Manufacturing Location

Chemical industry Bhopal, India

Toulouse, France

Oil & Gas industry North Sea

Gulf of Mexico Date 03/12/1984 21/09/2001 06/07/1988 20/04/2010 Cost (US$)

US$ 320 million in claims & compensation; US$ 10 million in economic, medical, social, environmental rehabilitation. However, the Indian government estimated the cost of the Bhopal disaster at US$ 3.3 billion.

€ 2 billion (environmental and social cost) US$ 3.4 billion (mostly clean-up cost)

US$ 6.1 billion (as of 09/08/2010), (containment, relief, grants to the US Gulf states, claims paid, and federal costs); creation of a US$ 20 billion escrow account for clean-up and other obligations.

Number of fatalities and injured

2,800 fatalities and estimated 170,000 long-term adverse health effects

31 fatalities and 4,500 injured 167 fatalities 11 fatalities (oil platform workers)

Table 4: Examples of major industrial accidents and related economic and social costs Source: Adapted from Mannan (2009), Grande Paroisse - AZF (2010), Kuriechan (2005) and BP (2010).

substances and waste. The waste sector produces pressure on the environment through releases from landfills, domestic and commercial waste-water treatment and industrial wastewater. According to Havranek (2009), the waste management sector in the EU in 2005 generated external costs of € 2.7 billion (assuming a low figure of € 21 per tonne of CO2

eq

emissions). A large component of this was owing to emissions of methane. For comparison, in the same year, the chemical industry in EU27 produced € 3.6 billion of external costs attributed to GHG emissions, which is a similar order of magnitude.

Releases of toxic substances cause health and safety problems and ecosystem degradation. Some countries have made significant progress by applying cleaner production, product substitution and end-of-pipe measures. In developed countries, toxic emissions have been one of the few success stories, with releases and exposure diminishing while production and GDP grew. This is related to the fact that most toxic substances are emitted as small mass flows, and for which substitution or emission reducing measures are relatively easy to achieve. Production patterns have changed radically, with industries based in developed countries focusing on high-value chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The manufacture of high production volume (HPV) chemicals, on the other hand, has been progressively migrating to developing countries, where regulatory frameworks are often lacking and where costs for the sound management of industrial (hazardous) waste are rarely internalised.

In the absence of good waste management, the following industries in particular may face toxicity challenges:

■ Textile industry and leather industry in relation to dying and tanning products;

■ Paper and pulp industry in relation to bleaching processes and related water emissions;

Data provided by the International Council of Chemical Associations indicate that worldwide chemical sales in 2007 were € 1.8 trillion, a 28 per cent increase from 2000 (Perenius 2009). Over 60 per cent of these sales originated in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries (€ 1.1 trillion). The BRIICS (Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China, and South Africa) countries account for another 20 per cent of these sales (€ 400 billion in 2007). Of the hundreds of thousands of chemicals on the market, only a small fraction has been thoroughly evaluated to determine their effects on human health and the environment. Some chemicals that have been used in large quantities for many years are now suspected of carcinogenicity or teratogenicity. Some of the most toxic and dangerous chemical products (such as DDT) have been phased out, at least in the OECD countries. Adverse human health effects of chemicals include acute and chronic poisonings, neurodevelopmental disorders, reproductive/developmental disorders and cancer (WHO 2004). Preventing chemical pollution at the source avoids generating harmful wastes and emissions while reducing and eliminating costs of cleanup.

Gaps in applying standards for industrial safety and accidents give historical examples of the risks and societal costs that can be associated with industrial production, in particular where hazardous substances are involved. International Labour Organisation (ILO) global figures for 2003 indicated that there were about 358,000 fatal and 337 million non-fatal occupational accidents in the world; an additional 1.95 million died from work-related diseases. The number of deaths

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■ Chemical and plastics industry, depending on the type of chemicals produced; and

■ High-temperature processes such as in the cement and steel industry, where the formation of by-products or emissions of metals can be a problem.