By : Marinel Louise d. Lapada
In addition to releasing gases and particles into the atmosphere, humans produce waste that is dumped on the environment. Often, this waste is hazardous and dangerous to both nature and human life.
As a result, many people and industries are failing to prevent the creation of hazardous waste or to limit the negative effects it produces.
Individuals often throw out goods without realizing that they are headed for a landfill and could be dangerous for the environment. No matter where people put these hazardous waste materials, there is always a chance that they could find their way into the ground, and eventually into our bodies.
Corporations usually want to avoid the costs associated with having to limit creation of hazardous waste. Consequently, they build landfills on site and fill them with waste, or sometimes pay to have their waste removed. Often, hazardous materials are transported to areas that accept money to take the waste.
It may prove very difficult to reduce hazardous waste in the future. Unlike many other environmental problems, waste creation is something people do not often think about.
In the future, people may have to reduce not only their generation of hazardous waste, but also their consumption of many products that end up in landfills.
Causes..
Hazardous waste is produced both on a huge scale by major industries and on a relatively tiny scale by individuals.
One of the main causes of the abundance of hazardous waste is that people do not realize how large a problem it is. Because it can be simply removed and sent to a landfill, it is often assumed that the problem ends there.
Many industries and governments create crude landfills to store waste, and often just dump waste chemicals into nearby bodies of water.
Over 80,000 different chemicals are used in industries worldwide. Often, it is difficult and expensive to get rid of these chemicals and to store them in a way that does not endanger human life or the environment. Obviously, not all of these chemicals are dangerous, but many are and they do create serious problems.
Around the world, hundreds of millions of tons of hazardous waste are produced annually. Rather than cleaning up or storing waste more carefully, one method of reducing the hazardous waste problem may be to simply stop producing so much of it.
Effects
Every year, major health problems result from hazardous waste. Increasing amounts of hazardous waste have caused increasing health problems.
There are over 80,000 chemicals in existence, and many are used commonly in industrial processes. Often, these chemicals find themselves in places where they are able to harm human health.
Insufficient research has been done to provide data on the effects of every chemical. Because waste chemicals often mix together, it will also be necessary to learn how combinations of these chemicals affect human health.
To compound the problem created by a lack of knowledge, 1,500 new chemicals are invented every year and many are introduced into industrial processes.
In 1989, a school in New Jersey had to be closed because students there had suffered excessive exposure to chromium. It was later learned that large amounts of chromium had been dumped nearby, and had blown over to the school area.
Sadly, it is often only after someone has died or become seriously ill that governments will intervene and reduce levels of dumped hazardous waste.
Solutions..
Hazardous waste has created many problems and dangers that have not gone unnoticed. Despite the fact that the problem receives less attention than many other environmental threats, some successful solutions to the problem of hazardous have been suggested and used.
As with air pollution and many other environmental problems, hazardous waste can be controlled through input and output controls.
The government can increase regulations on the disposal of hazardous waste to ensure that problems do not occur. It could also limit the amount of waste industries are allowed to produce, or provide incentives to create less waste.
After hazardous waste has been created, there are several actions that can be taken. Industries can break down chemical compounds into less dangerous forms, or store waste in ways that protect the environment from being exposed to the waste.
Not only major industries but individuals as well must form part of the solution. They can choose not to buy those products which require the production of hazardous waste, attempt to influence policymakers, and produce less hazardous waste themselves.
Many scientists think that waste production can be cut. Experts say that waste can be reduced by at least one-third using existing technologies and methods.
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