Hot zone, also written as hot-zone or hotzone, refers to an area or region that is significantly affected by environmental hazards or risks. It may refer to a location where there is high pollution, contamination, or a concentration of hazardous substances or activities.
Etymology
The term hot zone was likely coined during the Cold War where it described locations rendered hazardous due to nuclear contamination. The term was later extended to areas or locations considered to be hazardous such as Level-4 biosafety labs, places in which there is active conflict, and so forth.
The term hot zone was popularized by the 1995 book The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, and its film adaptation Outbreak, released the same year.
Types of hot zones
Biological
The biological zone describes an area or location where there is a risk of exposure to biological agents or contaminants that can cause harm to human health or the environment. It is often associated with situations involving the release, presence, or spread of infectious diseases, pathogens, or biological hazards.
Precautions are taken in a gradient level of protection.
In 2009, the outbreak of swine influenza happened in most places of the whole world. The swine influenza originated from a Mexican woman, and it was transmitted from person to person by air with a rapid speed. North America and Mexico were the first places to be affected by the virus. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 14,142 deaths of swine influenza, and 1,311,522 people had this virus in their bodies in 2009. Spain, China, the United States, and South Korea are considered to be hot zones of swine influenza. There were 155,051 people who had this virus in Spain, 120,498 in China, 107,939 in United States and 101,182 in South Korea. The people in those areas can very easily get this virus. The virus is transmittable through the air, such as through coughing, sneezing or touching something containing the virus. Epidemics of acute respiratory disease of pigs are caused by the virus disease, swine influenza. Swine influenza belongs to the type A of the family Orthomyxoviridae. The patients with swine influenza virus have symptoms consisting of headaches, chills, fatigue, fever, cough and sore throat.
Malaria
In Peru deforestation is leading to the distribution of Malaria. With the forests being destroyed the wildlife is as well, leaving malaria looking for a new host. Malaria is a very dangerous disease, so much so that vaccinations are required for traveling into places suspected of housing the disease. Malaria is a disease that is found predominantly in third world, low-income countries. Malaria along with other insect diseases are learning to adapt to life in the city. In Peru a port city called Iquitos the population has been growing in the past 10 years making it prime for mosquitoes to flourish. These mosquitoes also bring in Dengue Fever, in which 5 percent of its victims will die.
Clean water
With an increased world population in the early 21st century water borne diseases have become the most pressing hot zone. With a lot of the worlds population moving into the city it is hard separating sanitation and clean water. In the early 1990s a cholera epidemic broke out in a fishing village in Lima, Peru. Many thought that this was coming from the seafood, but it was really from the water the seafood was cleaned with. Cholera starts when infected human waste seeps into the water supply of a community. Not having a clean water supply is something that affects a third world country the most, though there are cases of poor water in the States. In Maryland's Chesapeake Bay fisherman have seen a decline in their catch over the last couple of years. A few years ago fisherman of Maryland's Chesapeake Bay area started noticing lesions on the crabs and fish they caught and soon the fisherman were sick themselves. Industrial waste, sewage and pesticides have slowly sunk into the Chesapeake Bay over the past decade.
Chemical
A chemical hot zone refers to locations where chemical spills or releases have occurred, industrial sites with a high concentration of chemical production or storage, areas affected by chemical accidents or incidents, or regions with ongoing chemical contamination.
In such situations, there may be an increased risk of chemical exposure and potential adverse effects on human health and the environment. The specific chemicals involved in a chemical hot zone can vary, ranging from toxic substances, carcinogens, flammable materials, or volatile organic compounds (VOCs).