Pollution disasters

Certain areas are unusually susceptible to air pollution disasters. One during 1930, in the Meuse Valley of Belgium, caused the premature death of over 60 people. Another in 1948 at Donora, Pa., caused 20 deaths. A third resulted in the deaths of 22 people at Poza Rica, Mexico. The greatest occurred Dec. 5-9, 1952, in London, England. Over 4,000 people are estimated to have died from respiratory ailments as a result of the smog. Each of these occurred in an industrial valley at the time of a temperature inversion.16... 

This event occurred in the early 1950s and was the result of mercury poisoning caused by effluent from a factory nearby. It was one of the world s worst environmental pollution disasters. 

Wise W (1968) Killer Smog The World s Worst Air Pollution Disaster. United States of America Rand McNally Co. 

Dr. Robert Kehoe of the University of Cincinnati, who directed confidential research for chemical manufacturers at his Kettering Laboratory. Sponsors included the makers of leaded gasoline and the factories that caused the Donora air pollution disaster of 1949. (Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine, History of Medicine Division.)... 

The poisonous mixture of smoke, fog, air, and other chemicals was first called smog m 1911 by Dr. Harold de Voeux in his report on a London air pollution disaster that caused the deaths of 1150 people. Through the years, smog has been a technological plague in many communities and industrial regions. 

Sason Yes and no. All the traditional texts 1 saw are very well-written, but they are quite advanced and they teach chemistry to chemists, which is sort of preaching to the believer. Considering that in the general public the term Chemistry evokes a buzz of negative words like pollution, disasters, and whatnot... 1 think it is important to start by highlighting how beautiful chemistry is. 

In March 1967, the tanker Torrey Canyon ran aground off the coast of Cornwall in the southwest of England, spiUing some 120,000 tons of oil into the sea (IMO, 1997a). It was the biggest marine pollution disaster in history at the time. Perhaps for the first time, the general public was made aware of the threat the marine transport of oil and other products poses to the marine environment. 

See also Acid Rain Air Pollution Atmosphere Carson, Rachel Climatic Effects Disasters Environmental Economics Fossil Fuels Gasoline and Additives Gasoline Engines Government and the Energy Marketplace Nuclear Fission Nuclear Fusion Nuclear Waste. 

Large quantities of whey constitute a waste product in the manufacture of dairy products such as cheese. From the standpoint of environmental pollution it is considered a major problem, and disposal of untreated wastes may create environmental disasters. It is desirable... 

Environmentally hazardous projects are those where the risk of accidents is very high, which can result in a major and sometimes even catastrophic chemical pollution of the environment. Frequently, these disasters take casualties among the plant personnel, as well as among the nearby settlements population, which were the cases with the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster in Ukraine, or with the pesticide plant accident in Bhopal, India. 

Ever since the inception of the petroleum industry the level of fires, explosions and environmental pollution that have precipitated from it, has generally paralleled its growth. As the industry has grown so has the magnitude of its accidental events. Relatively recent events such as the Flixborough incident (1974), Occidental s Piper Alpha disaster (1988), and Exxon s Valdez oil spill (1989) have all amply demonstrated the extreme financial impact these accidents can produce. 

Core problems Climate change Loss of biodiversity Soil degradation Scarcity and pollution of freshwater i Threats to world health Threats to food security Population growth and distribution Man-made disasters Over exploitation and pollution of the world s oceans Global disparities in development... 

Pollution = Economic disaster Green chemistry = Wealth... 

Dowhng A (2004) Development of nanotechnologies. Mater Today 7 30-35 Dror 1, Baram D, Berkowitz B (2005) Use of nanosized catalysts for transformation of chloro-organic pollutants. Environ Sci Technol 39 1283-1290 Dunckel AE (1975) An updating on the polybrominated biphenyl disaster in Michigan. J Am Vet Med Assoc 167 838-841... 

This is a typical environmental disaster that the industry must not forget and must not repeat. For more information on PCB pollution and management, the readers are referred to the literature [46,51]. 

The effect of acid deposition on forests remains a topic of some dispute among experts. While there is little doubt that sulfur dioxide and other forms of acid deposition do cause damage to trees, a number of other factors may also be responsible for the widespread die-off of trees observed in forests in Europe and North America over the past 50 years. For example, other elements of polluted air, such as ozone or heavy metals, may also contribute to at least some extent to these disasters. 

At the beginning of the twenty-first century new threats to human well being have emerged, which stem from terrorist activities. Potential use of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear warfare (CBRN) in terrorist events is considered to be very likely, and on a small scale it has already been used in the past. CBRN threat however is not limited to malicious intentions and can be caused by a careless attitude towards the use of technology and equipment, breach of safety rules, or triggered by natural disasters or environmental pollution. 

The introduction of chemicals into the environment is considerable. Large amounts of organic compounds are released into the environment every year by industrial and agricultural processes, traffic, urban waste disposal and ecological disasters. Once present in the environment, they are subjected on the one hand to transport processes in air, water and soil and, on the other hand, they are subjected to the influence of the reactor environment , i.e. transformation products may be formed by chemical, photochemical and microbiological transformation processes. Chemical reactions with other pollutants present in the environment can also take place. As a result of these processes, a variety of new and unexpected compounds can be formed from the originally released pollutants and, as a rule, they are more polar than the parent compounds. 

The biggest source of oil pollution comes from the everyday use of oil by ordinary people. Oil that is dumped into water in urban areas adds to oil pollution from ships and tankers. In total, three million tonnes of oil reach the ocean each year. This is equivalent to having an oil spill disaster every day ... 

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