The United Nations Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 defines a disaster as "a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society at any scale due to hazardous events interacting with conditions of exposure, vulnerability, and capacity, leading to one or more of the following: human, material, economic and environmental losses and impacts."1 The Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) Program in 2014 made a clear distinction between disasters that arise from natural hazards and those classified as technological hazards.2
A technological disaster is a catastrophic event associated, entirely or partially, with human decisions, activities, or errors. These disasters are often related to technology control, malfunction, or management, as well as failures or breakdowns of systems, equipment, and engineering or industrial standards. Structural collapses (bridges, mines, and buildings), industrial accidents (chemical or nuclear explosions), and traffic accidents (land, air, and maritime) are examples of technological disasters.2
Moreover, many of these technological disasters are accompanied by consequences such as environmental pollution. In fact, some technological disasters can be as severe as natural disasters. Sometimes, they are of an acute onset, while at other times, their effects may appear gradually and extend over years. 2 Between 2000 and 2021, a total of 5,390 technological disasters were reported, affecting 2,638,985 people, resulting in the death of 166,068 individuals, and causing economic losses totaling $63,178 million. 3,4
Some of the largest technological disasters in recent decades include the collapse of the Banqiao Dam (China, 1975, due to heavy rains combined with a design and engineering failure), the contamination incident in Bhopal (India, 1984, due to the toxic gas leak at the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal resulting from equipment failures and design defects, causing between 4,000 and 30,000 deaths), the Chernobyl nuclear accident (Ukraine, 1986, with over 200,000 deaths due to radiation exposure and significant environmental impact), and the Fukushima nuclear accident (Japan, 2011, which released 45,000 liters of highly radioactive water). Despite these events, technological disasters often receive less attention from the scientific community.5–8
Technological disasters have a significant environmental and economic impact. Some of the costliest ones include the explosion in the port of Beirut (Lebanon, 2020), the oil spill from the sinking of the Prestige oil tanker (Spain, 2002), and the explosion and oil spill at the Deepwater Horizon platform (Gulf of Mexico, 2010).4
In addition, technological disasters also have effects on the mental health of those affected, as evidenced by research conducted after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, where elevated levels of depression and anxiety were increased, with a more significant impact on those who suffered economic losses due to the disaster.9,10
This study aimed to examine the epidemiological profile of technological disasters that occurred in the Americas between 2000 and 2021 in terms of morbidity-mortality and to analyze their temporal trends.