Today we review a report that assesses the state of toxic waste sites around the world and how much waste from ten industries affect human health and mortality- excluding the contributions from urban emissions from traffic and poor sanitation but including the impact of landfills and such items as electronic waste. The results, in terms of years of healthy life lost, indicate that these sources of pollution have a similar impact (17M) as malaria (14M), tuberculosis(25M) or HIV (29M) in the 49 countries examined.
Key Quotes:
“Pollution from factories and mines is putting the health of 125 million people at risk worldwide and is as dangerous in the developing world as malaria or tuberculosis”
“"Appropriately, large amounts of time and resources are devoted to addressing the burden of diseases like tuberculosis and malaria....The striking fact is that international and local government action on these diseases greatly outpaces the attention given to toxic sites, which as demonstrated in this report, contribute greatly to the global burden of disease”
“Smaller companies, often producing for local markets, tended to have the biggest negative health impact”
“In those 49 countries, representing about two-thirds of the world's population, they estimated more than 17 million years of healthy life were lost because of pollutants caused by the 10 industries examined, compared to 14 million for malaria, 25 million for tuberculosis and nearly 29 million for HIV”
“Lead, chromium, mercury, and asbestos are the toxic pollutants highlighted”
“the global output of chemicals in 2020 will be 85% higher than in 1995, and nearly one-third of the production will take place in developing countries, compared to about one-fifth in 1995”
Reasons for pollution:
- ” Poor regulation and oversight of those industries using hazardous substances and generating hazardous wastes”
- “Poor practices for control of hazardous wastes and emissions, coupled often with poor or no technology for management and treatment of wastes and emissions”
- “The presence of hazardous industries close to or within densely populated areas”
- “The local communities and industry operators limited understanding of the potential health impacts from exposure to hazardous wastes and emissions”
- “The large role of small-scale enterprises in emitting toxic substances. These operations are often in the informal economy and have limited financial resources to implement best practices”
- Battery Recycling
- Lead Smelting
- Mining and Ore Procesing
- Tanneries
- Industrial/Municipal Dumpsites
- Industrial Estates
- Artisanal Gold Mining
- Product Manufacturing
- Chemical Manufacturing
- Dye Industry
- Petrochemical Procesing
- Electronic Waste Recycling
- Heavy Industry
- Pesticide Manufacturing, Storage and Use in Agriculture
- Uranium Procesing
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