Chemical Spills and Emergency Management at Sea Proceedings of the First International Conference on “Chemical Spills and Emergency Management at Sea”, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, November 15–18, 1988

International shipping is of great importance for the transport of a great many types of cargo. Substances and products considered dangerous constitute almost 50% of all the payload. It is obvious that stringent regulations are required in order to minimize the risks of accidents. These regulations, which are derived from good practice and which are based on research, have been adopted by a great number of countries. However, emergencies do occur in spite of all precautions. Such emergencies require fast and adequate response in order to confine the consequences for man and his environment to a minimum. Emergency response has political, legal, financial and technical aspects. This makes decision making extremely difficult. The papers carefully prepared and assembled in this book present an up-to-date picture of today's achievements, knowledge and difficulties that are being faced. It was the intention of Oilchem Recovery Denmark and TNO to bring the wide scatter of aspects together in a joined perspective. We also intended to spread the information on latest developments among the many people who are involved in combating calamities and in particular in decision making. Finally, we hope that this conference may help all of us to come to a safer transport of chemicals and a better aquatic environment. We thank all the authors for their magnificent contribution.