DISASTER MANAGEMENT II

MAJOR CHEMICAL DISASTERS Source: ILO, 1988 Chemical involved ConsequencesPlace and date DeathInjuries Phosgene10-Poza Rica, Mexico, 1950 Chlorine7- Wilsum, Federal Republic of Germany, 1952 Dioxin/TCDD-193Seveso, Italy, 1976 Ammonia3025Cartagena, Colombia, 1977 Sulphur dioxide-100 Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 1978 Hydrogen sulphide 829 Chicago, Illinois, United States, 1978 Methyl isocyanate 2,500200,000Bhopal, India, 1984

DISASTER TYPES II Overt disaster – is a chemical disaster where there is no doubt about the source of the release and its attendant harm Examples include Seveso (1976) and Bhopal (1984) The Seveso disaster took place on 10 July 1976 in the Seveso area, close to Milan, Italy, in a plant where trichlorophenol was produced. The occurrence caused the contamination of several square kilometres of populated countryside by the powerfully toxic 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). More than 700 people were evacuated, and restrictions were applied to another 30,000 inhabitants. The most clearly established health effect was chloracne, but the picture of health consequences possibly linked to this incident has not yet been completed (Bruzzi 1983; Pesatori 1995).

DISASTER TYPES II The Bhopal disaster occurred on the 2 nd December, 1984, when a runaway reaction in a tank in which about 42 tons of MIC used in the manufacture of pesticide, burst open, venting MIC and breakdown chemicals into the air over the city of Bhopal, in central India. Thousands died and hundreds were injured within a few hours.

DISASTER TYPES II Slow-Onset Disasters Slow-onset disasters may become apparent only because human targets happen to be on the release path, or Because, as time passes, some environmental evidence of a threat from noxious materials crops up Classical examples are a) the Minamata disease (1953) b) Love Canal excavation site in the USA. The site had been used as a dumpsite. Foul stench were experienced by people who later built at the site.

DISASTER TYPES II Transnational Disasters – these have no borders. Example is the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 Contamination from Chernobyl, Ukrane, reached from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ural Mountains in Russia

DISASTER TYPES II The Sandoz fire disaster is another example. The warehouse was located in Schweizerhalle, 10 km southeast of Basel, and some 30 tons of the chemicals stored in the warehouse were drained along with water from the fire-fighting into the nearby River Rhine. Severe ecological damage occurred over a length of about 250 km. Apart from symptoms of irritation reported in the parts of the Basel area reached by gases and vapours produced by the fire, no cases of serious illness were reported.

DISASTER TYPES II “Developing” Disaster – where manufacturers, because of stringent laws and regulations setup their hazardous plant in third world countries where the laws and regulations are not so stringent. In Pakistan 7,500 field workers in a malaria control programme in 1976, as many as 2,800 experienced some form of toxicity. It was also estimated that about 500,000 acute pesticide poisonings occur annually, resulting in about 9,000 deaths. Only about 1% of the deadly cases occur in industrialized countries, although those countries consume about 80% of the total world agrochemical production