The Fallout From Accidents
 

13th Nov. 2005, Jilin, China

An explosion in a chemical plant in Jilin province, northeast China killed 5 people, injuring dozens and forced at least 10,000 more people to flee their homes. The explosion also released some 100 tons of toxins into the Songhua River. It resulted in the shutdown of water supplies to the two main populated areas in the province, Harbin and Dalianhe, and the 50 km. stretch of contaminated water continues to flow towards Russia as it joins up with the Heilong River.


This accident was blamed on human error resulting in the explosion in a facility that processed benzene. While the cost in terms of human lives lost had been low, this accident was a major economic and environmental disaster.

Consider the environmental cost. Experts warn that the toxins which include carcinogenic benzene could remain imbedded in the ice and mud at the bottom of the Songhua River for years. Evaporation should get rid of most of the toxins but water temperatures have to be at least 68°C, therefore the pollutants will be absorbed by the aquatic plants and micro-organisms making it as long as 10 years before the river will fully recover.

What about the economic and social costs? Shutting down the water supplies affected businesses and industries, and now the people who rely on the river whether for drinking water or to make a livelihood have to contend with the contaminants being present in the river for many years to come.

11th Dec 2005, Hemel Hempstead, UK
 

An explosion at Buncefield Depot near Hemel Hempstead in UK resulted in the biggest fire in Europe since 1945. The fire created a vast pall of smoke that spread south-west from the depot and about 2,000 people living near the depot were evacuated. The fire was successfully put out after some 59 hours of intense effort by a large number of firefighters.

The depot is UK's fifth largest fuel distribution centre, and at the time of the blast, there was some 7.7 million gallons of oil, petrol and paraffin or roughly about 5% of the country's fuel stocks. It is partly owned by the British subsidiary of the French company Total, which also owned a fertilizer plant in Toulouse, southern France, where 30 people were killed and 2,000 were injured in an explosion four years ago.

But the country was spared the worst of the pollution fallout from the blaze because of stable atmospheric conditions. Atmospheric inversion, created when a layer of warmer air caps the cooler air beneath it, created a "lid" that stopped thick smoke from descending to ground level.

While there were no fatalities and the environmental pollution impact did not appear heavy, the economic cost is expected to be significant. A sizeable fraction of the fuel stock had been destroyed, and this will result in shortages in the local area for some time. Also the depot is one of main storage depots for major shops and the fire ruined their Christmas stocks. The depot also contained the food production facilities for Marks and Spencer as well as McDonald's and their closure will cause some food shortages for that region for a period of time.

Both these accidents highlight the fact that the impact of accidents can be far reaching. The most serious concern is of course any related fatalities or injuries. This causes a lot of grief and emotional hurt to the love ones of the dead and injured. There is the loss in productivity due facilities, equipment and property damaged or destroyed, as well as a demoralized workforce. Then there is the need to consider any impact to the surrounding community in the form of physical injuries or health effects, financial losses or environmental pollution.

There is a possibility that a major incident can happen at NUS. So what can we do? First we need to have in place a good safety management system and safe working practices. Next we need a crisis management framework to ensure that we know what to do when such incidents happen and how to minimize or mitigate the impacts.
The University has put the plans and resources covering both aspects in place. However the critical message is to work safe, be safe and look out for each other.