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A comment on The ticking time-bomb at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Parent comment

Re:The ticking time-bomb at the bottom of the Baltic Sea by refurb on Monday April 21, 2014 @09:05AM (#7620848)
The issue with chemical weapons is that they are very reactive. Mustard gas would react with the organics floating around in the ocean very quickly.

As for the hydrolysis product of mustard gas, thiodiethanol, it's not very toxic. The MSDS claims acute toxicity in rates starts around 6.5g/kg. So a human would need to consume ~500g in order to see toxicity.

Also, thiodiethanol is quite reactive itself. It would likely be oxidized to the carboxylic acid. Wouldn't surprise me if bacteria could metabolize it.

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Re:The ticking time-bomb at the bottom of the Baltic Sea by infinite8s on Monday April 21, 2014 @10:58AM (#7621341)
Yeah, given the existence of life at deep-sea sulfuric vents, I wouldn't be surprised if the newly evolved bioorganisms were colonizing the containers at their leakage points.
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Re:The ticking time-bomb at the bottom of the Baltic Sea by Carwajalca on Tuesday April 22, 2014 @02:15AM (#7626098)
There are no deep-sea sulfuric vents in the Baltic Sea.
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Re:The ticking time-bomb at the bottom of the Baltic Sea by marshray on Tuesday April 22, 2014 @03:00AM (#7626199)
The point is the ocean is known to contain bacteria which can metabolize chemical sources in the form of sulfur compounds. There's a chance that any slowly leaking CS munitions in the Baltic Sea could host bacterial colonies which break down these compounds.
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