88: Contamination

We continue on the path of environmental chemistry, with several egregious examples of pollution in the 1980s. First is the story of Times Beach, Missouri, USA, its contamination, discovery, and evacuation. Second is the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, which had structural weaknesses leading to an explosion blanketing the city with toxic gas. Third is the explosion of the nuclear reactor in Chornobyl, Ukraine, and the spread of radioactive elements across the area and much of northern Europe.Support the showSupport my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistryTell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at [email protected] my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook