Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on Friday was set to tour the site of a massive hazardous chemical spill, as numbers of local residents sickened from the accident continued to increase, REPORTED DPA. The Ukrainian leader was scheduled to travel to the village of Ozhidov in the country's western Lviv province on Friday afternoon. A Tuesday freight train derailment in Lviv cracked open six of 15 50-ton hazardous chemical containers filled with liquid phosphorus, sparking a fire and a poisonous smoke cloud covering an estimated 90 square kilometres of land. At least 11,000 people are believed to have been downwind from the cloud. A total of 147 emergency workers and local residents have been hospitalized after exposure to the toxic chemical, according to a Health Ministry statement. At least 2,000 people have received some kind of medical treatment for early symptoms of phosphorus exposure, typically including headache, dizziness and loss of appetite, the Interfax new agency reported. Repair teams had removed three undamaged phosphorus containers from the rail-carriage debris by Friday morning. Repair and clean-up work was continuing, but poisonous fumes from broached containers were hindering the effort.
