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Hot zone, also written as hot-zone or hotzone, refers to an area or region that is significantly affected by environmental hazards or risks. It may refer to a location where there is high pollution, contamination, or a concentration of hazardous substances or activities.
The term hot zone was likely coined during the Cold War where it described locations rendered hazardous due to nuclear contamination. The term was later extended to areas or locations considered to be hazardous such as Level-4 biosafety labs, places in which there is active conflict, and so forth.[ citation needed ]
The term hot zone was popularized by the 1995 book The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, and its film adaptation Outbreak , released the same year.[ citation needed ]
The biological zone describes an area or location where there is a risk of exposure to biological agents or contaminants that can cause harm to human health or the environment. It is often associated with situations involving the release, presence, or spread of infectious diseases, pathogens, or biological hazards.
Precautions are taken in a gradient level of protection. [1]
In 2009, the outbreak of swine influenza happened in most places of the whole world. The swine influenza originated from a Mexican woman, and it was transmitted from person to person by air with a rapid speed. North America and Mexico were the first places to be affected by the virus. [2] According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 14,142 deaths of swine influenza, and 1,311,522 people had this virus in their bodies in 2009. Spain, China, the United States, and South Korea are considered to be hot zones of swine influenza. There were 155,051 people who had this virus in Spain, 120,498 in China, 107,939 in United States and 101,182 in South Korea. [3] [ full citation needed ] The people in those areas can very easily get this virus. The virus is transmittable through the air, such as through coughing, sneezing or touching something containing the virus. Epidemics of acute respiratory disease of pigs are caused by the virus disease, swine influenza. Swine influenza belongs to the type A of the family Orthomyxoviridae. The patients with swine influenza virus have symptoms consisting of headaches, chills, fatigue, fever, cough and sore throat. [2]
In Peru deforestation is leading to the distribution of Malaria. With the forests being destroyed the wildlife is as well, leaving malaria looking for a new host. Malaria is a very dangerous disease, so much so that vaccinations are required for traveling into places suspected of housing the disease. Malaria is a disease that is found predominantly in third world, low-income countries. Malaria along with other insect diseases are learning to adapt to life in the city. In Peru a port city called Iquitos the population has been growing in the past 10 years making it prime for mosquitoes to flourish. These mosquitoes also bring in Dengue Fever, in which 5 percent of its victims will die. [4]
With an increased world population in the early 21st century water borne diseases have become the most pressing hot zone. With a lot of the worlds population moving into the city it is hard separating sanitation and clean water. In the early 1990s a cholera epidemic broke out in a fishing village in Lima, Peru. Many thought that this was coming from the seafood, but it was really from the water the seafood was cleaned with. Cholera starts when infected human waste seeps into the water supply of a community. Not having a clean water supply is something that affects a third world country the most, though there are cases of poor water in the States. In Maryland's Chesapeake Bay fisherman have seen a decline in their catch over the last couple of years. A few years ago fisherman of Maryland's Chesapeake Bay area started noticing lesions on the crabs and fish they caught and soon the fisherman were sick themselves. Industrial waste, sewage and pesticides have slowly sunk into the Chesapeake Bay over the past decade. [4]
A chemical hot zone refers to locations where chemical spills or releases have occurred, industrial sites with a high concentration of chemical production or storage, areas affected by chemical accidents or incidents, or regions with ongoing chemical contamination. [5]
In such situations, there may be an increased risk of chemical exposure and potential adverse effects on human health and the environment. [6] The specific chemicals involved in a chemical hot zone can vary, ranging from toxic substances, carcinogens, flammable materials, or volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
To manage and mitigate risks in a chemical hot zone, appropriate safety measures need to be implemented. These may include containment and cleanup procedures, personal protective equipment for workers or responders, monitoring of air and water quality, evacuation or restriction measures, and remediation efforts to reduce or eliminate the presence of hazardous chemicals. [7]
The presence of radioactive contamination poses potential risks to human health and the environment. Exposure to radioactive materials can occur through inhalation, ingestion, or direct contact with contaminated surfaces. The effects can vary depending on the type and amount of radiation, duration of exposure, and individual susceptibility. [8]
Short-term effects of radioactive contamination can include radiation sickness, burns, and acute health effects. Long-term exposure may increase the risk of developing various cancers, genetic mutations, and other chronic health conditions. [9]
Contamination can also have environmental consequences, including damage to ecosystems, disruptions in the food chain, and the persistence of radioactive materials in the environment for extended periods. [10]
In March 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and its accompanying tsunami struck a nuclear power station in Fukushima Daiichi area of northeastern Japan. A number of safety systems were badly damaged by the tsunami leading to a loss-of-coolant (LOCA) event which damaged the nuclear core of several reactors. [11] The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) announced that the subsequent release of radioactivity into atmosphere qualified as the highest level of radiological event scale, INES level 7. [11] The radioactive materials released in Fukushima Daiichi area are mostly iodine-131 and cesium-137. [12]
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency estimated the cancer consequence of the Fukushima Daiichi accident. From the government statistics, around the two million people who live within 80 kilometre radius of the nuclear plate, and about one million people live in areas contaminated with cesium-137. [11]
The loss of coolant further caused hydrogen explosions in the facility. As the fuel temperature went up, zirconium alloy cladding reacted with the hot steam removing oxygen from water molecule, leaving hydrogen gas. The hydrogen gas was ultimately vented off into the reactor building, because of the design of the facility, mixing with air and creating an explosive environment. [11]
Diseases are estimated that thyroid cancer is the main cancer which affected by the nuclear accident. High amount of radioactive iodine mainly causes thyroid cancer, and most of the cases are the result of releasing iodine-131. If people consume food and water contaminated by iodine-131, iodine-131 (which has a half-life of eight days) concentrates in the thyroid. The most contaminated food and drink are raw milk and vegetables in Fukushima Daiichi area. Milk production was blocked after six days of the nuclear explosion. [11]
Nuclear accidents are very serious matters. As you can see from the above statements, they can cause massive panic, disease, and not to mention the fact that humans and other organisms may not be able to inhabit the affected area for many years to come. A perfect example of this is the nuclear accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine. Chernobyl is near Pripyat, Ukraine and also the country of Belarus. Chernobyl is now a ghost town. They had a malfunction with their nuclear power plant, and now there is still a hot zone there. This hot zone actually has a name, the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
Violence can induce a hot zone, as occupants are subject to attacks, crossfire, or even direct fire targeted at them specifically. The most identifiable violent hot zones are in war zones, such as the war in Afghanistan. Soldiers are constantly fighting with other soldiers and insurgents to attempt to accomplish tactical goals. Hot zones are not good places to appear as a member of either of the opposing teams, because one may be prone to attacks or capture. Although war zones may have the most targeted attacks, crime ridden neighborhoods are the most common areas for crossfire to occur, and subsequently the most victims of crossfire are here.
Climate change hot zones, also known as climate change "hotspots," refer to regions that are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. [13] These areas are projected to experience significant changes in temperature, precipitation patterns, sea-level rise, and other climate-related factors. Climate change hot zones can vary depending on the specific impact being considered. [14] The most vulnerable areas are:
Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioactive dust and ash created when a nuclear weapon explodes. The amount and spread of fallout is a product of the size of the weapon and the altitude at which it is detonated. Fallout may get entrained with the products of a pyrocumulus cloud and fall as black rain. This radioactive dust, usually consisting of fission products mixed with bystanding atoms that are neutron-activated by exposure, is a form of radioactive contamination.
A nuclear and radiation accident is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as "an event that has led to significant consequences to people, the environment or the facility." Examples include lethal effects to individuals, large radioactivity release to the environment, or a reactor core melt. The prime example of a "major nuclear accident" is one in which a reactor core is damaged and significant amounts of radioactive isotopes are released, such as in the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
Radioactive contamination, also called radiological pollution, is the deposition of, or presence of radioactive substances on surfaces or within solids, liquids, or gases, where their presence is unintended or undesirable.
Potassium iodide is a chemical compound, medication, and dietary supplement. It is a medication used for treating hyperthyroidism, in radiation emergencies, and for protecting the thyroid gland when certain types of radiopharmaceuticals are used. In the third world it is also used for treating skin sporotrichosis and phycomycosis. It is a supplement used by people with low dietary intake of iodine. It is administered orally.
Iodine-131 is an important radioisotope of iodine discovered by Glenn Seaborg and John Livingood in 1938 at the University of California, Berkeley. It has a radioactive decay half-life of about eight days. It is associated with nuclear energy, medical diagnostic and treatment procedures, and natural gas production. It also plays a major role as a radioactive isotope present in nuclear fission products, and was a significant contributor to the health hazards from open-air atomic bomb testing in the 1950s, and from the Chernobyl disaster, as well as being a large fraction of the contamination hazard in the first weeks in the Fukushima nuclear crisis. This is because 131I is a major fission product of uranium and plutonium, comprising nearly 3% of the total products of fission. See fission product yield for a comparison with other radioactive fission products. 131I is also a major fission product of uranium-233, produced from thorium.
There are 37 known isotopes of iodine (53I) from 108I to 144I; all undergo radioactive decay except 127I, which is stable. Iodine is thus a monoisotopic element.
Caesium-137, cesium-137 (US), or radiocaesium, is a radioactive isotope of caesium that is formed as one of the more common fission products by the nuclear fission of uranium-235 and other fissionable isotopes in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. Trace quantities also originate from spontaneous fission of uranium-238. It is among the most problematic of the short-to-medium-lifetime fission products. Caesium-137 has a relatively low boiling point of 671 °C (1,240 °F) and easily becomes volatile when released suddenly at high temperature, as in the case of the Chernobyl nuclear accident and with atomic explosions, and can travel very long distances in the air. After being deposited onto the soil as radioactive fallout, it moves and spreads easily in the environment because of the high water solubility of caesium's most common chemical compounds, which are salts. Caesium-137 was discovered by Glenn T. Seaborg and Margaret Melhase.
The 1986 Chernobyl disaster triggered the release of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere in the form of both particulate and gaseous radioisotopes. As of 2024, it was the world's largest known release of radioactivity into the environment.
Nuclear power has various environmental impacts, both positive and negative, including the construction and operation of the plant, the nuclear fuel cycle, and the effects of nuclear accidents. Nuclear power plants do not burn fossil fuels and so do not directly emit carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide emitted during mining, enrichment, fabrication and transport of fuel is small when compared with the carbon dioxide emitted by fossil fuels of similar energy yield, however, these plants still produce other environmentally damaging wastes. Nuclear energy and renewable energy have reduced environmental costs by decreasing CO2 emissions resulting from energy consumption.
Christopher Busby is a British scientist primarily studying the health effects of internal ionising radiation. Busby is a director of Green Audit Limited, a private company, and scientific advisor to the Low Level Radiation Campaign (LLRC).
Fukushima Daiichi is a multi-reactor nuclear power site in the Fukushima Prefecture of Japan. A nuclear disaster occurred there after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami on 11 March 2011. The earthquake triggered a scram shut down of the three active reactors, and the ensuing tsunami crippled the site, stopped the backup diesel generators, and caused a station blackout. The subsequent lack of cooling led to explosions and meltdowns, with problems at three of the six reactors and in one of the six spent-fuel pools.
The radiation effects from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster are the observed and predicted effects as a result of the release of radioactive isotopes from the Fukushima Daiichii Nuclear Power Plant following the 2011 Tōhoku 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami. The release of radioactive isotopes from reactor containment vessels was a result of venting in order to reduce gaseous pressure, and the discharge of coolant water into the sea. This resulted in Japanese authorities implementing a 30-km exclusion zone around the power plant and the continued displacement of approximately 156,000 people as of early 2013. The number of evacuees has declined to 49,492 as of March 2018. Radioactive particles from the incident, including iodine-131 and caesium-134/137, have since been detected at atmospheric radionuclide sampling stations around the world, including in California and the Pacific Ocean.
The Japanese reaction occurred after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. A nuclear emergency was declared by the government of Japan on 11 March. Later Prime Minister Naoto Kan issued instructions that people within a 20 km (12 mi) zone around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant must leave, and urged that those living between 20 km and 30 km from the site to stay indoors. The latter groups were also urged to evacuate on 25 March.
The Fukushima disaster cleanup is an ongoing attempt to limit radioactive contamination from the three nuclear reactors involved in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster that followed the earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011. The affected reactors were adjacent to one another and accident management was made much more difficult because of the number of simultaneous hazards concentrated in a small area. Failure of emergency power following the tsunami resulted in loss of coolant from each reactor, hydrogen explosions damaging the reactor buildings, and water draining from open-air spent fuel pools. Plant workers were put in the position of trying to cope simultaneously with core meltdowns at three reactors and exposed fuel pools at three units.
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident genshiryoku hatsudensho jiko) was a series of equipment failures, nuclear meltdowns, and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011. It was the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, and the radiation released exceeded official safety guidelines. Despite this, there were no deaths caused by acute radiation syndrome. Given the uncertain health effects of low-dose radiation, cancer deaths cannot be ruled out. However, studies by the World Health Organization and Tokyo University have shown that no discernible increase in the rate of cancer deaths is expected. Predicted future cancer deaths due to accumulated radiation exposures in the population living near Fukushima have ranged in the academic literature from none to hundreds.
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster genshiryoku hatsudensho jiko) was a series of equipment failures, nuclear meltdowns, and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011. It is the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.
Nuclear labor issues exist within the international nuclear power industry and the nuclear weapons production sector worldwide, impacting upon the lives and health of laborers, itinerant workers and their families.
The Chernobyl disaster remains the major and most detrimental nuclear catastrophe which completely altered the radioactive background of the Northern Hemisphere. It happened in April 1986 on the territory of the former Soviet Union. The catastrophe led to the increase of radiation in nearly one million times in some parts of Europe and North America compared to the pre-disaster state. Air, water, soils, vegetation and animals were contaminated to a varying degree. Apart from Ukraine and Belarus as the worst hit areas, adversely affected countries included Russia, Austria, Finland and Sweden. The full impact on the aquatic systems, including primarily adjacent valleys of Pripyat river and Dnieper river, are still unexplored.
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