Environmental Pollution, Waste Generation and Human Health
Journal Title: Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research (BJSTR) - Year 2018, Vol 8, Issue 4
Abstract
Environmental pollution exists since the very beginning of life, for which waste generation contributes. Waste management and treatment is an important way to fight environmental pollution and contribute to human health improvments, provided that air, water, soil, waste and noise pollution all contribute in a negative way to increase environmental pollution provided the high level of urbanization and life standards nowadays.Environmental pollution exists since the very beginning of life. However, it turned itself a serious problem today that threatens mankind survival [1]. It influences the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink, causing the lack of natural resources, extinction of plant and animal species, damages in global ecosystems and the earth is threathned by biochemical processes. In this sense, waste generation and management have a great impact on the environment and consequently over human health. Negative consequences of human activities include air and water pollution, uncontrolled deforestation and their conversion into agricultural land, destruction of the ozone layer, global warming of the planet, climate changes, natural disasters, accumulation of various wastes (including radioactive), eradication of certain plant and animal species. These seriously endanger human's survival and it may be argued that today we live in a world of waste considering the huge amount of waste being produced every day. Figure 1 shows for the EU (current composition) the generation of waste by waste category as a percentage of total waste produced (in tonne) in 2014. In the Figure 1 it is evident that recyclable wastes are only 9.41% of the total waste generation, being mineral and solid wastes, a great part of total waste produced (71.98%).From the wastes produced 47.41% have disposal in landfill and others and 40.72% go to incineration whereas only 36.24% turn recovered through recycling (see Figure 2 with respect to EU, in 2014, treatment of waste by waste category as a percentage of total waste treatment (in tonne). [2] addressed a review of the up-to-date literature on the "triangle of death" (environmental pollution, illegal waste disposal, and health effects) to declare that environmental pollution of waste dumping affects health through both short and long-term effects. Among the short-term effects we have those of congenital anomalies, asthma, respiratory infections, stress, anxiety, headache, dizziness, nausea, eye and respiratory irritation. Long-term health effects are those related to chronic respiratory, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and brain, nerves, liver, lymph hematopoietic, lung and kidneys diseases [3]. In fact, burning wastes is not the most appropriate solution to solve the environmental pollution problem. As stated by [3] the illegal burning of wheels, plastics, textiles or other industrial residuals and toxic substances dumping, still represent major concerns for environmental pollution and population health.
Authors and Affiliations
Mara Madaleno
Keywords
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- EP ID EP591041
- DOI 10.26717/BJSTR.2018.08.001671
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