Hungary’s toxic flood could turn into a cancerous cloud
Caroline Gammell
The damage so far has come from the mud but with dry, hot weather and strong winds forecast over the next few days, the environmental disaster is expected to spread.
Environmentalists said high levels of arsenic and mercury, which can cause cancer, had been found in water polluted by the ooze and that, if airborne, this could enter the human respiratory system.
The scale of the pollution – where 180 million gallons escaped from an industrial reservoir – has been compared with the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a leak of 200 million gallons. Seven people have died, one person is missing and 150 people have been injured since the torrent of sludge was unleashed at an alumina plant in Ajka, 100 miles west of Budapest, on Monday. Many of the injured suffered chemical burns.
Hungarian officials played down the severity of the disaster, insisting that the Danube – Europe’s second longest river – was safe. Water tests are being carried out in Serbia and Croatia, where the Danube flows downstream.
Viktor Orban, the prime minister, said: “We managed to take control of the situation in time.”
Emergency workers have spent five days trying to contain the leak, pouring acid and clay into the tributaries of the Danube to neutralise the alkaline from the flood.
The villages of Kolontar and Devecser were among the worst hit. About 2,000 acres of soil will have to be dug up.
Zoltan Illes, Hungary’s environment minister, conceded that the flood did contain “a high content of heavy metals”, some of which could cause cancer.
Tibor Dobson, the head of Hungary’s disaster relief services, urged residents near the flood area to wear face masks.
Greenpeace warned of arsenic, chromium and “excessive” mercury in the water, which could be absorbed by fish, as well as cause long term environmental damage. Levels of arsenic in water taken from Kolontar on Tuesday were 25 times higher than the legal drinking water limit. Herwig Schuster, a Greenpeace chemist, said “the arsenic level was double what is usually contained in such red sludge”.
Barbara Szalai Szita, who lives in Devecser, said: “If I spend 30 minutes outside, I get a foul taste in my mouth and my tongue feels strange.”
All life in the nearby Marcal river has been killed and dead fish were seen floating into the Danube.
MAL Hungarian Aluminium Production and Trade, which owns the factory, said it had set aside €110,000 (£96,000) for the clean-up. It offered its condolences to the bereaved but insisted it had done nothing wrong.
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Oct. 8, 2010