Impact of Hazardous Industrial Waste on Health and Environment

Abstract

From the days of primitive society, human and animals have used the resource of the earth to support life and to dispose waste. Rapid population growth and uncontrolled industrial development are seriously degrading the urban and semi-urban environment in many of the developing countries placing enormous strain on natural resources and undermining efficient and sustainable development. Industrial operations lead to considerable generation of hazardous waste and in rapidly industrializing countries such as India the contribution to hazardous waste from industries are largest. Hazardous waste genarations from industries is also critical due to their large geophysical spread in the country, leading to regionwide impacts. Due to liberalization policy the pace of industrialization has been accelerated, which has resulted in increasing amount of hazardous waste every year. This long with a growing amount of municipal solid waste due to rapid urbanization and inadequate policy and technological measures continues to remain a daunting issue of environmental concern to India. In this scenario the present paper discusses various aspects of hazardous industrial waste like its origin, distribution and environmental and health hazards. Hazardous waste from industrial sectors contains heavy metals, pesticides, radioactive materials and other chemicals, which are toxic, flammable, reactive, corrosive, or have explosive properties. Normally Arsenic, Cadmium, Chromium, Copper, Lead, Zinc, Boron etc are found in pulverized fly ash. Cement industries emit huge quality of fluoride into the environment. Large quantity of mercury emitted from caustic soda industries using mercury electrodes, from chemical industries, paper and pulp industries etc. Tin mines emit tin in the vicinity of the mines. The metals such as Cadmium, Lead, Chromium, Arsenic etc, if present in the body, are hazardous to the health. Presence of fluoride within the range of 0.5 to 1.5 ppm is very essential in water for health, if present in excess leads to Florosis. Fouride may cause harm not only through water but also through air by way of respiration and soil. In river estuaries, the concentration of metal traces will reach to a high degrees of contamination because of stagnant water, when industrial effluents are fed into rivers and streams. This paper throws light upon many more such factors and also suggest measures to control and manage hazardous waste.