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Public Health Aspects of Chemical Catastrophes

  • Chapter
Toxic Turmoil

Part of the book series: The Plenum Series on Stress and Coping ((SSSO))

Abstract

The manufacture and distribution of chemicals by pipeline, water, rail, or road are inevitably associated with the risk of occupational and environmental exposure to toxic substances. Minor chemical incidents, such as accidents during road transport or fires involving chemicals, are not uncommon and on the whole are well dealt with by emergency services in most advanced industrialized societies. Any morbidity and mortality associated with these events is usually quite small. In contrast, a series of industrial disasters in the 1970s and early 1980s led to new legislation and international initiatives to prevent wide-scale chemical and radiological releases. The world’s worst chemical disaster occurred in Bhopal, India, in 1984, a year that also saw the explosion of a liquid petroleum gas plant in Mexico City when over 500 people died. The fire in the Chernobyl reactor in 1986 was the worst incident in the history of the nuclear industry. In recent years higher awareness and tighter controls have been effective in preventing recurrences elsewhere of these extreme kinds of events.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cambridge Clinical School, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, CB2 2QQ, England

    Peter J. Baxter

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  1. Peter J. Baxter
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University Medical Center and Altrecht Institute for Mental Health Care, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Johan M. Havenaar

  2. Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel

    Julie G. Cwikel

  3. State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York, USA

    Evelyn J. Bromet

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© 2002 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Baxter, P.J. (2002). Public Health Aspects of Chemical Catastrophes. In: Havenaar, J.M., Cwikel, J.G., Bromet, E.J. (eds) Toxic Turmoil. The Plenum Series on Stress and Coping. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0623-2_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0623-2_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-5163-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-0623-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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