Lec 5

Safety of life activity in emergency situations

5.1 Definition of emergency situations (es) and their significance in the modern world

Natural disasters, industrial accidents and transport catastrophes, using weapon in case of war create situations dangerous for life and health of significant part of population groups. All disasters are integrated by the concept of emergency situation. Generally ES means an external unexpected, suddenly originating circumstance, that is characterized by disturbing of constant process and makes significant negative influence on people life activity, economical, social or natural sphere.

Safety of life activity in emergency situation is possible to consider as a discipline having the roots in antiquity and connected with problems of saving people which turned out to be in a zone of disaster, protecting them from negative factors of an external medium and giving medical aid to the victims.

In all the periods of the Earth existence there were natural cataclysms of great destructive force which are named as natural disasters (eruption of volcano, earthquake, flood, drought etc) arisen. They've taken рlасе in all the epochs of people history, arise presently and will be in the future. Sad statistics of multiple victims of the emergency natural phenomena, their often appearing made people investigate their reasons to work out possibilities of saving measures.

Intensive development in the XIX century of chemistry, growing chemical industry, using of chemical substances in every industry, military industry, and then in agriculture and household activities, created premises for accidents in chemical works, chemical polluting of surroundings, their negative influence on health of the people. In the beginning of the XX century chemical weapon was created. This method of a mass erasure was applied in the First World War, over 1,300,000 people had been hit and many of them had perished. Approximately from the middle of the XX century because of the intensive growing of chemical productions, population of developed countries, including Ukraine faced the threat of chemical polluting of surroundings, and accidents in chemical industry, in places of preservation of chemicals, during their transportation became so often that consequences of their influence got dangerous for millions people. As an example can be the accident at chemical factory in India in 1984. In the accident more than 2000 men perished, tens of thousands people were hit; many of them had heavy injuries.

The national economy of Ukraine has large quantity of chemical dangerous objects. Zone of these objects is occupied by more than 22,000,000 people. Chemical accidents are the actual threat for the people health. Polluting surroundings (air, ground, and the waters) by chemicals makes many cities and regions unacceptable for living. The ecological situation becomes national tragedy.

In the XX century owing to successful researches in the field of physics and chemistry many technologies based on chemical and nuclear processes were developed. The creation of large power-technological complexes and manufacturing dangerous for health, periodic accidents are causes of negative influence on surroundings -plants, animals, and people. The population of industrially developed countries, including Ukraine, has turned out to be unprepared to the influence of chemical and radiation factors. Toxic loading on the person has grown in hundreds times. Chernobyl catastrophe has strengthened a situation.

Recent researches have proved serious changes in various ecological systems. There was defined reduction of some plants and species of wild animals. In Ukraine on the territory of Kanevsky reserve the mass loss of young animals of red mouse and mole happened, gray rat passed from wood to the open flatness. Data obtained by complex radiological expedition (1990) in 30 km zone Chernobyl power station testified that some plants have multiple modifications observed: resizing and changing shape of foliage, appearing sweep shaped sprouts; small animals have violations of reproduction function as increasing of embryo losses on various stages of their development, modification of the formula and biological condition of blood, deviation in cell structure of a liver and spleen. All of it is the consequence of qualitative modifications of surroundings. By the data of M.J. Vartanyan (1993) among the population of the most polluted cities of Russia and Ukraine there was for the first time fixed degeneration of neuro-genome being evolutionary of very stable structure, it controls brain activity and intelligence of the person. Every year in Ukraine 40,000 women don't have full term pregnancy, for 1000 newborn there're 20 freaks, in the polluted cities (Zaporozhye, Crivoi Rog and other) the frequency of natural abortions is 5 times larger than in Simferopol, and each second newborn has deviation in health which arises owing to ecosystems violation. All of it is the new problem for medical science and practice, and for safety life activity. At nearest future their amount will increase.

Large problem in the second half of the XX century for many countries are transport catastrophes (auto-, air-, railway-crushes, marine and inland water transport accidents). Railway catastrophes for the last years (Arzamas, Ufa, Bologoye and other) have taken hundreds humans life. The list of air crushes all over the world for the last year counted dozens. Auto-catastrophes in Ukraine for the last year became of extreme character: every year over 50,000 people get injures, over 10,000 of them perish.

On the eve of the XXI century mankind face a large-scale social and cultural metamorphosis, changing of values hierarchy, acceleration of life Irate. That created abnormal conditions for the person and made pernicious effect on mental activity and actually turns ordinal daily conditions into disastrous.

Analysis and correct evaluation of processes passing in nature and society testifies of growing place of safety of life activity in emergency situation in general system of knowledge and practical activity of the people.