Geography 2152F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Radon, Ozone Depletion, Polonium
14 Feb 2019
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Document Summary
Technological disasters involving the environment are included in this category as well: ex: sinking of the titanic, explosions of the challenger and columbia space shuttles. Typically, the death tolls from technological hazards are relatively low. Vulnerability to technological hazards: vulnerability is greatest for those involved in industry or transportation systems, workers in resource industries in hinterlands are at higher risk (e. g. miners) chilean miners (psychological) Extreme hazards: widespread and long term (nuclear accidents, cumulative effects. These are conditions that worsen slowly over time as exposure to a concentration increases. Eventually, the concentration reaches a threshold critical to human health. Situations related to this include exposure to toxic chemicals, acid precipitation, groundwater contamination, and ozone depletion. Large-scale structures (buildings, bridges, dams): risk is defined as the probability of failure during the lifetime of the structure. Transportation (road, sea, rail): risk is the probability of death or injury per km travelled.
