Donate to Raghavendra Brindavan
Download
Tamil Fonts
|
 Does India want to be a dumping ground for hazardous waste? Does it think it can handle the fallout? Does it want clean industry or not?
While stopping the import of hazardous waste into the region is one approach to preventing toxic contamination, minimising toxic wastes generated by industrialisation is another. Rapid growth in East Asia, fuelled largely by foreign investment and trade openness, has come at the expense of the environment. The largest dumping ground of hazardous waste is the air, as tons of toxic pollutants are emitted from cars and trucks as well as from coal-fired plants, chemical processing plants, cement factories, smelters, and other pollution-intensive industries.
 Major air pollutants include particulate matter, gases that form acid rain (oxides of sulfur and nitrogen), carbon monoxide, toxic metals, as well as numerous organic compounds. These pollutants are dispersed in the atmosphere and can travel across national boundaries and can be deposited back on the ground through rain. Some pollutants react in the atmosphere to form acid rain, photochemical smog, or other toxic compounds. The major long-term health and environmental effects of these pollutants are well established.
Toxic contamination involves the release of toxic chemicals and their subsequent migration to different environmental media. The risk to health and the environment rises as one or more completed pathways of exposure to vegetation, animal, and human populations are completed. Toxic waste can adversely disrupt the ecosystem, overwhelming natural restorative processes, destroying habitats, killing off sensitive species, and markedly reducing bio-diversity. The human health effects from chronic (long-term), low-dose exposure to different toxic compounds range from disorders of the lungs,
 liver, kidneys, and other organs, to adverse effects on the immune, reproductive, or central nervous systems, as well as mutations of genes and a variety of cancers.
Another approach is to require industrial facilities to reduce the source of waste by implementing good operating practices including material handling improvements and inventory control to eliminate loss of material from expired shelf life or improper storage. Operational changes such as improved process control and adjustments in operational settings may also reduce toxic waste generation. Also important are possible product substitutions or changes in product composition to reduce toxicity or the amount of waste generated. Recycling is the use or reuse of materials from the waste stream or the recovery of materials from the waste stream as a product or for regeneration. Recycling programs can result in cost reductions in a facility.
 NGOs could support organisations, notably the Greenpeace International Toxics Campaign, which investigate and document the toxic waste trade, monitor convention meetings and lobby to strengthen the ban. APEC-member governments should be pressured to ratify the Basel Convention. Moreover, governments and NGOs should ensure that there is strict enforcement of the ban. Closing the door on toxic waste dumping in the Asia-Pacific region may eventually force industrialised countries to minimise waste generation, reduce over-consumption, and close the loop domestically through local recycling industries. The right of communities to participate in making decisions that affect their health and environment is another important principle. NGOs and community groups in the region could work collectively to gain greater governmental acceptance of both the right to know and the right to community participation.
More Articles
|
|
