▲▲▲▲▲▲▲Ten major environmental pollution incidents in the world - - 1. Maas Valley Smog Incident 1930 Maas Valley Industrial Area in Belgium.
In this narrow river valley there are oil refineries, metal plants, glass factories and many other factories.
In the few days from December 1st to 5th, a strong temperature inversion layer appeared over the valley, which prevented the smoke emitted from the 13 large chimneys from diffusing. A large amount of harmful gases accumulated in the near-earth atmosphere, causing serious harm to the human body.
More than 60 people died within a week, with heart and lung disease patients suffering the highest death rates, and many livestock died.
This was the earliest recorded public nuisance incident this century.
2. Los Angeles Photochemical Smog Incident In the summer of 1943, Los Angeles City on the West Coast of the United States.
The city's 2.5 million cars burn 1,100 tons of gasoline every day.
The hydrocarbons produced after burning gasoline cause chemical reactions under the ultraviolet rays of the sun, forming light blue smoke, causing most citizens in the city to suffer from red eyes and headaches.
Later people called this pollution photochemical smog.
Photochemical smog incidents occurred twice in Los Angeles in 1955 and 1970. In the former, more than 400 people died of facial poisoning and respiratory failure, and in the latter, three-quarters of the city's population became ill.
3. Donora Smog Incident 1948 Donora, Pennsylvania, USA, has many large iron smelting plants, zinc smelting plants and sulfuric acid plants.
In the early morning of October 26, 1948, heavy fog filled the air. Controlled by anticyclones and temperature inversions, the harmful gases emitted by the factory could not spread out. 6,000 of the 14,000 people in the city suffered from eye pain, sore throat, headache, chest tightness, vomiting, and diarrhea.
17 people died.
4. London smog incident in 1952. Since 1952, 12 major smog incidents have occurred in London. The culprits were dust and sulfur dioxide emitted by coal burning.
The smog forced all planes to ground their flights, cars drove with lights on during the day, and pedestrians found it difficult to walk. Smog incidents caused a surge in respiratory disease patients.
In December 1952, more than 4,000 people died within five days, and more than 8,000 people died within two months.
5. Minamata Disease Incident 1953-1956 Wastewater discharged by a nitrogen fertilizer company in Minamata Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan contained mercury. After the wastewater was discharged into the bay, it underwent certain biological transformations to form methylmercury.
These mercury accumulate in seawater, sediment and fish, and then pass through the food chain to poison people.
At that time, the first person to become ill was a cat that loved to eat fish.
The poisoned cats went crazy and convulsed, and jumped into the sea to commit suicide.
Within a few years, not even a trace of cats was seen in the Minamata area.
In 1956, patients with symptoms similar to cats appeared.
Because the cause of the disease was unclear at first, it was named after a local place.
In 1991, the Japanese Environment Agency announced that there were still 2,248 poisoning patients, of whom 1,004 died.
6. Bone pain incident 1955 1972 Cadmium is an element that the human body does not need.
Some lead-zinc mines in Toyama Prefecture, Japan, discharge wastewater during mining and smelting, and the wastewater accumulates the heavy metal "cadmium" in rivers.
People who drink such river water for a long time and eat rice produced from river water containing cadmium will suffer from "bone pain".
The patient suffered severe bone deformity, severe pain, shortened body length, and brittle bones that could easily break.
7. Japan’s rice bran oil incident: In 1968, hundreds of thousands of chickens died after eating toxic feed.
People did not delve into the source of the poison, and more than 13,000 people were harmed in the Kitakyushu area.
These chickens and people suffered after eating rice bran oil that contained PCBs.
The patient began to have swollen eyelids, sweaty palms, and red pimples all over his body. Then his liver function declined, his muscles ached all over his body, and he continued to cough.
This incident plunged the entire western Japan into panic.
9. Chernobyl Nuclear Leak Incident On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant located on the outskirts of Kiev, Ukraine. Due to poor management and operational errors, reactor No. 4 exploded and caught fire, causing a large amount of radioactive material to leak.
Radioactive material leaking from nuclear power plants has been detected in Western European countries and most parts of the world.
31 people died and 237 suffered serious radioactive injuries.
And within 20 years, another 30,000 people may suffer from cancer.
All primary and secondary school students in Kiev City and Kiev Oblast were evacuated to the seaside. All the crops around the nuclear power plant were buried, resulting in a loss of 20 million tons of grain. All trees within 7 kilometers of the power plant died. For half a century, farming within 10 kilometers was no longer possible.
Grazing, milk cannot be produced within 100 kilometers... This nuclear pollution fallout has also brought serious disasters to neighboring countries.
This is the most serious nuclear pollution in the world.
10. Incident of highly toxic substances contaminating the Rhine River. On November 1, 1986, a fire broke out in the warehouse of Sandoz Chemical Factory in Basel, Switzerland. Nearly 30 tons of highly toxic sulfide, phosphide and chemical products containing mercury were mixed with fire extinguishing agents and water.
into the Rhine River.
Within 150 kilometers downstream, more than 600,000 fish were poisoned to death. Within 500 kilometers, the well water on both sides of the river bank was not drinkable. The water plants near the river were closed and the breweries stopped production.
Toxic substances deposited on the river bottom will make the Rhine "dead" for 20 years.