Environmental Hazards
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Natural phenomena
Human Activities
Controlling environmental hazards: goal of reducing risk
to human life and health
Is zero risk attainable?
Five Major Areas of Environmental
Concern Re. Health
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Waste management
 Air pollution
• Outdoor air
• Indoor air
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Water pollution
 Radiation
WASTES AND WASTE
MANAGEMENT
Wastes and Environmental Hazards
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Four contributing factors
• Urbanization
• Industrialization
• Population growth
• Introduction of disposable products and
containers
Solid Waste and Its Management
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Solid waste as part of modern life
 Four major sources
• Agricultural
Together, about 90-91%
• Mining
• Industry 5%
• Municipalities/Domestic Sources 5%
Solid Waste Management
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Aimed primarily at municipal and industrial
wastes
Formation of Environmental Protection Agengy
(1970)
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1975
(RCRA)
Integrated waste management approach
Approx. 80% of money spent on municipal waste
management spend on collection process
Disposal of Solid Wastes
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Sanitary Landfills
Incineration
Resource Recovery (Recycling)
Source Reduction
Waste Management in Pennsylvania (1996)
• Act 101 requires all counties to have detailed plans for
managing their own wastes; currently, all have
municipally ratified, state-approved plans
• At beginning of 1996, Pennsylvania had 51 permitted
municipal waste landfills and 7 waste-to-energy
facilities, with a combined capacity for 10-13 years
Hazardous Waste Management
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Definition of hazardous waste
 Prior to RCRA, hazardous waste was generally
disposed of in a dump or landfill, along with other
solid wastes
 Four characteristics making a waste hazardous:
• Ignitability
• Corrosiveness
• Reactivity
• Toxicity
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Dual problems faced today:
• Appropriately disposing of new hazardous waste
• Correcting mishandling errors of the past
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Five Approaches to Hazardous Waste
Management
• Secured Landfill
• Deep Well Injection
• Incineration
• Recycling
• Source Reduction
Hazardous Waste Cleanup
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Federal government as primary participant
 1980 -- Comprehensive Environmental
Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
(CERCLA) -- the “Superfund”
 1985 -- Superfund Amendments Reauthorization
Act (SARA)
 Progress as of 1999
• 1,204 uncontrolled hazardous waste sites on NPL
• 585 sites has reached the construction completion stage
WATER POLLUTION
Sources of Water Pollution
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Point Source Pollution
• Non-point Source Pollution
Types of Water Pollution
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Biological pollutants
• Toxic pollutants
• Other/Miscellaneous pollutants
Strategies to Insure Safe Water
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Clean Water Act (1972)
• Focus of EPA regulations
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Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) (1974)
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Waste water treatment -- municipal/governmental
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Septic systems
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Conservation
AIR POLLUTION
Outdoor Air Pollution
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Most Prevalent Sources
• Transportation
• Electric power plans
• Industry, primarily mills and refineries
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Criteria pollutants -- most pervasive air pollutants
 Pollutant Standard Index (PSI)
 Special Concerns with Outdoor Air
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Acid rain
Smog
Reduction of the ozone layer
Global warning (controversial)
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Regulation of Outdoor Air
• Clean Air Act (1963) -- plus subsequent amendments
• 1970 Amendments
• 1990 Amendments
Indoor Air Pollution
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Numerous sources resulting from human actions
 Aeroallegens
 Radon
 Protection of Indoor Air
• Modification of individuals’ behavior
• Legislation
RADIATION
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Naturally Occurring Radiation
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Human-made Radiation
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Nuclear Waste Policy Act (1982)
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Development of site capable of safely receiving
high-level nuclear wastes
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Ensure that low-level wastes (from medicine,
universities, and research labs) are also handled
properly
• Currently, no public waste facility exists in
the U.S. capable of handling high- level
wastes
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NWPA provision for a planned facility in
Yucca Mountain, NV, but controversy has
slowed its development
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL
LEGISLATION/POLICIES
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Political systems respond to the public demands of the
moment. In environmental health, this has resulted in a
pattern of legislative and policy developments dictated by
problems or crises seen as particularly important at
different points in time
The early 1970s was a critical turning point in expanding
government’s role in environmental regulation, shifting
authority from local town halls to state capitals and to
Washington, DC
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was created
in 1970 and given responsibility for all environmental
media (air, water, land) and most of the major pollution
control programs. However, the federal departments of
Interior, Health and Human Services, Agriculture, and
Defense (and, later, Energy) retained considerable control
over specific environmental agency regulatory functions
After EPA’s formation, many states consolidated
environmental regulatory responsibilities into new
agencies -- little “EPAs” modeled on the national
agency
• One result was that state health departments
ceased to be the dominant environmental
regulatory agency in the majority of states
• Another result was the various state agencies
retained some degree of environmental control
often at cross-purposes with the state
environmental agency
 The federal EPA (and its state counterparts)
became an amalgamation of programs and
divisions, rather than a carefully integrated
agency
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In sum, environmental regulation at the national
level is fragmented along media lines -- partly in
response to the variety of influences in the
executive branch that have some role in
environmental policy
 Federal legislation also illustrates the
fragmentation of environmental laws -- e.,g., some
25 separate federal laws address some aspect of
toxic substances control and hazardous waste
management; 8 separate laws give EPA authority
in toxic substance control
 At the state level, permits are a basic tool of
environmental management in all states --i.e.,
proposed development projects cannot begin until
issued a formal permit
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Often, multiple permits must be acquired -- e.g.,
air and water pollution, protection of wetlands,
wildlife protection
 No two states have devised identical regulatory
systems, despite federal pressures and monetary
incentives to do so
 Federal-state relations in environmental regulatory
programs can be characterized in three patterns:
• Federal role as extremely deferential to state
government preferences -- “cooperative
federalism” -- with federal attempts to stimulate
action through funding incentives
• Federal role as dominant -- “national
federalism” -- including auto emission policies
and the Superfund
• Balance of federal and state levels -- with
federal role of forcing state action and
providing regulatory control in the absence of
state action, but typically a delegation of
authority to state agencies with funding to ease
state costs of implementation