Hazardous Wastes Issues - Essay Example

These toxins may be buried in the ground, in stream runoff, in groundwater that supplies drinking water, or in floodwaters, as happened after Hurricane Katrina. Some toxins, such as mercury, persist in the environment and accumulate. Humans or animals often absorb them when they eat fish.

Handling toxic waste carefully can prevent health dangers. Toxic waste incinerators, for example, often burn waste for energy, but this potentially releases toxic chemicals into the air. Household hazardous waste (HHW) is more than you think it is. What's been hiding in your garage or basement or under your kitchen sink can do serious damage to the environment. It can get into the water system. It can hurt plants, animals - and you.

Recycling offers the next best solution to eliminating the use of toxic materials. Not only does recycling save companies money and time spent acquiring new materials, but it also diverts waste away from disposal methods, such as burning, that could potentially leak toxins into the ground and air. Toxic waste, like used motor oil for example, often contains metallic debris that you can easily reclaim through filtration.

Ultimately, humanity needs to curb its use of products with toxic chemicals to minimize their potential hazards. Go green... Save the Earth... Recycle waste; these kinds of environmental slogans have been used for decades but one only pays heed to it when he/she comes to terms with or can relate to it. Earth is our home, our playground, our future. Please act now as it’s already past the 11th hour.

Cyanide is usually found joined with other chemicals to form compounds. Examples of simple cyanide compounds are hydrogen cyanide, sodium cyanide and potassium cyanide. Certain bacteria, fungi, and algae can produce cyanide, and cyanide is found in several foods and plants. In certain plant foods, including almonds, millet sprouts, lima beans, soy, spinach, bamboo shoots, and cassava roots (which are a major source of food in tropical countries), cyanides occur naturally as part of sugars or other naturally-occurring compounds.

Hydrogen cyanide is a toxic gas that may enter the environment from both natural processes and human industrial activities. It may exist in polymeric forms. The cyanide compounds in which cyanide can be obtained as CN– are classified as simple and complex cyanides. Some simple cyanides are soluble in water (sodium cyanide, NaCN; potassium cyanide, KCN; and calcium cyanide, Ca (CN) 2), while others are sparingly soluble or almost insoluble (copper (I) cyanide, CuCN). Cyanogen (NC-CN) and cyanogen chloride (CNCl) are highly toxic gases that are soluble in water. At neutral pH, cyanogen undergoes slow hydrolysis to form hydrogen cyanide, cyanic acid (HOCN), and other products. At alkaline pH, CNCl hydrolyzes to CNO–, which has only limited toxicity. Alkaline chlorination of water containing cyanide produces cyanogen chloride. Thiocyanate (SCN–) is an oxidation product of the cyanide anion (CN–), produced in the presence of a sulfur donor.