ITALIAN DIOXIN CRISISMalanie Jackson

Areas Affected

The “Italian dioxin Crisis” was also named Seveso because the community Seveso was most affected by the disaster with a population of 17,000.

Other affected neighboring communities were Meda(19,000) , Desio(33,000) and Cesano Maderno (34,000)

What happened?

The Seveso disaster occurred on July 10th,1976 around 12:37 p.m in a small chemical manufactoring plant.

A toxic cloud was released into the atmosphere which contained which contained high concentrations of TCDD, a highly toxic form of dioxin.

The effect was the highest known exposure to tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin in residential populations.

Due to other accidents the authorities were able to get there quickly and treat people effectively. Polluted areas were researched and the most polluted soil was excavated and treated elsewhere. A long term health monitoring plan was put into place due to Sevego victims suffering from a directly visible symptom known as chloracne, but also from genetic impairments.

Enviromental Concepts

The Seveso Crisis would be related to air pollution.

Damage Report

After the accident the Sveso Directive was created to control heavy accidents involving toxic substances

Within days a total of 3,300 animals were found dead, mostly poultry and rabbits.

15 children were quickly hospitalised with skin inflammation.

447 people of all ages were found to suffer skin lesions.

Lessons Learned

The disaster brought home the need to combine industrial development with the protection of our citizens and the quality of the environment.

Seveso Two introduced new concepts which have become the pillars of our policy inthis area - safety management systems, emergency plans, land use planning and aneffective inspections system.

Could this happen again?

The disaster could be avoided if it were to happen again.

The Health law of 1934 requires that factories that produce "vaporous or gases or other unhealthy emissions" to be sited away from populated areas, unless it can be shown that special precautions have been taken to protect the health of the people in the neighbourhood.

Citations

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

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1533388/

http://news.in.msn.com/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=3460600&page=3

http://www.lenntech.com/environmental-disasters.htm

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Thirty_Years_After_Chemical_Disaster_Italy_Still_At_Pollution_Mercy_999.html