Discovered By Chance: Italian dioxin crisis

 

  As said, this blog post I will be blogging about the Italian dioxin crisis. This is also another disaster i happen to come across while doing my geography project.

 

 

When it happened?

Date & Time?

Midday of July 10th, 1976

 

How and where it happened?

An explosion occurred in a TCP (2,4,5-trichlorophenol) reactor in the Givaudan-Hoffman-LaRoche-ICMESA (Industrie Chimiche Meda Società Azionaria) chemical company. It is a chemical plant manufacturing herbicides and pesticides in Medina, Italy which is near a village named Seveso.

The chemical plant after explosion
(Image from: http://westox.site.wesleyan.edu/the-dioxin-crisis-in-seveso-italy/)

 

Consequences?

• A toxic cloud escaped into the atmosphere containing high concentrations of TCDD (2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin), a highly toxic form of dioxin.
• The dioxin cloud polluted a densely populated area of six kilometres long and one kilometre wide.
• Immediately killed many animals.
• Affected a total of 11 communities.
• Most affected village, Seveso (Hence the disaster was named after this village)
• Mention as one of the top 10 most catastrophic anthropogenic environmental disasters alongside with the Bhopal union carbide gas leak and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Hundreds of animals died or were slaughtered

(Image from: http://westox.site.wesleyan.edu/the-dioxin-crisis-in-seveso-italy/)



Health Consequences?

• Humans began to show effects in the following days. Within six days after the accident, 19 children were sent to the hospital for dermal lesions.
• 34 cases of chloracne, an acne-like lesion caused by over-exposure to chlorinated organic chemicals such as dioxin, were reported of children under 15-years-old over the next five months

A child diagnosed with chloracne, one of the most prominent effects of dioxin contamination

( Image from: http://westox.site.wesleyan.edu/the-dioxin-crisis-in-seveso-italy/)



 

• Within the next four months, 187 cases of chloracne were diagnosed, of which 88% were children.
• Other effects such as peripheral neurological changes, cytogenetic changes, birth defects, long-term mortality rate and cancer rates are some consequences too. 
• But these other investigations are more difficult to establish as a consistent effect from the accident due to constraints caused by the post-disaster situation.

How was the pollution handled?

• Pollution was handled in a much better way than the Bhopal and Chernobyl disaster
• Polluted areas were researched
• Most severely polluted soils were excavated and treated elsewhere.
• Health effects were immediately recognized as a consequence of the disaster and victims were compensated.
• A long-term plan of health monitoring has been put into operation.
• Immediate reaction of authorities led to the introduction of European regulation for the prevention and control of heavy accidents involving toxic substancesknown as Seveso Directive.
• The Seveso Directive obligates appropriate safety measures, and also public information on major industrial hazards, which is now known as the ‘need to know’ principle.





Dioxin waste zone
(Image from: http://westox.site.wesleyan.edu/the-dioxin-crisis-in-seveso-italy/)



Above information from:

http://www.lenntech.com/environmental-disasters.htm#3._Seveso:_Italys_dioxin_crisis 

http://westox.site.wesleyan.edu/the-dioxin-crisis-in-seveso-italy/ 

 

Alright, hope that you have gotten some insights from the above blog post. My view is that, the Italy government has put in effort to help their people overcome the disaster and trying their best to minimize the harm. However, it is still listed as one of the most catastrophic disaster due to the health consequences it can cause.

 

Please feel free to leave any comments! ^^

 

Signing off,

Evee

My World, My Life, My Attitude, My Geography