PARENT SESSION

1D - Soil and Sediment Contamination
Poster Hall
8:30 AM - Tuesday, 29 April 2003
Chair: Van Noort, P.¹, ¹
Co-chair: Gerhardt, A.², Gerhardt, A.², ²

(TUP/29) PCDDs/Fs in the vicinity of Spolana Neratovice, Czech Republic.

Holoubek, Ivan¹, Cupr, Pavel¹, Jech, Libor², Ocelka, Tomas³, Kuzilek, Vladimir⁴, Vacha, Radim⁵, Matousek, Jiri¹, Kocan, Anton⁶, Skarek, M.¹, ¹ Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, Czech Republic² AXYS-Varilab, Praha, Czech Republic, Czech Republic³ State Institute of Health, Frydek-Mistek, Czech Republic, Czech Republic⁴ Water Reasearch Institute, Praha, Czech Republic, Czech Republic⁵ RIMSP, Praha, Czech Republic, Czech Republic⁶ Institute of Preventive and Clinical Medicine, Bratislava, Slovakia, Slovakia

ABSTRACT- The chemical factory of Spolana Neratovice is situated approximately 25 km north of Prague at the Elbe River. It produced in the period of 1965-68 the chlorine herbicide 2,4,5-T and chlorinated phenols. During the production due to breaking technological conditions, a huge amount of dioxins (in particular, the most toxic 2,3,7,8-TCDD) was formed and former factory buildings containing products, intermediates, installations, etc. belong currently to the most dioxin-contaminated sites on the globe. Moreover, soil in the factory is highly contaminated with organochlorine pesticides produced there, as well. The 2,4,5-T and chlorophenols production was stopped in 1968 when about 80 cases of occupational diseases developed (55 workers were hospitalized mainly with severe chloracne manifestations and porphyria). Chemical analysis proved an extremely a high degree of the contamination of waste products stored in production buildings, building walls and floors, air, soil and ground water. The highest concentration of dioxins (over 24 ppm of 2378-TCDD) was measured in the residues of chemical substances. It is assumed that there are tons of the waste stored in the buildings. The Spolana factory including some of the dioxin-contaminated buildings were flooded in 2002 and one can expect dioxin release into agricultural fields and Elbe River and its sediment. An extend of environmental contamination were mapped in detail without delay as well as to start with the definitive solution of dioxin-contaminated buildings and soil in their vicinity in Spolana Neratovice.

Key words: Spolana, PCDDsFs, Contamination, Floods