Employees At Texas Waterpark Hospitalized After Accidently Making Mustard Gas

The Independent reports that "Grand opening of Texas waterpark descends into chaos as 16 workers are hospitalized in hazmat incident." The water park is the Great Wolf Lodge in Webster, Texas. The article relates that "a third-party contractor at the resort improperly mixed pool chemicals, causing a chemical reaction, prompting 16 employees and contractors working 'in the immediate area' to be transported to hospitals, city officials said." "The Webster Fire Chief Dean Spencer told the Chron that a contractor had mixed sodium hypochlorite and sulfuric acid — two 'unlike' chemicals," the article added.

    The Webster resort marks the waterpark chain’s 22nd location in North America and the second in Texas.

    The new resort boasts 532 rooms and features a 95,000 square-foot indoor water park and a 58,000 square-foot Great Wolf Adventure Park, according to its website. 

Although this was a relatively small incident in an isolated portion of the resort, it does illustrate the danger of a hazardous material spill or accident that could poison the air (e.g., the 1984 Bhopal disaster that exposed 500,000 people in towns around a chemical plant to the highly toxic gas methyl isocyanate (MIC), including over 2,000 killed). 

    On that note, Modern Survival Online has an article on "The Best 8 Hazmat Suits and How to Choose Yours." The article discusses different types of hazmat suits and what they can protect against before moving on to specific models that the author believes would be good for preppers and finishing with some notes on fitting a suit. Note that this article only discusses the suits and not the respirators or filter masks you would want to get to use with them. If that interests you, Pew Pew Tactical has an article on "11 Best Gas Masks, Face Masks, Respirators, & Filters [Hands-On]" which might be a good starting point. The Prepared also has a detailed article on "Best gas masks and respirators for survival." And "Best Gas Mask for Chemicals, Viruses, and Nuclear Fallout" at True Prepper looks pretty detailed as well.