It is also a cheap and readily available solid material to spread on spills of acids or bases. You do not want to put liquids onto spills, that will just lead to spreading the spill further. In the case of either an acid or a base spill, the products will be a relatively unproblematic salt and water, plus the evolution of CO2 gas.
Note that this is an "Assess" question so putting 500 accurate pieces of information supported by balanced equations, a bibliography, and a power point presentation summarising the pros and cons with lovely graphics and videos, but not including an evaluation / assessment, will result in poor marks for the question.