Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
times more likely to be victims than males since they were mainly looking after
children and were less mobile.
95
Human-Created Hazards
The threat from environmental hazards needs to be complemented, albeit briefly,
by those derived directly from human activity, since disasters from such causes
can also be mitigated by the risk reduction and relief schemes developed to cope
with natural events. Throughout history major disasters in cities came from the col-
lapse of poorly constructed buildings, and even more from the conflagrations due
to human carelessness, combined with high densities and wooden buildings, that
destroyed much of London in 1666, or the major 1657 fire in Edo (now Tokyo)
that destroyed over two-thirds of the city—although this was only one of scores of
major fires in that city's history. Today new building regulations and effective fire
services have reduced the widespread risk of fires in developed world cities but our
technological progress has created new ones, given the complexity of industrial
processes and their products and the possibility that things can go wrong. Some of
these come directly from various failures from our technology, such as the collapse
of buildings and infrastructures, spills from toxic chemicals or oil wells, fires from
broken electricity or gas lines—some of which may be triggered by a natural pro-
cess. In general increased attention to safety procedures, building regulations and
rapid deployment of fire engines and medical services, has drastically reduced the
impact of potential disasters from human causes, although they still occur. Through
time these standards have become more rigorous while recognition of new prob-
lems have been identified, such as the health hazards of lead in paint and petrol,
asbestos in insulation, which led to bans of their use. More generally the pioneering
work of Rachel Carson (
1962
), in exposing the negative effects of so many man-
made chemicals in the 1960s, eventually focused attention on these deadly issues,
leading to increasingly rigorous policies to reduce the problems they have caused,
at least in the developed world. Unfortunately there are still many places in the
world where inadequate safety procedures lead to unnecessary deaths, such as the
appalling safety record in many Chinese coal mines and the pollution from many
new industrial factories in developing countries where safety regulations, especially
over the release of toxic chemicals, are either few or routinely ignored. However
there are signs of change in some countries. After years of denial of the problem
and repressing information, a Chinese government 5 year environmental report in
February 2013 admitted that there may be over 3000 places in the country, so called
'cancer villages,' where cancer rates have spiked because of high levels of chemical
pollution from negligent factories (Dewey
2013
). Even in the developed world the
aging of the city infrastructure and the lack of plans and finance for regular replace-
ment provides another source of potential accidents leading to death and injury. So
there is still a lot of room for improvement and vigilance. Moreover it must not be
forgotten that it is only 30 years since the pioneering efforts of Erin Brockovich
