Hi Listed in 10 More American Industrial Disasters!.

Hi Listed in 10 More American Industrial Disasters!.

7

Washburn A Mill Explosion

1878

As we learned from the previous list of American Industrial Disasters (Imperial Sugar Refinery explosion of 2008)– organic dust of any type can become explosive under the right conditions. On May 2, 1878: The Washburn “A” Mill in Minneapolis was destroyed by a flour dust explosion, killing 18 people. The mill was rebuilt with updated technology and the explosion led to new safety standards in the milling industry.

The first Washburn A Mill, built by C. C. Washburn, in 1874, was declared the largest flour mill in the world upon its completion. On May 2, 1878, a spark ignited airborne flour dust within the mill, creating an explosion that demolished the Washburn A, and killed 14 workers instantly. The ensuing fire resulted in the deaths of four more people, destroyed five other mills, and reduced Minneapolis’s milling capacity by one third. Known as the Great Mill Disaster, the explosion made national news and served as a focal point that led to reforms in the milling industry. In order to prevent the buildup of combustible flour dust, ventilation systems and other precautionary devices were installed in mills throughout the country.

By 1880, a new Washburn A Mill opened as the largest flour mill in the world. At the peak of the Washburn A Mill’s production, it could grind over 100 boxcars of wheat into almost 2,000,000 pounds of flour per day.

Hi - Worst Air Pollution Disasters!!."

Hi - Worst Air Pollution Disasters!!."

The "Donora Death Fog"

The anniversary of the worst recorded industrial air pollution accident in US history - which occurred 50 years ago this October in Donora, Pennsylvania - will go virtually unmarked. The Donora incident, which killed 20 and left hundreds seriously injured and dying, was caused by fluoride emissions from the Donora Zinc Works and steel plants owned by the US Steel Corporation.

Horror visited the US Steel company-town of Donora on Halloween night, 1948, when a temperature inversion descended on the town. Fumes from US Steel's smelting plants blanketed the town for four days, and crept murderously into the citizens' homes.

If the smog had lasted another evening "the casualty list would have been 1,000 instead of 20," said local doctor William Rongaus at the time. Later investigations by Rongaus and others indicated that one-third of the town's 14,000 residents were affected by the smog. Hundreds of residents were evacuated or hospitalized. A decade later, Donora's mortality rate remained significantly higher than neighboring areas.

The "Donora Death Fog," as it became known, spawned numerous angry lawsuits and the first calls for national legislation to protect the public from industrial air pollution.

For giant fluoride emitters such as US Steel and the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa), the cost of a national fluoride clean-up "would certainly have been in the billions," said Sadtler. So concealing the true cause of the Donora accident was vital. "It would have complicated things enormously for them if the public had been alerted to [the dangers of] fluoride."

"Pollution from the Donora Zinc Works smelting operation and other sources containing sulfur, carbon monoxide and heavy metal dusts, was trapped by weather conditions in the narrow river valley in and around Donora and neighboring Webster.

"Air pollution problems were recognized from the facility as early as 1918, when the plant owner paid off the legal claims for causing pollution that affected the health of nearby residents.

"In the 1920s, residents and farmers in Webster took legal action again against the company for loss of crops and livestock. Regular sampling of the air was begun in 1926 and stopped in 1935."

"Before the Donora smog, neither manufacturers nor public health professionals considered air pollution an urgent issue. At the annual meeting of the Smoke Prevention Association in May 1949, a leading industrial physician and consultant to insurance companies dismissed air pollution as a threat, except 'on rare occasions [when] Mother Nature has played us false.''

"The studies of the Donora Smog did not fix blame and could not document levels of pollution beyond workplace limits set at the time. The Public Health Service recommended a warning system tied to weather forecasts and an air sampling system be installed to avoid future incidents. The lessons learned at Donora resulted in the passage of the 1955 Clean Air Act and began modern air pollution control efforts in the Commonwealth.

Hi Importance of Our Industry; Historic Case's!.

Hi Importance of Our Industry; Historic Case's!...,

@ Meuse Valley Disaster...,

The Meuse River Valley west of Liäge, Belgium was the sight of the first extensively documented, and one of the worst, industrial air pollution disasters. Several thousand persons became violently ill, and sixty persons reportedly died from died from atmospheric poisoning between December 3-5, 1930. During those three days, a "soupy" mixture of industrial smoke and fog covered the entire country. It was most concentrated along a length (20 km) of the narrow (1 to 2 km) River Meuse to a height of 60 to 80 m.

Victims, who were primarily elderly, suffered from acute respiratory problems. These included shortness of breath and hoarseness, persistent coughs, production of a frothy phlegm succeeded by a pus like mass, nausea, and vomiting. Deaths were attributed to acute heart failure. While most of the victims were predisposed to injury, because of previously weakened lungs and hearts, other younger and healthier individuals also became seriously ill. Similarly, cattle exhibited the same symptoms, and some died, along with birds and rats in the contaminated area.

@ London...,

Fossil fuel combustion (fire places and coal burning plants), combined with fog, accounted for even greater disasters in London, England during the 1950's. A total of 4,075 deaths were attributed to atmospheric pollution that occurred in December, 1951. Another 1,000 deaths above the normal rate were subsequently attributed to a toxic fog that only lasted 18 hours in 1956.

@ Los Angeles...,

A new form of atmospheric pollution. "smog", was recognized in Los Angeles in the 1940's to 1950's. It is formed by atmospheric reactions with automobile exhaust (smoke) and fog. The highly oxidizing smog in Los Angeles is composed of a mixture of ozone, nitrogen oxides, and peroxidized organic compounds (e.g., peroxyacetyl nitrate or PAN). The problem is exasperated by the geography of the Los Angeles basin, which tends to trap the smog during summer periods. The 1960 California Health Department Survey: Air Pollution Effects Reported by California Residents noted that three fourths of the population in metropolitan areas of southern California experienced peculiar burning and annoying irritation of their eyes during peak periods of smog; and there have been numerous acute episodes of smog since 1942.

@ Piscataway...,

Another incident occurred in Piscataway, New Jersey in 1971. It was attributed to emissions from several factories, including many chemical plants, and from traffic in the surrounding area. Symptoms included excessive lacrimation (tearing), reddened throats, breathing difficulties, cough, chest pain, abdominal pain, vomiting, and tingling in the extremities.