Public safety is of paramount concern in petroleum refinery development. Tragedies resulting from the leakage and explosion of petrochemicals are documented in a few examples below:
· Close to 10,000 people died as a result of leakage of toxic gas from a petrochemical plant in Bhopal, India on December 3, 1984.
· Petrochemical explosion spills toxics in Songhua River, Harbin in China on November 13, 2005, releasing 100 tons of chemicals benzene, nitrobenzene and other toxics. Pollution stretched 80 km in the river. Approximately 10,000 Jilin residents were evacuated.
· In Kaohsiong, Taiwan, 171 cases of leukemia have been registered in residents living within 3 km from petroleum refinery between 1997 and 2003. The prevalence of preterm birth infants was high in mothers living near the oil refinery plants.
· Explosion of petrochemicals plant at Texas, USA on 24 March 2005, killed at least 14 people and injured 70
· Explosion at Sasol’s Ethylene Plant in Secunda, South Africa that killed six people on 1 September 2004.
· Explosion of petrochemicals plant in Gresik, Indonesia had injured tens of people.
On environmental aspects, oil refinery effluents contain many different chemicals at different concentrations including ammonia, sulphides, phenol and hydrocarbons. Toxicity tests have shown that most refinery effluents are toxic to aquatic species growh and reproduction. Some documented case studies as below:
· In Pearl River, China, PCBs associated with oil refinery caused deleterious health effects and significantly reduced populations of green-lipped mussels (Perna viridis), oysters (Crassostrea rivularis) and shrimp (Penaus orientalis).
· In Tarragona, Spain, the levels of Cadmium, Plumbum, Vanadium and naphthalene were significantly higher in soils which affect agriculture industries.
· In Lanzhou, China, research found that toad exposed to petrochemical contaminants suffered from genotoxic damage.
· In Turkey, research shows that petroleum refinery industry contaminated Kizilirmark rivers and caused peroxidation in muscle and liver tissues in fish.
REFERENCES:
Chu-Ling Yu, Su-Fen Wang, Pi-Chen Pan, Ming-Tsang Wu, Chi-Kung Ho, Thomas J. Smith, Yi Li, Lucille Pothier, David C. Christiani, and the Kaohsiung Leukemia Research Group. 2006. Residential Exposure to Petrochemicals and the Risk of Leukemia: Using Geographic Information System Tools to Estimate Individual-Level Residential Exposure. American Journal of Epidemiology. 164:200–207
Yang, C-Y, Chang, C-C, Chuang, H.Y, Kuo, C-K, Wu, T-N and Chang, P-Y. 2004. Increased risk of preterm delivery among people living near the three oil refineries in Taiwan. Environmental International. 30:337-342.
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Botalova, O., Schwarzbauer, J., rauenrath, T., and Dsikowitzky, L., Articles in press. Identification and chemical characterization of specific organic constituents of petrochemical effluents. Institute of Geology and Geochemistry of Petroleum and Coal, RWTH Aachen University, Lochnerstrasse 4-20, 52056 Aachen, Germany
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