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GS Paper 3: Disaster and Disaster Management, Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, Planning, Employment, Infrastructure GS Paper 2 : Government Policies and Interventions |
Why in the news?
A blast at a pharma company’s plant in a SEZ in Andhra Pradesh has claimed the lives of seventeen workers & many have been seriously injured.
What are industrial disasters?
The 1948 Factories Act defines an industrial accident as any incident in which a worker dies or sustains significant physical injuries that prevent them from returning to work for 48 hours.
Industrial catastrophes are the devastating events that follow industrial mistakes. They might result in harm to property, deterioration of the environment, and harm or death to people and animals.
Disasters resulting from chemical, mechanical, electrical, civil, or other processes are referred to as industrial disasters. Failure in an industrial plant brought on by an accident, carelessness, or incompetence can affect the environment, spread to locations inside and beyond the plant, and result in property and human casualties.
Chemical Disasters:
Industrial chemicals form the backbone of the Industrial chemical system. These chemicals contribute to around 7% of India’s GDP.
Since chemicals represent the foundation of contemporary industrial systems, there are serious issues with disaster management in the public, commercial, and governmental domains.
The industrial plant, its employees, the surrounding settlement residents, and other parties are most vulnerable to chemical mishaps.
The following three factors could be the main causes of the chemical disasters:
Errors made by humans
Technical mishaps
Errors in management
Why do industrial catastrophes happen?
Chemical accidents can be caused by a variety of factors, some of which are partly preventable. The enforcement of laws against Chemical Disaster Risk has somewhat reduced India’s susceptibility to these kinds of calamities.
The causes can be divided into three main categories:
unsafe acts, unsafe conditions, and other acts.
They fall into one of two groups:
Technical causes include the use of defective equipment, supplies, or tools; inadequate ventilation and illumination; storage without enough safety measures; etc., which might result in these kinds of incidents.
Conditions of work: Psychological issues like boredom at work, tiredness, working overtime, frustration, etc., may be the cause of these incidents. Notably, the bulk of accidents—roughly one-third—occur in the industries with the highest levels of risk.
Unsafe acts: These mishaps may be caused by certain employee behaviours, which might stem from a range of issues like a bad attitude, physical restrictions, or a lack of training or experience.
Hazardous high-speed operation
Not donning protective gear or other safety devices
Conflicts, mistreatment, distractions, etc.
The existence of dust, pollution, an unclean environment, and weather conditions like heat and humidity are other culprits.
Industrial Disasters so far :
According to NDMA, almost 130 chemical disasters have taken place in India in one decade and more than 300 people have lost their lives.
- The Bhopal Gas Tragedy: In 1984, a gas leak at the Union Carbide India Ltd. pesticide facility is believed to have been the largest industrial accident in history.
Similar to the Vizag breach, this one occurred early in the morning and affected almost five lakh people.
Over 3,700 individuals are said to have died as a result of the accident, and numerous others were injured or became permanently handicapped.
It was discovered that methyl isocyanate is a dangerous chemical. Among additional effects of the gas were cerebral oedema, liver damage, renal damage, and lung damage. Following the incident, the region had a 200% increase in newborn fatalities and a 300% jump in stillbirth rates. - The Chasnala Mining Accident:
The deadliest mining catastrophe in India’s history occurred at a coal mine in Jharkhand in 1975 and was called the Chasnala mining tragedy.
An explosion resulted from defective equipment that ignited a pocket of methane gas.
The explosion caused the mine to collapse, letting millions of gallons of water from a neighbouring reservoir spill in.
Approximately 700 people perished as a result of the explosion, mine collapse, or reservoir flooding. - Jaipur Oil Depot Fire: This industrial tragedy occurred in 2009 at the Indian Oil Company’s oil depot in Rajasthan.
It resulted in more injuries and 12 fatalities. 500,000 people had to be evacuated from the area over the course of the week that it took to put out the fire.
The firefighters lacked the equipment necessary to put out the fires, and the administration lacked a disaster management plan. - Korba Chimney Collapse: In 2009, a chimney belonging to a thermal facility in Chhattisgarh that was contracted out to BALCO collapsed, killing forty-five construction workers. Torrential rainfall and other adverse weather conditions hindered the rescue efforts.
The causes were determined to be inadequate materials used, technical design problems, improper water curing, and incompetent supervisors. - Mayapuri Radiological Incident: In 2010, workers at a scrapyard in Mayapuri, Delhi, dismantled an abandoned research irradiator without realizing it was radioactive.
Radiation detectors and other necessary equipment for safe operation were absent from the scrapyard. - Bombay Docks Explosion: In 1944, a cargo of weaponry exploded in Victoria Port in Mumbai, killing over 800 people.
When the initial fire on the cargo proved to be unmanageable, the crew was ordered to evacuate the ship.
After the explosions that destroyed neighbouring boats, many navy battleships, and many adjoining economically developed neighbourhoods, there was a deluge of blazing debris that ignited flames in the slums nearby.
The nation’s numerous chemical disaster management regulations are as follows:
According to the National Disaster Management Authority’s website, 301 districts, 25 states, and three centrally controlled territories make up the roughly 1,861 significant accident risk, Major Accident Hazard (MAH) units in all country zones. Furthermore, hundreds of hazardous factories that register below MAH norms and unorganized sectors that handle a variety of toxic products provide serious and intricate catastrophic threats.
Act on Explosives, 1884
The 1934 Petroleum Act
1948 Factories Act
Act on Insecticides, 1968
Bhopal Gas Leak (claims) Act, 1985
Hazardous Waste (Management Handling and Transboundary Movement Rules), 1989
Environment Protection Act,1986
Motor Vehicles Act,1988
Disaster Management Act, 1955
The Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991
The National Environment Appellate Authority, 1997
The National Green Tribunal, 2010
Guidelines Issued by NDMA on Chemical/Industrial Disaster :
Specialized guidelines for handling chemical disasters have been published by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). These suggestions are meant to assist departments, ministries, and state authorities in developing thorough disaster management plans.
These suggestions provide a proactive, multidisciplinary, multi-sectoral, and collaborative approach to different phases of disaster readiness and response.
- Improving technical assistance services and fortifying the existing regulatory structure to align with the goals and policies of the country.
- Establishing laws that are neutral toward technology and supportive.
- National codes and practices consistency; laws guiding land use policy (buffer zone surrounding the chemical industry)
- Finding and selecting professional organisations is emphasised, along with their accreditation and continuous safety assessments.
- Commissioning and decommissioning planning for the chemical sector that ensures both on-site and off-site preparedness.
- Regular emergency plan drill testing
- Techniques for Managing Chemical Emergencies in Hospitals during Crisis.
- Concepts of a mobile team and hospital
- Documentation and analysis of post-disaster public health issues, medical rehabilitation, and adverse environmental effects.
In summary:
The costs to the afflicted people of a chemical disaster are unimaginable, and the impacts it has on successive generations of communities are nearly irreversible. Robust legislative safeguards and scientific infrastructure will accomplish the goal of protecting Indian companies from unpredictability.
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