Accident Quiz

ACCIDENTS THAT
HAVE HAPPENED IN
RECENT YEARS
Minamata Disease (1952)
called fetal mercury poisoning
A degenerative neurological disorder caused by poisoning with a

mercury compound found in seafood obtained from waters
contaminated with mercury-containing industrial waste. In 1952, a
chemical plant called Chisson Chemical Company dumped a
massive amount of mercury in Minamata Harbor, Japan. 370 people
of Minamata Harbor were affected. Of these 370 people, 68 died,
including 22 unborn children. Along with the sickness of humans
came the sickness of many marine lives, with the ingestion of the
marine life in the contaminated bay the sickness spread to bird’s
humans and even cats.
Meltdown at Three Mile
Island (1979)
America's worst nuclear accident
At 4:00 AM on March 28, 1979, a reactor at the Three Mile Island

nuclear power facility near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania suddenly
overheated, releasing radioactive gases. During the ensuing tension-
packed week, scientists scrambled to prevent the nightmare of a
meltdown, officials rushed in to calm public fears, and thousands of
residents fled to emergency shelters. Even though it led to no deaths
or injuries to plant workers or members of the nearby community, it
brought about sweeping changes involving emergency response
planning, reactor operator training, human factors engineering,
radiation protection, and many other areas of nuclear power plant
operations. The accident was caused by a combination of personnel
The Bhopal Disaster (1984)
One of the world’s worst industrial accidents
In the early morning of December 3, 1984 a Union Carbide pesticide

producing plant leaked a highly toxic cloud of methyl isocyanate
onto the densely populated region of Bhopal, central India. Of the
800,000 people living in Bhopal at the time, 2,000 died immediately,
300,000 were injured and as many as 8,000 have died since. The
leak was caused by a series of mechanical and human errors. A
portion of the safety equipment at the plant had been non-
operational for four months and the rest failed. When the plant
finally sounded an alarm--an hour after the toxic cloud had escaped-
much of the harm had already been done. (12/3/84)
The Space Shuttle
Challenger Disaster (1986)
"NASA managers were anxious to launch the Challenger for

several reasons, including economic considerations, political
pressures, and scheduling backlogs.... The failure of the O-
ring was attributed to several factors, including faulty design of
the solid rocket boosters, insufficient low-temperature testing
of the O-ring material and the joints that the O-ring sealed, and
lack of proper communication between different levels of
NASA management." (1/28/86)
Chernobyl Accident (1986)
“The power station's operators wanted to test the efficiency of its

electricity generators after the supply of steam coming off their
nuclear reactor had been switched off. They knew this was
dangerous, but pressed ahead even when a problem started to
develop in the reactor's core. Left to itself, the Chernobyl reactor
should have shut itself down automatically. But the operators
overrode the safety systems. By the time they realized their
mistakes, they could not insert the control rods into the reactor fast
enough to shut it down. The reactor blew its top. “ (4/26/86)
Piper Alpha Explosion (1988)
the world’s worst oil rig disaster
On 6 July 1988 there was a massive leakage of gas condensate

which was ignited causing an explosion which led to large oil fires.
The heat ruptured the riser of a gas pipeline from another
installation. This produced a further massive explosion and fireball
that engulfed Piper Alpha. All this took just 22 minutes. The scale
of the disaster was enormous. 167 people died, 62 people
survived. (7/6/88)
The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (1989)
The largest oil spill ever to occur in the United States
The damage to the fragile ecosystem was severe. By the early

1990s, the approximate death toll was 35,000 seabirds
(although it has been speculated that this figure only
represents 10-30% of the actual number), 10,000 otters, 16
whales, 147 bald eagles, and thousands of fish and kelp.
Humans were also victims as fishing communities suffered
from the destruction of viable salmon, black cod, and herring
spawning grounds. The potential for damage was further
escalated by the fact that the accident occurred in cold water,
which, as a general matter, allows toxins to survive for at least
a year after the initial shock, thereby affecting the
ecosystem's species for many generations to come.
Tokaimura - Japan Worst
Nuclear Accident (1999)
“The management at JCO, the private firm that runs the

Tokaimura plant, has blamed its workers for ignoring safety
protocols. However, why the company was using a system in
which the creation of a "critical mass" of material was even
possible has yet to be explained. The building in which the
accident occurred was not designed to contain radiation.”
(9/30/99)
Terrorist Attack
(September 11, 2001, USA)
On November 11th 2002, the HANJIN PENNYSLVANIA had a fire break
out, the cause of which is still not certain. However, on a new ship with
the latest fire safety equipment, it is not the sort of occurrence that,
these days, should be fatal. Some containers on board were packed
with fireworks. It resulted in a huge loss for the vessel owner and cargo
interests (possibly as much as US$100,000,000 across both the hull
and the cargo !) .....not to mention the 2 crew members who died.

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ACCIDENTS THAT

A degenerative neurological disorder caused by poisoning with a

At 4:00 AM on March 28, 1979, a reactor at the Three Mile Island

In the early morning of December 3, 1984 a Union Carbide pesticide

"NASA managers were anxious to launch the Challenger for

“The power station's operators wanted to test the efficiency of its

On 6 July 1988 there was a massive leakage of gas condensate

The damage to the fragile ecosystem was severe. By the early

“The management at JCO, the private firm that runs the

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