Beware of smoke from fire!
Whether white (rich in aerosols or water vapour), grey (a mixture of aerosols and solid particles) or black (large solid particles), the smoke released from fires presents several risks. Beyond death from intoxication, fumes are a potential health hazard owing[...]
Cooling towers: Legionnaire’s Disease still running rampant!
The group outbreak of Legionnaire's Disease in the Lisbon suburbs in 2014 has provided a sad reminder: the propagation of legionellae within the water circuits of cooling towers is a likely scenario and one capable of causing major health impacts[...]
Explosions in a hazardous materials warehouse
173 fatalitiesDestruction of civil infrastructure within a 1-km radiusCyanide pollutionSite rehabilitation Fire broke out at 10:50 pm at the site of a logistics company, operating since 2011 in the Tianjin port sector with a floor area covering 46,000 m². At[...]
Accidents with cross-border effects
Events with cross-border effects are, by definition, of significant magnitude and, for the majority of them, are major accidents. 28 events registered in the ARIA database are identified as belonging to this category, 23 of which occurred in the territory[...]
Chronic leakage of toxic effluents in a chemical plant
In a chemical plant, a leak of effluents containing acetonitrile (a harmful and flammable solvent) from the process wastewater system lead to groundwater contamination. As the network was used only sporadically, the duration of the leak could not be accurately[...]
Discharge of effluents containing heavy metals into a river
For 30 hours, 66 t of nickel sulphate, from a metallurgical plant producing nickel cathodes and 50,000 t of nickel-based chemicals, spilt into the Kokemaki River. The highest concentration of nickel measured in the river was 8,800μg/l for an instant[...]
Water pollution by hydrocarbons
The Water Framework Directive of December 2000 which commits the countries of the European Union with a goal of regaining the quality of the water and the aquatic environments by 2015, supposes a better protection of these environments against any[...]
Management of health-related and environmental impacts
Pollution of the ground or of the atmosphere, contamination of food resources are some consequences of the immediate or delayed effects of a toxic or polluting substance release to the environment. The technical management of this situations and the resulting[...]
Leak on a kerosene pipeline
A kerosene leak (A1 jet category) was detected on a pipeline (nominal diameter DN: 108, pressure: 13.8 bar, operational since: 1942) connecting a refinery to a storage area outside the oil platform site. The quantity of lost product was estimated[...]
