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Last week Ukraine suffered its worst man-made accident since the Chornobyl nuclear disaster when a freight train carrying highly toxic yellow phosphorous derailed and burst into flames in western Ukraine releasing a giant cloud of highly toxic material into the atmosphere. A 90 square-kilometre area containing 14 villages was contaminated. At the time of going to press, 152 people, including rescue workers and residents, were hospitalised, 43 of whom were children. Of the 11,000 people living in the area, only 815 were evacuated.

“Ukraine has suffered another terrible disaster,” said Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk. “After Chornobyl, we are again confronted with a grave catastrophe which may pose a serious threat to our people.”

The train, which was en route from Kazakhstan to Poland, left the rails on Monday 16 July at around 5 pm local time, 80 kilometres east of Lviv on the Krasne-Ozhydov line. Of the train’s 58 cars, which contained 500 tonnes of yellow phosphorous – a highly toxic substance which spontaneously combusts when in contact with air at temperatures over 40 degrees centigrade – 15 overturned and six caught fire. Radiation, chemical and bacteriological troops were put on alert to perform clean-up operations if required. Defence officials were ready to deploy a military mobile hospital and send military helicopters and a special flying hospital to the site.

Local residents were advised to stay inside and close windows, not to use well water, eat vegetables from their gardens, or drink milk produced by their cows. Outdoor food markets in Lviv were temporarily closed.

Firefighters managed to extinguish the fire the next day, but by that time the phosphorous content in the air was ten times over the safety level.

A special governmental commission was sent to the scene to determine the cause of the accident with three possibilities being examined more closely: track condition, rolling-stock condition, and violation of freight rules. The possibility that the accident was caused by an act of terrorism was considered highly unlikely, but Kuzmuk said he could not rule it out. Transport Minister Mykola Rudkovskiy said that the train driver reported hearing an unusual noise shortly before the crash. Prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation and President Viktor Yushchenko has allowed ten days for cleaning up the site.

Local officials called for calm, saying residents were under no threat as a result of the crash, but ecologists strongly disagreed. Oksana Mariskevych, director of the Carpathians Ecology Institute, urged authorities to evacuate all residents from the affected area, saying that phosphorous vapour could do considerable damage considering the hot weather. “The situation is rather serious. Yellow phosphorous attacks the bones. There should be many medics there to spot the early signs of phosphorous poisoning, which are loss of appetite and tiredness quickly followed by jaundice and more serious conditions. All the people should be evacuated immediately,” she said.

Local residents have already reported suffering from soar throats, headaches and nausea, and medical experts expect the number of victims to increase on a daily basis as the signs of poisoning take two to four days to develop.

Yellow phosphorous emits a characteristic garlic smell when it burns and if ingested can cause damage to the liver, myocardium, blood vessels and kidneys and can also cause irreversible brain damage. Early signs of phosphorous poisoning are a burning sensation in the mouth, nausea, vomiting and stomach pains which are followed with vomiting blood, hemorrhage, sever anemia and finally death. Yellow phosphorous vapours will cause eye irritation, respiratory tract damage and severe skin burns. Phosphorous compounds are mainly used in fertilisers, but they are also important components of pesticides, toothpaste, detergents, explosives, nerve agents and fireworks.

As well as concerns for the local population, authorities are very worried about where the cloud will go next. “God only knows where the phosphorous cloud will go, it might cover Poland as well,” said ecologist Volodymyr Boreyko. He also warned about possible environmental damage. “Subsoil waters will be contaminated and rains will wash toxic substances down into the rivers. These are short-term aftereffects. It is hard to predict the long term effects,” he said.

Ukraine’s worst man-made accidents

The world’s worst nuclear accident occurred in Ukraine on April 26, 1986, when reactor number four at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant north of Kyiv exploded, releasing a radioactive cloud that covered Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and much of Europe. Thirty-one people died within the first two months as a direct result of the accident. More than 20 years later, over several thousand Ukrainians still suffer from Chornobyl-related diseases, including 255,000 ‘liquidators’ who took part in the clean-up operations, and 106,000 people are recieving invalidity benefit as a result of the tragedy. The UN health agency has estimated that approximately 4,000 people could die from cancers caused by Chornobyl’s radiation. Some groups, however, such as Greenpeace, insist the toll could be ten times higher.

In 1988, hundreds of children in Chernivtsi aged from six months to 15 years were hospitalised with a mysterious malady that caused hair loss and nervous disorders. The cause was eventually traced to thallium exposure. Until this day, no one is exactly sure where the thallium came from. According to scientific reports, the possibilities were several, including octane added to fuel for cars, improperly stored chemicals, and hazardous chemicals polluting various locations in the city and the Dnister River.

On October 4, 2001, the Russian Tu-154 airplane, en route from Tel Aviv to the Russian Siberian city of Novosibirsk, was mistakenly shot down by a Ukrainian S-200 missile and plunged into the Black Sea coast off Russia killing all 78 people on board. The accident happened during military exercises in Crimea. Initially, Ukrainian authorities strongly denied any wrongdoing, but the weight of evidence was too strong and responsibility was later admitted.

In May 2004, explosions ripped through a munitions dump in the village of Novobohdanivka in south-east Ukraine killing five people, injuring dozens, and forcing the evacuation of some 10,000 residents from within a 10-kilometre radius. Flames reached a height of 300 metres at the depot – only 40 kilometres from one of Europe’s biggest nuclear power stations – launching burning debris into the skies which reportedly rained down as far as 10 kilometres away. Buildings were destroyed within a three-kilometre radius including a local railway station. A state of emergency was declared in Melitopol, the nearest major city.