Currently, the range of chemicals used in everyday life, industry, and agriculture is rapidly increasing. Many of them are harmful and toxic. In an accident with the release of hazardous chemicals, people, animals, plants, ponds, soil, air fall into the affected area, and not only in the disaster area. The consequences of disasters extend to nearby territories. Next, we consider in more detail what happens in an accident with the release of hazardous chemicals. Examples of some cases will also be described in the article.
School course
Even in a general educational institution, children will learn about those enterprises in which accidents involving the release of hazardous chemicals can occur. OBZh (Grade 8) introduces students not only to the main causes of disasters. Children receive basic knowledge of how to behave in such an emergency. However, this is not all the information you need to know about an accident involving the release of hazardous chemicals. OBJs are the basics of security, and it’s not possible to cover the whole problem in a few lessons. And today it is quite acute and has an international scale.
General characteristics of enterprises
As mentioned above, hazardous chemical compounds are widely used by humans today. If we talk about industry, the largest reserves are concentrated in defense, metallurgy, oil refining, pulp and paper enterprises. Of course, toxic compounds are also used in the chemical industry. Also, a certain amount of harmful raw materials is present at meat and dairy plants, in refrigerators, at trading bases and warehouses. Toxic compounds can be found at housing and public utilities facilities. All of these enterprises pose a serious threat. They always have the likelihood of an accident with the release of hazardous chemicals.
Major harmful compounds
The most widely used on an industrial scale:
- Hydrogen fluoride and bromide.
- Benzene.
- Phosgene.
- Methyl mercaptan.
- Prussic to-that.
- Sulfur dioxide.
- Acrylic Acid Nitrile.
- Ammonia.
- Hydrogen sulfide.
- Chlorine.
As a rule, most toxic compounds are in the form of a liquid or gas. During storage, use, transportation for industrial purposes, gaseous substances are brought into a liquid state by compression. This process is used to reduce the volume of raw materials. However, the likelihood of an accident involving the release of hazardous chemicals is only increasing.
Catastrophe classification
In an accident involving the release of hazardous chemicals, an affected area is created. Toxic compounds have the ability to move quickly in the air. So, in an accident with the release of hazardous chemicals, compounds moving with a surface wind flow can spread tens of kilometers. Moreover, on their way they hit everything around. Accidents involving the release of hazardous chemicals are categorized according to the scale of the infection zone. So, private, regional, object, local, global disasters can happen. The latter category includes accidents with the release of hazardous chemicals in the world. Examples of these disasters show how serious the problem of the use of toxic compounds is by humans.
MPC and "toxoid dose"
The first abbreviation means "maximum permissible concentration" of toxic substances. The term "toxodose" (toxic dose) is also used with this concept. These definitions characterize the properties of harmful compounds. The maximum permissible content is such a concentration that, with a daily effect on the human body for a long period, does not cause diseases or pathological changes that can be detected using modern diagnostic methods. MPC refers to a working eight-hour day. This indicator is not used to assess harm in an accident with the release of accidentally chemically hazardous substances. The concept of “toxodose” is widely used in the world. This indicator reflects the volume of compounds that can cause a toxic effect.
Features
It should be said that accidents involving the release of hazardous chemicals (some disasters are presented in the article) are distinguished by a limited period of action of harmful components. The magnitude of the damage to the environment and humans will depend on the scale and toxicity of the compounds. In an accident with the release of hazardous chemicals (examples in the world - confirmation of this) creates not only a threat to health, but often people's lives.
Accidental release of chemically hazardous substances: examples of emergency abroad
In 2012, on January 17, it became known about the disaster in Bruhl at one of the equipment manufacturing plants. As a result of the accident, a chemical reaction occurred, a chlorine cloud formed. In the disaster, 39 people were injured. Of these, 16 were sent to the hospital. In total, 300 employees were evacuated from the plant. On June 27, 2011, an accident occurred in one of the processing plants owned by the largest meat producer Tyson Foods in the United States, Arkansas, resulting in 170 workers suffering from chlorine poisoning . As noted by local media, the accident was caused by an accidental mixture of various toxic compounds. At the time of the emergency, about 600 employees were present at the enterprise. 173 people were hospitalized.
Transport emergency in different countries
On May 20, 2012, a freight train transporting chemicals went off the rails near the German railway station Mülheim. As a result of the emergency, a large amount of sodium chloroacetate, bitumen and oil tar spilled. Within a radius of 0.5 km, people were evacuated, and the railway itself was temporarily closed. In 2011, on July 11, not far from the town of Debelets (Bulgaria), a tanker truck traveling from Turkey turned over. The accident resulted in a leak of vinyl benzene. About 2.5 thousand people were evacuated from the affected area. In the same year, a chemical tank fell out of a truck near Buckingham Palace. As a result of this disaster, people were not evacuated. However, the authorities cordoned off the area within a radius of 25 meters.
Statistics for the Russian Federation
In the period from 1985 to 1990, about 120 major disasters occurred at domestic enterprises. These incidents were related to the storage, transportation and use of toxic compounds in production. During 1994, about a thousand catastrophes of this type were recorded. In Russia today there are about 3,000 chemically hazardous facilities.
Registered cases in the Russian Federation
Accidents involving the release of hazardous chemicals, examples of which will be described later, have occurred for various reasons. In general, disasters occur due to technical errors, mechanical damage, depressurization of containers, collisions with vehicles. In 2013, it became known about the accident in Lipetsk. The catastrophe occurred at a local metallurgical plant. As a result of the release of weed benzene during the accident, 2 people died. The incident was not accompanied by burning and explosion. During the rescue operation, the plant employees were evacuated. There was no recorded threat to the life of the population in the surrounding areas.
Incidents in 2012
Unfortunately, accidents involving the release of hazardous chemicals in Russia (examples of them can be found in the literature more often than the description of emergency situations in other countries) are not uncommon. So, in 2012, several major disasters were recorded:
- In the Perm Territory, in the city of Berezniki, an accident occurred on the Avisma plant on November 14. This disaster claimed the lives of three men. 21 people were hospitalized in this accident. Initially, it was reported that the deaths were due to chlorine leakage. However, as Interior Ministry officials later stated, another annoying substance was thrown into the air. The disaster at the enterprise occurred due to work with the fan turned off.
- Three were injured in a polymer factory in Levashovo in the Vyborg District of St. Petersburg as a result of a spill of 100 liters of methylzocyanate.
- On June 12, in Moscow, at one of the refrigeration plants, ammonia was released in the amount of 1 liter. At the time of the emergency, 12 people were in the enterprise. All employees were evacuated. There were no victims of this disaster.
- At the end of May, also in Moscow, at one of the fruit and vegetable bases, freon was released. This compound was used in the manufacture of aerosols and perfumes, to extinguish fires and in the operation of refrigeration units. As a result of this emergency 4 people were injured.
- In Kurgan on May 19, 20 l of a chlorine-containing compound spilled at a local pharmaceutical factory. The catastrophe occurred in workshop No. 1, in the unit for the production of a synthetic preparation. The compound spilled over an area of 10 m 2 . As a result, three were injured.
- On May 17, a chlorine leak was recorded at the Korund plant in Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod Region. One employee was hospitalized with poisoning. Seven victims received assistance on the spot. After another incident, 8 more people turned to medical facilities.
Disasters in the Russian Federation in 2010
On November 22, a pipeline breakthrough occurred at one of the refrigeration plants in the north of Moscow. It contained ammonia. The accident occurred due to the depressurization of the pipe. At the same time, automatic protection worked, as a result of which the supply of ammonia was stopped. Employees of the enterprise were evacuated. There were no casualties in the crash. In Yekaterinburg on October 21, an odorant (chemically hazardous compound) was released. The wind carried the pairs to the sides of the cities of Berezovsky and Kalinovka. Specialists quickly discovered the leak site and blocked it. Using a solution of manganese, rescuers also neutralized the compound in the soil. There were no threats to people. On the night of February 14 to February 15, in the city of Krasnokamsk, ZAO Proikhimperm carried out a solvent overflow. The hose burst during work. As a result, 2 m 3 of solvent was poured onto the site. Under the slope, the connection went through the sewer to the sewage treatment plant and then to the reservoir. As a result of this emergency, more than 50 thousand people were left without water, since the supply was turned off while the consequences of the disaster were eliminated.
Transport accidents with the release of hazardous chemicals in Russia: examples
In 2012, February 6, in the Novosibirsk region at the station. Swamp water there was a leak of ammonia hydrate from the railway tank. During parking, a quarter of the contents leaked out. Part of the ammonia spilled along the route. Together with the freight train, the leaking tank arrived at the station. Khimzavodskaya Kuibyshev railway There she was unhooked and sent to a standstill. A year earlier, in 2011, in early November, an ammonia water tanker turned over . About 200 liters flowed out of the total volume (12 tons). Arriving firefighters washed away the solution. The neck of the tank was sealed. In the Chelyabinsk (Main) station in the same year, on the night of September 1, smoke was detected in one of the cars. When checking it was revealed that it contained bromine in glass containers. Several of them crashed. Station staff in a timely manner transported the car to a safe distance. The cordon was exposed. On the same day, the bromine spill was completely eliminated. According to the Investigative Committee, 132 people suffered from the release of fumes, 52 of them were sent to the hospital.
Finally
These are far from all accidents involving the release of chemically hazardous substances in Russia. The examples given in the article are only officially known cases. Some disasters were not publicized. This is probably due to their small scale. However, it is worth saying that, whatever it may be, in any case, toxic compounds cause irreparable harm to both people and the environment. Accidents involving the release of hazardous chemicals in Russia are one of the main problems facing the government. The most acute question is to ensure the protection of the population from toxic effects. To improve the safety of facilities, to prevent accidents involving the release of accidentally chemically hazardous substances, the personnel training system should be improved in Russia, equipment modernized, and rules of conduct for such enterprises tightened.