Period+4+-+Seveso

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//SEVESO, an environmental disaster. // An herbicide plant in Seveso, Italy, exploded on July 10, 1976, which caused dioxin chemicals to bereleased into the air. 37,000 people exposed between Milan and Lake Como, Italy. The first signs of this exposure were skin lesions, and eventually there was evidence of chloracne, a skin disease commonly linked to dioxin. In the long run, the exposure to these chemicals was very detrimental and caused death and illness in local animals and people.
 * Overview **

Due to wind, large amounts of toxic chemicals were released into the wind through an explosion at a factory in Seveso and then carried throughout the surrounding area. Because the situation was not immeditaly recognized, nothing was done to combat the dangerous chemicals in the air until health problems began occurring in the surrounding populations.
 * Causes **

**After-effects** To this day, there are still concerns about long term health problems in the area. One of such concerns deals with the birth ratio of males to females. Due to the chemicals that the explosion released into the air, more females were born than males. Babies were likely to have thyroid problems. The thyroid is a gland in the human body in the throat area that primarily works to control a person’s metabolism. In addition, babies were more likely to have a high TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) level in their blood. This caused them to have hyperthyroidism, a disorder that causes a person to have an overactive metabolism. In other words, the person digests and creates energy from food faster than a person with a normal thyroid. This can cause the affected person to lose weight.

Laws Created Several laws were passed after this environmental disaster, most notably the Seveso Directive and the Seveso II Directive, which created regulations for factories to follow in order to reduce the likelihood of another such environmental disaster happening again. Mainly, they required factories to take extra precautions and undergo regular safety checks.

Works Cited
 * "Chemical Accidents (Seveso II) - Prevention, Preparedness and Response." __Environment__. 10 Sept. 2008. 13 Nov. 2008 .
 * Corliss, Mike. "Dioxin: Seveso disaster testament to effects of dioxin." 6 May 1999. 13 Nov. 2008 .
 * "Long-lasting effects of the Seveso disaster on thyroid function in babies." __E! Science News__. 29 July 2008. 13 Nov. 2008 <[|http://http://esciencenews.com/articles/2008/07/29/long.lasting.effects.seveso.disaster.thyroid.function.babies]>.

+ I really liked the headings they helped to tell me where and what information I was looking at. - But maybe they could get a better picture discribing the place the event happened, and a little more color. + All information is organized into sections - The pictures below the comments section don't appear to be with the page. In my opinion, they should be placed above the works cited header. + Great titles witht the information, they were well organized and easy to read. I liked the uniformity of the titles. - The only problem that I found was that there was only one picture with the article. The ones at the bottom of the page should have been up with the other picture.
 * Comments:**