Toxic waste
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Toxic waste is waste material that can cause death or injury to living creatures. It can be spread quite easily and can contaminate lakes and rivers. The term is often used interchangeably with “hazardous waste”, or discarded material that can pose a long-term risk to health or environment.
As with most pollution problems, toxic waste began to be a significant issue during the industrial revolution. It usually is the product of industry or commerce, but comes also from residential use (e.g. cleaning products, cosmetics, lawn care products), agriculture (e.g. chemical fertilizers, pesticides), the military (nuclear weapons testing, chemical warfare, medical facilities (e.g. pharmaceuticals), radioactive sources, and light industry, such as dry cleaning establishments.[1][2]
Contents |
[edit] Health effects
[edit] Toxic waste
Toxic wastes often contain carcinogens, and exposure to these by some route, such as leakage or evaporation from the storage, causes cancer to appear at increased frequency in exposed individuals. For example, a cluster of the rare blood cancer polycythemia vera was found around a toxic waste dump site in northeast Pennsylvania in 2008.[3]
Toxic wastes containing organic carcinogens can be destroyed by incineration at high temperatures, which is expensive. However, if the waste contains heavy metals or radioactive isotopes, these must be separated and stored, as they cannot be destroyed.
[edit] See also
- Superfund
- List of Superfund sites in the United States
- Pollution
- Radioactive waste
- Hazardous Waste
- Environmental remediation
- Agent Orange
[edit] Further Reading
- John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, Toxic Sludge is Good For You, Common Courage Press, 2002, ISBN: 978-1567510607
- Fred Setterberg and Lonny Shavelson, Toxic Nation: The Fight to Save Our Communities from Chemical Contamination, Jossey-Bass, 1993, ISBN: 978-0471575450
[edit] References
- ^ "Environmental Risks and Pregnancy" (in English). March Of Dimes. http://www.marchofdimes.com/855_9146.asp. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
- ^ "China birth defects 'up sharply'". BBC News. 1 February 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7863290.stm. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
- ^ MICHAEL RUBINKAM (2008). "Cancer cluster confirmed in northeast Pennsylvania". http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080826/ap_on_sc/toxic_dump_fears.
