Flare

A flare, also sometimes called a fusée, fusee, or bengala,[1][2] bengalo[3] in several European countries, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a bright light or intense heat without an explosion.

Projectile pyrotechnics may be dropped from aircraft, fired from rocket or artillery, or deployed by flare guns or handheld percussive tubes.

[4] These soft-shelled bombs, timed to explode in midair, were used to send messages to a detachment of troops far in the distance.

Distress rockets (aka "rocket-propelled parachute flares"[6]) have been mentioned in the modern era for civilian maritime emergencies since at least 1856.

[9] The Merchant Shipping Act of 1894 further stated that these rockets were to be fired one at a time in short intervals of approximately one minute apart.

[13][14] The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) has standards for visual signals, including both handheld and aerial flares.

Other internationally recognized methods include the radio message SOS, which was used during the 1912 sinking of the Titanic, and the emergency procedure word "Mayday", which dates to the 1920s.

[27] Flares are used by law enforcement agencies such as the United States National Guard, and police as a form of riot control.

These flares are usually discharged individually or in salvos by the pilot or automatically by tail-warning devices, and are accompanied by vigorous evasive maneuvering.

Since they are intended to deceive infrared missiles, these flares burn at temperatures of thousands of degrees, incandescing in the visible spectrum as well.

Contaminated drinking water can lead to such symptoms as gastric irritation, nausea, vomiting, fever, skin rashes, and even fatal aplastic anemia (a reduction in all types of blood cells).

Perchlorate, a type of salt in its solid form, dissolves and moves rapidly in groundwater and surface water.

Even in low concentrations in drinking water supplies, perchlorate is known to inhibit the uptake of iodine by the thyroid gland.

For example, in 2003, a federal district court in California found that the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) applied because perchlorate is ignitable and therefore a "characteristic" hazardous waste.