Technological disasters--towards a preventive strategy: a review

Our plain-English summary of Technological disasters--towards a preventive strategy: a review, by N. Andersson (Tropical Doctor, 1991).

The study

• Author: N. Andersson
• Journal: Tropical Doctor
• Published: 1991;21 Suppl 1:70-81
• Type of article: Review
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Technological or man-made disasters are a growth industry. Widely publicized industrial disasters like those in Bhopal and Chernobyl are only the tip of the iceberg of human and environmental risk from technological development. Other less well publicized disasters, including the contamination of food, water and air, have affected millions of people. The 'slow' technological disasters - like air pollution, pesticides, radiation, lead, asbestos and other industrial hazards - also compromise human intellectual, behavioural and physical development. Although it can be argued that there are hazards attached to virtually every industrial activity and that it is almost impossible to remove completely the risk of technological disasters, it is possible to reduce this risk by decentralizing or deconcentrating knowledge on technological processes. Global recommendations may provide a framework for priority action, but they are obviously not applicable everywhere with the same intensity. A measurement-based approach is described that is beginning to have an effect in several developing countries.

In plain English

This 1991 article by a single author was a narrative review, not a study with its own data. It surveyed man-made 'technological' disasters worldwide. These included sudden events such as Bhopal, Chernobyl and Seveso, contamination of food, water and air, and 'slow' disasters such as Minamata mercury poisoning, lead, pesticides, air pollution and asbestos. In a short asbestos section, the author stated that asbestos exposure produces cancers and chronic respiratory disability, and that asbestos manufacturing had moved from the USA to Mexico, Brazil, Taiwan and South Korea. The author wrote that over 200 000 people in South Africa's Northern Cape live near asbestos mines, and that one doctor in Prieska recorded some 900 mesothelioma cases. The author also wrote that blue asbestos mines had reopened, and that people in Namibian townships may be at risk from water supplied through asbestos pipes. These are the author's statements, not new measurements. The author concluded that risks can be reduced by spreading knowledge of technological processes, training local people in epidemiology and having communities monitor health effects.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: narrative review (no original data collected)
• Who was studied: No study population. The review discussed disasters worldwide. Its asbestos section concerned people living near asbestos mines and dumps in South Africa (Northern Cape, Prieska, the so-called 'Homelands') and people in Namibian townships drinking water from asbestos pipes.
• Exposure: Many technological hazards (chemical leaks, nuclear radiation, contaminated food and water, fires, mercury, lead, pesticides, air pollution, asbestos). For asbestos: waste from asbestos mining, asbestos dumps, contaminated buildings, blue asbestos mines, and water supplied through asbestos pipes.
• Main results:
  • The author stated that exposure to asbestos produces cancers and chronic respiratory disability (a statement drawing on other literature, not this article's data).
  • The author stated that, as harmful effects of asbestos became known in the USA, many asbestos-manufacturing industries moved to Mexico, Brazil, Taiwan and South Korea.
  • The author wrote that a single doctor in the small town of Prieska, South Africa, recorded some 900 cases of mesothelioma.
  • The author wrote that one in three people in the area of asbestos dumps in the so-called 'Homelands' already have permanent damage from asbestos, without having worked in the industry.
  • The author wrote that at least 500 000 children in South Africa are at environmental risk from asbestos mines and dumps.
  • The author reported that blue asbestos mines had recently been reopened in South Africa.
  • The author wrote that in Namibia tens of thousands of people may be at risk from drinking water supplied through B-grade asbestos pipes in Katatura and other townships.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the risk of technological disasters cannot be removed entirely but can be reduced. The author favored local epidemiological training and community-based monitoring, such as sentinel site surveillance, and argued that people will act on local hazards if they see them as locally relevant and understand what can be done.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author described the list of acute disasters as incomplete.
  • The author noted that most of the studies on indoor pollutants that the review cited were done in rich countries.

Related studies

• Community-level social support responses in a slow-motion technological disaster: the case of Libby, Montana — R.J. Cline, H. Orom, et al. (2010)
• Toxicologic agents of concern for search-and-rescue dogs responding to urban disasters — L.A. Murphy, S.M. Gwaltney-Brant, et al. (2003)
• Environmental aftermath — L. Claudio (2001)
• Social Support Functions During a Slowly-Evolving Environmental Disaster: The Case of Amphibole Asbestos Exposure in Libby, Montana — R.J. Cline, H. Orom, et al. (2015)
• Optimal management program for asbestos containing building materials to be available in the event of a disaster — Y.C. Kim, W.H. Hong (2017)
• Microwave-driven asbestos treatment and its scale-up for use after natural disasters — S. Horikoshi, T. Sumi, et al. (2014)

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