"Toxic-cloud event" in Buenos Aires

Penguin's 25th anniversary edition of White Noise.

A strange, yellowish haze appeared over downtown Buenos Aires Thursday following the spontaneous fire of a shipping container carrying pesticides from Shanghai, emitting a noisome stream of smoke the local press immediately dubbed "toxic cloud." While a national health emergency director says "the worst has passed," the comic-book like event, foretold in Don DeLilo's dystopian novel White Noise, hints at something rather worrisome. Read my brief from Buenos Aires here.