Period+9+-+Seveso

  Seveso Herbicide Plant Explosion



 On July 10, 1976, a chemical explosion ocurred at the ICMESA herbicide plant in Seveso, Italy. An uncontrollable amount of heat caused the explosion releasing large amounts of TCDD, a harmful dioxin. The chemicals ruptured the protective cap of the factory, spreading over a six square kilometer region. The contamination affected 220,000 causing cancer, birth defects, skin problems and brain damage. Many animals in the region instantly died causing problems further down the food chain. The effects were not seen instantly, but rather over a long period of time.

There were many contributing factors responsible for the uncontrollable damages. Once the plant operators realized there was an emergency, they did not follow the standard operating procedure. Also, when designing the plant, no precautions were taken for the reactor. The designers did not consider the possibility of a runaway reaction, so when the accident occured, there were no safety nets. Also, the architects did not consider the environment when designing the plant. This lead to many environmental problems. All of these were problems that occured before and during the accident, but there was also disorganization after the accident. The final evacuation plan was delayed, ultimately allowing most of the long term damage to occur.



The Seveso Directive was created in 1982 as a result of the plant explosion. This placed higher regulations on industries, so they can be more prepared. The Seveso Directive was updated in 1999 and 2005 to meet new environmental standards. It is presently known as the Seveso II Directive. There was a massive clean-up effort to deal with the environmental poison. In fact, the region is now less polluted than it was before the disaster. Hopefully by learning from our mistakes, we can prevent future environmental disasters.

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 * Comments: The first picture doesn't work and the second one is really blurry. Other than that, fantastic job! It was very informative. :)**