MAN-MADE DISASTER

Nuclear dis­as­ter

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In both the cas­es, split­ting of a big nucle­us of an atom (nuclear fis­sion) and join­ing of a small­er nuclei into a big­ger nucle­us (nuclear fusion) a large amount of ener­gy is released. Nuclear weapons are, in fact, a curse for human beings. The world has already expe­ri­enced the dis­as­ter caused by nuclear bombs dropped in Hiroshi­ma and Nagasa­ki dur­ing the Sec­ond World War. How­ev­er, it is just one aspect of nuclear devel­op­ment. We can also use nuclear ener­gy for con­struc­tive pur­pos­es. Nuclear ener­gy has been devel­oped by many coun­tries of the world. It can be used both for peace­ful as well as destruc­tive pur­pos­es. It can be used for the pro­duc­tion of elec­tric­i­ty or for mak­ing atom bombs.

Our world has already suf­fered from the dis­as­ter caused by atom bombs. On 6th August 1945, an atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshi­ma in Japan which dev­as­tat­ed the entire town killing 66,000 peo­ple and injur­ing near­ly 60,000. Anoth­er atom bomb was dropped on Nagasa­ki which killed near­ly 39,000 people

and injured more than 25,000. Nuclear weapons are far more destruc­tive than oth­er weapons.

Since nuclear weapons con­tain radioac­tive ele­ments, they radi­ate ion­iz­ing nuclear radi­a­tions. The nuclear radi­a­tions have high ener­gy due to which they con­vert the mol­e­cules of liv­ing cells into charged par­ti­cles called ions. These ions are chem­i­cal­ly very reac­tive and dis­rupt cell mem­branes, reduce effec­tive­ness of enzymes or even dam­age genes and chro­mo­somes, there­by caus­ing seri­ous ill­ness like leukaemia and can­cer which can­not be cured easily.

Nuclear radi­a­tions keep on show­ing their impact for a long peri­od of time.

What should be done to save the human­i­ty from nuclear radiations?

* Nuclear pow­er plants should be built away from the towns or cities.

 * Nuclear pow­er plants should not be built in earth­quake-prone areas.

 * Waste mate­ri­als of the plants should be dis­posed off properly.

*In case of emis­sion of nuclear radi­a­tion peo­ple should stay inside their houses.

Chem­i­cal Disaster

A large num­ber of chem­i­cals are used in man­u­fac­tur­ing of insec­ti­cides, drugs, paints, leather. etc. Its mis­use can cause much destruc­tion. Chem­i­cal weapons devel­oped by many coun­tries are also pos­ing a great threat to human beings, Chem­i­cal dis­as­ters are also caused by indus­tri­al accidents..

We can­not for­get the Bhopal Gas Tragedy which killed many peo­ple and left many more per­ma­nent­ly dis­abled. Acci­den­tal leak­age of the dead­ly poi­so­nous gas called Methyl Iso Cyanate (MIC) occurred in the Union Car­bide Fac­to­ry at Bhopal in Decem­ber 1984. The pol­lu­tion of air by the leak­age of high­ly tox­ic (high­ly poi­so­nous) MIC gas killed thou­sands of men and ani­mals liv­ing in the vicin­i­ty of the Union Car­bide Plant. It also caused seri­ous dam­age to the health of many more by dis­rupt­ing their nor­mal body func­tions and caus­ing genet­ic changes, which can be car­ried to the future gen­er­a­tion. The Bhopal Gas Tragedy is per­haps the most dev­as­tat­ing inci­dent of high­ly tox­ic chem­i­cal pol­lu­tion in the world so far. The biggest prob­lem in the post-acci­dent man­age­ment of such grave chem­i­cal pol­lu­tion is that med­ical experts and health sci­en­tists do not know exact­ly what dam­age to the body func­tions and genet­ic fac­tors have tak­en place, which can be trans­ferred to the com­ing gen­er­a­tions. This type of chem­i­cal pol­lu­tion is very dan­ger­ous because it pro­duces unde­sir­able hered­i­tary changes in men and ani­mals which can lead to the mal­for­ma­tion of future generations.

Smog

Mix­ture of smoke and fog is called smog. Use of chem­i­cals in fac­to­ries and vehi­cles also releas­es var­i­ous harm­ful gas­es. These harm­ful gas­es are also becom­ing a prob­lem for devel­oped as well as under­de­vel­oped nations Between Decem­ber 5 and 9, 1952, a thick cloud of smog blan­ket­ed Lon­don and caused the death of about four thou­sand people.

USA has been fac­ing great dif­fi­cul­ty caused by smog. The smog in the Unit­ed States results from a chem­i­cal reac­tion that occurs when cer­tain pol­lut­ing gas­es mix with sun­light. This type of warm pho­to­chem­i­cal smog, which is more dan­ger­ous. Smog is unhealthy. It makes the eyes watery and irri­ta­ble. Breath­ing smog caus­es cough­ing, painful breath­ing and short­ness of breath. It also reduces the amount of oxy­gen in a per­son­’s blood. Most of the met­ro­pol­i­tan cities of India are also fac­ing the prob­lem of smog and air pol­lu­tion. Many road acci­dents are also caused by smog.

How to cope with chem­i­cal dis­as­ters and air pollution?

• The indus­tries which use haz­ardous chem­i­cals or pro­duce such chem­i­cals should be set away from towns or cities.

• The gov­ern­ment should make reg­u­lar inspec­tion to check out var­i­ous mea­sures tak­en by the fac­to­ry own­ers to avoid chem­i­cal disaster.

• The pol­lu­tion caused by vehi­cles and fos­sil fuels should be checked.

Bio­log­i­cal Disaster

Bio­log­i­cal dis­as­ters are per­haps the most dev­as­tat­ing dis­as­ters. Bio­log­i­cal dis­as­ter spreads through the organ­ism that is devel­oped in the rform of bac­te­ria or germs. The bac­te­ria or virus or germs can be used to kill inno­cent human beings. A sin­gle sui­ci­dal ter­ror­ist spray­ing a few drops of small­pox virus or a liq­uid solu­tion of Ebo­la or even plague in a crowd­ed city or into the ven­ti­la­tion sys­tem of a large build­ing can cause a bio­log­i­cal disaster.

The World Health Orga­ni­za­tion warned West­ern gov­ern­ments in Octo­ber 2001 to be alert and pre­pared for pos­si­ble attacks by bio­log­i­cal or chem­i­cal weapons. The warn­ing relat­ed to anthrax or bot­u­lism-the tox­in that comes from a bac­teri­um and caus­es paral­y­sis or small­pox. A study by doc­tors at the John Hop­kins School of Pub­lic Health in the USA, pub­lished in 2000 sug­gest­ed that at least 10 nations had a capac­i­ty of pro­duc­ing bio­log­i­cal weapons.

In Octo­ber 2001, there was a dan­ger of anthrax germs being used as a bio­log­i­cal weapon. Of the five peo­ple con­firmed to have con­tract­ed inhala­tion anthrax, four died.

Mea­sures to check bio­log­i­cal disaster

• The inter­na­tion­al legal pro­hi­bi­tion against bio­log­i­cal war­fare should be strengthened.

• Cities or towns should have enough hos­pi­tals, doc­tors, police forces and civ­il defence units to cope with such attacks.

• Coun­tries should have reli­able intel­li­gence, effec­tive and effi­cient export and import con­trol mech­a­nism, and prop­er vac­ci­na­tion system.