-Caveat Lector- In a message dated 9/30/01 1:25:57 PM Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> 3. The recent explosion at a chemical factory in France a few days > ago which was initially said to be an accident. I heard briefly on > the radio that it is now thought not to be accidental, but there hasn't > been any news coverage as far as I can tell. Do any of you have > any additional information on this? I hadn't heard of any of the three stories you mentioned, though you'd think they would have gotten more attention! Two articles, pull-quote from the first article: "Authorities have speculated that employees at the plant must have made a fatal error, although the possibility of deliberate interference has not been ruled out. " http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,559083,00.html Questions follow factory blast Concerns are being raised about the safety of building chemical plants in residential areas following the explosion in Toulouse that killed 29 people, writes Jon Henley Thursday September 27, 2001 Among all the millions of column inches devoted by the world's press to speculation about where, when and with what America will strike back, last week's chemical plant explosion in Toulouse rated at most only a few paragraphs, buried away on the foreign pages. So many peolpe can be forgiven for not knowing that last Friday France suffered its worst civilian accident for two decades. Twenty-nine people died and 2,200 were injured when a chemical plant in a residential area of the southern French city blew up. This wasn't a small explosion. Windows were blown out up to three miles away. Ten thousand homes were damaged, 600 destroyed, and 1,400 families left homeless. Nearly 450 people are still in hospital. Two schools were wrecked and 70 more remain closed; a hospital was badly damaged. The insurance bill is estimated at �50m-100m. The prime minister, Lionel Jospin, has announced a �1m aid package, and a similar sum has been offered by the oil multinational TotalFinaElf, which owned the AZF plant, itself reduced to a pile of rubble, twisted metal, and a large, still-smoking crater. Investigators are still unsure as to the exact cause. The blast appears to have originated in a storage tower for 200-300 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, a notoriously unstable product used to make agricultural fertilisters. Scientists have said the compound is most unlikely to have exploded spontaneously and must have been mixed with another substance. Authorities have speculated that employees at the plant must have made a fatal error, although the possibility of deliberate interference has not been ruled out. But what triggered the explosion is not the most pressing issue for the people of Toulouse. They have a long list of questions: how come, despite multiple requests to relocate it, a highly dangerous plant that was built in green fields in 1924 was now surrounded by homes, shops and schools? How come the emergency services did not have a plan of the site? How come environmental and health and safety inspectors, during their last visit to the factory in May, did not even set foot in the storage tower? How come local residents had never been given the slightest warning of the powder keg in their midst? Theoretically, the site should have been subject to exceptionally tight safety regulations under the Euopean Union's "Seveso" procedure, which covers all potentially dangerous chemical plants and is named after the 1976 environmental catastrophe in Italy in which carcinogenic dioxins leaked from a pesticide plant. It has not escaped the Toulousains' attention that the European Commission said last month it was planning to take France to court for failing to fully implement the measures required under the Seveso directive. Some 8,000 people joined a noisy and emotional demonstration in central Toulouse on Tuesday night against the plant's planned reopening. Perhaps more effectively, more than 25 lawsuits have been filed by people who were injured in the explosion or who lost their homes or businesses. The complaints argue that Thierry Desmarest, the managing director of TotlaFinaElf, the company itself and the manager of the AZF plant are guilty of causing deliberate injury and of placing the life of others in danger. "This cannot just be settled by insurance companies and compensation," said Guy Dubuisson, a lawyer representing many of the individuals. "There was so much passivity on the company's part with regard to risk prevention that this disaster ranks as an intentional accident. It was a catastrophe foretold." The traumatised mayor of Toulouse, Philippe Douste-Blazy, wants a national debate on the problem of chemical plants in or near residential areas, an issue he estimates affects several hundred factories around the country and a total of 10m French people. "The French can no longer sleep with a bomb beneath their pillows," he said. "This kind of incident should date from another era. It's time to change. We must stop asking our citizens to chose between their work and their lives." Mr Douste-Blazy, echoed by the mayors of Lyons and Marseille, which are also at risk of the same kind of disaster, now wants all potentially dangerous chemical factories - there are four of them in Toulouse, including an ammunitions plant - relocated away from residential areas. He will tomorrow ask the prime minister, Lionel Jospin, to set up a national body under whose auspices local authorities, industrial groups, environmentalists, unions, healy and sefety experts and insurers would "examine one by one the specific risks of each and every chemical plant in France", and if necessary recommend their relocation. Twenty-nine lives do not, of course, compare with the 6,000-plus lost in America earlier this month. But this was a disaster that could and should have been predicted and prevented. Closing down of moving dangerous chemical plants will cost a lot of money, but Mr Jospin could perhaps start looking for that at the �4bn profits that TotalFinaElf - to name just one petrochemical giant - made last year. Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------- http://www.planetark.org/envpicstory.cfm/newsid/12551 Demonstrators Protest Chemical Factory Blast in Toulouse Which Killed 29 and Injured Over 2000 Mail this picture to a friend FRANCE: September 26, 2001 Demonstrators gather with signs in central Toulouse September 25, 2001 to protest the chemical factory blast last Friday near a residential district. An explosion at the AZF unit of oil giant TotalFinaElf ripped through its factory close to a residential area, killing 29 and injuring over 2000 people. The signs protest the oil giant TotalFinaElf, its CEO Thierry Desmarest, and the damage caused by the blast. Story by JPA/JES Photo by JEAN-PHILIPPE ARLES REUTERS NEWS PICTURE SERVICE --------- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! 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