Toxic Waste : Negative Effects

These two materials, in particular, are dangerous to local ecologies and populations. Thus, there is not only an identified need to reduce the use of these two materials, but also a need to increase recycling of these two materials.

Hazardous waste contains toxic substances which can be a risk to the environment. It can be corrosive, inflammable or explosive. Most of this type of waste is from gas stations, auto repair shops, mineral processing sites and industries. It also involves sources that discharge liquid, gaseous or solid waste. Products include heavy metals, sulphuric acid, contaminated wastewater, organic chemicals, cyanide, solvents, ammonium compounds, chromium compounds and phosphates.

Often, toxic substances are being drained into the air, waterways, and undergrounds wells. According to the report by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), over 60 million pounds of deadly chemicals are produced by industries in Florida. Notably, Florida’s water has been suffering mercury contamination until the state’s department of migration issues a circular regularly for regulations of eating freshwater fish in the region (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission). In fact, such metals emanate from coal combustion’s emissions which run into water bodies. Not to mention, pesticides and herbicides utilized by government and homeowners pollute the environment (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission). Indeed, all chemicals released into the atmosphere find themselves in rivers.

As CEO of a small manufacturing company, if an employee has dumped toxic waste in a nearby stream, I would seek help from the hazardous waste supervisor within the company first. The supervisor should be knowledgeable enough to get the situation under control. Toxic waste is a serious safety and health problem and it is my job as CEO to prevent any further danger to the work environment and the surrounding area. While getting assistance from within, I would call both the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as state departments of environmental protection.

When garbage or waste materials are tossed into a landfill, people are just asking for nauseating odors and polluted land sites. In Kathy P. Anderson’s article, “THE ENVIRONMENT: Reducing Waste,” she describes that liners are located beneath landfills and when the weather becomes a problem, those liners can leak, allowing leachate to attract to the surface. Saying this, she writes about the quality of environment after a leak: “The leachate then carries pollutants through the soil under the landfill to groundwater and to nearby rivers and lakes. When people or wildlife drink the poisoned water, they can get sick or die” (Anderson). If a liner were to leak, pollutants could be poisonous in the water and be harmful to not only individuals but

Sub-point A: With plastic being everywhere, everytime it gets thrown away or washed down, the toxic pollutants enter the environment and do harm. Trash dumps and landfills are also major problems as they allow pollutants to affect the land and water. It sends chemicals everywhere to harm the environment. The landfills are taking too much space and releases greenhouse gas, methane. It is 25 more times potent than carbon dioxide.

I went on the Richard G. Trefry Library and searched about hazardous waste and came across a book entitled “Risks of Hazardous Wastes” by Paul E. Rosenfeld and Lydia G. H. Feng. It could be found at URL: http://library.books24x7.com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/toc.aspx?site=NCNIO&bookid=41877. The book provides information about sources and health risks posed by as well explains the regulations surrounding

The particular case study in review was an incident involving a waste Mercury reclaiming facility which contaminated the surrounding area to include a body of water. Any form of hazardous material contamination to the environment is a serious issue that should be taken with immediate serious reactions. Anytime a hazardous material is handled, moreover one that has been expended from its primary use should come with the automatic question of how proper disposal must be conducted. There is generally zero excuse for openly dumping a non-natural substance, let alone a waste product into nature. Operations dealing with hazardous chemicals need to use common sense and good housekeeping despite any delay in production or efficiency when results can have detrimental impacts to the environment furthermore the good standings of their operation.

The disposal of hazardous material is something that many waste management organization are well educated on when conducting every day operations. However, in the even the the Mercury Recovery Facility in which created a Federal Clean-Up site, initiated an multitude of issues that not only impacted the enviorment but also the people that lived in the surrounding areas. Though, there were many issues that caused these issues to happed due to weathering of materials and chemicals over time. The biggest mistake was the lack of accountability of personell as well as the dumping that was taking place at this site. Not only calling for federal relief, but also gaining social attention from the media as well as scientific professionals around the world.

Regulating the toxic waste emissions of polluting organizations has been a costly and time-consuming element of environmental policy for as long as there have been restrictions on these emissions. However, the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), signed into law in late 1986, set forth a number of standards that required polluters to disclose information about their emissions levels to the public and started a chain of events that has led to the creation of numerous information disclosure policies. One of the main thoughts behind these laws, aside from the benefit of increased public awareness of pollution in the community and the ability to plan for emergencies involving the wastes from

Hazardous waste and its proper disposal have become a major sociological problem today due to its capability of contaminating the area in which we live and its potential to be lethal to all living things. In order for the United States and the rest of the world to save itself from a potentially life threatening problem they must fix the causes which lead to the improper disposal of hazardous wastes and like materials. Some reasons that hazardous waste has become a problem in the United States today is due to the breakdown in enforcing laws for the proper disposal of such wastes, a lack of initiative on big companies behalf to spend money on proper disposal, and the ease of disposing of such wastes illegally.

This plays a major factor in health risk for individuals of the community. When chemical pollutants enter waterways, and contaminate fish, the human consumption could be tragic. Health conditions that may arise from toxic waste in water may include organ failure or possible death.

When trash ends up in a landfill it does not decompose like compost it just sits there because there is lack of oxygen and low amounts of moisture, so it does not break down very rapidly. Because the trash just sits there, it starts to release gases like sulfur dioxide, methane, ammonia, hydrogen, and nitrogen oxide. All of those are very toxic for the environment. The gases in a landfill can move thought soil and collect inside building or homes that are nearby.

The young boy’s lungs became tiresome in the frigid and toxic air as he stumbled down the stairwell into the dark underground subway. He no longer felt clean as he had in past after bathing in the Ganges river, this time he found something unexpected in the murky waters. Suddenly, the subway rattled the tracks, others desperately packing themselves into the train alike to sardines, and he was among them. Alike to the boy who faces pollution on a daily basis, countless citizens of India have found themselves in the same position and the state of the environment being linked to the population. India’s overpopulation is resulting in irreversible pollution with the two most critical issues being improper waste disposal and poor agricultural practices.

Toxic waste has many major effects on individuals and not just on a society as a whole. Some effects include “cancer, genital deformities, lower sperm count, obesity and diminished I.Q.” (Kristof par 2). This just goes to show that companies are hurting people way more than they think. Companies are disposing of toxic waste because it is helping them to make more money, but what they don’t realize is that