Acid

A tractor-trailer, traveling south on Interstate 95 to Baltimore City, jackknifed yesterday morning north of the Beltway near White Marsh, spilling hydrochloric acid and prompting heavy traffic delays for several hours, state police said.Witnesses told police that a Chevrolet Celebrity was stopped in the middle lane of the interstate about 7: 30 a.m. when it was struck from behind by a Dodge pickup truck and sent spinning into the far left lane. The tractor-trailer, carrying several 5-gallon containers of the highly corrosive acid, collided with the car, said Trooper Joseph Comer of the JFK Highway barracks.

A pair of young men walked into a Columbia dentist's office last night and threw a container of caustic acid in a receptionist's face, authorities said.The receptionist, identified by the dentist as Phyllis Fountain, was taken to Howard County General Hospital for treatment. Authorities said the woman did not appear to be seriously injured. A hospital spokeswoman said last night the woman's condition was being evaluated."She came screaming back that she had something in her face and eyes, and there were fumes coming off her," said the dentist, Joel L. Parran of Columbia, who was in a treatment room with a patient during the incident.

"Common sense" is not always your best guide to sound nutrition. Often good research is the only way to get to the truth. The news about calcium and kidney stones is a case in point.Harvard researchers tracked almost 92,000 nurses for 12 years to see if there was a relationship between calcium intake and kidney stones. The results were similar to what they learned about men in 1993. Those who got the most calcium from their diets were at lower risk for kidney stones. This is exactly the opposite of common sense practiced through the ages.

Buzz Melton squinted across a South Baltimore field and liked what he saw: twisted metal, oozing chemicals, 20 moaning accident victims."The only thing we're missing are famine and locusts," Melton said with gusto.Yesterday morning, more than 200 of the region's fire, police and emergency medical workers tested their skills against Melton, the master of disaster, in their 13th annual hazardous materials drill.When it was over, Melton again liked what he saw."There are some places for improvement, but overall we're tickled with the results," said the senior environmental engineer for agricultural products manufacturer FMC Corp.

WITH A watershed draining six states via some 40 significant tributary rivers and creeks, you cannot say precisely where it is the Chesapeake Bay begins.But you can certainly say where the flows of water that ultimately gather in the estuary get off to their most troubled start.That would be here near Kempton, Maryland's southwesternmost town. Just past the old mining town, across the line into West Virginia, rises the North Branch of the Potomac, the bay's second-largest tributary, with about 12 percent of its total freshwater inflow.

Workers from a hazardous-materials team spent four hours Sunday searching for a leaking drum filled with chemicals that posed an inhalation hazard at a Jessup truck stop.No injuries were reported in the incident, which drew 30 workers from the Howard County Fire and Rescue Services hazardous material team to the Truckers Inn Truckstop in the 7400 block of Assateague Drive.The team received a call about a chemical spill at around 1:30 p.m., said Lt. Ken Byerly, a fire spokesman. When the team arrived, members saw liquid leaking from a trailer in the parking lot.Inside the trailer, they found 108 drums filled with fluorboric acid and stannous fluorborate acid -- corrosives that pose inhalation hazards, Lieutenant Byerly said.

Cal breaks Gehrig's record. The Evening Sun closes. The pope comes to town.It's turning out to be a historic few weeks in Crabtown, and Marylanders have saved, or will be looking for, thousands of extra copies of The Sun and Evening Sun in the hope of preserving the moment for their children or grandchildren.Trouble is, newsprint is made to be read and then recycled, or spread under the cat box. It's not crafted to last very long. And, unless readers take precautions, it won't.The big problem is chemistry, says Martha H. Jackson, book and paper conservator for the Milton S. Eisenhower Library at the Johns Hopkins University.

For decades, the pollution poured into the headwaters of the Potomac, killing the water life and turning acre after acre of once-pristine Western Maryland countryside into a dead zone.The problem results from turn-of-the-century coal mining operations that ruptured an aquifer. As a result, each day about 1.5 million gallons of polluted ground water flow up through two man-made shafts into the waters of the Potomac.Tony Abar of Maryland's Mining Program says the pollution flows out of an air shaft and a bore hole from an old coal mine.

The fountain of youth of the '90s may be as close as the nearest cosmetic counter -- in the form of new, acid-based skin-care treatments. These face-saving formulas first trickled onto the market three years ago. Today, they still pack a powerful punch as companies continue to debut more acid-laced compounds.Dermatologists have prescribed alpha-hydroxy acids (AHA) and other acid ingredients to patients for years. Prescription-strength formulas get rid of scaliness, while acid concentrations of 30 to 70 percent perform deep skin peels that remove scars and wrinkles.

Drug company executives are getting nervous about the potential collapse of a $5 billion market in ulcer medicine.Highly profitable drugs such as Zantac, Tagamet, Pepcid and Prilosec are threatened by new research suggesting many ulcers are caused by infection instead of stress.For decades doctors were trained to believe "no acid, no ulcer." The ulcer-prone personality was characterized as a high-pressure, type-A individual driven in his career. Typically he (or she) would carry Maalox, Mylanta or Tums wherever he went.

Teacher wants acid thrown on attackers KANDAHAR, Afghanistan : A 23-year-old teacher burned in an acid attack on 15 schoolgirls and instructors wants the Afghan government to throw acid on her attackers and then hang them. Kandahar's governor said yesterday that authorities had arrested 10 alleged Taliban militants in the Nov. 12 attack and that several had confessed to taking part. Gov. Rahmatullah Raufi said the men would be tried in open court, a pledge that pleased Nuskaal, a first-year math teacher who suffered acid burns on her shoulders.

I am confused about buttermilk in cake recipes. The recipes don't specify which type of buttermilk - whole fat or low- or nonfat. Will using low-fat or nonfat buttermilk change the taste? The recipes probably don't specify a fat level because most buttermilk is low-fat or nonfat. Originally, buttermilk was what was left after butter had been churned from full-fat milk. Since the fat became butter, the milk left behind was low-fat or nonfat. These days, most buttermilk is cultured, similar to yogurt.

Several residents in the 1900 block of Aliceanna St. in Fells Point were evacuated from their homes for several hours last night while a Fire Department hazardous-materials team neutralized a potentially explosive chemical inside a business, a department spokesman said. There were no injuries. Traffic was detoured from the scene. About 8:30 p.m., an employee of Powell Labs Limited noticed a small glass vial containing dry picric acid, a poisonous and explosive yellow crystalline solid used to etch stainless steel, that had been sitting on a shelf for a long time, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, the spokesman.

Elderly black people who are chronic users of acid-inhibiting drugs in the family that includes Zantac, Pepcid and Tagamet have 2 1/2 times the normal risk of developing dementia, Indiana researchers report. The drugs block production of stomach acid by inhibiting histamine-2 receptors; the stomach releases hydrochloric acid when stimulated by histamines. But they also inhibit the brain's cholinergic system, which is involved in memory and cognition. Low levels of cholinergic activity have been linked to dementia.

The culprit might be, as one criminologist says, a sociopath seeking to inject fear into a setting for lighthearted family fun. Or maybe a sadist who set a trap and lay in wait to watch a victim fall into it. More likely, Baltimore County's police chief says, the person who doused a playground slide with acid last weekend at a Middle River elementary school was a youngster from the neighborhood. "For some inexplicable reason, we've got somebody from this neighborhood, I believe no doubt young, who got some sort of emotional high," Chief Terrence B. Sheridan said yesterday.

I've been struggling with body odor for years. I've used antibacterial soap, but it only helps for a short while. It's really affecting the way others look at me in my workplace, commute and outings. Once I thought this odor was because of a serious nail fungus. After taking oral Lamisil, I no longer have the fungus, but I still smell bad. Please help! Only a physician can diagnose what's causing your problem. Some people have a metabolic disorder called trimethylaminuria. A defective enzyme allows a chemical to build up in the body that smells like dead fish.

It's time to call a moratorium on the dysfunctional-family flick. Narcissistic, adulterous or conflicted moms, distant dads, drug-riddled youngsters - don't we get enough of them on "cutting-edge" TV series these days? Ryan Murphy, who created one of those series, Nip/Tuck, seized on Running With Scissors, Augusten Burroughs' acclaimed memoir of a loony adolescence, for the comedy-drama opening today. But all he does with this prized dysfunctional-family property is turn it into a crazed Carter-era comic strip: For Better or for Worse on acid.

Baltimore in August can feel like one big oven. So why would anyone want to go home and actually turn one on? Fortunately, it's also the season for pristine seafood, beautiful tomatoes and fresh herbs. To take the heat off dinner, we asked local chefs and restaurateurs for some of their favorite no-cook dishes. "You can almost go strictly vegetarian in the summer without even intending to because all the produce is so great," says Laura Dolid, owner of Sun, Moon and Stars Cafe in Owings Mills.

events cookingwithamy.com Recently ranked among Forbes Magazine's top five food blogs, this site from San Francisco food writer Amy Sherman includes restaurant reviews, interviews with top chefs and discussion about what's up and coming in the food world. Lia Gormsen KITCHEN TIP "Add a final splash of acid [vinegar or citrus juice] to almost any vegetable or meat dish or fruit dessert at the last minute to perk up the flavor." From finecooking.com Know a helpful shortcut in the kitchen?

Fillers are face lift alternative By her early 50s, Dorene Polcyn was growing weary of her battle against Father Time. Every six weeks, she would drive to her dermatologist's office and plop down $375 for an injection of collagen to fill in and smooth away wrinkles on her face. "The collagen didn't last that long. And I was tired of the expense," she says. Then, in 1998, Polcyn entered a clinical trial for a long-lasting wrinkle-filler called ArteFill. The difference was striking. Eight years later, she's only recently had to return to her doctor for fresh treatment - and then just to fill in new wrinkles that have cropped up in the meantime.