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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/10/birling-gap-sussex-toxic-cloud-investigations-continue-pollutionwatch
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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
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| What was in the air at Birling Gap? Investigations continue | What was in the air at Birling Gap? Investigations continue |
| (6 days later) | |
| Items from the shipping lanes frequently wash up on UK beaches. Occasionally hazardous chemical containers appear prompting local beach closures. The incident on the East Sussex coast on 27 August was on much larger scale. | Items from the shipping lanes frequently wash up on UK beaches. Occasionally hazardous chemical containers appear prompting local beach closures. The incident on the East Sussex coast on 27 August was on much larger scale. |
| Although media reports focused on the beach at Birling Gap, air pollution monitors tell us that the affected area was much bigger. An apparent sharp rise in ozone was detected on Eastbourne sea front at 4:45pm and then about 30 minutes later at Lullington Heath, 8km to the west and 5km inland from Birling Gap – an area of over 40 square km. | Although media reports focused on the beach at Birling Gap, air pollution monitors tell us that the affected area was much bigger. An apparent sharp rise in ozone was detected on Eastbourne sea front at 4:45pm and then about 30 minutes later at Lullington Heath, 8km to the west and 5km inland from Birling Gap – an area of over 40 square km. |
| Around 150 people received hospital treatment but the symptoms were inconsistent with the apparent concentration of ozone detected, suggesting that the gas was not actually ozone or that it was ozone plus something else. | Around 150 people received hospital treatment but the symptoms were inconsistent with the apparent concentration of ozone detected, suggesting that the gas was not actually ozone or that it was ozone plus something else. |
| The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear incident prompted the development of computer systems to track air pollutants. These models simulate releases of theoretical puffs of air and use weather models to trace where the wind takes it. They can also be run backwards to see where air came from. During the previous 24 hours the polluted air had travelled from the middle of the English Channel, came ashore east of Eastbourne then drifted west along the coast before heading out to sea again. The source was somewhere along this path. | The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear incident prompted the development of computer systems to track air pollutants. These models simulate releases of theoretical puffs of air and use weather models to trace where the wind takes it. They can also be run backwards to see where air came from. During the previous 24 hours the polluted air had travelled from the middle of the English Channel, came ashore east of Eastbourne then drifted west along the coast before heading out to sea again. The source was somewhere along this path. |
| Traffic and shipping fumes are unlikely to be the cause since they are present all the time and such an incident has never occurred before. Other ideas include leaks from cargo on a ship, from a shipwreck or a from a defective ballast water disinfectant system. | Traffic and shipping fumes are unlikely to be the cause since they are present all the time and such an incident has never occurred before. Other ideas include leaks from cargo on a ship, from a shipwreck or a from a defective ballast water disinfectant system. |
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| Chernobyl nuclear disaster | Chernobyl nuclear disaster |
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