The Environment Chronicle

Unrecognised offenders discharged highly toxic Thiodan into the river Rhine near Bingen which caused the decease of at least 40 million whitings and eels downstream in Germany and the Netherlands.

On 21 January 1968, a US B-52 bomber with several nuclear weapons on board crashed near the Thule Air Base in North-Western Greenland, releasing several kilos of weapons grade plutonium. The plutonium contaminated the immediate snow and ice at the crash site and was carried by high winds and water over an extensive area.

c. 120,000 t oil are spilt from the Torrey Canyon and cause the largest oil slick to date off the British, French and Dutch coasts.

Owing to methyl mercury pollution in water, the Swedish Medical Board prohibits consumption of fish from 40 lakes and rivers. The source of the pollution is thought to be seed treated with mercury.

On September 18, 1966 the tanker Seestern lost 1,700 tons of crude diesel oil which was quickly pushed by winds and tides onto the Medway Estuary, UK, affecting some 8,000 acres of wetlands. An estimated total of 5,000 birds were killed by this oil spill.

The "Anne Mildred Brovig" spills c. 20,000 t oil.

A U.S. B52 bomber collided with KC-135 tanker during mid-air flight refuelling over the coast of Spain. The tanker was completely destroyed in the incident, while the B52 broke apart, spilling four hydrogen bombs from its broken fuselage. The non-nuclear weapons in two of the bombs detonated on impact with the ground, contaminating of a 490 acre area with radioactive plutonium. One of the devices was recovered from the Mediterranean Sea.

On 13 December 1961, the British tanker the Allegrity ran aground off the coast of Caerhays, near Saint Austell in the Channel. 800 tonnes of petroleum were spilled in the incident.