Introduction The ability of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) to spread through long distances and remain in the environment has resulted in their presence worldwide. They have a tendency to accumulate within the food chain and, as a result, pose a high risk to human and animal health. The risks caused by industrial POPs are best…
Chemical, being at the core of modern industrial systems, has attained a very serious concern for disaster management within government, private sector and community at large. Chemical disasters may be traumatic in their impacts on human beings and have resulted in the casualties and also damages nature and property. The elements which are at highest…
Biological disasters are causative of process or phenomenon of organic origin or conveyed by biological vectors, including exposure to pathogenic micro-organisms, toxins and bioactive substances that may cause loss of life, injury, illness or other health impacts, property damage, loss of livelihoods and services, social and economic disruption, or environmental damage. Examples of biological disasters include…
The growth in the application of nuclear science and technology in the fields of power generation, medicine, industry, agriculture, research and defence has led to an increase in the risk of occurrence of Nuclear and Radiological emergencies. India has traditionally been vulnerable to natural disasters on account of its unique geo climatic conditions and it…
A Heat Wave is a period of abnormally high temperatures, more than the normal maximum temperature that occurs during the summer season in the North-Western parts of India. Heat Waves typically occur between March and June, and in some rare cases even extend till July. The extreme temperatures and resultant atmospheric conditions adversely affect people…
The Earth’s lithosphere is broken up into a bunch of discrete pieces, called plates that move around the surface of the planet. There are seven or eight major plates (depending on how they are defined) and many minor plates. This motion is driven by the flow of the mantle rock beneath the plates and by…
The first thing before taking part in a “Search and Rescue” operation is to make sure that you don’t put yourself also at risk – by unnecessarily exposing yourself to a hazard. If the “search and rescue” operation needs you to enter or go near a structure, you should first assess the stability of the…
This refers to mechanical collapse of certain structures, e.g. building, bridges etc. This causes people to get buried in the debris. Possible presence of live beings in the debris does not allow the use of heavy earth moving equipments, and, manual rummaging through heavy concrete structures is very effort prone as well as time consuming. Usually,…
Structural damages come under two major categories: 1. Large Scale damage to structures. These are typically caused due to some other primary disaster – 2. Earthquakes 3. Volcanoes 4. Flooding 5. Tornadoes 6. Tsunamis 7. These are the “real” disasters – due to the number of lives involved. 8. Damage to individual buildings/structures. These are relatively minor problems, and, in most cases have…
Terrorist activities were traditionally not considered as disasters. However, during the last few years, terrorist activities have become more sophisticated in terms of the amount of detonating power on one side, and, the degree of coordination through which these are done, e.g. Several explosions are done almost simultaneously – thereby leaving the law-enforcement agencies and…