4 Semester

th

Paper-4016
ENVIRONMENTAL GEOGRAPHY AND
DISASTER MANAGEMENT
CHEMICAL AND NUCLEAR EXPLOSION
*CHEMICAL DISASTER
• The Indian chemical industry contributes 2.11% to country's GDP.
• Chemical, being at the core of modern industrial systems, has
attained a very serious concern for disaster management within
government, private sector and community at large. Chemical
disasters may be traumatic in their impacts on human beings and
have resulted in the casualties and also damages nature and
property. The elements which are at highest risks due to chemical
disaster primarily include the industrial plant, its employees &
workers, hazardous chemicals vehicles, the residents of nearby
settlements, adjacent buildings, occupants and surrounding
community.
• Chemical disasters are occurrence of emission, fire or explosion involving one or
more hazardous chemicals in the course of industrial activity i.e. handling storage or
transportation or due to natural events. The Ministry of Environment and Forest
(MoEF) is the nodal ministry for the management of chemical disasters and NDMA
prepares guidelines for the various ministries and state authorities for the preparation
of disaster management plans.
• Factors Which Cause Chemical Disaster
1. Ageing of the process plants and inadequate steps to pace with modern technologies
in Indian chemical industry has increased vulnerability to chemical disasters.
2. A majority of the industrial accidents occurs due to human errors, as a result of non-
compliance with standard operating procedure (SOP's) that have been put into place by
the company. Ex: Piper alpha accident is a classic example of human error caused
disaster.
3. Chemical disaster have also occurred due to defects in design; absence of SOP's to
mitigate an early warning in the process, poor co-ordination between different
departments within the chemical company.
4. Natural disasters such as flood and earthquakes have also caused major
disasters in chemical industry. The release of acrylonitrile at Kandla Port in
Gujarat, during an earthquake in 2001, is one of the examples.
5. Irregular improper maintenance of equipments in chemical industry, due to this
equipment gets malfunction and ultimately fails, resulting in catastrophic
explosion. The Flixborough incident is a prime example of improper maintenance
which lead to the death of 28 people and injured many.
Prevention and Response
1. Role of Industry
a) Identification of hazardous activities:
• A knowledgeable and dedicated team of qualified professionals to evaluate the
hazards and risks arising from day to day activities is essential.
• Use of appropriate hazard identifications tools such as checklists analysis, safety
audit, HAZOP etc. would help in mitigating hazards.
b) Maintenance of the Plant Facility & Equipment: Proper
maintenance, regular site safety and health inspection need to
be carried out to ensure that plant facility is safe and
equipments are operating in intended method.
c) Installation of Vapour/Gas Detection System: This with
alarms will help to detect leak even at micro levels, and ensure
that leaks are attended at the early stage.
d) Compliance with existing rules and regulations: Various
rules and regulation of the state and centre should be strictly
addressed for a sustainable & safe process.
e) Emergency preparedness: The industry must have a good
emergency response team that can react swiftly to mitigate
propagating disasters.
2. Role of Government
a) Setting up of accident investigation board and chemicals accident data
base:
• An accident investigation board on similar lines of chemical safety boards of
USA can be setup in India to investigate the chemical disasters and bring out
guideline based on lessons learnt.
• An online portal, where experts from around the world can help industries to
prevent such unforeseen circumstances.
b) Awareness Campaigns: Frequent mock drills need to be conducted so that
workers become adequately knowledgeable to react to emergency.
c) Research & Development: Research and Development to develop newer
technologies so that toxicity of by-products of chemical industries can be
minimised
d) Offsite Emergency Planning: The purpose of offsite emergency plans is to
ensure that the local authority adequately discharges his duty to minimize the
consequences of major accident to people and environment in MAH located sites
e) Emergency Response During Transportation: Swift and
timely availability of emergency response for disaster during
transportation of hazardous materials/chemicals. For this
Indian Chemical Council (ICC) has initiated a program called
"Nicerglobe" which provides GPRS tracking of trucks right
from origin to the place of destination.
3) Role of Public
• A general awareness of risk associated with any chemical
accident would help in reducing the outcome of the accident.
• A mutual aid group can be setup to organise the general
public in case of any disaster & provide training and
awareness about the potential action to be taken in case of
any chemical leakage.
Status of Chemical Disaster Risk in India
• India has witnessed the world’s worst chemical (industrial) disaster
“Bhopal Gas Tragedy” in the year 1984. The Bhopal Gas tragedy was
most devastating chemical accident in history, where over 2500 people
died due to accidental release of toxic gas Methyl Iso Cyanate (MIC).
• Such accidents are significant in terms of injuries, pain, suffering, loss
of lives, damage to property and environment. India continued to
witness a series of chemical accidents even after Bhopal had
demonstrated the vulnerability of the country.
Safety initiatives taken in India to address chemical risk
• The comprehensive legal/ institutional framework exists in our country.
A number of regulations covering the safety in transportation, liability,
insurance and compensations have been enacted.
Following are the relevant provisions on chemical disaster management,
prevailing in country:-
• Explosives Act 1884-Petroleum Act 1934
• Factories Act 1948-Insecticides Act 1968
• Environment Protection Act 1986-Motor Vehicles Act 1988
• Public Liability Insurance Act 1991-Disaster Management Act 2005
• Government of India has further reinforced the legal framework on
chemical safety and management of chemical accidents by enacting
new rules
• The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of India had
come out with very specific guidelines on Chemical Disaster
Management. The guidelines have been prepared to provide the
directions to ministries, departments and state authorities for the
• These guidelines call for a proactive, participatory, multi-disciplinary and multi-
sectoral approach at various levels for chemical disaster preparedness and
response
Precautions to be taken during and after the Chemical (Industrial) Accidents
• Do not panic, evacuate calmly and quickly perpendicular to wind direction
through the designated escape route
• Keep a wet handkerchief or piece of cloth/ sari on face during evacuation
• Keep the sick, elderly, weak, handicapped and other people who are unable to
evacuate inside house and close all the doors and windows tightly.
• Do not consume the uncovered food/ water etc open to the air, drink only from
bottle
• Change into fresh clothing after reaching safe place/ shelter, and wash hands
properly.
• Inform Fire & Emergency Services, Police and medical services from safe
location by calling 101, 100 and 108 respectively .
• Listen to PA (Public Addressal) System of the plant/ factory, local radio/
TV channels for advice from district administration/fire/health/police
and other concerned authorities
• Provide correct and accurate information to government official.
• Inform others on occurrence of event at public gathering places (like
school, shopping centre, theatre etc.).
• Don’t pay attention to the rumours and don’t spread rumours.
General Precautions During Normal Time
• Do not smoke, lit fire or spark in the identified hazardous area
• Sensitize the community living near the industrial units and they should
be more vigilant about the nature of industrial units and associated
risks.
• Keep the contact numbers of nearest hazardous industry, fire station,
police station, control room, health services and district control
room, for emergency use.
• Avoid housing near the industries producing or processing the
hazardous chemicals, if possible.
• Participate in all the capacity building programmes organized by the
government/ voluntary organizations / industrial units.
• Take part in preparing disaster management plan for the community
and identify safe shelter along with safe and easy access routes.
• Prepare a family disaster management plan and explain it to all the
family members.
• Make the family/ neighbours aware of the basic characteristics of
various poisonous/ hazardous chemicals and the first aid required to
treat them.
• Adequate number of personal protective equipments needs to be made
available, to deal with emergency situation.
• Prepare an emergency kit of items and essentials in the house, including
medicines, documents and valuables
• Disaster is a rarity in the chemical industry, but negligence or misfortune
can so easily result in devastating consequences. The result of a chemical
disaster has effects through generations of populations which are almost
irreparable and the cost of that to the affected people is unimaginable.

Source-
• National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Government of India
• Wikipedia
• NCERT
• Alaka Gautam-Environmental geography