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Effect of industrial waste on human health
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The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980 has proved to be one of the most important environmental protection programs of all time. Also known as Superfund, this act spawned dramatic changes to the environment of the United States. Superfund aimed to cleanup hazardous waste sites in America and protect the health and safety of the general public. Over the years, the Superfund legislation has authorized the government to aid in the cleanup of toxic waste in a variety of effective ways that have ensured the welfare of its citizens. On the whole, CERCLA has transformed hazardous waste sites, changed the outdated disposal methods that companies utilized, and ignited environmental awareness.
While Superfund has been improving the condition of the environment since its inception, it was not always like that. Before CERCLA, remote dumps were the solution to the increasing industrial waste problem that was prevalent during the twentieth century. After the Industrial Revolution occurred, companies, looking to save money, began dumping industrial waste into the extra acres of their land or even sent their waste to normal dumps that were not equipped to handle chemical waste.1 As time went by, more and more companies thought it to be acceptable to continue this practice and added to the growing problem of improperly discarded waste. As a result of this inappropriate hazardous waste dumping, it was only a matter of time before the effects of hazardous waste exposure in humans began to be seen in the general public. This exposure began to occur by a variety of means.
Perhaps one of the most famous and tragic incidents pertaining to humans being affected by hazardous waste, is the Love Canal Di...
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...ell. Simply put, Superfund brought about the transformation of many of the most hazardous waste sites, the change of outdated ways of dealing with toxic waste, and acted as the trigger for a sea change in environmental awareness. In addition, Superfund really shed light upon the horrific ways that we were treating the environment by allowing companies too much freedom to hap hazardously dispose of the most dangerous chemicals. While the disasters that led to Superfund were tragic, they proved that we had to alter our ways or face the consequences. If not for Superfund, we would not have known how to address growing environmental issues, which would have led to disasters that dwarf the early ones addressed by the law. Superfund has shown, beyond doubt, that it is one of the most invaluable and effective environmental programs ever to be enacted in the United States.
The Lowry Landfill Superfund Site is located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, approximately 2 miles east of Aurora. It consists of approximately 507 acres of waste disposal area and is operated by Waste Management of Colorado, Inc. The land surrounding the site consists of native prairie grass and a wetland located along a local creek. Sections around the site are zoned for agricultural use including cattle grazing and non-irrigated wheat farms. 1 The area is home to numerous endangered species including the bald eagle and peregrine falcon. Due to the large amounts of wastes disposed on the site between 1965 and 1980, it became extremely contaminated with a variety of inorganic and organic contaminants. From 1984 to 1993, the EPA oversaw remedial investigation and feasibility studies that were performed by all responsible parties. Since its listing as a superfund site in 1984, multiple remedial actions have been performed in order to rehabilitate the site. These include clay barrier walls around the site, a groundwater collection system, a soil cover for the main landfill, as well as a landfill gas collection system. Groundwater that is collected on the site is treated at an onsite water treatment facility. In 2007, construction began on an onsite gas to energy plant that utilizes the methane produced by the landfill site. The electricity produced by the plant is enough to power 3000 households. 1 Today, use of land and groundwater on and near the site is still restricted by the state of Colorado.1
The first Earth Day had the largest demonstration by having twenty million people attend, creating the next big wave of environmentalists. The neighborhood of Love Canal was a toxic waste dump. It had twenty thousand tons of poisonous chemicals buried beneath the ground that was leaking into the homes and schools of its residences. Lois Gibbs led the movement against Love Canal when she read an article by Michael Brown exposing the problem. Gibbs discovered that the majority of the neighborhood’s elementary school children were sick from chemical residue in the school’s basement. The chemical leakage was also causing birth defects and miscarriages. Lois Gibbs vigorously fought and protested for two years until the state was forced by the federal government to evacuate and relocate Love Canal’s
Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Waste Management Division, 9 July 2009. Web. 2 Feb. 2010. .
50 years and 6 months after the Texas City disaster, a lot of changes has been made to ensure the safety of handling hazardous material due to the disaster. It was a wake up call for people around the world to look deeply into the safety issues and for government to assume an active role in enforcing those issues. For the residents in Texas City who decided to stay and rebuild after the disaster, it was more than a wake up call for safety. It was a painful memory that made people even stronger. It was a call for the community to come together and make Texas city a major industrial center again. It was a joint effort to make Texas City a better and safer place to live.
Kenneth Schiff wrote an editorial for the Marine Pollution Bulletin in 2014 where he asked environmental scientist about the effectiveness of the Clean Water Act. Three topics were discussed to support their approval; The Cuyahoga River, Platform A and declines in marine life. The Cuyahoga River in Ohio had hit a point 1969 where there was so much oil on the surface of that it caught on fire and now it has been deemed as fishable by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, thanks to the Clean Water Act. Platform A was located in Southern California. In 1969, an explosion occurred, causing 100,000 barrels of oil to devastate beaches along the Pacific Ocean and kill thousands of animals located in this region. Also discussed was the effects of hazardous substances, in this example DDT, on marine life. The use of this pesticide caused brown pelicans and California sea lions to experience intense decline in population- thanks to the Clean Water Act being followed by much research, restrictions and bans were able to be placed on these chemicals, allowing these populations to flourish once more. Within this editorial, there is also many who state that this Act has not been effective enough. One big argument is that the EPA has a list of pollutants that has not changed since the 1970’s yet in the last 40 years, there has
Toxic substances and Areas of concern: includes pollution prevention, clean up of the most polluted areas in the Great Lakes. Although many so...
Harmful emissions from the landfills escape into the air we breathe. The soil and water are also contaminated from our
Then the documentary tackles Puget Sound. The Duwamish River is the largest hot spot in the nation. In 2001, the Duwamish River was classified as a “Super Fund” site. This is given to a site that will receive federal assistance for clean up. But yet, it may be too late. Puget Sound in contaminated with PCP, lead and mercury. The threat comes from the giant industrial polluters of old and from chemicals in consumers’ face creams, deodorants, prescription medicines and household cleaners that find their way into sewers, storm drains, eventually into America’s waterways and drinking water.
The five laws needed by the group stranded in Agawa Canyon to survive until they are rescued are:
Hooker admits to burying about 21,800 tons of various chemicals in the canal. There are at least twelve known carcinogens in the canal including benzene which is well-known for causing leukemia in people (Gibbs 22). The air, soil, and water tests have found chemical migration throughout a ten block residential area. The extent of the chemical migration is still unknown.
Hazardous materials can be important in everyday life when properly handled. However, when improperly handled, they can result in injury, death, and destruction as well as have lingering effects that may last for years to come. To address the risk of an uncontrolled hazardous materials release, there must be a coordinated effort to identify, locate, and quantify the hazardous materials in a particular location (Drexel University Safety & Health, 2001). Typically, industry and government agree that a hazardous materials incident is one where
Our Congress created the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 1969 in order to establish an environmental foundation for mankind. This policy endorses harmony between humans and the vast ecosystems surrounding them. To obtain this goal and provide our future with resources as well, NEPA is separated into two titles. The first title declares the policy in detail while the second title focuses on the Council on Environmental Quality. The CEQ oversees the effectiveness of current methods, the reactions of the environment to those methods, and implements revisions as necessary.
In old batteries, there is a toxic lead that is causing health problems for the Taiwan people who are disposing these batteries (Gay, 12). Space is becoming a landfill from the excess of space flights and the radioactive supplies from nuclear reactors, which could come to our atmosphere and explode (Gay, 13). When businesses run out of space to dump their toxic trash they go to poor nations because they do not have strict safety regulations (Gay, 31). The landfills on Earth are not the only place trash is getting put. The ocean is being trashed with plastic bags, soda can holders, and large fishnets, which are harming dolphins, turtles, sea lions, and others (Gay, 69). Military bases in the U.S have more hazardous waste and are responsible for contamination in soil and waters (Gay, 83). There are other hazards happening because we are throwing away so much stuff that companies have to remake all of those products. Incinerators are places where waste is burned to ashes and if we recycle these can go away. Incinerators cause sulfur dioxide, carbon m...
While our population continues to grow, so does the amount of waste we produce. Due to the fact that there are so many humans, a majority of the waste we produce do not get disposed of properly and it eventually ends up contaminating the la...
...or lakes (Weber 2). When people just dump waste products instead of recycling, it is a misuse of the soil and can contribute to serious health conditions in animals, plants and humans.