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61-501: The Seveso disaster was named after Seveso , the community most affected, which had a population of 17,000 in 1976. Other affected neighbouring communities were Meda (19,000), Desio (33,000), Cesano Maderno (34,000) and to a lesser extent Barlassina (6,000) and Bovisio-Masciago (11,000). The industrial plant, located in Meda, was owned by the company Industrie Chimiche Meda Società Azionaria (Meda Chemical Industries S.A. , or ICMESA),

122-463: A French language Swiss television channel, followed the route of the barrels to Saint-Quentin in northern France where they disappeared. A public debate ensued in which numerous theories were put forward when it was found that Mannesmann Italiana had hired two subcontractors to dispose of the toxic waste. On 19 May, the 41 barrels were found in an unused abattoir in Anguilcourt-le-Sart ,

183-428: A billion parts"). Parts-per notations may be expressed in terms of any unit of the same measure. For instance, the expansion coefficient of some brass alloy, α = 18.7 ppm/°C, may be expressed as 18.7 ( μm / m )/°C, or as 18.7 (μ in / in )/°C; the numeric value representing a relative proportion does not change with the adoption of a different unit of length. Similarly, a metering pump that injects

244-516: A condition that Givaudan would not be notified of the disposal site which prompted Givaudan to insist that a notary public certify the disposal. On 9 September, 41 barrels of toxic waste left the ICMESA premises. On 13 December, the notary gave a sworn statement that the barrels had been disposed of in an approved way. However, in February 1983, the programme A bon entendeur on Télévision Suisse Romande ,

305-514: A daily basis. Residents of Zone R were only warned to not eat locally grown foods. An advice center was set up for pregnant women, of whom 26 opted for an abortion (which was legal in special cases) after consultation. Another 460 women continued their pregnancies without problems, their children not showing any sign of malformation. Herwig von Zwehl (Technical Director of ICMESA) and Paolo Paoletti (director of production at ICMESA) were arrested. Two government commissions were established to develop

366-627: A plan for quarantining and decontaminating the area, for which the Italian government allotted 40 billion lire (US$ 47.8 million). This amount was tripled two years later. A 1991 study, fourteen years after the accident, sought to assess the effects to the thousands of persons that had been exposed to dioxin. The most evident adverse health effect ascertained was chloracne (193 cases). Other early effects noted were peripheral neuropathy and liver enzyme induction . The ascertainment of other, possibly severe sequelae of dioxin exposure (e.g., birth defects)

427-418: A public park known as Seveso Oak Forest Park . This area is permanently off-limits to development. There are two artificial hills in the park; today, underneath these hills are the toxic remnants (including destroyed houses, tons of contaminated soil, and animal remains), all protected in a concrete sarcophagus. Investigations into site conditions have confirmed that the sarcophagus life expectancy of 300 years

488-426: A steam temperature reading among their instruments, operators of the reactor were unaware of the presence of this additional heating, and they stopped the batch as they normally would by isolating the steam and turning off the stirrer in the reactor vessel. The abnormally hot upper region of the reactor jacket then heated the adjacent reaction mixture. With the stirrer not running, the heating was highly localised to just

549-409: A subsidiary of Givaudan , which in turn was a subsidiary of Hoffmann-La Roche (Roche Group). The factory building had been built many years earlier and the local population did not perceive it as a potential source of danger. Moreover, although several exposures of populations to dioxins had occurred before, mostly in industrial accidents, they were of a more limited scale. The accident occurred in

610-490: A system epidemiological health monitoring for 220,000 people was launched. They then used trichlorophenol to make a drug to fight the skin infections, which they tested in dogs. In June 1978, the Italian government raised its special loan from 40 to 115 billion lire. By the end of the year, most individual compensation claims had been settled out of court . On 5 February 1980, Paolo Paoletti (the Director of Production at ICMESA)

671-426: A trace chemical into the main process line at the proportional flow rate Q p = 12 ppm, is doing so at a rate that may be expressed in a variety of volumetric units, including 125 μ L / L , 125 μ gal / gal , 125 cm / m , etc. In nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), chemical shift is usually expressed in ppm. It represents the difference of a measured frequency in parts per million from

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732-563: A village in northern France. From there they were transferred to a French military base near Sissonne . The Roche Group (parent firm of Givaudan) took it upon itself to properly dispose of the waste. On 25 November, over nine years after the disaster, the Roche Group issued a public statement that the toxic waste consisting of 42 barrels (one was added earlier that year) had all been incinerated in Switzerland . According to New Scientist , it

793-412: A week passed before a public statement was issued that dioxin had been emitted, and another week passed before an evacuation began. Even then, the government was saddled with the responsibility of determining the boundaries of the evacuation area, and thereafter to organise the evacuation. This constituted a major imposition on the community as well as on government resources. It was soon recognized that

854-525: Is a town and comune in the Province of Monza and Brianza , in the Region of Lombardy . The economy of the town has traditionally been based on the furniture industry. Its name comes from the river of the same name which crosses the comune in a north-south direction. Seveso received the honorary title of city with a presidential decree on 18 June 2003. The town is situated 21 kilometres (13 mi) to

915-543: Is also employed to denote the change, stability, or uncertainty in measurements. For instance, the accuracy of land-survey distance measurements when using a laser rangefinder might be 1 millimeter per kilometer of distance; this could be expressed as " Accuracy  = 1 ppm." Parts-per notations are all dimensionless quantities: in mathematical expressions, the units of measurement always cancel. In fractions like "2 nanometers per meter" (2 n m / m = 2 nano = 2×10 = 2 ppb = 2 × 0.000 000 001 ), so

976-532: Is believed that there was not a single human death directly attributable to the incident. The event came later to be known as the Seveso disaster , which later became the eponym for the European Commission's Seveso directive . Nowadays in the main contaminated area there is a park called "Bosco delle Querce" (Wood of Oaks). The track "Suffocation", in the 1980 album See You Later by Greek composer Vangelis ,

1037-569: Is common to assume that the density of water is 1.00 g/mL. Therefore, it is common to equate 1 kilogram of water with 1 L of water. Consequently, 1 ppm corresponds to 1 mg/L and 1 ppb corresponds to 1 μg/L. Similarly, parts-per notation is used also in physics and engineering to express the value of various proportional phenomena. For instance, a special metal alloy might expand 1.2  micrometers per meter of length for every degree Celsius and this would be expressed as " α = 1.2 ppm/°C". Parts-per notation

1098-437: Is expected, appropriate, and required. Several studies have been completed on the health of the population of surrounding communities. While it has been established that people from Seveso exposed to TCDD are more susceptible to certain rare cancers, when all types of cancers are grouped into one category, no statistically significant increase has yet been reported in any specific cancer category. This indicates that more research

1159-406: Is needed to determine the true long-term health effects on the affected population. Epidemiological monitoring programmes were established as follows (with termination dates): abortions (1982); malformations (1982); tumours (1997); deaths (1997). Health monitoring of workers at ICMESA and on decontamination projects, and chloracne sufferers (1985) The documentary Gambit is about Jörg Sambeth,

1220-514: Is not part of the International System of Units (SI) system and its meaning is ambiguous. Parts-per notation is often used describing dilute solutions in chemistry , for instance, the relative abundance of dissolved minerals or pollutants in water . The quantity "1 ppm" can be used for a mass fraction if a water-borne pollutant is present at one-millionth of a gram per gram of sample solution. When working with aqueous solutions , it

1281-500: Is used, it is better to write the units out, such as kg/kg, mol/mol or m /m , even though they are all dimensionless. The difference is quite significant when dealing with gases, and it is very important to specify which quantity is being used. For example, the conversion factor between a mass fraction of 1 ppb and a mole fraction of 1 ppb is about 4.7 for the greenhouse gas CFC-11 in air (Molar mass of CFC-11 / Mean molar mass of air = 137.368 / 28.97 = 4.74). For volume fraction,

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1342-678: The European Community in 1982 called the Seveso Directive , which imposed much stronger industrial regulations. The Seveso Directive was updated in 1996, 2008 and 2012 and is currently referred to as the Seveso III Directive (or COMAH Regulations in the United Kingdom). Treatment of the soil in the affected areas is now considered complete, since the dioxin levels are now below background. The entire site has been turned into

1403-625: The International Bureau of Weights and Measures (an international standards organization known also by its French -language initials BIPM) recognizes the use of parts-per notation, it is not formally part of the International System of Units (SI). Note that although " percent " (%) is not formally part of the SI, both the BIPM and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) take

1464-402: The chemical reactor vessel . The exhaust steam pressure was normally 12 bar and temperature 190 °C, which resulted in a reaction mixture temperature of 158 °C, very close to its boiling point of 160 °C. Safety testing showed the onset of an exothermic (heat-releasing) side reaction if the reaction mixture temperature reached 230 °C. Crucially, no steam temperature reading

1525-431: The quotients are pure-number coefficients with positive values less than or equal to 1. When parts-per notations, including the percent symbol (%), are used in regular prose (as opposed to mathematical expressions), they are still pure-number dimensionless quantities. However, they generally take the literal "parts per" meaning of a comparative ratio (e.g. "2 ppb" would generally be interpreted as "two parts in

1586-562: The 3rd century BC, when certain areas around Brianza were used as military staging posts for the Roman conquest of Gaul . Towards 780, the monastery at Meda was founded, the jurisdiction of which extended to the territory of Seveso. In 1252 the church of Saint Peter Martyr ( S. Pietro Martire ) was constructed in homage to the Dominican order brother who had been assassinated in Seveso. The Church of

1647-677: The Court of Appeal in Milan found three of the five accused not guilty; the two still facing prosecution appealed to the Supreme Court in Rome. On 23 May 1986, the Supreme Court in Rome confirmed the judgment against the two remaining defendants, even though the prosecuting attorney had called for their acquittal. After the incident, ICMESA initially refused to admit that the dioxin release had occurred. At least

1708-485: The ICMESA plant. By the 2nd of August, all residents in Zone A were evacuated and the area was fenced off, however evacuation only began 15 days after the accident took place. After evacuation, all residents of Zone A were medically examined and laboratory tests were performed, Ultimately, 640 individuals living in the region were affected with chloracne. An estimated 25% of all animals in Zone A died immediately after exposure to

1769-405: The SI to express the values of quantities". Although "ppt" usually means "parts per trillion", it occasionally means "parts per thousand". Unless the meaning of "ppt" is defined explicitly, it has to be determined from the context. Another problem of the parts-per notation is that it may refer to mass fraction , mole fraction or volume fraction . Since it is usually not stated which quantity

1830-658: The Seminary preserves in its crypt the knife which was used to kill him. The town was struck in the 16th century by two episodes of famine and plague . During the 17th century, the town was ruled by several families, of which the Arese family left a number of outstanding monuments. In 1798, Prince Giuseppe II of the Napoleonic Cisalpine Republic ordered the Dominicans to leave the monastery and church of Saint Peter. In

1891-508: The aerosol cloud, and by the end July, 3,300 animals, mostly poultry and rabbits, were found dead. Emergency slaughtering commenced to prevent TCDD from entering the food chain , and by 1978 over 80,000 animals had been culled. The residents of Zone B were not evacuated but were given warnings to refrain from eating locally-grown produce and poultry. The residents of Zone B were given medical examinations and clinical laboratory tests. Pregnant women and children under 12 years old were relocated on

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1952-476: The chart below. Expressions that the BIPM explicitly does not recognize as being suitable for denoting dimensionless quantities with the SI are marked with ! . Note that the notations in the "SI units" column above are for the most part dimensionless quantities ; that is, the units of measurement factor out in expressions like "1 nm/m" (1 n m / m  =1 × 10 ) so the ratios are pure-number coefficients with values less than 1. Because of

2013-465: The chemical plant's Building B. The chemical 2,4,5- trichlorophenol ( 2 ) was being produced there from 1,2,4,5-tetrachlorobenzene ( 1 ) by the nucleophilic aromatic substitution reaction with sodium hydroxide . The 2,4,5-trichlorophenol was intended as an intermediate for hexachlorophene . Reaction temperature was achieved by passing the steam exhaust from the onsite electricity generation turbine through an external heating coil installed on

2074-526: The cumbersome nature of expressing certain dimensionless quantities per SI guidelines, the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) in 1999 proposed the adoption of the special name "uno" (symbol: U) to represent the number 1 in dimensionless quantities. In 2004, a report to the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) stated that the response to the proposal of

2135-405: The disaster, that dioxin is carcinogenic to humans and corroborate its association with cardiovascular - and endocrine -related effects. In 2009, an update including 5 more years (up to 1996) found an increase in "lymphatic and hematopoietic tissue neoplasms" and increased breast cancer . A 2008 study evaluated whether maternal exposure is associated with modified neonatal thyroid function in

2196-404: The factory's very rudimentary safety systems had been designed with little more than simple explosion prevention in mind. Environmental protection had not been considered. Nor had any consideration been given as to setting up any type of warning system or health-protection protocols for the local community. As a result, the local population was caught unaware when the accident happened, and thus

2257-542: The field of occupational safety and the field of permissible exposure limit (e.g. permitted gas exposure limit in air ) may use mass/volume. Unfortunatelly, many academic publications of otherwise excellent level fail to specify their use of the parts-per notation, which irritates some readers, especially those who are not experts in the particular fields in those publications, because parts-per-notation, without specifying what it stands for, can mean anything. SI-compliant units that can be used as alternatives are shown in

2318-416: The highly exposed population in Seveso and concluded that environmental contaminants such as dioxins have a long-lasting capability to modify neonatal thyroid function after the initial exposure. The male children of mothers who were, during pregnancy of those children, exposed to high levels of toxic dioxins due to the Seveso disaster, have been found to have lower-than-average sperm counts . This result of

2379-432: The nominal reaction temperature, TCDD is normally seen only in trace amounts of less than 1 ppm (parts per million). However, in the higher-temperature conditions associated with the runaway reaction, TCDD production apparently reached 166 ppm or more. The affected area was split into zones A, B, and R in decreasing order of surface soil concentrations of TCDD. Zone A was further split into 7 sub-zones. The local population

2440-765: The north of Milan in the Brianza lowlands. The territory of the commume is highly urbanised, with the majority of inhabitants living in the town. Seveso lies on the national trunk road Statale dei Giovi , which connects Milan to Como and on the Milan-Meda motorway. Seveso railway station is located on the Milan–Asso railway , while Seveso-Baruccana railway station is located on the Saronno–Seregno railway . Neighbouring communes are Meda , Seregno , Barlassina , Cogliate , Cesano Maderno . Seveso's origins date back to about

2501-433: The onset of a rapid runaway reaction when the temperature reached 230 °C seven hours later. The reactor relief valve eventually opened, causing the aerial release of 6 tonnes of chemicals, which settled over 18 km (6.9 sq mi) of the surrounding area. The cloud of substances released contained sodium hydroxide, ethylene glycol, sodium trichlorophenate, and approximately 15 to 30 kg of TCDD ( 3 ). At

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2562-426: The outset and soon offered reparation. Moreover, the eventual disappearance of the offending factory itself and the physical exportation of the toxic substances and polluted soil enabled the community to feel cleansed. The resolution of the emotional after-effects of the trauma, so necessary for the recovery of a community, was facilitated by these favourable circumstances." Industrial safety regulations were passed in

2623-404: The parts-per notation are set out below. Because the named numbers starting with a " billion " have different values in different countries, the BIPM suggests avoiding the use of "ppb" and "ppt" to prevent misunderstanding. The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) takes the stringent position, stating that "the language-dependent terms [...] are not acceptable for use with

2684-629: The parts-per notation is generally quite fixed within each specific branch of science, but often in a way that is inconsistent with its usage in other branches, leading some researchers to assume that their own usage (mass/mass, mol/mol, volume/volume, mass/volume, or others) is correct and that other usages are incorrect. This assumption sometimes leads them to not specify the details of their own usage in their publications, and others may therefore misinterpret their results. For example, electrochemists often use volume/volume, while chemical engineers may use mass/mass as well as volume/volume, while chemists ,

2745-407: The portion of the upper layers of reaction mixture adjacent to the reactor wall. The local temperature increased to above the critical temperature for the exothermic side reaction seen in testing. Additionally, the critical temperature proved to be only 180 °C, 50 °C lower than believed. At that lower critical temperature, an exothermic decomposition began, releasing more heat and leading to

2806-494: The position that "in mathematical expressions, the internationally recognized symbol % (percent) may be used with the SI to represent the number 0.01" for dimensionless quantities. According to IUPAP , "a continued source of annoyance to unit purists has been the continued use of percent, ppm, ppb, and ppt". Although SI-compliant expressions should be used as an alternative, the parts-per notation remains nevertheless widely used in technical disciplines. The main problems with

2867-403: The processing of other batches finished, which reduced power consumption across the plant, causing a dramatic drop in the load on the turbine and a consequent increase in the temperature of the exhaust steam to around 300 °C. This hotter than normal steam then heated the portion of the metal wall of the accident reactor above the level of the liquid within it to the same temperature. Not having

2928-492: The reference frequency. The reference frequency depends on the instrument's magnetic field and the element being measured. It is usually expressed in MHz . Typical chemical shifts are rarely more than a few hundred Hz from the reference frequency, so chemical shifts are conveniently expressed in ppm ( Hz /MHz). Parts-per notation gives a dimensionless quantity that does not depend on the instrument's field strength. Although

2989-407: The suffix "V" or "v" is sometimes appended to the parts-per notation (e.g. ppmV, ppbv, pptv). However, ppbv and pptv are also often used for mole fractions (which is identical to volume fraction only for ideal gases). To distinguish the mass fraction from volume fraction or mole fraction, the letter "w" (standing for "weight") is sometimes added to the abbreviation (e.g. ppmw, ppbw). The usage of

3050-401: The technical director of ICMESA, who was sentenced to five years in the first trial, and had his sentence reduced to two years and was paroled on appeal. 45°39′14.59″N 9°08′53.77″E  /  45.6540528°N 9.1482694°E  / 45.6540528; 9.1482694 Seveso Seveso ( Italian pronunciation: [ˈsɛːvezo] ; Lombard : Séves [ˈseːʋes] )

3111-504: The underlying Seveso study has been noted to provide the most pronounced evidence for prenatal exposure to an environmental chemical causing low sperm counts. In January 1977, an action plan consisting of scientific analysis, economic aid, medical monitoring and restoration/decontamination was completed. Shortly after ICMESA began to pay the first compensations to those affected. Later that spring decontamination operations were initiated and in June

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3172-599: The unification of the Kingdom of Italy , territory from Barlassina was passed to Seveso. This decision was rejected by the population and the two comuni were again separated in 1901. Seveso made world headlines when, on 10 July 1976, storage vessels at the ICMESA chemical plant ruptured, releasing several kilograms of the dioxin TCDD ( 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin ) into the atmosphere. Tens of thousands of farm animals and pets died or were later deliberately slaughtered, though it

3233-402: Was a mixture of protective clothing and chemical residues from the plant. This waste was packed into waste drums which had been designed for the storage of nuclear waste . It was agreed that the waste would be disposed of in a legal manner. To this end, in spring 1982, the firm Mannesmann Italiana was contracted to dispose of the contaminated chemicals from Zone A. Mannesmann Italiana made it

3294-448: Was advised not to touch or eat locally grown fruits or vegetables . The population who lived in the path of the aerosol cloud reportedly developed acute symptoms such as headaches, nausea, and eye irritation. 19 children in the area were hospitalized with skin lesions. 500 residents in the area were treated for acute skin irritation. The accident also immediately caused 193 individuals to develop chloracne , none of whom were employed at

3355-471: Was hampered by inadequate information; however, generally, no increased risks were evident. A study published in 1998 concluded that chloracne (nearly 200 cases with a definite exposure dependence) was the only effect established with certainty. Early health investigations including liver function, immune function, neurologic impairment, and reproductive effects yielded inconclusive results. An excess mortality rate from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases

3416-683: Was inspired by the Seveso disaster. Another song, "Canzone per Seveso", in the 1976 album Ullàlla by Antonello Venditti , was written for Seveso. Parts per million In science and engineering , the parts-per notation is a set of pseudo-units to describe small values of miscellaneous dimensionless quantities , e.g. mole fraction or mass fraction . Since these fractions are quantity-per-quantity measures, they are pure numbers with no associated units of measurement . Commonly used are parts-per-million ( ppm , 10 ), parts-per-billion ( ppb , 10 ), parts-per-trillion ( ppt , 10 ) and parts-per-quadrillion ( ppq , 10 ). This notation

3477-442: Was made available to plant operators responsible for the reactor. The chemical-release accident occurred when a batch process was stopped prior to the completion of the final step of removal of ethylene glycol from the reaction mixture by distillation . The process was stopped due to conformance with an Italian law requiring shutdown of plant operations over the weekend. Other parts of the site had already started to close down as

3538-502: Was shot and killed in Monza by a member of the Italian radical left-wing terrorist organization Prima Linea . On 19 December 1980, representatives of the Region of Lombardy/Italian Republic and Givaudan/ICMESA signed a compensation agreement in the presence of the prime minister of Italy, Arnaldo Forlani . The total amount would reach 20 billion lire . The waste from the clean up of the plant

3599-599: Was thought that the high chlorine content of the waste might cause damage to the high temperature incinerator used by Roche, but Roche stated that they would burn the waste in the incinerator and repair it afterward if it were damaged. They stated that they wanted to take responsibility for the safe destruction of the waste. In September 1983, the Criminal Court of Monza sentenced five former employees of ICMESA or its parent company, Givaudan , to prison sentences ranging from 2.5 years to 5 years. They all appealed. In May 1985,

3660-483: Was uncovered, and excess of diabetes cases was also found. Results of cancer incidence and mortality follow-up showed an increased occurrence of cancer of the gastrointestinal sites and of the lymphatic and hematopoietic tissue . Results cannot be viewed as final or comprehensive, however, because of various limitations: the lack of individual exposure data, short latency period, and small population size for certain cancer types. A 2001 study confirmed in victims of

3721-409: Was unprepared to cope with the danger of an invisible poison. In the context of such heightened tensions, Seveso became a microcosm where all the existing conflicts within society (political, institutional, religious, industrial) were reflected. However, within a relatively short time, such conflicts abated and the recovery of the community proceeded. For, in Seveso, the responsible party was known from

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