Red River Rhine
On November 1st 1986, a fire at the Sandoz chemical warehouse on the Rhine caused the river to run red, and left its ecosystem devastated. This raised awareness in the international forum of the extent of damage that can happen due to chemical spills and prompted substantial changes to the laws surrounding how these facilities operated. In this report I will be looking at the events the unfurled during the spill, the affect that it has had, biologically on the Rhine, and whether the Rhine could even have benefited in some way from this disaster.
The fire stated in the most inauspicious of circumstances. Workers were packaging Prussian Blue (Iron(II, III)hexacyanoferrate(II, III)), a deep blue pigment, using a blow
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Fortunately, the human cost of the disaster was surprisingly small, at least in the very short term, with only 14 people being admitted to hospital after inhaling the fumes (News.bbc.co.uk, 1986).
The longer term effects are however much more difficult to quantify, due to the many different chemicals flowed from the plant and into the river that day. As such, I will try to focus on a few in particular starting with the what gave the river its red tinge. Phenylmercury Acetate (Anticon) is a compound which has several uses, but its most likely reason for being in the plant is that it is an antitranspirant. At the time of the incident, this and other mercury containing compounds were stained with rhodamine B, a red dye, a harmless red dye (Giger, 2009, pp. 98--111). Antitranspirants are molecules which, when applied to the leaves of a plant, inhibit the transpiration of the plant, therefore allowing it to retain water better. This makes Anticon an effective fungicide, making conditions unfavourable for their growth on the plants it is applied to. The chemical however is also highly toxic, and very harmful to marine life due to its mercury content. The mercury in this and other products stored at the facility would have been decomposed via an enzyme system into metallic mercury. This mercury is then free to react again to form methylmercury, whose effect on both aquatic and land animals is substantial.
That accident was at urban centre in 1986. consistent with the report two-handed down in 2000 by the global organisation X c. Committee on the consequences of Atomic Radiation, twenty eight employees died within the initial 3 months when the incident, nineteen died between 1987 and 2004 of varied causes not essentially related to radiation
By the time John Orr was convicted of four counts of murder for the South Pasadena hardware store fire, he had already served six years in prison. Orr was convicted of three counts of arson. At the end, Orr was convicted using his very own signature homemade incendiary device. Fellow firefighters began suspecting that the arsonist was one of their own after conference of arson investigators. During the conference period, an oddly large amount of fire broke out. During that time fires broke out in fabric shops, drugstores, and craft shops. At a craft shop in Bakersfield, California a fire broke out in a display of dried flowers. At the scene, investigators found charred remnants of what appeared a simple incendiary device — a filter-tipped cigarette and matches, held together with a rubber band. One of the devices was partially wrapped in yellow paper (Bovsun, 2014). Though many of the investigator believe this was the work of an expert attending the arson conference, it could not be proven.
The first part of Toms River by Dan Fagin goes into detail about the history of the chemical industry in New Jersey with the Ciba plant producing dyes and epoxy and their methods of disposing of waste and what effect that had on surrounding individual’s health. There were many groups of people who were exposed to the toxic chemicals produced in the waste products of dyes and epoxy from the Ciba plant. People who were working the factory typically had peak exposure because they were required to scrape and dispose of the waste chemicals daily. Residents of a neighborhood downstream the factory who typically had personal wells and were not customers of Toms River Water avoided the chemically traced water directly from the river for some time,
Studies show that the estimated average dose of radiation to the approximated 2 million people in the vicinity of the accident was only about 1 millirem.In order to show how much this dosage is, the average chest x-ray eposes a person to about 6 millirems.Also, the people around the plant are exposed to about 100 millirems to begin with due to the natural environment they live in.[9]
"The blast killed an estimated 80,000 people instantly; thousands of others died later of radiation
Plains Midstream company is the cause of this big oil spill in Red Deer River. The big cause of the oil spill was when a pipeline that was owned by Plains Midstream had been broken and was not functioning correctly as it was supposed to. The pipe is supposed to process the oil through it and around to make the oil. However, the pipe actually did not do this and the oil had gone around and it had been broken since there were old pipes and not new ones. Almost half a million of crude oil had been leaked into the creek of Red Deer River so the people had been very devastated about this occurring because instead of enjoying the view, all they see is a lot of oil that had polluted their water and there whole community with dirty water. The people
The chemical characteristics observed and documented were pH, temperature, phosphate, nitrate, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen. Each of these chemical levels were documented and found differently. Most were found using a kit or a device. The numbers found, would tell us how polluted the stream was and how much nutrients were in the water. Each chemical has a scale for telling what a good level is and what a bad level is. If an excess amount of nutrients was found in the water, algae could be formed. When algae is formed it blocks sunlight from shining into the water, which creates dead zones. This is called eutrophication. A dead zone is an area where there is no life. This can cause major problems like population issues and more. If the algae continues to grow in the river, the whole body of water can die out, and people as well as other organisms are very dependent on the Susquehanna. While on the river though, there was an absence of algae, so sunlight is able to get through the water, which is very good.
If they flood the river to make unnatural lakes, it damage the delicate wildlife. The water contains mercury poison so it affects the aquatic animals and those consuming the aquatic animals. If anyone eats it, it can cause health issues to them.
The acid rain eventually falls back into our rivers, streams and wells where we intern drink it and this is where the danger begins. The film gave various examples of different places that suffered greatly by contaminated water. The one that stood out most was Lago Titicaca a river found in Bolivia that was contaminated by blood it was devastating to see the people’s main stream in blood red because of the ignorance of the people.
The Triangle shirtwaist factory fire on March 25, 1911, was one of the worst tragedies ever back then, causing the death of 146 workers. This company was owned by Max Blank and Isaac Harris. They had a little shop by 1900 and it grew quickly, they moved their business to the ninth floor of the new ten-story Asch building. There were approximately 500 workers, mostly immigrant women, worked at the Triangle shirtwaist company. Bessie Cohen, who survived was inside the building and wrote a short story of what had happened. Most women either died from the fire or jumped from a high height. They jumped because the fire trucks' ladders could only reach up to seventh floor. The doors were locked to prevent workers from stealing or leaving, thus, they had no escape. According to fire marshal, cigarettes were the cause of the fire. Cotton is even more flammable than paper, more like explosively. Plus, the factory had woods and there were oxygen. After the fire, they had an investigation.
Being that the Northern Tributary was contaminated with Bisphenol A, and the Southern Tributary being free of Bisphenol A displayed the very true haunting effects of the chemical Bisphenol A on local marine life.
In the academic journal written by Ronald A. MacGillivray the purpose was to find out information about the Delaware River and how polluted it is. The research was done over a four-year period to find out if lethal toxins were coming out of tributaries (MacGillivrary et al., 2011). The research was done by a sampling procedure. The researchers would go out into the field and collect samples on a weekly basis depending on the weather to see how the toxic levels in the river were from 16 different locations (MacGillivrary et al., 2011). At the end of the four years that the research was taken the results were conclusive that the tributaries that led into the Delaware River were found to be at normal toxic water level rates (MacGillivrary et al., 2011). The pollution levels found were normal with a few exceptions depending on the water content of the day (MacGillivrary et al., 2011).
From 1942 until 1953, the canal was filled with 21,800 tons of toxic chemical wastes (Hoffman 6). The uncertain inventory includes over 13 million pounds of lindane (benzene hexachloride), more than 4 million pounds of chlorobenzenes, and 400,000 pounds of dioxin-contaminated trichlorophenol, which are all extremely carcinogenic compounds. There are at least 200 identified chemicals dumped in the canal, but many unknowns are also present as a result of chemical reactions that took place in the complex mixture.
Early in the morning of April 27, 1986, the world experienced its largest nuclear disaster ever (Gould 40). While violating safety protocol during a test, Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl power plant was placed in a severely unstable state, and in a matter of seconds the reactor output shot up to 120 times the rated output (Flavin 8). The resulting steam explosion tossed aside the reactor’s 1,000 ton concrete covering and released radioactive particles up to one and a half miles into the sky (Gould 38). The explosion and resulting fires caused 31 immediate deaths and over a thousand injuries, including radiation poisoning (Flavin 5). After the
The disaster took place on April 1986, and was caused by inexperienced staff. When the power plant had to undergo a special test, to make sure that sufficient amount of cooling water would be supplied to the reactor in case of a power outage. However, the test had been delayed, because the national grid required the power output more than the expected time. Hence, the test was postponed after midnight where the night shift had to come. The night shift had little experience about such a test as most of them were electrical engineers rather than nuclear. On the other hand, the night shift had to perform the test before the grid needed the power again, otherwise they would have all been fined or fired. Consequently, lead to an unnecessary pressure on the personnel, which in turn increased the probability of making incorrect