Environmental organizations are carefully monitoring the consequences of a toxic cloud that spread over downtown Buenos Aires on Dec. 6, and have warned of a lack of preparation to deal with a major chemical disaster. The Foundation for the Defense of the Environment (FUNAM), one of the organizations that denounced the potential risks, claims that the city “is not protected against chemical accidents and much less against nuclear accidents.”

On Dec. 6 a cloud with traces of the insecticide thidiocarb, released from a container in the port of Buenos Aires, spread over the Argentine capital, causing a nauseating odor and irritation of the eyes and upper airways.

Raúl Montenegro of FUNAM told Tierramérica that “the government did not distribute means of protection with the necessary urgency,” and that the authorities need to “revise disaster prevention plans” to deal with chemical as well as nuclear accidents.