Spitting’s a gross habit. Spitting on a bridge hanger and weakening its structural integrity. Well that’s just rude and really gross.
All that red you see. That’s spit. Human spit that’s slowly eating away at the steel structure keeping the Howrah Bridge in India from collapsing into the Hooghly River. The reason the spit is red and slowly dissolving the bridge is because locals enjoy chewing on and spitting a stimulant known as paan. The paan-laced spit has reduced the thickness of the steel from six millimeters to three millimeters.
Port authorities have decided to cover the steel with fibreglass. Maybe they should have thought of that two millimeters ago. [ABC.net]
Lillee
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 3:50 PMeww
Daws
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 4:02 PMImagine what their teeth are like!
EMH
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 5:24 PMWho said they gots teeth?
bazuden
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 9:28 AMWell said
Nicholas
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 4:10 PMDarn, just when I was planning to continue eating for the rest of my life..
Brian
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 4:46 PMThat’s nasty…
Drew
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 4:54 PMThanks. I puked a little in my mouth.
Ozoneocean
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 8:04 PMWhat a moronic duct-tape solution!
Jebus… Just brace the damn thing, remove the damaged plates on by one, replace them and paint them with some coating impervious to the spit. It’s pretty straight forward.
Of course it’d cost a decent amount of money and maybe they don’t have enough, but it’s better than a hundred or so people dead when it collapses into the river and the loss of business caused by the transport chaos both on and over the river, plus the cost of removal of the damaged structure and then reconstruction…. Compared to that repair costs are chump change.
Charles
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 12:19 AMPlease, you think they care about something as petty as safety? Heh.
Charles
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 12:19 AMPlease, you think they care about something as petty as safety? Heh.
Harry
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 1:47 AMLOL
Ash
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 10:16 AMArrogance at its finest!
Bridges are meant to be crossed.
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 9:32 AMDisregard bridge.
Karthik
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 10:02 AMPaan actually contains Calcium Carbonate. Unfortunately, it not only corrodes this bridge, it also corrodes the gums and teeth. One of the primary reasons for mouth cancer. It also contains tobacco. And yes, affects the teeth – color and loss itself.
Unfortunately, it is a bad habit and people are yet to realize this. However, this does not happen across the entire country, a few selected cities. And not all people chew paan.
Jaezass
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 10:19 AMWhy the hell can’t they just fix it, ban the use of Paan and fine any twat that spits it out… any where?
Brizeycon
Thursday, April 26, 2012 at 3:21 PMIf I chewed paan I’d spit in YOUR face…yeah, you know who you are…..actually you probably dont…Im not even entirely sure you visit this site, and if you did readd the site what are the chances of you clicking on article….from 2011….whay am I still typing…..WHYYYY!!!!!