One of the unique characteristics of some technology-caused disasters is the uncertainty that a disaster has occurred. Some of the warning signs that have alerted other communities to the presence of a technology-caused disaster include outbreaks or "clusters" of birth defects, stillbirths, miscarriages, asthma and other respiratory distress and unexplained illnesses in multiple households. Warning signs in the environment can include fish kills, loss of normal vegetation, illnesses or deaths of birds, pets or wild animals, as well as changes in normal soil and water color and odor.

Air, Water, Soil -- and the Human Body

Technology-caused disasters may affect many aspects of our environment and our health. A liquid, for example, can turn to gas and poison the air. Or it may travel through the soil long distances to pollute surface water or the underground sources of our drinking water. Finally, it may enter the food chain when taken up by animals or plants, providing a threat to human consumers. Finding where liquid pollution came from or is headed (and how fast) is often very difficult because of the variety of possible sources and our lack of exact knowledge of how the specific type of liquid will pass through various types of soils and rocks.

A gas may spread through the air, or condense in the form of a liquid or solid on the soil and all surfaces surrounding the scene of the emission. Since the "wind blows where it will," movement of gases still in the air we breathe is nearly impossible to predict. Once a gas has condensed, it can spread through the water system or food chain.

Polluting agents in soil can also be taken up into the food chain or the water table. They can harm the air we breathe by creating toxic dust or giving off gases as they decompose.

The bottom-line is that danger is present in several forms and that the most critical needs may change as the pollutant spreads or changes form.

Acute and Chronic Problems

Most technology-caused disasters can be classified as acute or chronic. Acute disasters usually have a well-defined and relatively short period of time from beginning to end. An accident involving a truck or train carrying a toxic chemical would be an acute incident, as would a one-time spill from a mine-tailing impoundment.

Chronic problems, on the other hand, are most likely to develop over a long period of time and often feature repeated behaviors, such as the chemical dumping that occurred years prior to the Love Canal incident, or perhaps a slow, unrecognized leak. Chronic problems are often revealed after some acute incident or after enough acute incidents (illnesses, deaths, etc.) have accumulated to reveal an underlying problem.

Point Source and Non-Point Source

The greatest advances in pollution control have come in the area of "point" sources. These are individual factories, facilities, tanks, pipelines, dumps, farms, etc., which can be shown to be the source of a pollutant. Major point sources are usually known, tested and regulated. Still, accidents can happen. And storage or disposal methods considered perfectly adequate 20 years ago may not prove to be so adequate in the long run as embankments crumble, tanks corrode, leaks develop, and we have more and more sophisticated ways to measure emissions and track their effects. Most technology-caused disasters are point source.

Many sources of pollution today are "non-point," that is, they come from too many places to track. One example is the emissions from internal combustion engines. If you fix one car, or even one make of car, you've still got a problem.

[Suzanne Prosnier] remembers the day she began to understand what was happening to her family: "On the morning of September 11, my children went outside to wait for a ride to school and came back running and crying that their noses were burning. When I went outside, my nose burned also, in fact, so did my chest when I breathed an unusually pungent odor. My 5 year old suffered an alarming bronchial spasm, asthmatic attack, the first of his life . . .." When she took her son in to be checked over, the doctor told her that the attack could have been triggered by drifting pesticides, such as those sprayed on the . . . fields across from her home. Mrs. Prosnier soon learned that hundreds, even thousands of other families living adjacent to the farmlands were suffering from similar ailments. When she called the state's Pesticide Control Board, she was told that "what was being sprayed was no more harmful than table salt or aspirin." ("Who's Poisoning America," by Nader, Brownstein and Richard, pp. 3-4).

Some "Common" Scenarios

Impoundment Failures occur when the structure built to contain materials breaks down. This could be the failure of a dam, or dike, or the sealant underneath a disposal or storage site. This failure could take the form of catastrophic flooding or a slow leak that gets into the ground water or nearby homes.

Transportation Accidents usually involve trucks or trains, but could also be ships, barges or planes. The immediate cause could be a collision, leak or fire, or all three.

Handling Accidents tend to happen within the confines of a specific manufacturing plant or handling facility. Spills, fires, accidents, breakdowns, or simple human error can result in the release of toxic substances, especially during loading and unloading or transfer from one container to another. Many accidents involving pesticides and farmworkers can fall into this category, including improper application of pesticides or inadequate safeguards.

"Sick" Buildings represent another area of growing awareness. As buildings age and as new buildings are built tighter and tighter with more exotic materials, problems can develop. These include mold, fungus or even viruses in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, such as Legionnaire's Disease. Also, new carpeting, paint or other building materials can temporarily give off a cocktail of fumes. Affected individuals may report headaches, nausea, blurred vision, flu-like symptoms == and more serious effects if they are already sensitive to the chemicals involved or one or more of their body systems is vulnerable due to illness, age, previous medical history, etc.