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Staßfurt, Saxony-Anhalt Environmental health threats

Philipp Baum

1. Long-term threats, legacy of mining
- Unstable old salt mines below Stassfurt that have to be monitored and water flows have to be management to prevent ground movement
- so far, more than 800 buildings, including an 500-year old church had to be demolished. Currently, ground movement is under control
- 27 waste heaps and contaminted sites within the city that contain many very hazadous chemical compunds. They were never properly cleaned up

2. Long-term threats, ongoing causes
- by-products of salt mining and refining are collected in large landfills that leak salt into sorrounding areas. There are no plans how these landfills can be remediated, they have to be mananged indenfinitely
- soil erosion of arable land around the city by high intensity farming of crops for livestock production and bioenergy
- toxic waste produced by waste incarceration plant is pumped into former salt mining caves where it solidifies and becomes impossible to recover

3. Short term threats
- explosion in bionenergy plant in 2020
- leakage of ammonia at public street in 2014
- pollution of river bode with ammonia and chloride by CHIECH Soda, massive fish kills every summer
- air pollution, cause unknown, probably mostly by metalworks industry

Staßfurt, Saxony-Anhalt Setting: Salt-mining

Philipp Baum

Staßfurt is a small city in the East German Bundesland Saxony-Anhalt with about 24 thousand inhabitants. Like many cities and villages in the area, it faces huge demographic problems: The population is shrinking rapidly, consists mostly of older people, unemployment is high, percentage of highly educated people is low. The city has a long history of salt mining that goes back to the 13th century. Many inhabitants proudly refer to Staßfurt as the "Cradle of potash-mining" ("Wiege des Kalibergbaus"). Unfilled salt mining shafts that were flooded by groundwater had to be abandoned and started to cave in. Over 800 buildings in the city center had to be demolished because of instabilities, among them a 500-year old church. Nevertheless, salt mining and a metallic industry that developed alongside it is still the largest economic sector in Staßfurt. The city is still permeated by an old mining culture that becomes visible in traditional festivals, clubs (Bergmannsverein e.V. Staßfurt) and the playing of traditional miner's song on offical occasions (Steigerlied).

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tamar.rogoszinski

Research into historical case studies provided Knowles with the information to produce the research article. The only modern situation investigated was 9/11. Previous disasaters in history provided a basis with which to form the arguments about past disaster investigations and how they relate to the current ongoing investigations. 

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tamar.rogoszinski
  1. "One might be tempted to see this as a medically virtuous circle, ... but one has to be conscious that it institutes the body as the immigrant's site of ultimate truth."
  2. "These represent two contrasting approaches to the doctor's civic responsibility. However contradictory, the differing positions nevertheless reveal, each in its own way, how these professionals situated their medical expert opinion in a political space where the deontological points of reference had becommed blurred."
  3. "...the organic importance of the body, is, basically, nothing more than the importance of the body as organ, or in other words, first as labor power, and only then as a form of self-presentation."
  4. "....era in which demand for foreign labor made immigration a social necessity seems now so remote, the immigrant's body was entirely legitimized through its function as an instrument of production, the performance of which was interrupted by illness or accident."

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tamar.rogoszinski

The argument is supported through various anecdotes and testimonials. The authors use quotes from various victims in order to highlight the ways in which they were affected by Katrina. Notably, Sally, a 56-year-old woman from St. Bernard Parish who was still living in a FEMA trailer 50 miles from her original residence 2 1/2 years after the storm was interviewed. She talks about the living conditions post-Katrina. She describes families being torn apart, the National Guard using unnecessary force, and dead bodies floating in the water. The authors also use statistics and facts in order to back up their point about the horrendous conditions the survivors were in post-Katrina. A psychological and anthropological analysis also helps strengthen their argument regarding chronic disaster syndrome.

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tamar.rogoszinski
  1. "First, disasters threaten harm or death to a large group of people, regardless of the actual extent of lives lost (48). Second, they affect social processes, causing disruption of services and social networks and communal loss of resources (42, 50). Third, they involve secondary consequences, namely identifiable mental and physical health outcomes, among those affected"
  2. "Having the capacity to continue functioning after a traumatic event is common and characteristic of normal coping and adaptation"
  3. "The key functions of pre-disaster preparation efforts are to prevent or minimize exposure to potentially traumatic disaster-related events and reduce likelihood of additional post-disaster stressors, which are both associated with post-disaster mental disorders."

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tamar.rogoszinski

Sonja D. Schmid uses data pertaining international response to the disaster that occurred in Fukushima. She uses references and information gathered that has to do with the reactions of various leaders. She uses past situations and opinions in order to formulate her conclusion and claim that there is a need for an international nuclear emergency response plan. She pulls from examples that show that many organizations that tried in the past to create a plan failed due to the lack of international authority.