An Industrial Disaster is a specific, identifiable, unexpected, unusual and unintended external

action which occurs in a particular industry, without apparent or deliberate cause but with
marked effects. It implies a generally negative probabilistic outcome which may have been
avoided or prevented had circumstances leading up to the accident been recognized, and acted
upon, prior to its occurrence. As a consequence, such an accident can immediately invoke
thousands of premature deaths with significant morbidity all around. Moreover, the mayhem
caused to the public is detrimental to the society and its well being.

The causes of industrial disasters may be numerous. Prominent amongst them are, fires,
explosions, nuclear reactor accidents, breaks in water, gas, or sewer lines. Other reasons may be
industrial sites are located in communities affected by natural disasters, equipment failures, or
workers have inadequate training or fatigue and make errors.

As a result of rapid developmental activities, tremendous amounts of pollutants (different

gases, CO2, NH3, toxic metals, pesticides, etc.) are continuously being added to the air, water and
soil thus contaminating the air we breathe in, the water we drink and the soil we grow our food
on. Hence, human health is exposed to the risk of different diseases. In general, chemical
pollutants like salts of toxic metals (e.g. lead, mercury, selenium, arsenic) constitute the most
difficult type of pollution for control, often requiring advance treatment methods. Some
constituents of industrial effluents, notable cyanides, thiocynates, polychlorinated biphenyls
and various polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons are also known for toxic effects. In so far the
health aspects are concerned, the effect of most of the chemical pollutants may be long term
and cumulative.

In India, Agro based and chemical industries have major shares of 47 per cent and 37 per cent
respectively, from the total number of industries. About 77 per cent and 15 per cent of the
industries are predominantly water and air polluting respectively and 8 per cent are potentially
both air and water polluting. Such industrial pollution causes a lot of chronic diseases as
bronchitis, asthma, emphysema, jaundice, diarrhoea, nephritis, lung cancer, etc. If this is the
impact of industrial effluents in their normal functioning, then can you imagine how adversely
an industrial disaster affects the health of people? Indeed, its impact is so vast and detrimental
that every industrial disaster is called as one of the worst of its kind leading not only to the
immediate diseases found in that generation but also has continuing consequences till
centuries. Needless to mention the Bhopal Gas tragedy and disasters like of Chernobyl reactor
for which still the people have to pay off.

With the rapid development of industrial sector, prevention of such disasters has become the issue of
utmost importance today. The recognition of disaster risk and vulnerability reduction is essential for
sustainable development planning. This paper looks into the issues pertaining to industrial disasters, its
impact on public health and strong preventive measures to be undertaken to avoid such disasters in
future.