USA: Pneumoconiosis Increase in US Coal Mines
Pneumoconiosis or Black Lung is a notorious occupational disease of coal miners, caused by inhaling coal dust. Control of dust exposure and adequate ventilation are demanded by law in developed countries, but a recent official report has found that the incidence of the disease is increasing in the American coal belt.
The study was carried out by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and comments on 'hot spots' of advanced black lung disease found in eastern Kentucky and south-western Virginia, indicating what the authors refer to as troubling gaps in management efforts to control dust in coal mines. The incidence of the progressive disease has increased among younger miners and the researchers identified 37 cases of advanced black lung during X-ray screenings conducted in seven counties in Kentucky and Virginia. The report states that severe black lung in miners younger than 50 is particularly concerning, because they were exposed to coal mine dust in the years after implementation of the disease prevention mandated by federal legislation in 1969. Instead of falling as expected, black lung deaths in Kentucky state rose by 38% in the six years ending 2004.
Possible explanations include problems related to enforcement and compliance with dust control regulations, particularly a law setting the level of dust that miners can breathe during an eight-hour shift at 2 milligrams per cubic metre of air; a lack of disease prevention efforts; and the failure of miners to receive X-ray screening when the disease is still in its early stages.
Canada: Medical Body Calls for Asbestos Export Ban
In July 2007, the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) called for an end to Canadian exports of asbestos and suggested that the federal government should stop blocking international efforts to curb the trade in the dangerous mineral. Although asbestos is recognised internationally as a severe cancer-causing agent, the CCS has in the past refrained from openly criticising the national government's long-standing contention that chrysotile (white) asbestos can be used safely and should be promoted. The government undertakes such promotion by public funding grants to the Chrysotile Institute in Montreal.
Around 95% of Canadian chrysotile production is exported to developing countries, where it is used to make cheap building materials, despite safer substitutes being available. The Canadian Government health authorities do not keep national statistics on domestic deaths from asbestos-related diseases, and the CCS urges that a surveillance system be developed, along with a public registry of asbestos-containing buildings and structures.
Also in July, a paper published in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health (J. T. Brophy et al, “Canada’s Asbestos Legacy at Home and Abroad”, IJOEH 2007, 13:236-243) estimated the number of premature deaths from mesothelioma in the asbestos mining areas of Ontario since 1980 as being in the thousands.
Indonesia: Mining Giant to Raze Tropical Rainforests
The Anglo-Australian multinational BHP Billiton, the largest mining company in the world, plans to exploit the protected region called Heart of Borneo, a pristine tropical rainforest habitat which is home to orang-utans, elephants, rhinos and leopards. The company has been lobbying for removal of the protected status of the Borneo rainforests and has secured exploitation rights to seven areas, where it proposes to raze the forest for opencast strip mining of coal reserves.
BHP Billiton first acquired its Indonesian coal concession from President Suharto in the 1990s, but after his regime was overthrown the government gave protected status to its remaining undamaged rainforests. Under intensive lobbying by the company, the government is now considering plans to repeal protection.
China: Mass Protest over Toxic Gas Leak
On 16th July 2007, the Chinese media reported a mass protest by farmers near Mount Emei in Sichuan Province. A highway was blocked in protest against an aluminium company that is alleged to be responsible for a gas leak which contaminated grapes and other crops. The spillage took place on 24th June and soon after farmers began blocking the highway to demand a total of eight million yuan (US $1.1 million) in compensation.
According to the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), public discontent with environmental pollution has resulted in an increasing number of 'mass incidents', the official expression for riots, protests and collective petitions. SEPA stated that it had received 1,814 citizen petitions in the first five months of this year demanding an improved environment, an 8% rise on the same period of 2006. SEPA in turn complains that local officials, eager to generate revenue and jobs, have prevented the installation of pollution controls on local businesses.
UAE: Crane Safety Controls in Force in Dubai
It has been claimed that at present, Dubai alone is the workplace for around 20% of the 125,000 construction cranes operating worldwide. In 2003, Dubai Municipality enforced a regulation stating that all companies carrying out inspections on lifting equipment in the city must undergo full state accreditation. Since then more stringent procedures have been introduced to test equipment and ensure that those employed to undertake inspections are qualified to do so.
The latest safety controls and testing procedures on construction cranes came into force in the emirate last year, since when more reports of crane failures have been received by the Dubai Accreditation Centre (DAC). At least two cranes a week are failing their safety checks by the eight accredited crane safety laboratories.
The criteria used by inspection bodies for checking lifting equipment include cradles and hoists; also the training and qualifications of inspectors are more closely monitored. Inspectors also make random visits to construction sites to monitor whether contractors are complying by having equipment fully tested by an accredited body. DAC intends to issue an accreditation plate carrying the Dubai Municipality logo, which will be fixed to all cranes that have passed safety tests.
UAE: IOSH Lobbies for Safety Training Body in Dubai
IOSH (Institution of Occupational Safety and Health) Middle East is currently lobbying for the introduction of a government-authorised, country-wide, health and safety training organisation, on the grounds that there is a need for a national body that provides standardised health and safety training and qualifications which are recognised throughout the UAE.
At present, safety training is fragmented and industry standards are not regarded as transportable between sectors because of a lack of uniform accreditation.
Japan: Earthquake Shuts Down Major Nuclear Plant
On 16th July 2007, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) shut down three large generators at the world's biggest nuclear power plant after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake caused a transformer fire in one of the reactor units, and a leakage of 1,200 litres of radioactive water from one of four other units closed for maintenance at the 8,212-megawatt Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture, north-west Japan. The contaminated water was discharged into the sea. The company also admitted that amounts of radioactive cobalt-60, iodine and chromium-51 had been emitted as gas to the atmosphere, but they did not know the cause. It was known that around 200 barrels containing low-level nuclear waste at the plant were knocked over and several dozen lost their lids.
TEPCO withheld details and delayed reporting the incident, and later made the alarming statement that the earthquake was stronger than its reactors had been designed to withstand, although the radioactive emissions were below danger levels. The seven-reactor plant suffered more than 50 malfunctions as a result of the earthquake, including loose exhaust ducts and damaged pipes.
Six days later, TEPCO said it had found oil leaks and structural damage in five more transformers, not just the one at the No. 3 reactor that triggered a fire, which apparently started when the transformer's copper conductor came into contact with other metal, igniting electrical insulation oil. The transformer at the No. 1 reactor had shifted from its base during the tremor and some of its wiring had become disconnected. Contaminated water also spilled onto the floor from the No. 1 reactor, as well as from spent nuclear fuel storage pools. In transformers at reactors Nos. 1, 2, 4 and 7, barriers set up for preventing oil spills tilted or sank because of the earthquake. There was damage to six of the seven reactors in the plant. It was then discovered that the axles of the overhead ceiling crane in the No. 6 reactor house were damaged, thus preventing inspection of the reactor core. It was also reported later that two workers were splashed with radioactive water during the earthquake, but escaped harm as they were wearing protective clothing.
Under pressure from local authorities, the Japanese Government notified the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it required help in the form of safety inspectors. Subsequently the IAEA said that it might take months or even several years before the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, which was designed to generate 3% of Japan’s power, could be restarted.
Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, with a frequency rate of at least one every five minutes. The mayor of nearby Kashiwazaki City ordered the plant, which was built over a known active fault line, to remain closed indefinitely until safety problems are resolved.
The Japanese nuclear power sector has been the subject of an on-going series of safety scandals since 2002, and nuclear power utilisation rates have been greatly reduced by the need for additional safety checks on plant and systems. This in turn has impacted upon Japan’s ability to meet its CO2 emissions target under the Kyoto Protocol.
Ukraine: Derailed Train Releases Toxic Cloud
On 16th July 2007, a train carrying a cargo of poisonous and highly flammable yellow phosphorus was travelling through western Ukraine on a journey from Kazakhstan to Poland when the train derailed and six out of 15 chemical rail tanks caught fire after spilling their loads.
An extensive cloud of poisonous vapour and smoke was released which covered an area of 90 sq. km near the town of Lvov. The inhabitants of some 14 villages were forced to evacuate. A total of 120 victims, including 32 children and 14 emergency workers, were hospitalised. Those remaining in the affected area were advised to stay indoors and avoid eating vegetables or animal produce sourced locally. The spillage will involve an extended cleanup operation, and there is a lack of local expertise in dealing with such incidents.
The tanker cars were set back on the rail track by 26th July and began a return to Kazakhstan via Russia on a route bypassing populated areas.
The Ukrainian authorities cited the poor condition of the rail track as the main cause of the accident, and criminal proceedings have been launched. The Lvov Region administration said the accident had inflicted US $109,000 worth of damage on local agriculture.
The main use of phosphorus compounds is in fertiliser manufacture, but they are also used in the production of pesticides and explosives. Yellow phosphorus is a waxy solid which is stored under liquid because it ignites on contact with oxygen. It is a burning, choking substance, a neurotoxin and a blood poison.
International: Corn Biofuel, an Oversold Policy Solution
A review analysing hundreds of previous biofuels studies, entitled The Rush to Ethanol - Not All Biofuels are Created Equal, was published in July 2007 by the US organisations Food and Water Watch and the Network for New Energy Choices, in collaboration with the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School.
The report concludes that the rapidly growing and heavily subsidised corn ethanol industry in the USA will cause significant environmental damage without reducing dependence on fossil fuels. Ethanol fuel made from corn is being dangerously oversold as a green energy solution.
The study notes that some 27% of American corn produced in 2007 is earmarked for conversion to biofuels, a 20% increase on 2006. In consequence, corn for food production is now under pressure; but if the entire American corn crop was to be used for fuel, it would offset only 15% of national gasoline consumption. The same reduction could be achieved by a 10% increase in fuel efficiency standards for all cars and light trucks, according to federal figures cited in the report.
Following corn-based ethanol from field to exhaust pipe, recent studies indicate that, contrary to the findings of the US Department of Energy, using such a biofuel does not reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to gasoline. There are further concerns, contained in a recent study from the World Resources Institute, in that the development of a corn-based ethanol market would exacerbate problems already associated with large-scale corn production, such as groundwater depletion, soil erosion, algal blooms, and the formation of "dead zones" in waterways inundated with pesticide and fertiliser run-off (eutrophication).
The joint report is available online at:
http://www.newenergychoices.org/uploads/RushToEthanol-embargoed.pdf
South Africa: Government Fails to Enforce Workplace Safety Legislation
The Southern African Institute for Occupational Hygiene has publicly criticised State enforcement of health and safety legislation in the country. The people most at risk are workers in the mining and refining areas of the north west. There is particular concern over exposure to vanadium, used in stainless steel manufacture and which attacks the upper respiratory system causing crippling illness; manganese dust exposure during smelting; and silica dust in gold mining. The need for effective dust reduction measures to below the international benchmark of 0.1mg a cubic metre has been known since 1995.
Government inspections are infrequent, employers are allowed to operate with inadequate safety measures, and no check is made upon the legal requirement to carry out risk assessments every two years.
There is no health and safety culture, enforcement agencies are not adequately resourced, and there is no overall safety strategy. There are just over 100 labour inspectors to enforce 15 different sets of regulations, with less than 20 of the inspectors specialising in occupational safety.
In South Africa there is a lack of trained personnel, lack of research and casualisation of inspection procedures. After identifying hazards, private consultant risk assessors are obliged only to warn the company, with no legal duty to inform the Government. If a consultant does report to the State, that person’s services are excluded in future.
USA: New York Steam Pipe Explosion
A 60-cm-diameter steam pipe installed under Lexington Avenue in New York in 1924 by New York Steam Corp., but taken over by the utility company Consolidated Edison in the 1950s, underwent an explosive rupture on 18th July 2007.
The blast ejected a geyser of boiling water and steam some 36 metres into the air and left a six-metre-wide crater in one of the busiest areas of New York City, near the Grand Central transportation hub. One person was killed and more than 30 were injured; a large number of pedestrians were showered in white ash, mud and soot. Blast damage was sustained in nearby buildings.
The New York City Office of Emergency Management said that while debris from the blast contained asbestos, of eight airborne samples taken none had tested positive (presumably because the fibres were still wet and therefore immobilised temporarily).
Although most New York buildings are powered by electricity, there is still an aging and corroding network of steam pipes beneath the city forming part of a combined heat and power system first installed under Manhattan in 1882. Lethal steam pipe explosions are not uncommon, the last being in 1989 in Gramercy Park.
USA: BP Fined for Texas City Disaster
In the aftermath of the BP Texas City disaster of March 2005, when 15 workers were killed and 170 injured in an explosion and fire, a series of in-depth investigations were made by the US Justice Department and the US Chemical Safety Board as part of the regulatory process. The company was eventually cited by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), who announced on 20th July 2007 that they proposed to fine BP $92,000 for safety violations at the Texas City refinery. The company was cited for alleged wilful failure to ensure that a pressure relief system on the plant's fractionator vessel conformed to industry codes. The violations could also have led to another catastrophic accident.
BP had 15 working days to contest the citations and penalties. BP also faces legal suits from workers and their families and has already paid out millions in settlements. The company said that in October 2006 it had ordered a new fractionator tower with a modified pressure relief system, which is due to be installed in 2008.
The alleged serious violations were related to the fractionator problem, including failure to correct fractionator hazards and failure to install correct pressure relief valves; failure to ensure the accuracy of diagrams of piping and instruments; and failure to ensure the use of non-sparking electrical equipment where flammable liquids and gases are processed.
China: Government Postpones Pollution Cost Reporting
China has postponed indefinitely the release of annual environmental reports on the cost of economic development, on the grounds that several local governments have objected to the release of "sensitive" information about the pollution they cause. There also appears to be a difference of opinion between the State Environmental Protection Administration and the National Bureau of Statistics on how to calculate the figures.
The project, which is designed to calculate how much pollution costs China each year, the so-called "green gross domestic product", began in 2004. The first report, which was published only last year, revealed that the cost of pollution to China was about 511.8 billion yuan (US $68 bn) or 3.05% of GDP, a figure that shocked the Government. No later figures have been made available, and according to the technical head of the project, there will be no further releases.
In June 2007, the Chinese Government successfully removed controversial statistics from a forthcoming World Bank report, which revealed that some 760,000 people die prematurely from environmental pollution each year.
International: Waste from the Sky
The American space agency NASA often complains about other nations littering orbital space, but is not averse to flytipping on its own account. On 23rd July 2007, a 630 kg ammonia reservoir tank, no longer required for cooling the International Space Station, was discarded overboard, along with an unwanted 96 kg camera mounting. Apparently the equipment was cluttering up a shuttle cargo bay.
NASA stated that the debris would be tracked by radar until it burnt up as it entered the Earth's atmosphere, although fragments of the large ammonia tank were expected to survive and impact on the surface. NASA calculated a 1 in 5,000 chance that a human being could be killed or injured by a piece of this space junk, which statistically is far from reassuring.
USA: Rain of Gas Cylinders Causes Chaos
On 25th July 2007, a series of major explosions and a fire took place at the Southwest Industrial Gases acetylene and propane gas cylinder distribution facility in Dallas, Texas. Serious injuries were reported to have been caused off-site by flying gas cylinders rocketing from the burning premises, which resulted in an evacuation and the closure of major interstate highways.
The US Chemical Safety Board announced an immediate investigation. Between 1997 and 2005 there were four fatal incidents at gas cylinder facilities in America.
International: New Aerogel Soaks Up Heavy Metal Pollution
An aerogel is a very low-density, foam-like solid which makes a very effective insulator or filter. Earlier types were based on silicon dioxide or aluminium dioxide, but they can be made from other materials. They have a number of industrial uses, most of which exploit the gigantic reactive surface area of the gel.
A paper by Mercouri Kanatzidis and colleagues at Northwestern University in Illinois, USA, published in the journal Science, Vol. 317, page 490 (“Porous Semiconducting Gels and Aerogels from Chalcogenide Clusters”), describes the discovery of a new aerogel whilst the team were trying to create a porous semiconductor out of chemical compounds called chalcogenides, a category which includes sulphides and selenides. They found that when they mixed the chalcogenide germanium sulphide with a platinum salt in water, the mixture turned into a hydrogel, a water-soluble polymer. When dried, the hydrogel became a new porous aerogel.
This new material was tested as a filter of heavy metals by soaking 10 milligrams of it in water contaminated with mercury at 645 parts per million. The aerogel removed almost all of the mercury, reducing levels to 0.04 parts per million. The researchers also found that the novel aerogel binds preferentially to heavy metals like lead, mercury and cadmium, allowing other metals like zinc and magnesium to pass through.
It therefore has the potential to soak up heavy metals in run-off water from polluted industrial sites. However, in its present form it uses the precious metal platinum and is therefore too expensive for large-scale pollution cleanup. The team claim they have since created similar aerogels using less expensive metals, which could be more suitable for large-scale use. They suggest that pieces of such aerogels could be dropped into rivers contaminated with heavy metals in order to decontaminate them.
Russia: Sakhalin-2 Pipeline Construction Work Suspended
It was announced on 27th July 2007 by Sakhalin Rostekhnadzor, the regional agency responsible for industrial safety and environmental protection, that construction of a section of the onshore oil and gas pipelines for the giant Sakhalin-2 project had been suspended due to violations in pipeline construction across an active seismic fault.
Rostekhnadzor said the Sakhalin Energy consortium operating the project (Gazprom and Shell) had digressed from project decisions on construction of a drainage system on active faults and used pipes which were not planned by the project. The violation related to an 800-metre-long section of pipe. At present, construction of other parts of the 800 km (497 mile) pipelines is continuing as planned.
There were also concerns that anti-erosion measures do not ensure the protection of waterways from soil runoff along the oil and gas pipeline route, which has been contaminated by the work of heavy equipment during pipe-laying.
The pipelines run in parallel down the length of the remote Sakhalin Island off the Pacific coast of Russia to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant that is still under construction.
USA: Fatal Blast at Private Space Tourism Site
Three people were killed and three others seriously injured in a violent explosion at the Mojave Air and Space Port, a rocket-testing site in the Mojave desert north of Los Angeles in the state of California, which is run by a space tourism entrepreneur. The incident happened on 26th July 2007 during a test of the flow of nitrous oxide gas through an injector by a company called Scaled Composites.
Nitrous oxide is relatively stable, non-toxic and does not normally present an explosion hazard, although it has been used as an oxidising agent in several hybrid rocket designs (using solid fuel with a liquid or gaseous oxidiser). It is more popular in amateur and high power rocketry with various plastics as the fuel. In this case it is possible that parts of the assembly may have been contaminated with fuel, leading to explosion of a nitrous/fuel mixture due to adiabatic compression of gases at decomposition temperature.
China: Coal Mine Workshift Trapped by Flood Waters
When river floodwater entered the state-owned Zhijian Coal Mine in Shanxian County, Sanmenxia City, only 33 of the 102 miners working underground at the time managed to escape. The mine lies 200 km west of the provincial capital Zhengzhou in Henan Province. It was established in 1958, and designed to produce 210,000 tonnes a year; but its actual annual output is 300,000 tonnes.
In the last days of July 2007, rescuers were attempting to pass water and food down an 800-metre-deep ventilation pipe to the 69 trapped miners, who were reported to be in a dry area with some electricity. Others were trying to prevent more water entering the shaft, clearing away silt, and providing ventilation and oxygen to the trapped miners. The miners were rescued seven days after the accident.
Indonesia: High Carbon Dioxide Levels Slow Gas Field Development
Indonesia is the only Asia-Pacific member of OPEC and is increasing its use of such alternative energy sources as natural gas in a bid to reduce oil consumption amid high prices and its own dwindling oil production. At the end of July 2007, Exxon Mobil Indonesia announced that natural gas from the Cepu block contains high levels of carbon dioxide that will increase production costs from the field. The Cepu development onshore in East and Central Java, which has an estimated 1.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, is being operated jointly by Exxon Mobil and the state oil firm Pertamina in a US $2.6 billion project.
Normal CO2 levels in natural gas are between 0% and 5%, but the CO2 in the Jambaran field in Cepu block is around 30%. Although gas separation technology is not a problem, the additional cost is significant. It is likely that gas production from Cepu will be delayed while the operators assess the cost and re-study whether the market can absorb the gas from the block at high prices.
Cepu also has estimated crude oil reserves of up to 600 million barrels, equivalent to 6.7% of Indonesia's total, and is expected to produce up to 180,000 barrels per day at its peak after production begins at the end of 2008 or early in 2009.
International: The Office Laser Printer as a Health Risk
An investigation by Lidia Morawska and colleagues at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, has found that 17 out of 62 conventional office laser printers examined emitted potentially dangerous levels of toner particles to the air, in the PM10 size which can penetrate deep into the lungs in a similar fashion to cigarette smoke particulates and cause a range of health problems from respiratory irritation to more chronic illnesses. The team report that 37 of the printers released no particles that diminished air quality.
The laser printers included popular models in the USA and Australia sold internationally under the Canon, HP Colour Laserjet, Ricoh and Toshiba brand names. The tests were conducted in an open-plan office, and it was found that atmospheric particle levels increased fivefold during working hours, an increase associated with the use of printers. The problem was worse when new replacement cartridges were used and when graphics and images were printed (the latter requiring larger quantities of toner). Three of the printers were also tested in an experimental chamber.
The researchers called on governments to regulate air quality in offices, and want equipment suppliers to ensure that printers are placed in properly ventilated areas so that the particles disperse.
The research was published in the 1st August 2007 issue of the American Chemical Society online journal, Environmental Science and Technology.
USA: CSB Report on the Synthron Chemical Runaway Explosion
On 31st July 2007, the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) released its final report on a fatal explosion at the Synthron LLC chemical manufacturing facility in Morganton, North Carolina. The explosion took place on 31st January 2006 as the result of a runaway chemical reaction in a 1,500-gallon process vessel inside the Synthron production building. One worker was fatally burned and 14 others were injured, two seriously. The blast destroyed the facility and broke windows up to one-third of a mile away. Two churches and a home were damaged and were later condemned. Synthron filed for bankruptcy following the accident, and the facility has not been rebuilt.
The CSB concluded that the company's management of reactive chemical hazards was inadequate and that the facility was unprepared for a chemical process emergency. The CSB also found that ineffective corporate oversight by the French parent company, Protex International, contributed to the likelihood and severity of the accident. The CSB commented that the accident at Synthron emphasised the need for effective corporate oversight, emergency planning, and reactive chemical process training and safeguards. If such measures had been in place, the accident could have been prevented.
Synthron manufactured acrylic polymers for use as paint and coating additives. The polymers were produced inside a batch reactor by chemically reacting a blend of acrylic monomers in a mixture of flammable solvents, which is not standard practice. The polymerisation reaction produced significant heat, which was removed by condensing the solvent vapour in an overhead water-cooled condenser. The cooled condensed solvent then flowed back into the reactor, keeping the temperature and the reaction under control.
The accident occurred when plant managers attempted to fulfil an order for acrylic polymer that exceeded the normal batch size for this product. Instead of making two smaller batches to fill the order, managers decided to make a single larger batch. They decided to add all the extra acrylic monomer during the first stage of the reaction process, which was a critical mistake. Subsequent laboratory testing by the CSB showed that increasing the batch size in this manner raised the maximum heat output from the reaction by a factor of at least 2.3. The heat output exceeded the cooling capacity of the condenser, and the reaction accelerated out of control (a runaway).
After initiating the reaction, operators saw solvent vapour leaking from a hatchway on top of the reactor as the process overheated and pressure built up inside the reactor. The operators fled the production building and gathered just outside a doorway. A flammable vapour cloud formed inside the building, and a short time later it ignited and exploded, destroying the production facility and fatally burning a maintenance supervisor who had remained inside. Personnel who gathered just outside the building were among the injured.
Synthron had apparently never documented the actual capacity of the cooling equipment, which was essential to keeping reactions from running out of control. There was no evidence that the company had ever cleaned or inspected the cooling water side of the condenser on the reactor for 30 years. This surface was fouled with scale, rust, and sediment which degraded the cooling capability of the condenser by at least 25%. The flammable release occurred when the reactor pressure was well below the reactor's maximum working pressure. The reactor hatch was improperly secured and failed when the condenser cooling capacity was exceeded during the runaway reaction, releasing flammable solvent vapour into the building.
USA: Commuters Die in Interstate Bridge Collapse
During the evening rush hour on 1st August 2007, the 160-metre central section of the single steel arch Interstate Freeway 35W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, broke loose and plunged 20 metres into the river and onto another roadway. The final death toll was 13, including those who drowned, and 60 people were hospitalised. Many vehicles were crushed beneath slabs of concrete and twisted steel or hurled into the river. A freight train passing underneath was also crushed.
The bridge was built in 1967 and the cause of the major structural failure was not immediately apparent. The National Transportation Safety Board announced that it would lead an investigation into the collapse. Attention is likely to be focused on fatigue cracking in the deck and a lack of redundancy in the main truss system; corrosion of rivet connections and possible cracks around joints; and bearing failure at the piers.
It was known that maintenance crews had been working on the bridge to repair the surface, signs and guardrails. Thus there was less traffic on the bridge at the time due to lane closures. The bridge was inspected in 2005 and 2006 by the Minnesota Department of Transportation, who reported no structural defects. The Department said about 200,000 vehicles a day used the eight-lane roadway.
Canada: Asbestos Industry in Decline
In late July 2007, the Canadian asbestos mining company LAB Chrysotile Inc. filed for bankruptcy proceedings. The failure of the company should see the closure of the last asbestos mines at Thetford in Quebec. It was a major financial contributor, along with federal and provincial government sources, to the Chrysotile Institute of Quebec, the global asbestos industry main lobbying organisation, whose marketing targets are developing nations.
In the USA, the Ban Asbestos in America Act 2007, which seeks to ban all production and use of asbestos in America, was passed unanimously on 31st July 2007 by the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. The Act passed forward to the Senate floor where it was also approved.
UAE: New Construction Safety Regulations in Force in Dubai
On 1st August 2007, the Construction Safety Department of Dubai World EHS (Environment, Health and Safety) introduced new safety procedures to guard against fire risk and work at height, particularly applicable to construction on high-rise sites. It is now mandatory for building contractors to obtain a Certificate of Conformity once the height of the building reaches 24 metres and does not exceed 30 metres, before construction can start. EHS will use its enforcement powers to financially penalise those contractors who violate the measures or prolong compliance.
The fire safety measures include provisions for the appointment of fire marshals, efficient evacuation procedures, installation of a wet riser and fire doors, and fire stopping on the stair core. Contractors are also required to ensure that adequate arrangements are in place to trigger fire alarms, and efficient evacuation of workers is ensured in case of a fire.
The requirements are in addition to the new construction fire safety regulations issued in May 2007.
Uganda: Geologist Killed in Armed Attack
On 3rd August 2007, a geologist from North Yorkshire in the UK, who was working on a barge anchored in Lake Albert in western Uganda, was shot dead when the exploration barge came under attack by three armed Congolese patrol boats. The barge was owned by the Canadian company Heritage Oil and was carrying out a seismic survey at a distance of 2.1 km from the border between Uganda and Congo.
The Congolese army later confirmed the incident but alleged that the Ugandans had opened fire on them first.
USA: Coal Miners Trapped by Roof Collapse
Six miners were trapped in a coal-mine collapse at the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah on 6th August 2007. The men were thought to be 6 km from the entrance and 457 metres below ground level. In order to reach the trapped men, rescue workers attempted to drill vertical and horizontal shafts to another abandoned mine located within 30 metres of the site of the accident. There had been no contact with the men since the collapse. By 9th August, the drill had reached the cavity, but a microphone could pick up no sound of survivors.
On 17th August, three rescue workers were killed and another six injured following a roof collapse, believed to have been triggered by stress changes in the rock caused by their drilling operations.
The extraction method used in the mine dates back to medieval technique, and involves leaving pillars of coal to hold up the roof in open galleries. When a seam is fully extracted the pillars are pulled, causing intentional roof collapse into the void.
The mine is owned by Genwal, and US federal mining inspectors are reported to have issued 64 safety violation citations and $12,973 in fines at the mine, which lies in Manti-La Sal National Forest, 225 km from Salt Lake City. The same owner’s Galatia mine in southern Illinois racked up at least 2,787 violations and more than $2.4 million in fines from the Mine Safety and Health Administration over a two-year span.
International: US Court Finds Claims against Chevron False
On 7th August 2007, the US District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco dismissed three lawsuits by Ecuadoreans, who admitted that their allegations that pollution by the oil company Chevron Corp. had caused them or their relatives to contract cancer were false. The suits were part of a group of claims alleging serious ill-health in local communities arising from the company dumping waste in the Ecuadorean rainforest.
The actions were unrelated to a larger litigation taking place in Ecuador, in which US $6 billion in damages is being sought from Chevron on charges, which the company denies, that it contaminated the rainforest from 1972 to 1992. The American ruling will not affect the case brought before the Ecuadorean court on behalf of 30,000 jungle dwellers. The USA litigation concerned the health impact on individuals and communities, whilst the Ecuadorean action is suing for environmental clean-up costs.
International: French Consortium to Build New Chernobyl Shelter
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has co-ordinated efforts to construct a new shelter or giant sarcophagus to encase the highly radioactive fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in Ukraine. It will replace the existing leaking structure, built following the catastrophic explosion and fire in April 1986.
On 8th August 2007, it was announced by the EBRD that the contract to build the shelter had been awarded to Novarka, a consortium headed by the French companies Bouygues and Vinci. Other consortium members include Hochtief of Germany and RWE, bringing together four of the largest construction companies in Europe, as well as local Ukrainian businesses. The entire project, including construction of the confinement vessel, is expected to cost about US $1 billion and funds totalling that amount have been raised since the 1990s. It is estimated that the international project will take three years to complete.
USA: Tank Farm Destroyed by Fire
On 7th August 2007, the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) reported that it is conducting an investigation into explosions and fire at Barton Solvents in Valley Centre, Kansas, where an outdoor tank storage area erupted on 17th July 2007. Forty tanks with capacities ranging from 3,000 to 20,000 US gallons were involved.
At the time of the incident a road tanker containing flammable naphtha was being offloaded and pumped into a storage tank at the facility. The partially filled storage tank subsequently exploded and launched into the air, creating a large fireball. Thousands of nearby residents were evacuated and some structural damage external to the facility was caused by flying debris. The tank farm was completely destroyed.
The CSB will concentrate on an examination of the failed tanks, their design, pressure relief systems, and why the tanks were configured in a single spill containment.
International: EU Alert on Dioxin Contamination in Guar Gum
Guar gum, an extract of the guar bean, is a widely used food additive 80% of the global supply of which is produced in India. In 2006/07 the value of guar gum exports to India was 13 billion rupees (US $459.8 million), the main markets being the United States and Europe. Guar gum is used as an additive in dairy products such as yoghurts, ice cream and soft cheese, bread, pasta, ham, sausages, prepared fish and pastries. It is also used in animal feed. The substance functions as a food emulsifier, thickener and stabiliser.
In early August 2007, the European Commission issued a food safety alert to the 27 EU member countries when high levels of dioxins were found in gum shipments from an Indian supplier. The Swiss company Unipektin AG, which supplies guar gum products to EU markets, recalled several batches of food additives containing guar gum sent by India Glycols on 30th July 2007. The Swiss authorities told the European Commission that nine EU countries had received guar gum consignments from Unipektin, although there were no details on the quantities involved. The alert warns countries to detain guar gum exports from India Glycols, and test consignments for pentachlorophenol and dioxin. Guar gum sourced from other suppliers should also be sampled. Hungary had already blocked the sale of several items from a wide range of food, feed and drug products after finding dioxin levels exceeding the EU permitted limit.
If a contaminated guar gum batch has already been used for food production, member states should check whether the batch complies with EU rules on maximum dioxin levels. If products do not comply, a withdrawal or recall from the market has to be ordered.
The source of contamination is linked to the presence of pentachlorophenol, and there was no evidence to suggest that suppliers other than India Glycols were involved. Most importers have now requested test certificates for the presence of toxic substances in guar gum, but there is only one organisation in India equipped to undertake such testing, Vimta Specialities of Hyderabad, and the cost of 25,000 rupees per tonne is not readily affordable by the exporters.
China: Labourers Killed in Bridge Collapse
On 12th August 2007, a 320-metre-long road bridge under construction over the Jiantuo River in central China, designed to connect Fenghuang County with the neighbouring Guizhou Airport, collapsed killing 22 workers. Another 46 were reported missing in the rubble after the structure fell as steel scaffolding was being dismantled by a labour force of just over 100 men. Most of the labourers were locally recruited subsistence farmers and not construction workers. The bridge had been scheduled to open later in the month.
The cause of the accident is under investigation, and the senior site construction manager and the project supervisor were detained for questioning.
Malaysia: Oil Production Suspended by Pipeline Leak
A corroded, 23-year-old 46 cm pipeline owned by the Malaysian state oil firm Petronas sprang a major leak on 8th August 2007, spilling an unspecified amount of crude oil into a nearby river. Production at the West Lutong offshore oilfield in eastern Sarawak state was suspended while workers attempted to contain the spillage and limit damage to the environment. On 13th August, the company said that much of the oil spill had been recovered, although it gave no details.
The local Star newspaper reported that more than 1,000 families living in three coastal villages affected by the oil spill had voiced concerns about their health, with complaints of nausea and headaches from airborne fumes. The affected villages have a piped water supply and do not rely on the river for drinking water.
Petronas said that oil production had resumed on 9th August. It had already commissioned and installed a replacement 13-km-long pipeline, with the same net capacity to transport 40,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The new pipeline, installed in February 2007, was originally scheduled to become operational at the end of August 2007.
Iraq: Mosul Dam Facing Collapse
Construction of the Mosul hydroelectric dam across the Tigris was completed in 1983. The structure is a 3.2-kilometre-wide earth-fill dam and is the largest water reservoir in Iraq with a capacity of around eight billion cubic metres. It has an installed hydroelectric capacity of 750 megawatts and is also instrumental in flood control, irrigation water supply and municipal water supply.
The dam is built on unstable bedrock and requires continuous cement plugging or grouting of leakages to prevent catastrophic failure. Since the change of regime in the country it has deteriorated at an increasing rate and now poses an imminent threat to the city of Mosul, which has a population of 1.7 million people. Collapse of the dam would inflict heavy flood damage for more than 250 kilometres downstream in the densely populated, wide and low lying valley of the Tigris.
Remedial work on the dam is overseen by the Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources and the US Army Corps of Engineers, but a recent US Embassy report claims that due to fundamental and irreversible flaws in the foundation of the dam, the safety of the Mosul Dam against a potential catastrophic failure cannot be guaranteed. The chance of a total and immediate failure of the dam is now believed to be reasonably high at current water levels and is regarded as a certainty within the next few years.
International: Biosecurity Failures Give Cause for Concern
The recent escape of a biological agent, a known strain of the Foot and Mouth virus, from what are supposed to be high-containment animal disease facilities at Pirbright in the UK has drawn attention to laboratory safety issues and the consequences upon the general population of biosecurity lapses. A culture of denial tends to surround work with biological agents and the scale of the problem is often concealed by those responsible for safety and health management.
The global frequency of serious laboratory accidents is increasing, with a strong association to the tenfold increase in bioweapons research since 2001. At present, the USA is considering the establishment of a giant National Bio and Agro-Defence Facility at an as yet unconfirmed site.
Texas A&M University in the USA failed to report two exposure incidents in 2006 involving bacteria which cause brucellosis and Q fever. Its dangerous pathogens (“select agents”) research facility has now been closed down by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Another recent case was the infection of three research scientists at Boston University Medical Centre by the tularaemia or rabbit fever bacterium.
In 2004, several research staff working in the Far East on severe acquired respiratory syndrome virus (SARS) suffered fatal infections. An outbreak of swine fever in Cuba between 1993 and 1997 was traced by local virologists to a strain called Margarita which had escaped from a laboratory.
Perhaps the most notorious such incident took place in 1979 in the city of Sverdlovsk, now Ekaterinburg, in the former Soviet Union. Weaponised anthrax bacteria escaped from a secure bioweapons facility when a ventilator filter was removed and not replaced at the end of a workshift. Some 68 people died of anthrax and at the time the authorities laid the blame on infected meat. The truth did not emerge until an investigation by the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico in 1998.
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Virginia is one of only two organisations in the world that still store the smallpox virus. In June 2007, an hour-long power failure at the facility prompted a national review by the US Congress on the safety of American biological warfare laboratories.
International: European Union Launches Online Public Health Threat Monitor
In mid-August 2007, the European Commission launched an automated online medical intelligence system of global scope which constantly trawls the Internet, collecting and sorting information from more than 1,000 news and 120 public health websites in 32 languages.
The system is called MediSys and was developed to provide health authorities with real-time knowledge about epidemic disease outbreaks or large-scale industrial accidents, thereby helping to identify such incidents as early as possible and so react in a timely way. It can also provide invaluable information to authorities tackling a major incident such as a biowarfare terrorist attack.
Previous systems have monitored only historical data, such as death rates, emergency admissions, trends in prescriptions and other public health statistical anomalies. MediSys is based on the number of articles retrieved and keywords detected, and issues automatic alerts by e-mail and SMS to decision-makers who are on permanent standby. The system can also be accessed by private citizens via:
http://medusa.jrc.it/medisys/homeedition/all/home.html.
Jordan: Red Sea to Dead Sea Canal Study
In August 2007, the Jordan Valley Water Authority announced that an internationally- funded, two-year-long feasibility and environmental assessment on the proposed Red Sea to Dead Sea Canal project would begin in December. The project is designed to transfer water in order to alleviate on-going degradation of the Dead Sea. The plan entails construction of a 200-kilometre canal from Aqaba on the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. It will run along the border with Israel in Wadi Araba.
The project will also generate hydroelectricity, as water will be drawn from the Red Sea at 170 metres above sea level and then released into the Dead Sea at 400 metres below sea level. A desalination plant with a production capacity of 850 million cubic metres is also proposed, the potable water being divided between Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
The Red-Dead Canal project, at an estimated cost of around US $3 billion, is part of an international effort to conserve the Dead Sea, the water level of which has been falling due to diversion of water from the Jordan River for agricultural and industrial use. The water level has fallen by 30 metres in the last 20 years, leading to fears that it will dry out entirely within 50 years.
Uganda: Construction of Bujugali Dam Begins
Uganda generates most of its energy from hydroelectric turbines on the Nile River, but rising demand coupled with falling water levels in Lake Victoria, the source of the Nile, has caused regular power shortages and load-shedding.
On 21st August 2007, construction of a new 250-megawatt hydroelectric power dam began on the banks of the River Nile at Jinja, 80 km east of Kampala. The dam has an estimated cost of US $799 million and is designed to solve the acute power shortage in Uganda.
The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development is involved in the financial backing, and has faced criticism from environmental lobbyists due to the enormous scale of the project.
International: Marburg Virus Found in African Fruit Bats
The Marburg virus is the causative agent of Marburg haemorrhagic fever and is related to the Ebola virus. It is believed to have originated in Uganda and Eastern Congo, although it was first documented in 1967 when laboratory staff working with infected monkeys contracted the disease in the German town of Marburg. The disease, which has a high fatality rate, is spread through body fluids such as blood, excrement, saliva and vomit.
A major outbreak of Marburg occurred among gold miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 1998 and 2000, during which 128 people died out of 154 infected. An outbreak in Uige, Angola, in 2004-05 killed 150 people from 163 infected cases.
A recent study published in the online medical journal PLoS ONE by a research team from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Medical Research Institute in Franceville, Gabon, suggests that Marburg may be more common than previously thought and that cave-roosting fruit bats are the source of the zoonosis.
Serum tests of 1,100 bats of various species from several regions of Africa resulted in only one species, Rousettus aegyptiacus or the Egyptian Fruit Bat, being found to be an infection reservoir. The species is common throughout Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan and northern India. There is no vaccine or specific treatment for the disease, but the study suggests that controlling these bats may help to reduce the threat.
Kazakhstan: Kashagan Oil Field Development Halted by Environmental Violations
On 21st August 2007, the Kazakh Environment Ministry announced that development of the giant offshore Kashagan oil field in the Caspian Sea would be suspended for three months because of environmental violations. The Ministry is conducting an environmental audit on the grounds that the operator, Italian company Eni SpA, is not complying with Kazakhstan environmental legislation. It stated that further implementation of the project will cause irreversible ecological damage. The operator would also be sued for breaching fire safety rules at its oil and gas processing facility. Kashagan is in a nature reserve and is the breeding ground for rare Caspian seals, the endangered beluga whale and for sturgeon, the source of caviar.
The Kashagan field is estimated to hold recoverable reserves of 13 billion barrels, but its development has been plagued by delays, technical problems and rising costs (from US $57 billion to $136 billion). Among the many oil companies involved in its development, the Kashagan field is known by the nickname "Cash All Gone”.
Although the Caspian Sea is shallow, the environment is challenging, with the project hub built on artificial islands 65 kilometres offshore and surrounded by crushing pack ice for five months of the year. A normal offshore rig would collapse under such conditions. The oil reservoir lies at a depth of 4 km under pressures roughly 500 times atmospheric. It has a high hydrogen sulphide content (15%) presenting considerable risk to rig workers. The extraction process requires expensive, stress-resistant, high-pressure pipes and powerful compressors to pump the toxic gases back into the reservoir at 800 bar. Because of the danger associated with a gas leak, all workers have to carry oxygen canisters and gas detectors, and carry out daily gas emergency drills using ice-breaking emergency evacuation vessels (IBEEVs). The escape boats are entered through an airlock, the evacuees are given personal CO2 scrubbers and then move into sealed compartments. The boats have 50 minutes’ air supply to escape from a gas cloud.
USA: Record Fine for Industrial Dryer Death
In March 2007, a worker in an automated laundry washroom on the premises of Cintas Corporation in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was caught on a conveyor as he tried to clear a blockage and dragged into an industrial dryer, where he was trapped in temperatures of 300 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes. He died at the scene, of trauma and thermal injuries. Cintas is the largest uniform supplier in North America, with more than 400 facilities employing over 34,000 people. The corporation was prosecuted by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), who in August 2007 proposed a fine of $2.78 million, a penalty more than four times greater than any previous fine in the service sector for health and safety violations.
In addition to failing to protect workers from the equipment involved in the fatal incident, safety inspectors reported 45 other illegal hazards in the Tulsa laundry, and proposed an extra fine of $117,500 for failing to provide a safe workplace for all employees. In the past, workers at other laundries owned by Cintas have also suffered serious injuries from poorly guarded plant and work equipment, and failure to enforce lockout/tagout procedures.
UAE: Sharjah Port Fire
The Panamanian-registered company, Maritime Industrial Services Co. Ltd. Inc. (MIS), reported a major fire on 17th August 2007 which destroyed the facilities of Emirates Lube Oil Company in Sharjah Port. MIS has a large oilfield engineering fabrication base and shipyard in Sharjah, employing 3,500 workers. Although no damage was caused to its main shipyard and fabrication facilities, Sharjah Civil Defence cut all power and restricted access to the port whilst dealing with the blaze. Power and access were restored two days later.
International: WHO Report on Global Epidemic Risk
In August, the World Health Organisation (WHO) published its World Health Report 2007 - A safer future: global public health security in the 21st century. The world is described as being at increasing risk of disease outbreaks, epidemics, industrial accidents, natural disasters and other health emergencies which can rapidly become global threats. The revised International Health Regulations (2005), which came into force this year, are designed to help countries work together to identify risks and act to contain and control them. The Regulations are necessary because no single country can protect itself from outbreaks and other hazards without the co-operation of others.
The WHO maintains that with about 2.1 billion airline passengers flying each year, infectious diseases are spreading faster than ever before and there is a high risk of another major epidemic such as HIV, SARS, Marburg or Nipah virus. The report urges increased efforts to combat disease outbreaks and the sharing of virus data to help develop vaccines, without which there could be devastating impacts on the global economy and international security.
The WHO claims that new diseases are emerging at the historically unprecedented rate of one per year. Thirty-nine new diseases have developed since the 1970s and in the last five years alone the WHO has identified more than 1,100 epidemics, including cholera, polio and bird flu. Between 2003 and 2006 there were 685 verified events of international public health concern. A new influenza pandemic could affect more than 1.5 billion people or 25% of world population. Drug resistance also poses a threat to disease control, due to misuse of antibiotics and poor medical treatment, particularly when dealing with tuberculosis.
The report is accessible online in six different language translations at:
http://www.who.int/whr/2007/en/index.html
International: Environmentally Unfriendly Water
The consumption of bottled mineral water has grown from a Western affectation into a global menace in terms of its high environmental cost. The beverage contributes vast quantities of plastic waste to landfills and places excess demand on natural springs, according to a report published in August 2007 by the Worldwatch Institute of Washington. Not only is bottled water expensive, but it is produced to lower safety standards than those applied to municipal water utilities supplying tap water, even in developed countries.
The environmental impact starts at source, depleting local streams and underground aquifers by industrial-scale withdrawal. The water is then put through a process of production, bottling, packaging, storing, shipping and distribution.
The crude-oil-derived feedstock for the plastic bottles is polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which requires less energy to recycle and does not release chlorine into the atmosphere when burned. Unfortunately the rate of recycling has fallen in the USA from 39.7% in 1995 to 23.1% in 2005, the latter representing two million tonnes of PET bottles going to waste.
The cost of bottled water to the consumer is up to 10,000 times greater than water from a municipal tap, or in USA terms it costs up to $1,000 per cubic metre, compared to 50 cents per cubic metre for high quality tap water in California.
World consumption of bottled water more than doubled between 1997 and 2005, with the United States being the largest consumer. US citizens drank nearly 28.6 billion litres in 2005. In India, where there is a genuine need for potable water, consumption nearly tripled in the same period; and Chinese consumption more than doubled between 2000 and 2005. Mexico, Brazil, Italy, Germany, France, Indonesia and Spain also appear among the ten heaviest consumers.
China: Harmful Nematodes Found in Imported Wood Packaging
China has received much criticism of late for poor safety standards, but on 30th August 2007 the Xinhuanet news agency reported that the Shenzhen Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) had seized 13 batches of wooden packages imported from the United States that contained harmful pine wood nematodes. All the substandard wooden packages were produced by six heat treatment manufacturers with official US certificates. Living nematodes had also been found in another 10 batches of wooden packages from the United States sampled between 14th July and 23rd August.
The proportion of infected wooden packages from the USA was 15.38%, which AQSIQ said was much higher than corresponding figures for the European Union, South Korea, Japan and Canada. It was believed that either the heat treatment manufacturers or the US exporters were the source of the problem. The impounded packages had been improperly treated according to Chinese quarantine requirements and were destroyed. The relevant US authorities had been notified and asked to investigate.
The pine wood nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus is a pest organism native to the United States. It was first exported to Japan in 1905 in US timber or packaging material, where it caused much destruction in pine forests. It has since spread to Okinawa, Taiwan, South Korea, North Korea and China. Once infection has occurred, the only practicable control is to burn affected trees or timber.
Saudi Arabia: Oil Field Protection Force Initiative
In August 2007, it was announced that Saudi Arabia is developing a 35,000-strong security force at an estimated cost of $5 billion to protect against potential attacks on its oil infrastructure. The new militia already has around 5,000 members, who are being trained in the use of electronic surveillance equipment, countermeasures and crisis management by the US company Lockheed Martin.
Saudi Arabia is the world's largest exporter of oil, with more than 80 oil and gas fields and an estimated 11,000 miles of pipeline. The new force represents an increase of around 30% in the total number of Saudi defence personnel.
UAE: Midday Working Ban Reduces Heat Stroke Cases in Dubai
The ban on midday working during the summer, enforced by the Ministry of Labour, has had the effect of reducing by almost 80% the number of construction workers admitted to hospital in Dubai suffering from heat-related illnesses compared to previous years.
Contractors are obliged to comply with the government ban or face potential fines up to US $8,170 (AED 30,000) per worker. Two Dubai hospitals commented that last year they were admitting up to ten cases per day, but this has now fallen to two or three a day. Medical experts also pointed out that heat-related illnesses are not caused only by exposure to direct sunlight but also other climatic factors, such as high temperatures and the humidity, which can affect those working outside at any time of day.
Many construction workers do not have any health insurance, although they are susceptible to illness and injury. The Dubai Government is planning to introduce a mandatory health insurance law which will make it compulsory for companies to provide health insurance for their workforce. Health insurance is essential since in Dubai there is no tax system to support a public scheme.
Private initiatives include the Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA) plan to establish on-site first-aid centres for labourers, and the Al Futtaim Carillion system which provides healthcare for labourers with trained first-aid personnel on all its sites, a 24-hour medical centre at labour camps and isolation rooms for those with communicable diseases.
Japan: Unsafe Procedures Lead to Closure of Nuclear Research Units
On 3rd September 2007, the Japanese Science and Technology Ministry halted work at three nuclear research units run by its Atomic Energy Agency due to concerns over the handling of fuel materials and other problems. Work was suspended at the units in Tokaimura, Ibaraki prefecture, after the Agency reported 46 problems including procedural flaws.
The Ministry ordered the Atomic Energy Agency to investigate after it was discovered in June that a shared duct at its Nuclear Science Research Institute in Tokaimura was contaminated with radioactive material. One of the units is a critical testing facility for a fast breeder reactor, but safety rods in the facility had not been checked and approved by the Government. At the other two units, nuclear fuel material had been stored for ten years in containers meant only for temporary storage.
Japan: Another Nuclear Power Plant Radiation Leak
On 5th September 2007, it was reported that 3.4 tonnes of radioactive water had leaked from the 1,175 megawatt No.1 generating unit at the Kansai Electric Power Co. Inc. Ohi power station in Fukui prefecture, which was immediately shut down. The water did not escape to the environment. The Ohi plant lies on the coast of the Sea of Japan around 320 km west of Tokyo.
Kansai Electric Power is the second largest Japanese utility and had only recently restarted commercial operations at another of its nuclear power stations following a serious accident more than two years ago, in which five workers died after being sprayed with steam and hot water from a broken pipe.
USA: Mid-America Pipeline Company Prosecuted over Ammonia Leak
A pipeline in Kansas owned by Mid-America Pipeline Co. ruptured in October 2004 near the town of Kingman, releasing 204,000 US gallons of ammonia which contaminated 20 km of natural waterway, killing 25,000 fish. Smoots Creek is listed as a protected environment with several endangered species of fish.
Mid-America, a subsidiary of Enterprise Products Partners LP, did not reveal the full volume of the leakage until six weeks after the spill. The ruptured pipeline created an ammonia vapour cloud 12 metres high, forcing local residents to evacuate their homes.
The company was prosecuted both for releasing the toxic agent and for failing to provide the authorities with correct information. The US Environmental Protection Agency said that misleading information given by the company on the size of the spill delayed a proper emergency response and made the situation worse.
On 6th September 2007, the company pleaded guilty to negligently violating the federal clean water law and agreed to pay a US $1 million criminal penalty for releasing ammonia.
Italy: Tropical Pathogen Spreads to Europe
The Chikungunya virus is transmitted by the bite of the Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, a species which is extending its range as the northern Mediterranean climate changes under the impact of human-induced warming. The disease symptoms used to be relatively mild and seldom fatal, but in recent years the virus has mutated into a more aggressive and rapidly spreading form. The debilitating disease spread by the mosquito vector can cause severe fevers, headaches, fatigue, nausea, muscle and joint pains. In 2005 and 2006 there was a massive outbreak of Chikungunya on the French Indian Ocean island of La Réunion, which spread to nearby islands. The disease also struck in India. Around 1.4 million people were infected and several thousand may have died. Chikungunya has been diagnosed in dozens of travellers returning to European countries and North America from infected areas, but until now local transmission in Europe was unknown.
In July this year more than 160 people were infected with the disease in and around the two small Italian villages of Castiglione di Cervia and Castiglione di Ravenna, both in the province of Ravenna. The pathogen was identified in August by the Instituto Superiore di Sanità, a government laboratory in Rome. The delay was caused by the similarity of the disease symptoms to other diseases, such as the Toscana virus. Epidemiological investigation suggested that the index patient was a man who travelled to one of the villages and fell sick there, after having been infected in India.
According to the Pasteur Institute in Paris, it is too early to tell whether the virus has now established a permanent foothold in Europe, because the Italian outbreak has died down as the mosquito population falls in late summer. If the infected mosquitoes survive the winter or pass on the virus to their offspring via their eggs, there may be a European epidemic next year.
There are no drugs or vaccines against Chikungunya, but the outbreak on La Réunion stimulated renewed interest in developing a vaccine. Scientists at three French government institutions are currently working on such a vaccine and clinical trials might begin before the end of 2008.
India: Supreme Court Allows Breaking of Toxic Ship
On 11th September 2007, the Indian Supreme Court permitted the dismantling of a controversial Norwegian cruise liner, the 46,000-tonne “Blue Lady”, which contains more than 900 tonnes of toxic waste, including asbestos. The case was brought because of the health risks to the poorly equipped workers at the Alang ship-breaking yard in the western state of Gujarat. The “Blue Lady” entered Indian waters last year, but the court ruled that it remain anchored off the coast of Gujarat while a legal dispute was resolved between environmentalists, the ship's owner and the Indian ship-breaking industry.
The court appointed an expert committee to provide guidelines on how to safely dismantle all ships that come to India. Its judgment was that the dismantling of the ship must be overseen by the district collector, the most senior state official in the district. The ship must be decontaminated before breaking, and toxic waste must be disposed of properly.
In February 2006, the French government was obliged to recall the former aircraft carrier “Clemenceau”, which had been heading for Alang without decontamination, after a lengthy campaign by environmentalists.
A report published by Greenpeace in 2005 stated that several thousand workers in the ship-breaking industries of India, China and Pakistan had died over the past 20 years from exposure to toxic waste or in workplace accidents.
UAE: Traceability Issues for Constructional Reinforcing Steel
A recent announcement by the UK Certification Authority for Reinforcing Steels (CARES) said that the UAE construction industry must rid its construction sites of non-certified reinforcing steel, if the country hopes to attain sustainability and good health and safety standards.
The use of steel from non-certificated and untraceable sources poses a safety risk to both the contractor and the structure owner. In addition there are contractual implications in terms of over-reliance on site testing.
International: Progress on Hydrogen Generation Technology
Researchers at Purdue University in the USA have developed further a technology that could represent a pollution-free energy source which could be used to run an internal combustion engine, a portable generator or a fuel cell. Combusting hydrogen in an engine or using it to drive a fuel cell produces no toxic fumes and only water as waste.
The technology produces hydrogen by adding water to an alloy of aluminium and gallium. When water is added to the alloy, the aluminium splits water by attracting oxygen, at the same time liberating hydrogen. The Purdue researchers are developing a method to create particles of the alloy that could be placed in a tank to react with water and produce hydrogen on demand. The gallium is a critical component because it hinders the formation of an aluminium oxide skin, a normal reaction product created after bonding with oxygen. The oxidation skin acts as a barrier and prevents oxygen from reacting with aluminium. Reducing the protective properties of the oxidation skin allows the reaction to continue until all of the aluminium is used to generate hydrogen.
The findings are detailed in a paper by J. M. Woodall, C. Allen and J. Ziebarth, The Science and Technology of Al-Ga Alloys as a Material for Energy Storage, Transport and Splitting Water. The paper was presented on 7th September 2007 during the second Energy Nanotechnology International Conference in Santa Clara, California.
Because the technology could be used to generate hydrogen on demand, the method makes it unnecessary to store or transport hydrogen, the two major obstacles in creating a hydrogen economy. The more expensive gallium component is inert and can be recovered and reused, making the process economically viable for large-scale use. Aluminium is refined from the raw mineral bauxite, which also contains gallium. Producing aluminium from bauxite results in waste gallium.
The Purdue Research Foundation holds title to the primary patent to the technology, which has been filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office and is pending.
China: Festive Balloon Explosion Injures More than 60
The Xinhua news agency reported that in mid-September 2007, some 64 students attending the opening ceremony of a sports event at a school in Lanzhou, the provincial capital of Gansu, were injured and hospitalised when more than 1,500 small balloons filled with hydrogen caught fire and exploded. Most of the victims suffered burns to the face, hands and back. An investigation into the cause of the accident is underway.
Had helium been used as a lighter-than-air gas, there would have been no fire; but helium will seep rapidly from inside a balloon made of cheap materials.
Lesser Antilles: Pesticide Health Disaster in the French Caribbean
The islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique in the French Caribbean produce 260,000 tonnes of bananas a year worth some €220 million (US $305 million). The industry receives €130 million per year in aid from the European Union.
In a report presented to the French National Assembly on 18th September 2007, cancer specialist Professor Dominique Belpomme claimed that widespread use of pesticides in the banana plantations has caused a public health crisis in the Antilles in terms of soaring cancer incidence and infertility rates. The use of persistent organochlorine insecticides such as Chlordecone (also known as Kepone, formula C10Cl
Toxic pesticides were used in massive quantities in the plantations over many years and the effect of their residues has continued, with most groundwater springs now polluted. Fruit and root vegetables are contaminated by pesticides, as well as some local meat. Belpomme found that rates of prostate cancer in the French Caribbean islands were among the highest in the world and there was a rising incidence of congenital deformities in babies, together with a falling overall live birth rate. Extrapolations suggest that nearly one male in two is at risk of developing prostate cancer.
The French Health Minister confirmed that the situation was serious but said that the report still needed to be confirmed by independent scientific studies. The Agriculture Minister commented that the destruction of much of the banana stock in August by Hurricane Dean was an opportunity to change practices and reduce the use of pesticides after replanting.
Japan: Nuclear Industry in Safety Meltdown
On 19th September 2007, another Japanese nuclear power utility closed down a generating unit, putting increasing strain on the country’s electricity supply situation following the closure of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, the largest nuclear plant in the world, which supplies Tokyo.
Hokkaido Electric Power Co. had to shut its 579-megawatt Tomari No.1 nuclear power generation unit after unspecified problems were found which resulted in its breaking operational rules. The company did not know when the unit could be restarted.
Japan relies on nuclear energy for about a third of its energy needs, but its industry has demonstrated itself to be unacceptably accident-prone in recent years. A Japanese Government investigation earlier this year revealed that many of the nuclear power plant operators had admitted to modifying safety data, including covering up unintended reactor start-ups.
Lesser Antilles: Oil Tanker Blast in Curaçao
The tourism island of Curaçao is an autonomous colony of the Netherlands and lies off the west coast of Venezuela (it was conquered by the Dutch West India Company in the 17th century and used as a base for the slave trade).
Its main port of La Isla is devoted to oil shipping traffic and is operated by the Venezuelan state company, PDVSA. The port also has a 320,000 barrels per day capacity refinery. On 21st September 2007, an oil tanker was on fire in the port and some 11 deaths were reported from an associated explosion.
Shipping officials said that the ship had been transporting oil products, including gasoline, and had been undergoing repairs to its hull. Fire-fighters sought to extinguish the blaze, but the cause of the incident was at the time unknown.
International: Airborne Particulates Increase Blood Clotting in the Lungs
A large population research study by Gökhan Mutlu of Northwestern University in Chicago, published on 20th September 2007 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, describes how airborne contamination by very small particulates in the PM10 range can trigger clotting in the blood, a finding which helps explain how air pollution may cause heart attacks and strokes. The reference is Gökhan M. Mutlu, et al, 2007, “Ambient particulate matter accelerates coagulation via an IL-6–dependent pathway”, J. Clin. Invest. doi:10.1172/JCI30639.
Previous studies have found that pollution from the exhaust of lorries, buses and coal-burning factories increases the risk of fatal heart attacks and strokes, although the precise mechanism was not understood. It is well established that air pollutants cause inflammation in the lungs, leading to death from cardiovascular disease. Lung tissues affected by pollution secrete interleukin-6, an immune system substance which triggers inflammation and has been shown to make blood more likely to clot.
Another study published a week earlier in the New England Journal of Medicine found that breathing diesel fumes interfered with the ability to break down blood clots in people who had suffered a previous heart attack.
Mutlu, who studies the effects of air pollution on heart failure in mice, based his research on the discovery that mice exposed to PM10 pollution bled significantly less, that is they were forming blood clots. The experimental mice showed a 15-fold increase in interleukin-6 around 24 hours after exposure, a significant timeframe as it has been known for many years that a spike in air pollution level can boost heart attacks in people within 24 hours. The researchers found that they were able to prevent excess clotting by suppressing immune cells in the lungs called macrophages, which attack foreign substances and secrete interleukin-6.
Although it is common knowledge that asthmatic lung conditions can be aggravated by high levels of air pollution, it was not previously known that the same is true for people with coronary artery disease or congestive heart failure.
USA: Industry Lobbying Delays Carcinogens Safety Review
The US National Toxicology Program (NTP) biennial publication, Report on Carcinogens (download size 30 MB), is a key resource on workplace cancer risks, but publication of the latest edition has been delayed for more than a year as the result of industry lobbying, according to a critical report by the organisation OMB Watch (download size 3 MB).
Industry pressure groups used the data quality provision of the US Information Quality Act to suppress cancer-related information by challenging every aspect of the NTP scientific review and release process, and impede the public release of critical health and safety information.
The US Congress is currently investigating allegations of mismanagement, industry influence and suppression of whistleblowers at the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, which houses the NTP, whose director has been temporarily removed from office.
International: Biofuel Feedstocks Found Less Efficient than Fossil Fuels
A research paper by an international team published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics concludes that renewable energy biofuel feedstocks, supposedly designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, do in fact contribute more to global warming than fossil fuels. The reference is P. J. Crutzen, et al, “N2O release from agro-biofuel production negates global warming reduction by replacing fossil fuels”, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 2007, 7, 11191; downloadable from Crutzen et al 2007 ACP.
Measurements of emissions from the burning of biofuels derived from rapeseed produced up to 70% more greenhouse gases, and from maize up to 50% more than fossil fuels. The use of biofuels released twice as much nitrous oxide (N2O) as had previously been realised. Nitrous oxide is nearly 300 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
Maize is the main source crop for bioethanol in the USA, where industrial use has now overtaken food use. In Europe, some 80% of biofuel production is derived from rapeseed.
Since the growing and burning of many biofuels may actually raise rather than lower greenhouse gas emissions, their benefits are far more disputable than thought, and future decisions on subsidies and regulation must take into account N2O emissions, as well as CO2.
International: European Carbon Trading Achieves Nothing
An online press release by energy consultants Wood Mackenzie dealing with their latest report, EU ETS Phase II: A Fundamental Assessment, concludes that there will be an oversupply of tradeable CO2 emissions credits during the second phase of the European emissions trading scheme (ETS). The credibility of the ETS has been damaged by the continuing oversupply of emissions permits, a situation likely to continue for another five years. The carbon trading market is meant to stimulate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by ensuring a shortage when issuing such permits to heavy industry. Affected businesses have to buy additional permits (carbon offsets or certified emissions reductions) from developing countries outside the scheme if they wish to continue releasing emissions. It is well known that the supply of extra offsets easily exceeds the shortage of carbon emissions permits within Europe, making it inexpensive for European polluters to avoid making any reductions at all.
The first phase of the ETS ran from 2005 to 2007 and it was demonstrated that because of the leniency of the European Commission, the big carbon emitters had obtained more free emissions permits than their actual emissions, resulting in a carbon market crash. The second phase of the ETS runs from 2008 to 2012 and to prevent another market crash the time limit validity originally placed on the carbon permits has been extended to cover future trading cycles.
It has been estimated that in the second phase of the ETS there will be a shortage of EU emissions permits equivalent to around 560 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. However, over the same time period permits equivalent to around 770 million tonnes are likely to become available from the EC and developing countries. The size of the surplus means there will be no net abatement of European CO2 emissions.
Vietnam: Multiple Deaths in Bridge Collapse
At least 52 workers were killed and 97 others hospitalised, 17 with serious injuries, when the approach ramp to the Can Tho bridge collapsed early on 26th September 2007. The bridge was under construction over the Hua River, a tributary of the Mekong, in the Binh Minh district of Vinh Long Province in the southern Mekong Delta.
At the time the Japanese contractor TNK had some 250 workers on site. The collapsed 90-metre-long section of ramp, located over 30 metres above ground level, had been completed three days before, and fell as its scaffold support was being dismantled. It was suggested that heavy rain over the preceding few days might have affected the foundation.
More than 120 workers were on the ramp when it fell down the river bank, and another 100 workers were underneath. In addition to those crushed, several more fatalities were caused when a gas cylinder on the construction site exploded. A total of 174 people were reported injured, according to the two local hospitals.
Rescue work and the search for dozens of missing workers was hampered by the concrete and steel ruins.
Construction of approach ramps and the cable-braced, 550-metre-long main span began in September 2004. The bridge, intended to replace ferries, was scheduled for completion in late 2008. When finished, the six-lane bridge will be 2.7 km long and 24.9 metres wide. Approach roads measuring over 12.6 km will bring the bridge's total length to 15.4 km.
USA: Farm Workers Overcome by Fumigant
On 26th September 2007, some 125 Hispanic farm workers harvesting onions in Mason Valley, western Nevada, were admitted for treatment at a rural medical centre after they were exposed to an agricultural chemical used on an adjacent field. The field had been treated two days earlier with Chloropicrin (CCl3NO2), an agricultural fumigant used for pest and fungus control. The substance was used as a chemical warfare pulmonary agent (a category which includes chlorine and phosgene) during World War I and is highly debilitating if inhaled.
The farmer said that the gaseous decomposition products usually blow away, but a weather inversion trapped cold air in the valley and kept the fumes near the ground. He also claimed that the chemical is used on a regular basis in farming throughout the country.
State representatives from environmental protection, fire, agriculture and occupational safety and health agencies were investigating the incident and reviewing the emergency response.
International: The Cost of Natural Gas Flaring
In August 2007, the World Bank announced the results of a survey commissioned from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to perform a global survey of natural gas flaring based on satellite observations.
The survey spanned the period from 1995 to 2006 and reported that natural gas flaring ranged from 150 to 170 billion cubic metres during each of the 12 years. In the final year of 2006, the amount of natural gas flared was around 170 billion cubic metres (five trillion cubic feet), equal to 5.5% of global production or 27% of annual US consumption. The flared gas, with a potential value of around US $40 billion, generates around 400 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
The usual reason stated for disposal by flaring during oil production and processing is the lack of a nearby natural gas infrastructure or market. The gas is also flared for safety and environmental reasons (methane being a more reactive greenhouse gas than CO2).
The World Bank has created a Global Gas Flaring Reduction partnership with the aim of encouraging a reduction in flaring by such means as injecting natural gas back into reservoirs, using it for onsite power generation, and liquefying it for sea transport to distant markets.
Ireland: Guidelines for Directors
On 26th September 2007, the Republic of Ireland Health and Safety Authority (HSA) announced that it is shortly to publish guidelines spelling out the responsibilities of directors and senior managers under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. Company directors have a duty to appoint competent personnel to perform health and safety functions, but board members and senior managers need competence to discharge their legal responsibilities. They have a strategic responsibility to ensure that their companies comply with health and safety law, and should ensure their companies create a positive safety culture.
The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 provides that where a company is guilty of breaching health and safety laws, and that breach is due to the connivance or neglect of a director or senior manager, that senior manager may be charged with an offence. A director or senior manager found guilty of an offence could face a fine of up to €3 million and/or two years in jail.
Thailand: Work-Related Injuries in the Thai Workforce
A recent paper published in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health by Phayong Thepaksorn, et al, “Occupational Accidents and Injuries in Thailand”( IJOEH online ), describes the results of a population-based study designed to characterise work-related injuries in the Thai workforce over four years, as reported to the Bureau of Epidemiology in the Ministry of Public Health.
In 2003, the total workforce in formal and informal sectors in Thailand was estimated to be 35.7 million people (56% of the total population). The largest employment sector is agriculture (47%), followed by industrial services (21%) and manufacturing (18%).
The fatal accident rate was 2.8% of all reported injuries. Workers under the age of 15 years accounted for 465 injuries and several fatalities. The largest proportion of workplace accidents (61.6%) were described as being due to “mechanical forces”, followed by “falls” (17.9%). The mechanical forces category covers electrical current (27.1% of cases) and transport accidents (20.2%).
Most of the work-related injuries occurred to manual workers on construction sites (37.0%) or farm sites (18.9%). The relative lack of reported injuries at manufacturing sites suggests they are being under-detected.
Occupational accidents and injuries comprised 6.8% of reported injuries among the general population in Thailand, which is lower than has been published in previous studies on developing countries, e.g. Nicaragua, 18.6%; Ghana, 18.5% in urban areas and 45.0% in rural areas. Although the lower percentage found is likely to represent incomplete detection of cases, the percentage of reported injury fatalities was similar to figures from elsewhere, e.g. Latin America and the Caribbean, 3.2%; China, 2.8%; and Asia, 2.7%.
Yemen: Soldiers Lost in Volcanic Eruption
Jazirah al-Tair (Bird Island) is a small volcanic island in the Red Sea, about halfway between Yemen and Eritrea. It has no settled population due to the absence of a fresh water supply, but Yemen maintains a small military base there. Following a series of earthquakes, the volcano erupted on 30th September 2007, throwing lava and ash hundreds of metres into the air. Subsequently the western part of the island, including the location of the military base, collapsed into the sea. About 50 Yemeni soldiers were evacuated from the island before the eruption, but afterwards seven bodies were recovered, along with one survivor.
Yemeni authorities requested help from a nearby NATO naval force and the nearest ship, the Canadian navy frigate “HMCS Toronto”, was reported to be aiding the Yemeni coastguard.
Oil tanker traffic through the southern entrance to the Red Sea was unaffected by the eruption.
International: Autoimmune Disease and Occupational Exposure
Autoimmune diseases, in which the immune system attacks the body's own tissues, affect more than eight million Americans, and several categories of occupational exposure have been linked to systemic autoimmune diseases. A new study by L. S. Gold, et al, “Systemic autoimmune disease mortality and occupational exposures”, published in the October 2007 issue of the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism, examines possible associations between occupation and the risk of dying from systemic autoimmune diseases. The research involved an analysis of death certificate data from 26 American states from 1984 to 1998, and revealed that occupational exposures in farming and industry may be linked to higher death rates from these diseases. The type of substances involved in occupational exposure include asbestos, solvents, benzene and pesticides.
Farming was associated with death from any systemic autoimmune disease, and increased risk was also seen with occupational exposure to animals and pesticides. Several industrial occupations were associated with death from any systemic autoimmune disease, including mining machine operators; miscellaneous textile machine operators; and hand painting, coating, and decorating occupations. These occupations were also significantly associated with death from specific autoimmune diseases. Certain occupations entailing exposure to the public, such as nurses and teachers, were associated with systemic autoimmune disease-related death, whereas others such as waiters and waitresses were not. The authors suggest that the higher risk associated with jobs involving public contact may be due to exposure to multiple infectious agents leading to an autoimmune response.
International: Arctic Sea Ice Retreat
At a recent conference held at the International Arctic Research Center in the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, evidence was presented to demonstrate that the Arctic ice cap shrank so much this summer that for the first time in recorded history the fabled Northwest Passage above Canada and the Northern Sea Route above Russia became passable to shipping. Satellite imagery has shown that one million square miles of open water were exposed in the Arctic this year.
The extreme Arctic change was as much a result of ice moving as melting. A study by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, published in October in Geophysical Research Letters, used satellites and buoys to reveal that since the year 2000 winds have pushed vast amounts of thick old ice out of the Arctic basin past Greenland. The thin floes that formed on the resulting open water melted quicker or could be shuffled together by winds and similarly expelled.
The pace of change has far exceeded what had been estimated by almost all the simulations used to predict how the Arctic will respond to rising concentrations of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.
Credence has been given to the idea that human activity has tipped the balance to an essentially irreversible more watery state. A researcher at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, projects a blue Arctic Ocean in summers by 2013.
Although the geography and dynamics differ at the two poles, Arctic waters may now be behaving more like those around Antarctica, where a broad fringe of sea ice builds each austral winter and nearly disappears in the summer.
International: IPCC Fourth Report on Global Climate Change Assessment
The AR4 Synthesis Report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is due to be published in mid-November 2007 and will contain the core findings of the three previous IPCC volumes integrated into a single authoritative policy-relevant document.
The IPCC homepage is at:
USA: Confined Space Fatalities at Hydroelectric Plant
On 2nd October 2007, a crew of nine contract maintenance workers were trapped by fire whilst working more than 300 metres underground inside a 1.2-metre-diameter pipe at the Xcel Energy Company hydroelectric plant in Georgetown, Colorado, located approximately 70 kilometres west of Denver.
Five workers died and three others were injured when their work equipment ignited a fire during an operation to recoat the inside of the pipe with corrosion-resistant epoxy paint. The inclined penstock pipe is 700 metres long and connects a water reservoir above with electricity-generating turbines below.
The men were able to raise an alarm by radio, but reports implied that they did not have appropriate breathing apparatus or other safety equipment. A mine rescue team had difficulty reaching the incident site.
The US Chemical Safety Board announced that it would investigate the circumstances and causes of the incident.
South Africa: Serious Mining Disaster Averted
On 3rd October 2007, a total of 3,200 workers were trapped around 2,200 metres underground at the Harmony Gold Elandsrand mine near Carletonville, about 110 km west of Johannesburg. The incident was caused by a pipe which fell into the main lift shaft and cut off the power supply used to hoist the gold miners out of the mine.
Within 24 hours over 2,000 men had been rescued and brought to the surface via an auxiliary mine shaft. Those still in the mine had good ventilation and access to water and medical supplies. A team of paramedics was sent down immediately after the first workers were brought to the surface.
Harmony is the world's fifth largest gold producer. During her visit to the mine on the following day the South African Minerals and Energy Minister said that health and safety legislation would be "tightened up" to try to prevent mining accidents. The South African Mine Health and Safety Council reported in September that 199 mine workers died in accidents, mostly rock falls, in the year 2006.
Kenya: Public Health at Risk from Dandora Waste Dump
A commissioned study published on 5th October 2007 by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) based in Nairobi reports that the Dandora open waste site, located near slums in east Nairobi, is receiving around 2,000 tonnes of municipal rubbish every day. Waste dumping is unrestricted and unmanaged. The site is scavenged by both wildlife and people, who earn their living by recycling materials.
The study found that half of 328 children working on the tip had concentrations of lead in their blood exceeding the internationally accepted level. They also suffered from respiratory diseases, including chronic bronchitis and asthma. Anaemia and skin infections had become endemic in local children.
Half the soil samples taken from the site contained lead levels almost ten times higher than unpolluted samples. Waste and effluent from Dandora seeps into the Nairobi River, polluting water used by locals residents and by farmers further downstream. The dispensary of a school nearby has treated more than 27,000 people in the last three years for respiratory problems.
UNEP pointed out that although the Dandora site poses special challenges for the city of Nairobi and Kenya as a nation, it is also a mirror to the condition of rubbish sites across many parts of Africa and other urban centres of the developing world. Urgent action is needed to reduce the health and environment hazards so that children and adults can go about their daily lives without fear of being poisoned and without damage to nearby river systems.
Middle East: The Hazards of Counterfeit Formwork
Constructional development on the scale taking place in the Middle East has inevitably attracted the attention of forgers, counterfeiters and suppliers of substandard equipment. Concern has been expressed over the supply of substandard reproductions in the formwork sector, where low grade copies resembling those made to European standards are easy to manufacture, and contractors may be attracted by the lower costs of such pirate materials. Formwork is of its nature temporary and at present covered by minimal legislation.
Modern clamping systems have developed over time and formwork systems have reached a level of intricacy and complexity which cannot be copied simply by dismantling and reproducing components. The manner and techniques in which formwork should be used are part of the product package, but not so with pirate copies. Although copied systems have been used successfully on some low-rise developments, they are unsuited to large-scale or high-rise sites. Another difficulty is that substandard systems cannot be used by unskilled labour. The use of fake Chinese formwork on a fast-track, large-scale development presents a health and safety risk to workers and means a building of doubtful quality for the client.
International: Desertification as a Global Problem
Desertification is a consequence of human activity. It is a large-scale problem of environmental management and sustainable development. It is caused by such poor land management practices as over-cropping, over-grazing, improper irrigation and deforestation. Often such practices stem from the socioeconomic conditions in which people live, but can be prevented. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), around 1.2 billion people are at risk from man-made desertification, and degraded dry lands have now expanded to cover almost a third of the global land surface area.
The UN Convention to Combat Desertification points out that the Sumerian and Babylonian empires were among several historic civilisations thought to have declined more rapidly after their agricultural output fell because of prolonged desiccation and water scarcity. Although deserts shrink and expand under the influence of natural agencies, the process of desertification is distinct, as the degradation is caused by loss of soil productivity and vegetation cover due to agricultural development or misguided interference with water resources, leading to drought or flood.
The desertification process was first brought to world attention in the 1960s when around 250,000 people and millions of domestic animals died over a six-year period of severe drought in the west African sub-Saharan Sahel region, including Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad.
UNEP states that the rate of desertification is accelerating, with Africa the worst affected continent. Two-thirds of the African land surface is either desert or arid drylands. The interior of the United States is a dust bowl, with almost a third of land affected by desertification. In Latin America and the Caribbean around 25% of land is so affected, and in Spain around 20%.
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