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23-629: In October 2010, the Marcal was contaminated in a chemical spill by red mud and temporarily suffered massive loss of aquatic life, from which it has since recovered. This Veszprém county location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to a river in Hungary is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Ajka alumina plant accident The Ajka alumina plant accident in October 2010

46-679: A toxic substance that is insufficient to cause a chemical burn can still be very serious, and the lack of a noticeable effect from a chemical exposure is not an indication of safety, particularly in the case of chronic exposure . The exact symptoms of a chemical burn depend on the chemical involved. Symptoms include itching, bleaching or darkening of skin, burning sensations, trouble breathing , coughing blood and/or tissue necrosis . Common sources of chemical burns include sulfuric acid (H 2 SO 4 ), hydrochloric acid (HCl), sodium hydroxide (NaOH), lime (CaO), silver nitrate (AgNO 3 ), and hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ). Effects depend on

69-466: A scientific advisory report on public health policy. The Superior Health Council of Belgium provides an overview of products that are authorized in Belgium for consumer use and that contain caustic substances, as well as of the risks linked to exposure to these products. This report aims at suggesting protection measures for the consumers, and formulates recommendations that apply to the different stages of

92-473: A secondary dam beyond the remainder of the original had been almost entirely completed, after being built to contain additional sludge that was expected to overflow after another portion of the original dam collapsed. On 13 October, the government nationalized the company, the bill making this possible having been passed by the Parliament one day earlier. In 2019, a criminal negligence case closed with

115-643: The Marcal joins the Rába river just above Győr , in Győr-Moson-Sopron County , while the Rába itself joins the Danube at Győr. The day after the accident, Environmental State Secretary Zoltán Illés ordered the suspension of the alumina production at the plant and the reconstruction of the dam. The following day, the chairman of the company said in a radio interview that he would like to restart production over

138-596: The Tornar and Marcal rivers are considered minor. On 11 October, the Hungarian government announced that the managing director of MAL had been arrested, to be charged with "criminal negligence leading to a public catastrophe". Also on the 11th, the government took control of MAL, appointing a commissioner to manage the company. The government planned to focus on compensation for the incident, job security, and identifying further locations at risk of accidents. Apart from

161-495: The accident came after a particularly wet summer in Hungary, as in other parts of central Europe. Police have seized documents from the Ajkai Timföldgyár plant, although a spokesman for MAL Hungarian Aluminium ( MAL Magyar Alumínium Termelő és Kereskedelmi Zrt. ), the company that operates the plant, said the last inspection of the pond had shown "nothing untoward". Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that

184-429: The amounts of different elements, not necessarily the actual solids). Unlike many other mine tailings , red mud does not contain very high levels of heavy metals , although still about seven times the levels in normal soil. Analyses of the mud at Kolontár on behalf of Greenpeace showed levels of chromium 660 mg/kg, arsenic 110 mg/kg and mercury 1.2 mg/kg. The Hungarian government has stated that

207-476: The burns and inflammation hours after the contact. Chemical fabrication , mining , medicine , and related professional fields are examples of occupations where chemical burns may occur. Hydrofluoric acid leaches into the bloodstream, reacts with calcium and magnesium, and the resulting salts can cause cardiac arrest after eating through skin. In Belgium, the Conseil Supérieur de la Santé gives

230-464: The cause of the spill was presumably human error . The red mud involved in the accident is a waste product of the Bayer process , which refines bauxite into a form of aluminium oxide called alumina. The mud primarily contains non-aluminium compounds present in the bauxite ore and left as residues after its refining along with sodium hydroxide used to dissolve aluminium oxide. Iron(III) oxide ,

253-431: The compound from which the red colour originates, is the main component, but it also contains other compounds. The mud, which is highly alkaline when it is first produced, is stored in large open-air ponds; It is thought that there are about 30 million tonnes of red mud stored around the Ajkai Timföldgyár plant. According to a press release by MAL, the mud had the following chemical percentage make-up (which expresses

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276-886: The conviction of 10 people - managerial staff and employees - who were found guilty for security protocol infractions relating to waste storage and processing. Chemical burn A chemical burn occurs when living tissue is exposed to a corrosive substance (such as a strong acid , base or oxidizer ) or a cytotoxic agent (such as mustard gas , lewisite or arsine ). Chemical burns follow standard burn classification and may cause extensive tissue damage. The main types of irritant and/or corrosive products are: acids, bases, oxidizers / reducing agents, solvents , and alkylants. Additionally, chemical burns can be caused by biological toxins (such as anthrax toxin ) and by some types of cytotoxic chemical weapons , e.g., vesicants such as mustard gas and Lewisite , or urticants such as phosgene oxime . Chemical burns may: Exposure to

299-546: The flow was powerful enough to move cars and vans. The cause of death of the Kolontár victims has not been formally confirmed; a spokesman for the National Directorate General for Disaster Management (NDGDM, Országos Katasztrófavédelmi Főigazgatóság ) said that they had probably drowned. A further six people were still missing 24 hours after the accident. The NDGDM said that the high-pH mud

322-564: The high pH of the mud, which was responsible for both severe chemical burns to humans and animals and killing specimens in the rivers and in the contaminated soils. However, after dissipation of acute effects by dilution and progressive carbonation of the sodium hydroxide by CO 2 from the air, the chronic toxicity of heavy metal traces is expected to be limited by their low solubility and high sorption under slightly alkaline conditions. The wave of mud flooded streets in Kolontár, where seven people were confirmed dead, and Devecser, where

345-537: The immediate effects of the wave of red mud, there was also concern for a possible contamination of Hungary's waterways. The Torna ( Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈtornɒ] ) river runs through the affected area, and emergency workers were pouring tonnes of plaster into the waterway to try to bind the sludge and prevent it from continuing downstream. The Torna joins the Marcal ( Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈmɒrt͡sɒl] ) river at Karakó , in Vas County ;

368-473: The mud is "not poisonous", and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences stated that the heavy metal concentrations were not considered dangerous for the environment. In a different news article, the taskforce established to sample the red mud reported high levels of heavy metals in certain samples, but concluded no locations were "dangerously high." The main damage caused by the accident first arose from

391-603: The mud was not considered to contain toxic elements according to EU standards. Initial measurements by the NDGDM showed the sludge to be extremely basic , with a pH value of 13. The waste initially resulted in massive death to wildlife in and around the Marcal river. The spill reached the Danube on 7 October, prompting countries located further down the river ( Croatia , Serbia , Romania , Bulgaria ) to develop emergency plans in response. The long term effects on sediments in

414-509: The request for expert assistance to the 30 participating countries ( 27 EU member states , Iceland , Liechtenstein , Norway ). The former director of the MAL plant, Zoltán Bakonyi, and 14 other employees were arrested over charges of negligence, violations of waste management and environmental pollution on 11 October 2010, but were acquitted of all charges in January 2016. By 12 October 2010,

437-496: The substance; hydrogen peroxide removes a bleached layer of skin, while nitric acid causes a characteristic color change to yellow in the skin, and silver nitrate produces noticeable black stains. Chemical burns may occur through direct contact on body surfaces, including skin and eyes, via inhalation, and/or by ingestion. Substances that diffuse efficiently in human tissue, e.g., hydrofluoric acid , sulfur mustard , and dimethyl sulfate , may not react immediately, but instead produce

460-608: The weekend (5–6 days after the Monday accident); the plant reopened on 15 October, with full production expected to resume by the 19th. The Hungarian government initially estimated that cleanup would take at least a year and cost tens of millions of dollars. The Hungarian Government activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism for urgent international assistance at 7:36PM on 7 October. The European Union Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC) communicated

483-456: Was a caustic waste reservoir chain collapse at the Ajkai Timföldgyár alumina plant in Ajka , Veszprém County , in western Hungary . On 4 October 2010, at 12:25  CEST (10:25  UTC ), the northwestern corner of the dam of reservoir number 10 collapsed, releasing approximately one million cubic metres (35 million cubic feet) of liquid waste from red mud lakes. The mud

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506-483: Was considered hazardous and would cause an alkaline reaction on contact if not washed off with clean water. The mayor of Devecser said that 80–90 people had been taken to hospital with chemical burns. Péter Jakabos, a doctor in the hospital in Győr where many of the injured had been taken, said on Magyar Televízió that it might take days for the full extent of any burns to be realised. Magyar Alumínium (MAL) said that

529-429: Was released as a 1–2 m (3–7 ft) wave, flooding several nearby localities, including the village of Kolontár and the town of Devecser . Ten people died, and 150 people were injured. About 40 square kilometres (15 sq mi) of land were initially affected. The spill reached the Danube on 7 October 2010. It was not initially clear how the containment at the reservoir had been breached, although

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