Hazardous Waste, Toxicity - Research Paper Example

November 15, Chemicals Introduction Factories and other companies generate chemical wastes in the production of their saleable goods and services. The paper delves on the companies’ chemical waste products. The paper focuses on the effects of the dumping of chemical waste products into the earth’s land, water, and air environments. The companies’ chemical waste products bring avoidable hazardous damage on our earth. Chemicals waste from big companies The companies’ chemical wastes may be hazardous to the earth’s atmosphere. Benzene is known to pollute the air. Vinyl chloride also damages the air quality. The pollutant waste chemicals trigger long term damage to the community residents’ lungs. In some cases, people who inhaled the hazardous waste chemical fumes died. The air pollutants rise up to the ozone layer, destroying the earth’s breathing space. The chemical waste fumes cause acid rain. The chlorofluorocarbon or CFC waste chemicals used in refrigerators and air conditioner deplete the atmosphere’s ozone layer. The depletion triggers global warming. The companies’ sulfur oxide wastes and nitrogen oxide chemical wastes pollute the forests, marine life, and the earth atmospheres’ ozone layer (Haight 286). Further, hazardous chemical waste can be classified as chemical products that may cause harm or hazard on the earth’s environment and its inhabitants. The RCRA also defines hazardous waste as waste falling under the Clean Water Act, the Clear Air Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act and the RCRA. For example, people acknowledge certain chemical waste products may trigger, poisoning incidents, explosions or fires. The companies’ benzene chemical waste product increases cancer occurrences. Benzene and other hydrocarbon chemical waste products can trigger the occurrences of birth defects among the pregnant mothers (Theodore 84). The companies’ hazardous chemical waste products can be easily identified. The products include those that will release toxic fumes. The toxic fumes negatively affect the earth’s food sources and animals. The hazardous chemical waste products can irritate or literally damage the individuals’ skin or lungs (Spoolman 553). Furthermore, certain waste products are classified as toxic in nature. Polychlorinated byphenyls or PCBs is one of the companies’ toxic chemical waste products. Asbestos is the companies’ other toxic chemical waste product. Radon another companies’ toxic chemical waste product. The Environmental Protection Agency or EPA qualifies certain company chemical waste products are harmful to the earth’s environment and on human beings. Consequently, the agency banned the indiscriminate dumping of such chemicals into the environment or nearby human communities. Consequently, the United States congress passed the Clean Water Act of 1972. The act bans and penalizes companies for throwing their hazardous chemical waste products into the clear clean waters of the nearby rivers and other water sources (Welch 564). In addition, some hazardous chemicals cannot be simply thrown into the nearby ordinary wooden, plastic or other ordinary waste bins (Hill 349). Flammable chemicals cannot be thrown into waste baskets. Examples of flammable chemicals include gasoline, LGP gas, and paint thinner. When this happens, they may ignite and burn the home, building and other nearby flammable materials. Corrosive chemicals cannot be thrown to the waste bins. The chemicals may corrode or burn through the waste bins and escape to the nearby areas. When someone passes by and accidentally steps or touches the escaped corrosive chemical, the person will have avoidably hazardously painful and maiming burns. The corrosive chemicals wastes will cause harm upon contact with the individuals’ lungs, skin, eyes, and mouth. Examples of corrosive chemical waste products include some strong acids, corrosive alkali, and hydrogen peroxide. Chlorine is another very strong corrosive chemical waste product. The careless use of such corrosive chemicals during the companies’ daily maintenance operations may result to avoidable corrosive chemical waste (Hill 349). Further, reactive chemical wastes should not be thrown in the ordinary waste bins. Reactive chemicals will cause an explosion. The explosion can harm or even kill the nearby individuals. Examples of reactive chemicals the reactive chemicals undergo the polymerization process. Polymerization is described as the process where the individual monomers or small molecules start to group together to form a bigger molecule. The bigger molecule is called polymer. He polymerization process creates heat during the reaction process. The same process can also produce light as well as pressure within the vicinity of the process. The same chemicals may undergo hazardous decomposition, harming the environment and the people with the vicinity. The increase in pressure or rise in temperature may trigger a hazardous reaction on the reactive chemicals. The reactive chemicals may trigger hazardous reaction when in contact with water or other liquid substances (Theodore 250). Furthermore, toxic chemicals cannot be thrown into the nearby waste baskets (Theodore 250). The toxic chemicals cause cancer on the affected individuals. Examples of toxic chemicals include pesticides. Pesticides are used to kill insects from consuming the farm plants. Some companies grow fruits and vegetables on farm lots. The companies use pesticides to kill the insects. Sometimes, the used toxic chemicals are thrown into the earth’s nearby waste bins. Some of the chemicals leak into the earth environment surrounding the waste bin. Consequently, the toxic chemicals may reach earth-grown food and other materials used by humans. When the humans hold on to the food, their hands contain the toxic chemicals. Similarly, the contaminated food reaches the tables of the households. Eating the contaminated food leads to harmful effects on the individuals. Similarly, using hands contaminated with toxic chemicals to eat earth-grown food will result to food being contaminated with the toxic chemicals. Consequently, people who eat the contaminated food will suffer from cancer and other unhealthy effects. Other examples of toxic chemicals include cyanide, arsenic, as well as other metals. Moreover, some pharmaceutical companies and health care facilities generate biohazardous chemical wastes. Several American companies lying along the Mexico- U.S. border throw away hazardous wastes into the nearby environment. The companies disregard the health risks of dumping the medical hazardous wastes on possible earth locations. Some countries’ companies export their bio-hazardous chemical wastes to other countries. The wastes include the agricultural or food processing companies’ wastes. In addition, the poorest of the poor live in some of the earth’s hazardous communities. The communities include those areas where the companies dispose of their hazardous chemical wastes. The poor people are forced to work within the perimeter of the hazardous chemical wastes. Similarly, most of the world’s poor communities do not have the protection equipment or the money needed to learn how to avoid and dispose of the companies’ disposed hazardous chemical waste products. Hazardous chemicals, including pesticides, contain unhealthy effects. The effects affect the nearby community’s health for many years. Consequently, waste chemicals poison the food products. People and animals eating the contaminated food products are forced to avoidably suffer from the effects of the companies’ irresponsible earth-polluting activities. Many American and European companies send their chemical waste products to Africa (Rosenfeld 172). Further, several companies affirm they dump their chemical waste products on certain locations on earth. The One of the companies is Dupont. Another company is Bayer of Germany. A third company is Monsanto. Monsanto Chemical produces pesticides for the agriculture sector. Consequently, Monsanto’s chemical wastes include the pesticide production process wastes. American Cyanamid is another hazardous waste chemical-disposing company (Rosenfeld 172). Furthermore, some companies’ waste chemicals disposal may increase the contamination effects on humans (Spellman 655). Hazardous waste products thrown into the nearby river or stream may pollute the river or stream. People who drink the water from the nearby river or stream may swallow or touch the disposed hazardous chemicals. Consequently, the environmental protection laws prohibit throwing the hazardous company waster products into or near the river or stream. Moreover, some companies inject the hazardous chemical wastes into the nearby riverbanks. The companies do not care about the health consequences of such illegal activities. Some of the companies dispose of their chemical wastes into landfills. There is a strong probability that the chemical wastes may leak away from the landfill. This often happens when the land fill is on a hill or a higher level site. The escaped chemical wastes will trickle slowly down to the nearby community or river. Some companies do not comply with the chemical waste health and safety disposal procedures. Consequently, the chemical waste may reach and contaminate certain areas within the community (Spoolman 655). Further, some companies transfer their chemical production facilities to companies where environmental protection laws are weak. Aside from the lower wages paid to the third world or poor countries, the companies used the less strict or nonexistent environmental protection laws to dispose of the companies’ continuing chemical waste products. For example, the celebrated infamous chemical waste issue cropped up in Bhopal India. Other companies dumped their radioactive waste and chemical waste products into the earth’s ocean depths. Some European companies bought huge land areas in African. After the purchase, the companies shipped their waste products to the newly acquired African land depository sites. Consequently, the hazardous chemical waste products contaminated the nearby environment (Reuss 190). In addition, the chemical waste is clearly destroying our lonely planet, earth. The hazardous chemical waste dumped into the rivers pollutes the rivers. Consequently, the fish and other marine life are killed. Hazardous chemical wastes of the factories exiting the factories’ exhaust pipes pollute the atmosphere. Consequently, people living near the factories breath the polluted air and succumb to lung, skin, and other ailments. The exhausts from the electricity generating factories pollute the air. Radioactive chemical wastes from nuclear power plants are dumped into the oceans. Consequently, the oceans are polluted, killing the oceans’ passing marine life. Radioactivity can trigger the avoidable cancer ailments (Spoolman 553). Conclusion Based on the above analysis, some factories and companies produce chemical waste to produce their products and services. The companies’ chemical waste products pollute the environment. The environment includes the air, water, and land areas. Evidently, the polluting companies’ chemical waste products wreak preventable hazardous damage on our earth. Works Cited Haight, Joel. Handbook of Loss Prevention Engineering. New York: J. Wiley & Sons Press, 2013. Print. Hill, Marquita. Understanding Environmental Pollution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print. Reuss, Martin. The Illusory Boundary: Environment and Technology in History. Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, 2010. Print. Rosenfeld, Paul. Risks of Hazardous Wastes. New York: William Andrew Press, 2011. Print. Spellman, Frank. Environmental Science. New York: Rowman & Little field, 2013. Print. Spoolman, Scott. Environmental Science. New York: Cengage Learning Press, 2010. Print. Theodore, Louis. Environmental Health and Hazard Risk Assessment. New York: c, 2012. Print. Welch, Susan. Understanding American Government. New York: Cengage Learning Press, 2011. Print. Read More