Pollution Control and Monitoring - Literature review Example

Environmental Studies TABLE OF CONTENTS HEADING PAGE I. Introduction ……...…….……….…………………………………….………..1 II. Pollution Control and Monitoring……………………………………..........…1 III. Harmful Chemicals causing Health Hazards…………………………………...5 IV. Food Chain and risks of Pollution……………………………………………....7 V. Conclusions……………………………………………………………………..8 VI. Bibliography…………………………………………………………………….9 Introduction The last century saw a very rapid production and growth of hazardous industrial chemicals. New compounds that are commercially required were manufactured and there was a growth of more than 50000 such compounds. It gave rise to a significant amount of increase in volumes of production of these chemicals and per year production increased many folds with more than one million tones of different compounds are produced each year a large chunk of which are hazardous to human life and the environment. There are about 50 substances approximately which are produced in volumes of more than 100000 tons per year and a approximate amount of hundred compounds are produced over 10000 tons per year (SRI, 1980). These voluminous produce of chemicals are of great concern and this tremendous pace of continuous growth and bulk production needs strict regulation and control to safe guard the environment against release of hazardous chemicals and pollutants (Opperhuizen et all 1987). Pollution Control and Monitoring There are many types of checking production one of which is the chemical monitoring which forms a fraction of the regulatory process. There are other measures also like the setting up of means for standardization of previous production level and environmental screening tests for these new chemicals to check whether these are hazardous or pollutants or safe for the environment (OECD, 1981). The last decade saw, scientists as well as governments that included amongst the most technically developed countries become more interested in strict vigilance and start various monitoring programmes for chemicals and other hazardous substances. There were different problems facing the world today these are the pollution problem and on the other side the compilation and enhancement of scientific knowledge dealing with environment and its toxicological effect was the main reason behind the progress in strict monitoring and regulations to carry out production. These chemical pollutants can be monitored in two broad areas a) biological and toxicological monitoring, and b) chemical monitoring (Opperhuizen et all 1987). Any waste either solid liquid or in gas form if not properly disposed off can cause serious health hazards. A hazardous waste will have following characteristics like corrosion, ignition, reactivity and toxicity in natural environment. Hazardous wastes are byproducts of industries. Hazardous wastes may also generate from domestic wastes the sources are drain openers, oven cleaners, rust removers, pesticides etc. The main wastes may consist of corrosive acids and alkaline materials, harmful chemicals etc (Hazardous Wastes). There are many types of hazardous wastes amongst them the main types are used up raw materials, by products out of chemical reactions, tank residues, filter cake, precipitates, and consumed solvents. These are usually siphoned in both solid and liquid forms. There are wastes that have characteristics like ignition, corrosion, react with other elements and are toxic by nature. Ignition wastes are waste oils and exhumed solvents; they are likely to be ignited at a particular temperature. Acids and alkalis like battery acids are corrosive wastes, lithium sulfur batteries are hazardous wastes. There are also toxic wastes that can cause grave health as well as environmental hazards due to its toxicity. Many waste streams contain toxic fumes gasses and heavy materials and made these hazardous (Hazardous Wastes). The worlds has seen a rapid change in technology, so there has been quick discard of electronic equipments that have resulted in a fast-growing surplus of electronic waste around the globe. There are technical solutions, but in most cases a legal framework needs to be framed, a collection system, and other practices needs to be implemented. There is an estimated 50 million tonnes of E-waste each year. Most of electronic disposals are contaminated with heavy metals from those dump yards and form almost 70 % in USA; electronic wastes are exported and disposed to other places causing widespread pollution (Silicon Valley Toxic Corporation). In the Love Canal, waste dump yard of chemicals was formed by the Hooker Chemical and Plastics Corporation in Niagara Falls, New York, here different types of toxic chemical wastes spread to pollute neighboring residential areas. It led to widespread public anger and government attention was drawn on the problem in the late 1970s, (Hazardous Wastes). There are number of reasons for chemical monitoring these are to note alterations in levels of contamination, to specify if there is change in biological characteristics of the polluting ingredients, it is also helpful in determining the levels of pollution in different areas, it also involves the measure of the risks that the environment and species and the ecosystem and different species possess from pollutants and in connection with the toxicology check, quality of food drinking water and its fitness for human (Opperhuizen et all 1987). The chemical testing and environmental safety tools are part of monitoring process and forms a parallel relation in terms of complex chemical compounds produced. Humans are exposed to different types of contamination and from various sources by chemicals this is as per the perspective of environmental health and this can be routed through different channels (Hutzinger, 1980). How an individual may be exposed to harmful chemicals depends on varied behaviour patterns. There are instances where persons working in paint factories are exposed to much larger concentration of organic solvents in air than normal persons, likewise fish eating persons are tested with different level of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) than vegetarians (Opperhuizen et all 1987). There are specific chemicals that may determine the harmful effect in respect of the routes of their intake for example it is important to note the amount of carbon monoxide that is being intake by humans and not the PCB uptake by air. So the measurement of harmful chemical and its property is an important determinant for its toxic levels and the injury it may cause. There may be five different monitoring features like occupational exposure in workplaces, exposure because of food, drinking water, drugs etc, source of hazardous wastes or obnoxious smoke, concentration and fate concerning the environment and its surroundings. These types of monitoring are old methods through analysis of food its quality control, level of harmful toxic elements present in the food, quality control of drinking water (Opperhuizen et all 1987). Many plants that emit toxic wastes themselves monitor their affluent in order to find out the level of pollutants in it, other than that the regulatory agencies are themselves monitoring these and keeping a strict vigil on the source of the pollutants. There are stringent requirement for safety of the workforce these have been done by enactment of law that has regulated the safety norms. How compounds will be admixture and the final shape it takes after transforming to some different form are now subjected to monitoring and is a crucial to determine the pollution level. The total value of a chemical and its composition and the effect of that after release in the environment also needs close tracking and is a continuous process. Physiochemical properties and other aspects like the volatility, solubility in water, and presence of polar clusters are taken into account. Other important aspects taken into account are the biochemical and thermal stability which may influence the makeover of disposable chemical wastes (Hutzinger and Veerkamp, 1981). These fate processes are very complex in nature and their interaction between environmental and chemical aspects are analyzed and the scientific knowledge in these field is at an advanced stage so that it can be used to monitor environment fate programmes (Hueck-van der Plas and Hueck, 1979). Biological and toxicological impact of hazardous elements and compounds cannot be calculated or analyzed by chemical classification only even in simple cases. Biological information of a substance can throw light on the physiochemical angle of pollution control while studying the environmental fate of pollutant chemicals and information regarding the assessment of pollution that man and environment is being exposed to. In the same way only biological aspect of alterations in environment and ecosystem without assessing the level of hazardous wastes and toxins is not enough to monitor fate of environment. Health and environmental pollutants posing threat to man and nature can be evaluated and the threat perception calculated by studying useful relation with biological evidence, that can correlate concentrations of the exposure to risk (Opperhuizen et all 1987). Monitoring of biota is classified into two parts one is the toxicological monitoring and the other is the biological monitoring and are used widely and effectively to prevent and check the high level of contaminations released in the environment. There are several standard methods of warning and abating mechanisms that can be used to monitor very high pollution levels one of them may be certain type of indicator species that warns about the level of hazard and pollution present. Toxicological monitoring in different situations is also possible with the effective use of biota (Cairns and Van der Schalie, 1980) this may vary in different forms depending on situation and can be with the help of fish in waste effluents, and also trees that are extensively damaged because of acid rain. Harmful Chemicals causing Health Hazards There are lots of chemicals judged to be more likely to cause severe health hazard in humans and needs greater attention and close monitoring in risk management analysis than those which are less likely to be featured in the drinking water and that have lower health risks by contamination or otherwise. It is important to note in this respect that there should be a period of exposure to these hazardous chemicals which may cause effects on health in cases where there is long term exposure to these chemicals. However there are few chemicals that are seen to cause health related problems in case of accidental or sudden contamination in a large scale even if it occurs in a short span of time. Most of the cases the water becomes contaminated and becomes discolored or because of foul taste smell or appearance cannot be consumed (WHO, 2004). In case of determining risks involved in hazardous contamination the main stress should be given on specific chemicals by analysing different affected sites and the levels of that. It must be noted that special attention is given to predetermined results on some harmful and hazardous chemicals that are found to be hazardous if exposed through drinking water these chemicals are discussed later in the article. These chemicals are found in many locations world wide that cause serious health hazard in human beings and environment and are discussed in WHO Guidelines for Drinking water Quality (WHO, 2004). Arsenic, fluoride and (to a lesser extent) selenium occur naturally and are responsible for serious health hazards and are a cause of concern in many countries, these elements cause severe health problems through exposure from drinking-water. These are widely distributed in ground water and their presence in surface water is also likely as groundwater discharge is frequently responsible for surface water bodies. Nitrate are also abundant in nature in case of contamination the main reason is through excessive use of fertilizers both organic and inorganic and their contamination in water and soil because of inappropriate farming and sewage disposal is a major cause of health hazard. Nitrate occurs in abundance all over the world and is present in both groundwater and surface water and is present in shallow wells. It causes major problems to bottle fed infants where the risk of “blue-baby syndrome” is wide spread as the concentration of nitrates rises above the 50 mg/liter concentration. In this case risk is increased by nitrite, which is a more potential methaemoglobinemic agent than nitrate, and this may add with microbial contamination that can cause gastric infections in infants (WHO, 2004). Iron and manganese though they are not suspected of direct health hazards through their presence in drinking-water, but that can cause they can cause severe discoloration of water, it will have an indirect effect of consumers turning to unsafe drinking water which is macrobiotic contaminated and unsafe for drinking. Iron and manganese may cause frequent operational problems (WHO, 2004). Lead contamination is very serious and can cause severe health problems even leading to death. The presence of lead in drinking water is due to plumbing and lead containing metal fitting in building. Contamination of lead in source waters is unusual except in mining areas where mining is taking place. Water contamination is checked in areas where there can be corrosive action of lead from pipes and it gets dissolved in water. There should be corrosion checks in place and pipes need to be replaced with safer alternatives (WHO, 2004). Food Chain and risks of Pollution Food security is essential to provide methods to control food supply and fight the shortages and other problems related to food because of climate changes and pollution problems and population pressure to feed the world human race in the coming years. It poses as a challenge in many countries and the programmes are in line with FAO/WHO guidance. It is the need of countries to implement these food related programmes (Jaykus et all). The food safety management involves broad input and coordination even in present day it poses a challenge to all countries. Climate change and pollution related issues and the cross relationships among environmental impacts, animal and plant health aspects and food hygiene needs attention. The public health aspect and climate change together find place in dealing with this problem (Jaykus et all). Principles laid out includes good hygiene, agriculture animal husbandry practices, veterinary practice, aquaculture practice, are the foundation of management strategy to face challenge of climate change. It is applied a better understanding of changes involved of chemical and microbiological hazards and also includes insects, pests and their vectors as having influenced by climate change and other factors. Information that climate change has an impact on food safety hazards are available and the governments and industry plays important part in reviewing and updating current guidance. A policy framework needs to be developed in many developing countries to fight this problem (Jaykus et all). Conclusions There is need for integrated monitoring and surveillance of both the environment and food for hazards so that problems can be identified and detected early to address hazards arising from global climate change. Data’s are generated from various researches which prove handy to implement new means for emerging food safety issues. Pathogens and contaminants in complicated samples are to be identified and preventions developed and traced to fight these hazards in foods safety programmes (Jaykus et all). Different types of electronic wastes can be tackled by effective recycling methods; this will help tackle this problem. Inflammable wastes can be burned off and landfill wastes can be channalized in such a way so that it does not pile up and with proper treatment in place so that it resists contamination of land, pyrolysis is another method through which in high temperature hazardous wastes can be eliminated. In this way there should be continuous checks in the pollution level of the environment and new innovative means are required to fight it. Bibliography Cairns, J., Jr., and Van der Schalie, W. H. (1980) Biological monitoring. Part I. Earlywarning systems. Water Res., 14, 1179 Hutzinger, O. (1980). Environmental and toxicological chemistry of the University of Amsterdam. Five years of philosophy and practice of environmental health chemistry. In McKinney, J. D. (Ed.) Environmental Health Chemistry. Ann Arbor Science, Ann Arbor Hueck-van der Plas, E. H., and Hueck, H. J. (1979). The prospective assessment of environmental effects of chemicals. Drug Design, 8, 311. Hutzinger, 0. and Veerkamp, W. (1981). Xenobiotic chemicals with pollution potential.In Leisinger, T., et al. (Eds.) Microbial Degrad£1tionof Xenobiotics and Recalcitrant Compounds. Academic Press, London, New York Hazardous Wastes http://www.answers.com/topic/hazardous-waste Jaykus,L.A. Woolridge, M. Frank, J.M. Miraglia, M. McQuatters-Gollop, A. Tirado, C. Climate Change: Implications for Food Safety Opperhuizen A., van der Naald W. G, H., Gobas F. A. P. C. and Hutzinger O. 1987 Environmental Fate of Mixtures as a Background for Human Exposure Monitoring OECD (1981). Guidelines for Testing of Chemicals Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris SRI (1980). Elaboration of a Methodfor Evaluating the Hazard to the Aquatic EnvironmentCaused by Substances of List I of Council Directive 76/464: EEC and Preparationof a List of Dangerous Substances to be Studied by Priority, September 1980.SRI-International. Silicon Valley Toxic Corporation. "Poison PCs/Toxic TVs Executive Summary". http://www.svtc.org/site/DocServer/ppcttv2004.pdf?docID=301. Retrieved 2006-11-13. WHO (2004) Guidelines for drinking-water quality, 3rd ed., World Health Organization, Geneva Read More

The worlds has seen a rapid change in technology, so there has been quick discard of electronic equipments that have resulted in a fast-growing surplus of electronic waste around the globe. There are technical solutions, but in most cases a legal framework needs to be framed, a collection system, and other practices needs to be implemented. There is an estimated 50 million tonnes of E-waste each year. Most of electronic disposals are contaminated with heavy metals from those dump yards and form almost 70 % in USA; electronic wastes are exported and disposed to other places causing widespread pollution (Silicon Valley Toxic Corporation).

In the Love Canal, waste dump yard of chemicals was formed by the Hooker Chemical and Plastics Corporation in Niagara Falls, New York, here different types of toxic chemical wastes spread to pollute neighboring residential areas. It led to widespread public anger and government attention was drawn on the problem in the late 1970s, (Hazardous Wastes). There are number of reasons for chemical monitoring these are to note alterations in levels of contamination, to specify if there is change in biological characteristics of the polluting ingredients, it is also helpful in determining the levels of pollution in different areas, it also involves the measure of the risks that the environment and species and the ecosystem and different species possess from pollutants and in connection with the toxicology check, quality of food drinking water and its fitness for human (Opperhuizen et all 1987).

The chemical testing and environmental safety tools are part of monitoring process and forms a parallel relation in terms of complex chemical compounds produced. Humans are exposed to different types of contamination and from various sources by chemicals this is as per the perspective of environmental health and this can be routed through different channels (Hutzinger, 1980). How an individual may be exposed to harmful chemicals depends on varied behaviour patterns. There are instances where persons working in paint factories are exposed to much larger concentration of organic solvents in air than normal persons, likewise fish eating persons are tested with different level of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) than vegetarians (Opperhuizen et all 1987).

There are specific chemicals that may determine the harmful effect in respect of the routes of their intake for example it is important to note the amount of carbon monoxide that is being intake by humans and not the PCB uptake by air. So the measurement of harmful chemical and its property is an important determinant for its toxic levels and the injury it may cause. There may be five different monitoring features like occupational exposure in workplaces, exposure because of food, drinking water, drugs etc, source of hazardous wastes or obnoxious smoke, concentration and fate concerning the environment and its surroundings.

These types of monitoring are old methods through analysis of food its quality control, level of harmful toxic elements present in the food, quality control of drinking water (Opperhuizen et all 1987). Many plants that emit toxic wastes themselves monitor their affluent in order to find out the level of pollutants in it, other than that the regulatory agencies are themselves monitoring these and keeping a strict vigil on the source of the pollutants. There are stringent requirement for safety of the workforce these have been done by enactment of law that has regulated the safety norms.

How compounds will be admixture and the final shape it takes after transforming to some different form are now subjected to monitoring and is a crucial to determine the pollution level. The total value of a chemical and its composition and the effect of that after release in the environment also needs close tracking and is a continuous process. Physiochemical properties and other aspects like the volatility, solubility in water, and presence of polar clusters are taken into account.

Read More