Chemical Disaster of Methyl Isocyanate Leakage

화학물질 누출에 의한 대량재해 - Methyl Isocyanate 누출을 중심으로 -

Background : We are in the edge of some human made disasters such as hazardous materials and air pollution, for example, the world news reported that the city of Bhopal, India had serious victims related with a leaking out of the chemical materials, Methyl Isocyanate and many people in India were killed by. These situations many people who live in this world are world are worrying about are not others, but just ours and people consider about that kind of the disasters are the possible situation to happen to all the people. Therefore, we performed this basic study to recognize the risk of Methyl Isocyanate leak accident and to prepare local disaster plan with EMS system. Method : Trace 8.0, a simulation software made by the U.S. company Safer System was used as a tool to estimate the diffusion distance, area and its victims at the concentrations of 0.02ppm, 0.2ppm 5ppm respectively for an assumed B-city of 2 hundred thousands population count in which was presumed 500kg Methyl Isocyanate gas to leak out. Results : 1. During 1 hour, maximum diffusion distances of 0.02ppm 0.2ppm and 5ppm were 5.41km, 1.61km and 0.29km respectively on the plume impact. 2. Maximum population counts influenced by Methyl Isocyanate gas at the concentrations of 0.02ppm 0.2ppm and 5ppm were 40838, 4346 and 222 on the plume impact, while those were 138238, 17261 and 1588 on the vulnerability impact, respectively. 3. Therefore, 17261 persons must put on respiratory device and 138283 persons must be evacuated to safety place within 1 hour. Conclusions : Only small amount leak of Methyl Isocyanate may cause tremendous chemical disaster in urban area, so its disaster plan must be prepared with an accident simulation program and Material Safety Data Sheets(MSDS). Especially, nearby emergency center of an industrial complex must have a strong position about preparation of chemical disaster plan and perform a disaster dill of hazardous material accident annually.