Types of Waste. Types of Waste. Environmental Issues & Problems ENV 150. = Threat to Human Health & Environment

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1 Environmental Issues & Problems ENV 150 Today: Hazardous Waste Guillaume Mauger Reminders: Next Thursday: Quiz #3 (11/19) Rough Draft of Research Paper Types of Waste Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Solid Waste Industrial Solid Waste Liquid Waste (discussed last week) Gaseous Waste Ignitable Two types: Extra Credit: Go to SCCC s Climate Change Comics exhibition, and bring a back description of your favorite comic (due Thurs). Hazardous Waste = threat to human health & environment Corrosive Reactive Toxic Organic compounds Solvents, pesticides, dioxins, Heavy Metals Lead, mercury, radioactive, Types of Waste Hazardous Waste = Threat to Human Health & Environment

2 Types of Waste Examples Human Health: Love Canal Toxics and Health WA toxics coalition: Pollution in People Environmental Impacts: State of the Sound: Orcas, shellfish Duwamish river cleanup Love Canal (Neighborhood near Niagara Falls, NY) 1890s: Canal built to divert water and generate electricity. Project abandoned before completion. 1920s: canal becomes municipal dump site 1940s: drained, lined w/ clay, and used by Hooker Electronical Company to dump chemical waste 1952: covered with dirt and planted with grass. 1953: sold for $1 to city. 1950s: construction on dump site: houses, school. Love Canal ( New York Times (Aug, 1978): NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y.--Twenty five years after the Hooker Chemical Company stopped using the Love Canal here as an industrial dump, 82 different compounds, 11 of them suspected carcinogens, have been percolating upward through the soil, their drum containers rotting and leaching their contents into the backyards and basements of 100 homes and a public school built on the banks of the canal. EPA (1979): "disturbingly high rate of miscarriages...love Canal can now be added to a growing list of environmental disasters involving toxics, ranging from industrial workers stricken by nervous disorders and cancers to the discovery of toxic materials in the milk of nursing mothers."

3 Love Canal ( Toxicity and Human Health 1979: President Carter approves first emergency funds ever to be appropriated for a man-made disaster. Disaster spurs a national call to strictly regulate toxic waste disposal Theme: Love Canal is not an isolated case Result: 1980 Passage of Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) Impacts of toxics on health Immune disruptors: weaken immune system Arsenic, methyl mercury, dioxins Neurotoxins: Harm nervous system: spinal cord, brain, nerves Behavioral changes, learning disabilities, paralysis, death PCBs, methyl mercury, arsenic, lead, some pesticides Endocrine disruptors: Impair/Alter Hormone balance Aluminum, some herbicides, DDT, mercury, PCBs Impacts of toxics on health Acute vs. Chronic

4 Toxicity is difficult to test for RESULT: Only 10% of the ~100,000 synthetic chemicals have been tested for toxicity. Only 2% tested for: mutagenic, teratogenic, or carcinogenic properties NONE tested for synergistic effects. Table 11-1, p. 245 Toxicity in humans UC & Boston Med study: 200 human diseases linked to pollutants Cerebral palsy, testicular atrophy, 37 types of cancer, heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes, dermatitis, bronchitis, hyperactivity, high blood pressure, deafness, sperm damage, Alzheimer s and Parkinson s disease Toxicity in humans WHO (World Health Organization): 3 million deaths per year due to air pollutants (3 times the deaths due to car accidents)

5 Toxicity in humans Western Europe, US, Japan, Australia: Rise in Alzheimer s and Parkinson s Toxicity in humans Analysis of blood from US newborns: Detected a total of 287 chemicals. Of the 287 chemicals we detected we know that 180 cause cancer in humans or animals, 217 are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 208 cause birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests. ( most of which didn t exist a century ago) Environmental Working Group & Commonweal, 2005 Toxicity in humans Russia: Uncontrolled industrial pollution: lead, arsenic, cadmium Result: congenital defects, neurological disorders, cancer Toxicity in humans US: Coal: 100,000 pounds of mercury per year EPA: mercury from power plants settles over waterways, polluting rivers, lakes, and contaminating fish One out of every six women of child bearing age in the US has enough mercury in her blood to harm a developing fetus Brown, 2006

6 Toxicity in humans Steinman, G., 2006 (Journal of Reproductive Medicine) Food pesticide levels Nutritional health Soil/dust levels Water pollutant levels Air pollutant levels Vegan diet lowers odds of having twins Likely culprit: Hormones Overall health Mathematical measurements & modeling? Lifestyle Personal habits Predicted level of toxicant in people Genetic predisposition Lung, intestine & skin absorption rates Metabolism Accumulation Excretion WA toxics coalition (phthalates) Pollution in People: Phthalates

7 (flame retardants) Pollution in People: PBDEs Pollution in People: Hg Pollution in People: Hg Pollution in People: PFCs (one specific type of PFC, compounds that are resistant to breakdown, e.g., used in Teflon, Gore-Tex, etc ).

8 Pollution in People: Pesticides Pollution in People: DDT Pollution in People: PCBs State of the Sound Report issued every 2 years. Information on issues in the Sound, and progress on those issues.

9 Pollutants of concern in Puget Sound Two important acronyms: POPs: Persistent Organic Pollutants PBTs: Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxins Two common acronyms describe these: PBTs: Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxins; & POPs: Persistent Organic Pollutants contaminated sediments Orcas Transient: eat harbor seals Southern Resident: eat salmon, inside Puget Sound Northern Resident: eat salmon, North of Sound

10 Toxics in Salmon Toxics in Mussels Toxics in Harbor Seals Risk of liver disease in English Sole

11 Good News: mitigation works! Oil spills: still a risk. Former Creosote factory! Superfund cleanup site (recall: petroleum is a source of heavy metals, PAHs) Oil spills: still a risk. Waste Management (Hazardous Waste) 1. Produce less & emphasize reuse 2. Convert to less hazardous or nonhazardous (recall: petroleum is a source of heavy metals, PAHs) 3. Put in perpetual storage.

12 DEALING WITH HAZARDOUS WASTE Produce Less Waste Manipulate processes to eliminate or reduce production Recycle and reuse Conversion to less hazardous substances Physical Methods: charcoal or resins separate out harmful chemicals Land treatment Convert to Less Hazardous or Nonhazardous Substances Incineration Thermal treatment Chemical, physical, and biological treatment Ocean and atmospheric assimilation Chemical Methods: chemical reactions convert hazardous chemicals to less harmful/harmless chemicals Put in Perpetual Storage Landfill Underground injection Waste piles Surface impoundments Salt formations Arid region unsaturated zone Conversion to less hazardous substances Biological Methods: Bioremediation: bacteria or enzymes help destroy hazardous waste or convert them to more benign substances Conversion to less hazardous substances Biological Methods: Phytoremediation: PLANTS! -- natural or genetically engineered -- absorb, filter and remove contaminants from polluted soil and water

13 Conversion to less hazardous substances Disposal of Hazardous Waste Incineration: heating many types of hazardous waste to high temps (2000 C) can convert them to less harmful/harmless chemicals note: can produce toxic gases (e.g.: dioxins) and toxic ash must still be dealt with as a hazardous waste. Deep-well disposal pumped under pressure into dry, porous rock far beneath aquifers may leak and contaminate valuable soils, sediments, groundwater Surface impoundments excavated depressions with liner Secure Hazardous Waste Landfill Deep well disposal Surface impoundments

14 Secure landfills Secure landfills: storing nuclear waste Resources / Regulation Regulation: Production & use Toxic Substances Control Act, 1976 governs pre-market testing of all chemical substances, synthetic and naturally occurring Exceptions: food, food additives, drugs, cosmetics, nuclear materials, tobacco, and pesticides most chemicals already in use before ,600 chemicals in use today

15 Resources Toxics Release Inventory Environmental Protection Agency Pesticide Action Network Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Dept. of Health and Human Services Washington Toxics Coalition Regulation Two federal laws regulate the management and disposal of hazardous waste in the US 1. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), 1980 Regulation 1. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), 1976 prevention / remediation from current facilities EPA can order operators to respond/clean up "imminent and substantial endangerment" to health or environment RCRA EPA sets standards and issues permits for production and disposal of hazardous wastes. Regulates less than 5% of hazardous wastes. Regulation 2. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), 1980 uncontrolled past releases of hazardous substances EPA has broad authority to clean up CERCLA / Superfund - Regulatory framework for investigating and remediating uncontrolled releases of hazardous substances. - Identify contaminated sites: National Priorities List - Polluters pay

16 CERCLA / Superfund Law authorizes EPA to identify those responsible for contaminated sites and obligate them to pay for cleanup. Current owner / operator of site Owner / operator at the time of dumping Person who arranged for the dumping Person who transported substance to site CERCLA / Superfund Superfund sites: National Priorities List Serves an informational purpuse: identifies sites, work that is needed, notifies public, and provides warning to those potentially responsible. CERCLA / Superfund Superfund sites: Historically, 70% of cleanup paid by polluters Remaining 30%: Until 1996: trust fund created with revenue from tax on oil & chemical industries Since 2003: US taxpayers. Towards a solution Governor Schwarzenegger Signs Groundbreaking Legislation Implementing First-in-the-Nation Green Chemistry Program 09/29/2008 identify and prioritize chemicals of concern analyze alternatives to existing hazardous chemicals take action: from "no action" to "restrictions or bans"

17 Towards a solution European Union s REACH Initiative, 2006 (Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals) Requires companies to register and supply basic information on up to 30,000 chemicals currently in use. More extensive reporting required for 5,000 high-use chemicals Ban on chemicals causing cancer, reproductive harm, mutations, or that are persistent or bioaccumulative, unless risks are adequately controlled. Towards a solution Redesign: Clean Production -Products are -Nontoxic -Durable -Reusable -Easy to repair, rebuild and dismantle -Compostable at end of life -Production is -Non-polluting in the whole life cycle -Preserve diversity in nature and culture -May be made from -Renewable materials -Non-renewable materials that are reprocessed Towards a solution Examples: UNEP Cleaner Production Program, The Natural Step, World Business Council on Sustainable Development, Industrial Ecology/Industrial Metabolism, Ecological Engineers/Ecotechnology, Design for the Environment, Ecological Intelligent Design (Cradle to Cradle Design) Precautionary Principle!!!