Hurricanes’ chemical consequences | Chemistry World | Prévention du risque chimique | Scoop.it

Gulf coast petrochemical plants move to restart operations, while concerns persist about the fallout from hurricane Irma.


As petrochemical plants in southeast Texas and other areas affected by hurricane Harvey move to restart operations, there are concerns about chemical fallout from its successor, hurricane Irma, which battered much of Florida with winds of up 130 miles per hour.


Environmental groups say hurricane Irma presents hazards because of the large number of potential sources of toxic pollution across Florida. These include phosphate mines and Superfund sites – areas identified by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as contaminated by hazardous waste posing a risk to human health or the environment.