Researcharticle5EMHJ–Vol.25No.1–2019Industrialchemicalaccidents:agrowinghealthhazardintheIslamicRepublicofIranFarinFatemi,1AliArdalan,2,3NabiollahMansouri,4BenignoAguirre5andIrajMohammdfam61SchoolofPublicHealth,SemnanUniversityofMedicalSciences,Semnan,IslamicRepublicofIran.2DepartmentofDisasterandEmergencyHealth,SchoolofPublicHealth,TehranUniversityofMedicalSciences,Tehran,IslamicRepublicofIran(Correspondenceto:AliArdalan:aardalan@tums.ac.ir).3HarvardHumanitarianInitiative,DepartmentofGlobalHealthandPopulationatHarvardSchoolofPublicHealth,HarvardUniversity,Cam-bridge,Massachusetts,UnitedStatesofAmerica.4DepartmentofHealth,Safety,Environment(HSE),ScienceandResearchBranchofIslamicAzadUni-versity,Tehran,IslamicRepublicofIran.5DisasterResearchCenter,UniversityofDelaware,Newark,Delaware,UnitedStatesofAmerica.6DepartmentofOccupationalHealth,SchoolofPublicHealth,HamadanUniversityofMedicalSciences,Hamadan,IslamicRepublicofIran.IntroductionTheIslamicRepublicofIranisadevelopingcountrywithalotofcapacityinthemanufacturingsector.In-dustrializationhasbeengrowingquicklybecauseofmarketdemandsinthecountry(1,2).Rapidindustriali-zationwithouttheprovisionofestablishedinfrastruc-turestopreventindustrialaccidentscancauseproblemsforcountries(3–5).Thestatisticsonindustrialchemicalaccidentshaveshownanincreaseinaccidentsbetween2010and2013intheIslamicRepublicofIran(6).Figure1showsthedistributionofindustrialchemicalaccidentsintheIslamicRepublicofIranbetween2010and2013ac-cordingtotypeandnumber.Inaddition,in2014,over230peoplewerehospitalizedforthereleasetoxicgasesinthecityofZahedan,inthesouthofthecountry(7).InsomeindustrialcitiesoftheIslamicRepublicofIran,thedistancebetweenchemicalinstallationsandresidentialareashasnotbeentakenintoconsideration(8).Asaresult,concernisgrowingaboutthepublichealtheffectsofchemicalplants,particularlythereleaseofchemicals,ashappenedatFlixbrough,BhopalandSeveso(9–13).TheprovinceofTehranhas38countiesandReyisoneofthelargestandmostindustrialofthem.InJuneandAugust2015,3largechemicalincidentsoccurredinRey.Case1Afirebrokeoutatawarehouseatkilometre3oftheQom–TehranroadonthemorningofFriday,12June2015.Theblazewascausedbyatankercontainingchemicalliquidswhichthenextendedto11otherchemicaltankersthatwereparkedinthe4000squaremetresoftheware-house.Policeandfirefightersputoutthefirewithin4hours.Morethan250000Lofchemicalliquidscomplete-lyburnedwhichresultedinthereleaseoftoxicvapoursseveralkilometresawayfromthewarehousewheretheincidentoccurred.Threefirefightershadminorchemi-calburnstotheirskinandweretakentothehospitalbuttherearenodataoninjuries,suchasrespiratorydistress,andeyeandskinirritationintheresidentsofthearea.AbstractBackground:OccupationalchemicalaccidentshaveincreasedinrecentyearsintheIslamicRepublicofIran.InJuneandAugust2015,threelargeexplosionsoccurredatchemicalwarehousesinRey,TehranProvince,andtoxicvapourswerereleased.Aims:ThisstudyreviewedthethreechemicalaccidentsandassessedtheextenttowhichtherequirementsforchemicalsafetyandpreparednessforchemicalincidentsundertheInternationalHealthRegulations(IHR)areinplace,andimple-mentedatlocalandnationallevelsintheIslamicRepublicofIran.Methods:Datawereobtainedfromsecondarydataandfieldvisitstoselectedchemicalplants.Thesecondarydatawereusedtocompletea33-itemchecklistbasedontheIHRandtheMinistryofHealthandMedicalEducationchecklist.Asampleof...
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