Environmental Strain Through Accidents in Technical Installations

2 Environmental Strain Through Accidents in Technical Installations 

Experience and accident statistics alike demonstrate that, apart from accidents within technical installations, losses affecting human beings and the environment may occur outside the technical installation itself. There may be interrelationships between accident and environmental strain, The effect of an accident in a technical installation becomes obvious the moment toxic or flammable substances spread in the air, the water, or on the ground, or whenever pressure waves propagate in the air or in the ground and lead to environmental damage. The causes, e,g., may be mechanical damage to machinery, explosions, or fires. The influence of environmental stress on the evolution of the accident, on the other hand, is 

Environmental stresses through technical installations are usually transmitted through the carrier media of air and water which are both part of the environment. The noxious substances are introduced in gaseous or dusty form into the air or, as a solution, into the water. Tlirough the air we breathe and the water we drink, these noxious substances bring about a direct endangerment or, via the food chain, stress on man and animals. 

For the normal operation of technical installations, the emission of noxious substances can be reduced to a certain degree by appropriate devices however, in most cases, they cannot be excluded completely. Systematic checks on the emission of substances alien to the environment permit the establishment of emission hies for air and water pollution. On the basis of these recordings, and via analyses of the origin of these substances, an improved environment can be created by purposeful measures. The effects of pollution on air under normal operating conditions in densely populated areas is shown in Table 7.18. 

The establishment of and adherence to emission limits at the source is designed to ensure that environmental stress is kept within certain predefined limits. Beyond these minimum requirements in the form of emission limits (Table 7.19), another concept is of great importance, namely that the limiting of emissions must be tuned to the possibilities open to us within the scope of the state of the art (technology). 

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