The Italian Incident
| It was in Seveso, Italy where one of these chemical
plant
accidents led to chemical exposure to residents in the nearby homes
getting
exposed. On July 10, 1976 the Italian company Industrie
Chimiche Meda Societa Anonima had the problem that about half a pound
of dioxin mixed in with other chemicals was released into the
surrounding area. To complicate things even more, the Italian
government waited about two weeks to notify the surrounding
civilians. These residents had been living as if nothing had
happened and were taking no precautions. Local produce is what
almost everyone ate, most of which was contaminated. When
action was taken Roche, the Swiss company that owned the plant,
sent up helicopters to map out were the levels of exposure varied the
most. Zone A was the closest zone to the plant in which a little
more than 700 people lived. Zone B housed around a little less
than 5,000 people. While Zone R contained around 32,000
civilians. In Zone A, the researchers found dioxin at
a rate of 500 parts per billion, 500 times the standard safety
limit set by the Center for Disiease Control . In total about 190
people were
diagnosed with chloracne (85% were children). Some of the
people lived outside of Zone R (which was considered the
boundaries of the exposure). Then the community had to deal with
replacing soil and contaminated buildings. The
government came up a few plans as a compromise. One was
the plan to help pay for the removal and safe disposal of the
contaminated soil. Another was for a registry to be put in
effect on taking note of any birth defects. Another registry
was to count the instances of cancer in the surrounding area.
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