|
|
|
|
|
5100.0: Wednesday, November 10, 2004: 12:30 PM-2:00 PM | |||
Oral | |||
| |||
| Twenty years ago on December 3, 1984, methyl isocynanate gas leaking from a storage tank at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, killed over 6000 persons and injured hundreds of thousands. Subsequent, catastrophic chemical accidents in the U.S. fed growing fears that Bhopal-like incidents could happen here. Public health advocates prompted legislative actions to prevent and mitigate chemical releases, including the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act, OSHA's Process Safety Management Standard and EPA's Risk Management Programs. Chemical accidents in Europe led to the Seveso Directive and the Basel Convention. Recent terrorist attacks have revealed the still existing weaknesses in the U.S. chemical security infrastructure and highlight the need to increase chemical plant safety and security. Efforts to reform OSHA and EPA regulations, to preserve workers' and citizens' right-to-know and to better prevent reactive hazards disasters have generated new coalitions. Campaigns for inherently safe production have been spurred by policy proposals, such as Senator Corzine's chemical plant security bill. Building stronger public health capacity has achieved a new urgency, as has the need for international cooperation in an era where the effect of chemical disasters recognize no borderlines. This moderated session will highlight failures, successes, new opportunities and organizing strategies for chemical release prevention in this country and elsewhere | |||
| Learning Objectives: 1. Understand investigations and the underlying causes of major chemical catastrophes. 2. Articulate the value and need for inherently safer production of chemicals. 3. Identify gaps in current policies particularly with reactive chemical hazards and strategies to fill the gaps. | |||
| Jerry Poje, PhD Susan Lyon Stone, MS Joy E. Carlson, MPH Robeena M. Aziz John Balbus, MD | |||
| Jerry Poje, PhD | |||
Preventing Catastrophes: An Agenda for the 21st Century ![[ Recorded presentation ]](/static/img/filetypes/16x16/wrf.gif){kind=small} Jerry Poje, PhD | |||
| Preventing Catastrophes: Legacy and Future Jerry Poje, PhD | |||
| Preventing Catastrphes--Making Progress on Public Health Tracking, Preparedness and Response Capabilities Henry Falk, MD, MPH | |||
| What We've Achieved, and What's Left to Do! Margaret Seminario | |||
| See individual abstracts for presenting author's disclosure statement and author's information. | |||
| Organized by: | Environment | ||
| Endorsed by: | Occupational Health and Safety; Public Health Education and Health Promotion | ||
| CE Credits: | CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing | ||