Aliso Canyon Natural Gas (Methane) Leak: Resources from the National Library of Medicine (NLM)
NLM Toxicology and Environmental Health Info
Several federal agencies are responding to the natural gas leak at the Southern California Gas Company Aliso Canyon Facility that is affecting the Porter Ranch neighborhood in Los Angeles. The National Library of Medicine (NLM) Division of Specialized Information Services (SIS) provides information on public health aspects of chemical incidents for the benefit of health professionals and volunteers who may be responding to an incident and for people living in or concerned about an affected region.
The primary releases from the well are natural gas (methane) and odorants (tertiary butyl mercaptan and tetrahydrothiophene). There is also an "oily mist" containing assorted chemicals: benzene, toluene, ethylene, xylene, and other organics consistent with oil residues from the former oil drilling facility site. Air sampling has also noted radon and hydrogen sulfide. The chemical information below is from National Library of Medicine TOXNET resources: Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB); Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS); ChemIDPlus; and Tox Town.
Health Information on Chemical Components of Leak
Main Gas Released: Methane (RN: 74-82-8)
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB):
http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search2/r?dbs+hsdb:**At_Symbol_Here**term+**At_Symbol_Here**DOCNO+167 ChemIDPlus:
http://chem.sis.nlm.nih.gov/chemidplus/rn/74-82-8