Vila Socó is a " favela" (slum) in Cubatão,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, that was the site of a major industrial oil spill fire on February 25, 1984. 700,000 liters of gas were released, 1,000 homes were destroyed, and 100 people died. The geography of Cubatão prevented rapid dispersal of air pollutants released from the burning fuels. The German sociologist

Ulrich Beck Ulrich Beck (15 May 1944 – 1 January 2015) was a German sociologist, and one of the most cited social scientists in the world during his lifetime. His work focused on questions of uncontrollability, ignorance and uncertainty in the modern a ...

used the case of Vila Socó ("The dirtiest chemical town in the world") as an example of the "destructive powers of the developed risk industry."

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