Toxicity of Chemicals in the Environment. Accidents with Chemicals

Persistent Organic Pollutants (The Dirty Dozen)As Listed in Stockholm Convention

http://chm.pops.int/TheConvention/ThePOPs/ListingofPOPs/tabid/2509/Default.aspx

Annex B and C in Stockholm Convention

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_Convention_on_Persistent_Organic_Pollutants

DDT Register

http://chm.pops.int/Implementation/Exemptions/AcceptablePurposesDDT/tabid/456/Default.aspx

Botswana, Eritrea, Ethiopia, India, Madagascar, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, Venezuela, Yemen, Republic of, Zambia

Production Notification ReceivedEthiopia, India, Namibia

Use Notification Received

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Delaney Clause

December 3, 1984, Bhopal, India40 tons of methyl isocyanite from pesticide plat5,000 deaths 200,000 injures(Chem. Eng. News)

Caused by:Bad technological designPoor managementIgnorance of bad safety recordInadequate education and training of workforceNonexisting emergency system

As many as 25,000 residents of Bhopal, India, died in the aftermath of a gas leak at a pesticide factory that was owned by a subsidiary of Union Carbide - See more at: http://collegecornerz.blogspot.com/2012/07/london-assembly-says-dow-sponsorship.html

International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal http://www.bhopal.net/

Bhopal Disasterhttp://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/toxics/justice-for-bhopal/

Who Was the Parent Company?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Carbide

The chemical factory responsible for this disaster belonged to Union Carbide, which negotiated a settlement with the Indian Government in 1989 for $470 million - a total of only $370 to $533 per victim - a sum too small to pay for most medical bills. http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/toxics/justice-for-bhopal/

Health Effects of Methyl Isocyanite (MIC) According to a 2002 study by the Fact Finding Mission on Bhopal, many of Union Carbide’s most dangerous toxins can now be found in the breast milk of mothers living around the factory. Yet Dow Chemical, Union Carbide’s new owner, has suggested that the polluted, not the polluter, should pay for any cleanup.http://www.bhopal.net/what-happened/that-night-and-aftermath/

Deteriorating portion of the MIC plant, decades after the gas leak. Contributor to ongoing contamination

April 26, 1986, Chornobyl, Ukraine •the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel.•The resulting steam explosion and fires released at least 5% of the radioactive reactor core into the atmosphere and downwind – some 5200 PBq.•Two Chernobyl plant workers died on the night of the accident, and a further 28 people died within a few weeks as a result of acute radiation poisoning•UNSCEAR* says that apart from increased thyroid cancers, "there is no evidence of a major public health impact attributable to radiation exposure 20 years after the accident.“•Resettlement of areas from which people were relocated is ongoing

http://rt.com/news/155072-chernobyl-images-now-then/

*United Nation Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/chernobyl-accident/

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Safety-and-Security/Safety-of-Plants/Appendices/Chernobyl-Accident---Appendix-1--Sequence-of-Events/

Sequence of Events

Chernobyl then and now: 28 haunting images from nuclear disaster

http://rt.com/news/155072-chernobyl-images-now-then/

Is Nuclear Power the Only Way to Obtain Energy Without Contributing to Global Warming?

• Safer process (blowing polystyrene with N2 or CO2 instead of pentane; BASF plant in Germany)

• Regular facility monitoring (ultra sound corrosion detection, Geismar, Louisiana)

• Appropriate employee training (Texaco refinery; Shell Chemical’s Belpre, Ohio)

BP’s Texas City refinery: 43 deaths in 33 years- aging infrastructure;- overzealous cost cutting;- inadequate design;- risk blindness;

How to eliminate those accidents completely???

Accidents with Flammable Gases in Petrochemical Industry

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Oil Spills Prevention

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Tanker and escort in Prince William Sound

• Tugs escort tankers• The U.S. Coast Guard follows traffic with

radar• Reduced speeds are required• Traffic restrictions are tighter in bad

weather• Better equipment and training have made

it safer to miss icebergs• A harbor pilot assists navigation• The use of alcohol and drugs is prohibited

and random testing is done

Key Issues with Petrochemical Industry

• Lack of management leadership

• The significant role of human errors

• Inadequate design of the work environment

• Absence of procedures for dealing with abnormal operations

• Loss of valuable information from earlier minor incidents

• The potential economic return

• Transferability of good abnormal situation performance to other plants

• The importance of teamwork and job design

U.S. Toxic Release Inventorywww.epa.gov/tri