Bad chemistry

Basel has a lot going for it, but one of the less appealing things about it is that while it bears little resemblance to Newark and surrounding environs (if you've ever driven up the New Jersey Turnpike to New York City when the wind is blowing the right way, you know what I mean), there are nevertheless a lot of chemical manufacturers in the area. So, whereas in DC we got used to terrorism alerts, in Basel they evidently have chemical alerts. (There was a massive chemical spill in 1986, and evidently alarms went off and police drove around warning everyone to close their windows, but we're always a bit concerned that if this happened again we would have no idea what's happening. Our neighbors would probably all seal their houses and go to their safe rooms while our we would go on with life as usual until our faces started to melt.)

This is all a long way of saying that while things like this message that appeared on our Intranet this morning are supposed to be reassuring, I still find it just a little bit ominous: "Minor chemical truck incident in Lörrach, Germany. Only very localised disruption to traffic. Basel Police state no health risk."