Air pollution disasters

Air pollution disasters including Seveso disaster and great smog of Delhi with the cause of these disasters ans their effects on human health, public property and environment

1. Air Pollution Episodes and Disasters Deeksha sharma M.Sc. Sem I

2. SEVESO DISASTER Seveso, Italy, 1976, july 10

3. Location : S mall   Italian  town of Meda , 20 km from  Milan  in   Lombardy region of I taly. Named because   Seveso, with a population of 17,000 in 1976, was the community most affected.

4. Incident The  Seveso disaster  was a chemical accident on 10 July 1976 . There was an explosion at a chemical factory which released a lot of the  toxic poison dioxin,  TCDD , into the air . The cloud of poison gas covered an area 6 km long and 1 km wide . It resulted in the highest known exposure to  2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD ) in residential populations.

5. The company where the accident happened was called  Icmesa,  who is owned by  Roche. Icmesa produced Trichlorophenol, which is used to produce the  disinfectant   Hexachlorophene.  

6. IMMEDIATE EFFECTS The affected area was split into zones A, B and R in decreasing order of surface soil concentrations of TCDD . Within days a total of 3,300 animals , mostly poultry and rabbits, were found dead.  Emergency slaughtering commenced to prevent TCDD from entering the food chain, and by 1978 over 80,000 animals had been slaughtered .   15 children were quickly hospitalised with skin inflammation. ZONE SOIL CONC RESIDENTS Zone A > 50 µg/m 2 736 Zone B Between 5-50 µg/m 2 4700 Zone R < 5 µg/m 2 31,800

7.  By the end of August, 1,600 people of all ages had been examined and 447 were found to suffer from skin lesions or chloracne . 14 years after the accident the most evident adverse health effect ascertained was  chloracne  (193 cases). Thirty years after the accident , scientists reported that babies born in the area affected by the dioxin were six times more likely to have  thyroid problems . An excess mortality from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases was uncovered, and excess of diabetes cases was also found . In 2009, an update found an increase in "lymphatic and hematopoietic tissue neoplasms" and increased breast cancer.

8. Cleanup operations The waste from the clean up of the plant was a mixture of protective clothing and chemical residues from the plant . This waste was packed into waste drums which had been designed for the storage of nuclear waste . I n 1982, the firm Mannesmann Italiana was contracted to dispose of the contaminated chemicals from Zone A .  On September 9, 41 barrels of toxic waste left the ICMESA premises and were disposed in a approved way.

9. Criminal court case In September 1983 , the Criminal Court of Monza sentenced five former employees of ICMESA, to prison sentences ranging from 2.5 years to 5 years . In May 1985, the Court of Appeal in Milan found three of the five accused not guilty; the two still facing prosecution appealed to the Supreme Court in Rome. On May 23, 1986, the Supreme Court in Rome confirmed the judgment against the two remaining defendants, even though the prosecuting attorney had called for their acquittal.

10. Great smog of Delhi Delhi, India, 2016 nov 1-9

11. Location: Bordered by Haryana on three sides and by Utter Pradesh to the east. the National Capital Territory of Delhi , is a city and a union territory of India. The NCT covers an area of 1,484 sq kms.

12. Incident New Delhi ties for first place, along with Beijing, China, for having the world’s worst air . The Great Smog of Delhi  is marked as one of the worst visualization of how bad air quality had become in New Delhi and adjoining areas between 1 to 9 November 2016.  Air Pollution at this time peaked on both PM 2.5 and PM 10 levels . Delhi is one of most heavily polluted citie of india, having the country’s highest volumes of particulate matter pollution.

13.  During the reported Smog in Delhi. On Nov 7th, 2016 the PM 2.5 levels shot up to 999 , while recommended is 60 micrograms .  At the same time PM 10 shot to 999 , instead of the recommended limit of 100 . The reading for 999 was the maximum that could be measured by the pollution monitors and was possibly more . Visibility had reduced to about 200 meters  around Nov 7th, 2016

14. Sources of pollution Air pollution in delhi is mainly caused by- Industries Primary sources of smoke being those from the burning of crop stubbles, lit garbage and road dust . This period also coincided with   Diwali, which is celebrated by firing firecrackers. Colder weather, stagnant winds trapping the various sources of smoke.  New Delhi is in the middle of the country therefore it does not receive the coastal breeze to clear out air pollution.

15. Health Effects Breathlessness Chest constriction Coughing Irritation in eyes Asthma Allergy Increase in respiratory and heart diseases

16. Control measures The Chief Minister of Delhi at that time,   Arvind Kejriwal  came out with the below proposed  action items to attempt reduce the air pollution: For the next 5 days, no construction and demolition work took place in Delhi . All diesel generator were banned for the next 10 days, except at hospitals and in emergencies . Vacuum cleaning of roads were started from November 10. The controversial odd-even traffic scheme.

17. Long term measures On November 25, 2016, the Supreme Court of India banned the sale of firecrackers in Delhi to alleviate pollution . In another measure, the Badarpur power plant was remain shut until January 31, 2017. The power plant is very old and polluting, and even before the Great Smog, environmentalists had advocated for its permanent shutdown. The Environment department will launch an app to monitor the burning of leaves.

18. Thank you