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1The Beginning of a Concern, International.

Bhopal Gas Tragedy was an Indian incident that spurred the government to take steps to

check the release of hazardous waste out into the environment and the handling of toxic

substance, which is likely to become dangerous if not handled properly. It was not, however the

reason that bought international concern regarding the same issue that is being discussed at themoment.

This tragedy was not the first time, in the international arena that such a thing had

happened. There have been many incidents of release of hazardous waste or toxic substances that

have led to wide scale disasters environmentally or wide scale and expensive clean-up operations

in other industrialized countries.

It started with Methyl-mercury poisoning in the Minamata Bay in Japan that started in

1956 and was discovered in 1980. This poisoning was caused because of dumping of mercury

waste in the open seas. The fish from that sea, after such prolonged exposure to the chemicalswere affected too. When consumed, these fishes started causing death, and several types of 

disease like pre-natal brain damage.

In 1976 a pickle factory in North Italy dumped contaminated debris in steel drums along

with vinegar without taking proper. This incident, a.k.a. Sevoso incident, caused problem later 

on.

In 1978, USA had to spend around 30 million dollars to clean up what is known as the

Love Canal Incident. Love Canal was an area where a company, Hooker Chemical, had dumped

21000 tons of toxic waste and then sold the land to a school. When discovered, the U.S

government had to ensure a costly clean-up so that the toxic waste would not adversely affect

anyone.

Another incident in the history of U.S is the where some amount of radioactive leaked

into the environment. The well known meltdown of the Three Mile Island Power Plant did not

cuase much damage to the residents in the surrounding area but the whole clean up lasted till

1999 and cost over one billion dollars.2 

Chernobyl disaster was one of the worst disasters in the history of mankind. The city still

remains deserted and there is virtually no flora or fauna in the area still after almost three

decades.

1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal(last seen: 07.03.2012)

2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island(last seen: 08.03.2012)

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