Acute Mass Disasters

The earliest reports of acute environmental incidents were of air pollution emergencies. In the Meuse Valley of Belgium during 1930, 63 persons died and thousands became ill from sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid air pollution (French 1989). The Donora, Pennsylvania, smog disaster in 1948 left 20 dead and more than 5,000 ill (French 1989). 

Certain chemical disasters have prominent places in medical history. In 1976, a chemical reactor explosion in Seveso, Italy, released 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, which contaminated thousands of acres, killed 100,000 animals, and caused the evacuation of hundreds of people (Melius and Binder 1989). In 1984 in Bhopal, India, a carbamate pesticide plant released 30 tons of methyl isocyanate, causing more than 3,000 deaths and 50,000-300,000 injuries (Melius and Binder 1989). The Three Mile Island and Chernobyl nuclear accidents during the 1980s were the culmination of a string of eight nuclear accidents since 1952 (Melius and Binder 1989). Other chemical disasters severely affected local communities but did not generate widespread attention (De La Paz 1997 Withers 1988). 

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Treatment of acute symptoms remains supportive, whereas longterm developments require more specific interventions. Psychiatric treatment of acute exposures requires initial management of acute stress reactions, often in a mass casualty environment, followed by individual treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder or other mood disorders in certain survivors. As seen in nuclear disasters, the lack... 

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