Chapter 2.3 Environmental impacts and health risks
Notes on this chapter
This chapter looks at the potential for adverse effects and the environmental and health
risks associated with hazardous wastes, their generation, storage, treatment and disposal.
The problems posed by poor industrial and hazardous wastes practices are common to all
countries. However, different countries’ ability to achieve and sustain improved
hazardous waste management vary widely.
Public concern about the disposal of hazardous wastes may not be articulated until
awareness is raised during the early stages of implementing a hazardous wastes
management system. Industrial activities may have continued unremarked for many
years.
This is a sensitive aspect of hazardous wastes management, and one which will become
increasingly so as awareness is raised. There is a great deal of information on
environmental impacts on the Internet, from a variety of sources - not all of them
accurate. Trainers are encouraged to discuss with students the issue of public information
– and misinformation - and its influence on public perceptions.
List of slides
Title Slide
Slide 2 Hazard and exposure
Slide 3 Hazardous properties
Slide 4 Exposure routes 1
Slide 5 Exposure routes 2
Slide 6 Minimising risks by good management
Slide 7 Evidence of harm
Slide 8 Public concerns about hazardous waste
Slide 9 Public perception of risk
Slide 10 Occupational exposure
Slide 11 Scavenging
Slide 12 Risk assessment 1
Slide 13 Risk assessment 2
Slide 14 Summary
Background notes
Impacts
1 The health risks and environmental impacts arising from hazardous wastes are common
to all countries, since the potentially health-threatening components within each waste
type are similar. However, the actual risks posed vary widely, as they can be greatly
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reduced by good operational practices, storage methods, personal hygiene, enforcement
of regulations and quality of management.
2 The country’s overall level of income provides a guide to the level of public health and
environmental protection expenditure available. It is sometimes found that the aspirations
of technical personnel are ahead of their country’s current capacity to finance and sustain
the dramatically improved hazardous wastes management necessary to reduce risks
effectively. However, when starting from a low level, even small, low cost measures can
have major benefits.
3 In middle and lower-income countries, the stockpiling of industrial wastes is
commonplace at factories due to a shortage of waste treatment facilities and a lack of
waste management programmes. Unauthorised hazardous waste dumps may contain a
cocktail of hazardous materials such as heavy metals. Considerable volumes of hazardous
wastes may accumulate in such open dumps and these can affect water supplies and
create demonstrable environmental hazards. It is important to take early steps to provide
licensed treatment and disposal capacity which matches waste generation, if the risks
from hazardous wastes are to be reduced.
Public concerns
4 Public concern about the possible impacts associated with hazardous wastes often
evolves with a general increase in industrial activity in a country or city, and by analogy
with the effects of chemicals mismanagement in the work place and on the environment.
It may be brought to the fore when facilities for treating hazardous wastes are proposed.
5 The NIMBY (Not In MY Back Yard) syndrome is an understandable reaction,
particularly where old dumps have caused obvious pollution, but it can result in proposed
facilities failing to go ahead, leaving wastes no proper treatment or disposal routes.
Ironically then, public concern can exacerbate environmental and health risks from
hazardous wastes.
Exposure
6 For most environmental exposures to chemicals, except for accidentally high
concentration levels, the quantifiable epidemiological evidence on health effects is poor
and the links between the two are weak. The epidemiological evidence on the health
effect arising from both municipal and hazardous waste management is no different.
7 There have been a number of attempts to investigate a causal link between wastes and
health effects but the results to date have been far from conclusive.
Sources of further information
Batstone, R; Smith, JE & Wilson, DC editors (1989) The safe disposal of hazardous
wastes: The special needs and problems of developing countries World Bank,
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Washington, Technical paper No 93 in 3 volumes ISBN 0-8213-1144-1 (available as pdf
files from www.worldbank.org/publications/)
Economopoulos, AP (1982) Rapid assessment of sources of air, water & land pollution
sources, World Health Organisation, Geneva Publication number 62
Farmer, A and Hjerp, P (2001) Municipal solid waste incineration: health effects,
regulation and public communication National Society for Clean Air, Brighton
ISBN 0-903-474-51-4
Johnson B, DeRosa C (1995) Chemical mixtures released from hazardous waste sites:
implications for health risk assessment. Toxicology 105, 145-156
Johnson BL (1999) Impact of hazardous waste on human health ATSDR CRC Press Inc,
NY ISBN 1-566-7044-72
Jolley, RL & Wang, RGM editors (1992) Effective and Safe Waste Management:
Interfacing Sciences and Engineering with Monitoring and Risk Analysis Lewis
Publishers ISBN 0-8737-1241-2
Kungskulniti, Nipapun (1990) Public health aspects of a solid waste scavenger
community in Thailand, Waste Management & Research Vol 8 No 2 ISSN 0734-242X
Rushbrook PE (1989) Technical and environmental risks from the landfill disposal of
wastes Proceedings of the COMETT Seminar on Protecting the Environment by
Monitoring and optimising the management of wastes, Berlin
Vrijheid M (2000) Health effects of residence near hazardous waste landfill sites: a
review of epidemiological literature Environmental Health Perspectives 108, 101-112
WHO (2000) Methods of assessing risk to health from exposure to hazards released from
waste landfills WHO EUR/00/5026441 WHO European Centre for Environment &
Health, Copenhagen
Web sites
World Health Organisation www.who.org
Hand outs
1.Flow chart: Identifying the specific chemicals as a contaminant in the waste stream
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