The best example of a technological disaster is:

Manmade or technological disasters are unpredictable, can spread across geographical boundaries, may be unpreventable, and may have limited physical damage but long-term effects. Some disasters in this class are entirely manmade, such as terrorism. Other technological disasters occur because industrial sites are located in communities affected by natural disasters, equipment failures occur, or workers have inadequate training or fatigue and make errors. The threat of terrorism is categorized as a potential technological disaster and includes bioterrorism, bombings, civil and political disorders, riots, and economic emergencies.

Technological disasters include a broad range of incidents. Routes of exposure are water, food and drink, airborne releases, fires and explosions, and hazardous materials or waste (e.g., chemical, biological, or radioactive) released into the environment from a fixed facility or during transport. Fires, explosions, building or bridge collapses, transportation crashes, dam or levee failures, nuclear reactor accidents, and breaks in water, gas, or sewer lines are other examples of technological disasters.

Communities in which industrial sites are located or through which hazardous materials pass via highway, rail, or pipeline are at risk for technological disasters. Injuries can occur to workers at the site, to responders bringing the incident under control and providing emergency medical care, and to residents in the community. Those with preexisting medical conditions, such as lung or heart disease, could be at increased risk for negative health outcomes if exposed to toxic releases. Burns, skin disorders, and lung damage can result from exposure to specific agents. Table 5 lists the health consequences of several classes of toxins.

Ensuring that local industry implements basic safety procedures can significantly reduce negative health outcomes from accidental releases of toxins. Emergency preparedness—including the ability of prehospital and hospital systems to care for patients exposed to industrial agents, the training of medical personnel to work in contaminated environments, and the stockpiling of personal protective equipment for responders—is key to providing care following industrial accidents or acts of bioterrorism. Government agencies, in coordination with hospitals and public health, should conduct computer simulations or field exercises to test the community's ability to evacuate those at risk and the ability of the health sector to provide care to those exposed to accidental releases. Information about the clinical management of exposure to toxins can be provided by poison control centers, CHEMTREC, and industry databases.

• Take a visible role in community planning.

• Conduct hazard assessments.

• Review Material Safety Data Sheets for agents produced, stored, or used locally and regionally to evaluate range of potential adverse health effects.

• Conduct vulnerability analyses to identify target populations and potential adverse public health consequences.

• Conduct risk assessment to determine if specific agents will reach toxic levels in the vicinity of vulnerable populations.

• Determine minimal thresholds of exposure for specific agents that would trigger evacuation.

• Gather information on chemical neutralization, estimation models of plume-dispersion, and appropriate antidotes.

• Work with local hospitals to stockpile appropriate antidotes, medications, and supplies.

• Stockpile two pills per person of potassium iodide in communities located within ten miles of nuclear reactor sites.

• Provide emergency services and medical care to victims.

• Activate the health alert network.

American Public Health Association © 2005  American Public Health Association

Cite this: Types of Disasters and Their Consequences - Medscape - Sep 20, 2005.

The International Charter on Space and Major Disasters monitors the most common forms of natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, landslides, cyclones and so on, but there are other types of disasters, which also benefit from satellite observations.

Technological disasters may occur in the event of a train or aircraft crash, or an accident at a factory, power plant or other large scale infrastructure. Satellite observations can be used to map the extent of the disaster area for first responders. Satellite imagery may also be used to help in the search for missing ocean-going vessels or aircraft, but this is very challenging. Unless there is a distinct area to start a search for a missing craft, the searching area could be anywhere in the ocean and it is impossible to find a lone craft in a vast ocean.

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Charter, we take the opportunity to look back on examples of how the Charter has helped in some of these disasters.

One of the most recent industrial accidents that the Charter responded to is the explosion that occurred in the Port of Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon, at 18:08 local time (15:08 UTC) on August 4, 2020. It was caused by the explosion of a large quantity - 2,750 tons - of ammonium nitrate at a warehouse in the port. The explosion damaged half of Beirut and left at least 190 people dead and 300,000 homeless. It was so powerful that the United States Geological Survey registered it as a 3.3 magnitude earthquake. France (Centre Opérationnel de Gestion Interministérielle des Crises) activated the Charter on August 5. Satellite imagery acquired after the explosion showed a large crater where the warehouse had been and revealed damage to the port area. The Orient Queen, a cruise ship that was docked in port, was badly damaged and capsized on August 5.

Other types of technological disasters that the Charter responded to include the recent oil spills in Mauritius (August 2020) and Russia (June 2020), two dam collapses in Brazil (January 2019 and November 2015), and the well-known Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (2010), which was also covered in a previous article in April 2020.

On April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, 70 km off the coast of Louisiana. The disaster was the result of a wellhead blowout, which killed 11 people and after two days of fires, caused the platform to sink on 22 April. Oil from the platform spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, causing the largest oil spill in U.S. history. United States Geological Survey (USGS) on behalf of the US Coast Guard requested to activate the Charter on April 22 and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) provided a project manager. The satellite images that the Charter provided were used to observe the scope of the oil spill and help clean up efforts identify affected areas. The imagery was also able to help analysts anticipate where the oil would go by tracking its diffusion path, and take preventative measures.

The search and rescue of missing ocean-going vessels or aircraft is also an important part of industrial disaster response. The Charter first responded to a search of a missing aircraft in March 2014 for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. This flight, carrying 239 people (12 crew and 227 passengers) departed from Kuala Lumpur at 16:41 UTC on March 7 and was scheduled to arrive in Beijing at 22:30, but Vietnamese air traffic controllers lost contact with the aircraft at 17:30 (01:30 local time).

An international search began for the aircraft in the South China Sea, the last known location of the jet, and the search area later expanded to the Malacca Strait and the Indian Ocean. China Meteorological Administration requested to activate the Charter and provided a Project Manager to coordinate the mapping efforts.  Though the Charter was not able to locate the aircraft great efforts were made during the search. Satellite imagery was employed to search for any evidence of the plane, both before and after it disappeared. China utilized 10 of its satellites to image the search area. The United States imaging corporation, DigitalGlobe, started a crowdsourcing campaign in which over two million volunteers studied DigitalGlobe images of the area. Satellite images revealed suspected debris and an oil spill that might have been caused by the crashed aircraft in a number of locations, but despite efforts to search an area of the southern Indian Ocean no trace of the plane was found.

In addition to the missing Malaysia Airlines jet in 2014, there were other Charter activations about missing ships or aircraft: the aircraft crash in Egypt in 2015, the search and rescue of a submarine in Argentina in November 2017, an aircraft crash in Iran in February 2018, and a lost Chilean aircraft in Antarctica in December 2019.

Since its inception, the Charter has responded to a total of more than 30 industrial disasters around the world. The activations for these disasters added further experience for the Charter in responding to different types of disasters and highlight the Charter's aim to provide satellite data to support disaster response worldwide.