CausesThe factors which caused the series of events and the dangers were foreseeable and could have been avoided. The ICMESA factory was owned by Givaudan SA, located in Geneva, Switzerland. ICMESA produced the intermediate compounds Givaudan needed to produce its cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and soaps. Compounds produced at this plant ranged from benzyl chloride and cyanide to phenylacetic acid and TCP [4]. The interesting reaction was one that produced TCP, commonly used in surgical soaps. This is not the first TCP production plant to experience an accident, but it is the first to seriously affect the villages surrounding the plant. TCP was already known to be toxic in its surgical soaps and its use was already banned in the United States [1]. Although there were rumors about the safety of TCP at the time, TCP itself is only moderately toxic. The real culprit behind the toxicity of these soaps was a byproduct called 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin (TCDD, but commonly known as dioxin). This compound was significantly more toxic than TCP, but little else was known about this compound before the Seveso disaster. The events began to occur when the remaining contents of the B reactor from the previous night's shift had not completely cooled. According to Italian law, all factories and plants had to be closed during the weekend and only cleaning and maintenance could be carried out [1]. The batch reaction was almost complete by Friday evening, but the final step of removing ethylene glycol from the reaction mixture was not completed and the plant had to shut down [1]. The reactants remained in the reactor and the residual heat left by the reaction...... middle of paper ...... these included chloroacne, decreased white blood cell count, liver cancer, leukemia and, in some cases, death [5]. References [1] Fuller, John G.. Poison from the sky. New York: Random House, 1977.[2] Carson, Rachel, Lois Darling and Louis Darling. Silent spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin;, 1962.[3] "Seveso-30 years later: Chronology of events Mitigating the consequences of the accident: milestones between 1976 and 2006." The Roche group. http://www.siznursing.be/index.php?preaction=joint&id_joint=71790 (accessed April 21, 2014).[4] Fara, general manager. "The ICMESA accident. First intervention for the protection of man and the environment." Chemistry, Man and Environment 1 (1999): 3-16.[5] Axelson, O. “Epidemiologic Evidence for Health Effects of Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD) in Humans.” Chemistry, Man and Environment 1 (1999): 29-38.