Last week, several towns in western Hungary were flooded with a red toxic sludge from an aluminum plant after a reservoir brimming with the toxic sludge, a byproduct from aluminum processing, overtook the levee designed to contain it, flooding two villages 100 miles southwest of Budapest. So far it’s killed four people, injured 120 (manly causing burns to the skin and eyes), and seven people are missing. The red sludge has high levels of caustic material and the sludge contains heavy metals, including lead, is slightly radioactive, and toxic if ingested; inhaling the dust can cause lung cancer. People exposed to it suffered burns as it soaked their clothing, with one report of a man being burned to the bone. In addition cars were swept from the roads, with bridges and houses damaged. Emergency workers have poured 1,000 tons of plaster into the Marcal river to try to bind the sludge that burst from a waste reservoir to keep it from flowing to the Danube, some 45 miles away. Hungary’s environment minister, Zoltan Illes, said that the cleanup could cost tens of millions of pounds and take at least a year. The environmental disaster scale is yet to be fully realized.
Written by Greenista Girl Brianne
Photo by APBela Szandelszky
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