA to accumulate to more than 1.7% of the air.  If it does, then the energy released from flipping a light switch or turning on the television would be enough to cause a vapor cloud fire. 

So volatile is MMA that when Sherwin receives it it’s under a blanket of nitrogen, to ensure it remains a liquid and therefore stays in its confines. Once released it's a wisp, lasting just two deadly days before converting into carbon dioxide and water, unless it catches a lung or on fire before then.

That short time in the atmosphere makes a finding of MMA a warm shell casing at the scene of an environmental crime, not likely to have come from any other source than Sherwin.

The Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) arrive as fluorinated monomers such as Vinyl Fluoride (VF) or Vinylidene Fluoride (VDF), precursors to the PFAS Sherwin vents on Rochester.  Gasses at room temperature these monomers are extremely volatile liquids, in most cases stored under high pressure as most of these chemicals don’t wait to be spilled, rather they make persistent efforts to escape their confinement.  Flashing into gas instantly once relieved of their confinement, even fugitive emissions of PFAS from the manufacturing process is of grave concern.  Explaining why it’ best practice in paint manufacturing to control these chemicals using a closed loop system, so every molecule can be accounted for. 

But Sherwin said fuck that. 

Tomorrow I’ll detail the side effects of exposure to these chemicals, both short and long terms, because forever is how long the people of Rochester will have to worry about their children so that Heidi could get richer and take better care of hers.  Like this Rochester woman pleading with the town council to do something, and 15 seconds into the recording it seems that someone had the right idea.  It will take more investigation though, to learn why they took so long to have it. 

You can listen to that meeting’s greatest hits here, but trigger warning first: in my post yesterday I said that this will be paint’s largest environment disaster sands lead and the largest single point of pollution in the history of paint.  The audio tape is not for everyone, and there’s no sliding into it.

Friday you’ll hear testimony I have taken, evidence of my findings enough to ensure that when Heidi tells her lawyers to sue me, she gets the same lesson in defamation and libel law that Monty got.  (Monty, that means you can’t sue people for telling the truth). 

Residents I'm in touch with tell me they're of his state who Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro will have to respond to, maybe he can check out my content on wage theft since he's calling Sherwin anyway? Killing two birds with one stone, three when he delivers the news to Sherwin that paying the fine does not make it legal to poison people.

After you meet them, you’ll feel as I do; incensed that Sherwin-Williams could do such harm. Willing to deprive people of air, water and dirt to plant, in a pursuit of riches in excess of the riches they already have.  Led by Petz so she’ll be the first to go, though not until the story reaches a national audience.

Which considering Sherwin’s rapacity, seems a pretty good bet.