An environmental disaster can be defined as an environmental emergency or ecological disruption of a severity and magnitude that results in deaths, injuries, illness, and/or property damage that cannot be effectively managed by the application of routine procedures or resources and requires additional assistance. Unlike natural disasters, environmental disasters can be the result of Mother Nature, technology, or terrorism. They are unpredictable, not limited to certain geographical boundaries, may be unpreventable in certain cases, and may cause long-term health effects. The damage environmental disasters cause is dependent on several factors: type of hazard, the mechanism of its release into the environment, the geographical location of the event, the determinants of human exposure (such as the weather conditions at the time of the event), and the length of time until the response.