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Health risk posed by airborne chemical release

veralaub

It was reported, that one worker at the industrial park was suffering from eye irritation, following the release of hydrogen chloride. He had to be treated at the outpatient clinic of the industrial parks' Occupational Health Center, and could go home afterwards. There is no further information of long-term effects the worker might have suffered from to be found on the internet, according to my search. However, eye irritation induced by chemical exposure can lead to effects such as increased eye pressure and a following reduction of vision, as well as chronic pain.

I am wondering, how this worker got hurt, as this was not reported in the article. Usually, workers need to wear proper protective equipment in areas in which one risks exosure to airborne chemicals that can cause corrosion, including protective goggles. As can be read in a follow-up article (https://www.fnp.de/frankfurt/frankfurt-gas-trat-aus-weil-ein-rohrleitun…), a pipeline malfunction had been found as the reason for the release, possibly in an area where no protective equipment is required? I can only speculate on this, but the worker seems not have been informed about the incident.

Missing information seems to be a common theme in this case, in the aforementioned article it is also reported that the smartphone application that is supposed to warn residents about such incidents, released a warning only 50 minutes after the sirenes had been going off. Also it is written in the article, that after the incident the citizen telephone line was busy, such that some callers could not get the information they required, and that many residents are not familiar with the meaning of the different signals released by the warning sirene. In case this or similar incidents happen in the future, they therefore pose a grave health risk to the surrounding population.

Stakeholders at industrial park and in Hoechst

veralaub

In this setting, several stakeholders are to be identified:

- Citizens living in Hoechst and surrounding areas and workers at the industrial park: Necessitate information to ensure their safety.

- Infraserv and companies at industrial park: Bad press is bad for image of industrial park, whcih might lead to political or financial consequences; Centralization of information flow on website "ihr-nachbar.de" to create narrative?

- Fire department Frankfurt: Responsibilities as first responders to incidents include information release to public and combat incident.

- Public media/ press: Information of the population as well as economic pressure to release notions that are of interest to public (to gain clicks/sell magazines and newspapers); Need to report correctly to gain/keep trust of potential information consumers.

- Local politicians: Need to take political measures to protect citizens to gain/keep trust of potential voters; Possibly also require good relationship with Infraserv and companies, as many high-profile companies are located at industrail park bringing in tax money.

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KRISTIJONAS.KERTENIS

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“Today I announced $5 billion in funds to rebuild New Jersey and New York and here at NJIT tonight are the most remarkable design minds in the world,” said Donovan. “I spoke to President Obama for an hour about this design competition and he said this is exactly what the nation needs -- designers collaborating with government officials and residents affected by the storm. That’s the best way to rebuild and it’s our goal at HUD.”

Earlier in the day, the 10 design teams presented as many as five ideas to a jury assembled by Rebuild by Design, a Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force allied with HUD. The teams had three months to research their design ideas.  Early next month, the jury will select one idea -- the best idea -- from each team. The teams will focus on refining those ideas and the competition will continue into 2014, when HUD will decide which team or teams to fund.   "

"James Giresi, one of the students, said that Theodore’s class gave him the opportunity to get hands-on, real-life experience.  His team visited the Jersey shore several times, studying the ecology of the lowlands and the highlands, as well as the demographics of the residents living along the coast. After they gathered their research, they shared their findings with Theodore and the Dutch experts on her team"

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stephanie.niev…

A year after Hurricane Sandy, ten different design groups, filled with designers, architects, planners and engineers, decided to gather at NJIT to discuss ways on how to make Newark less vulnerable to hurricanes and other natural disasters. One team was lead by a professor at NJIT, who had four different proposals that will protect a wide portion of the coasts of New Jersey. Each of the teams came up with several ideas on how to make Newark more resilient to natural disasters.

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stephanie.niev…

There were several professional design teams a part of reaching a solution to make Newark more resilient to hurricanes. Among these groups, there was a group of students that had helped in planning. One of the teacher's in charge of a design group from NJIT had been teaching a master’s class in infrastructure planning. There were 15 students in the class that had helped her in her design strategies. After being into seven different teams, the students went out and did research in towns that were deeply affected by Hurricane Sandy. There were a range of majors among the students, from architecture to design or planning. Each student used his or her own knowledge and separate disciplines to come up with ideas to aid areas that were affected by Sandy.