ENVIRONMENT-AUSTRALIA: Toxic Contaminants: The Other Scourge

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ENVIRONMENT-AUSTRALIA: Toxic Contaminants: The Other Scourge

By Neena Bhandari

Inter Press Service - Rome,Italy

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49102

Jeanette , 51, five months after she was diagnosed with mesothelioma due

to exposure to asbestos

Credit:Neena Bhandari/IPS

SYDNEY, Nov 2 (IPS) - As the world focuses on the impact of climate change,

little attention is being paid to yet another environmental bane: increasing

contamination of air, water and soil.

The combined effects of this environmental scourge have contributed to global

epidemics of cancers, lung and other degenerative diseases, and costing health

systems across the world millions of dollars, experts say.

Forty-two years after she was exposed to asbestos in the Pambula beach hamlet,

470 kilometres south of Sydney, Jeanette Hennessy , 51, was diagnosed with

mesothelioma in July 2008.

" Asbestos was used in the construction of my neighbour's house while I helped my

parents make additions to our own home with fibro sheets that contained asbestos

too, " explains .

Two years ago, she began to " feel breathlessness while walking uphill and

couldn't keep up with friends, " she says. After X-rays, a needle biopsy followed

by a surgical biopsy, I was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer

associated with breathing in asbestos dust and fibres. Being afflicted with the

disease is seen as an immediate death sentence, as victims die within 12 to 24

months.

" My tumour was too far advanced for surgery, but was growing, stifling my

breathing and sapping energy levels. I underwent chemotherapy for nine months

and one year on, I am in much better health. However, I have had to quit a

regular public service job as pain comes with a vengeance anytime, and the side

effects of chemotherapy have led to hearing loss and numbness in my feet, "

further recounts.

She reckons that, unknowingly, builders and many people like her have been

exposed to asbestos, which was widely used in construction during the 1960s and

1970s. " Many holiday homes on Australia's beaches were built using Fibrous

Asbestos Cement, and owners renovating them now could be exposed to deadly

particles. It is a time-bomb ticking for young families as the disease can take

30 to 40 years to surface, " she says.

A research study by the Occupational and Environmental Health Research Group at

the University of Stirling in Scotland found mesothelioma accounted for 100

cases and directly cost ish National Health Service hospitals an estimated

942,038 pounds (1.540 million U.S. dollars) in 2000.

The corresponding cost to Britain was at least 16 million pounds (26.174 million

U.S. dollars), as official figures for diagnosed and recorded deaths from

mesothelioma exceeded 1,700 a year. By 2003, around 50,000 people in Britain had

died from diagnosed and recorded mesothelioma.

Leading international environmental scientists that gathered during the Third

International Contaminated Site Remediation conference held in the South

Australian capital, Adelaide, in late September demanded urgent action to bridge

the gap between research, industry and policy to tackle the mounting risk to

environment and human health posed by a cocktail of toxic contaminants in the

environment.

" In contaminated sites we are almost always dealing with mixtures, which can be

far more lethal than individual substances, " says Prof Ravi Naidu, managing

director of the ative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and

Remediation of the Environment in Adelaide.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 2.4 million people die each

year from air pollution. Of these 1.5 million fatalities are attributed to

indoor air pollution alone. Among the major contributors to such pollution are

volatile organic compounds (VOCs), released by photocopiers, carpets, paint,

cleaning products and office furnishings. These cause `sick building syndrome' –

characterised by acute health and comfort effects with no identifiable illness

or cause. It costs the Australian economy an estimated 12 billion Australian

dollars (10.862 billion U.S. dollars) a year in healthcare and lost production.

Australia is estimated to have between 80,000 and 160,000 potentially

contaminated industrial sites, many of which lie close to the urban centres. The

United States has around 450,000 such sites and Asia has three million.

Yet many countries are still trying to solve the problem of contamination by

digging up toxic waste and polluted soil and dumping it in landfill sites on the

urban fringes.

" When cities expand, these toxic dumps become part of the suburbs, and their

contents again pose a risk to the health and safety of the community, so

dig-and-dump is not the answer, " Prof Naidu told IPS.

Last year, Australians dumped 14.7 million electronic products in landfills,

where the highly dangerous chemicals and heavy metals that they contain can

leach into groundwater and cause major health hazard. For example, each TV tube

could contain up to four kilograms of lead, plus toxic materials such as

mercury, cadmium and arsenic.

" In China, toxic metals have previously leached into groundwater, causing lead,

mercury and cadmium poisoning, as well as central nervous system damage and

cancer, " said Dr Sunil Heart, Lecturer at the School of Engineering in Griffith

University in Queensland (Australia). He has called for strict government

regulations to deal with electronic waste.

Experts say that with growing industrialisation, especially in heavily populated

countries of Asia and the Pacific, only cleaning up contaminated sites and

recycling waste and not " digging and dumping " can ensure a sustainable future.

People living in both urban and rural environments around the world are likewise

being exposed to toxic mixtures of heavy metals and organic chemicals such as

pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), VOCs, and persistent organic

pollutants (POPs) in their food, water, air and soil.

For example, common symptoms observed in people exposed to PCBs include fatigue,

headache, cough, unusual skin sores, irregular menstrual cycles and a lowered

immune response. Higher levels of PCBs can damage the liver, experts say.

WHO has classified PCBs as probable human carcinogens. In 2001 their production

was banned by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, an

international treaty that seeks to eliminate or restrict the production and use

of such pollutants.

Another insidious toxic carbon-based organic compounds are POPs that can persist

in the environment for long, move immense distances in air or water, can build

up in human or animal fat, and can accumulate in food chains causing many forms

of illness.

" You cannot overcome pollution merely by moving it. You have to disable it by

turning the toxic substances into forms which are completely safe, or locking

them up so they become unavailable to harm anyone, " said Prof Naidu.

Yet another contaminant posing a grave challenge to scientists and to millions

of innocent consumers around the world is the ultrafine nanoparticles, which are

less than the width of a human hair and are being used in a range of industries

and modern products such as toothpaste, cosmetics and sunscreens.

A team of scientists led by Dr Tomas Vanek, head of Laboratory of Plant

Biotechnologies, Joint Laboratory of Institute of Experimental Botany and

Research Institute of Crop Production, Rozvojová (Prague, Czech Republic), was

among the first in the world to show that 'nanopollution' could harm plants.

" The world needs to urgently begin preparing to regulate and, if necessary,

restrict the widespread use of nanoparticles in order to safely and sustainably

manage the technology, " Dr Vanek said.

People are also being unknowingly exposed to, and endangered by, toxic chemicals

used in making of illicit drugs that find their way into soil, water and air.

For example, over five kilos of toxic waste are generated for every kilo of

methamphetamine produced. Environmental clean-up costs for clandestine drug

laboratories range from 5,000 to 150,000 Australian dollars (4,529 to 135,897

U.S. dollars).

" Clandestine manufacturers of methamphetamine typically wash toxic waste from

the production of the drug down drains, or dump it untreated into the

environment, " said Prof Megh Mallavarapu from the Centre for Environmental Risk

Assessment and Remediation at the University of South Australia.

He explained that a drug laboratory " is often a temporary set-up, moving to

different locations and abandoned without clean-up, causing contamination to

escalate in the locality. "

Individuals exposed to methamphetamine lab contamination may experience

dizziness, headaches and reactions, chemical burns, lung and nerve damage. " It

is not just the concentration of heavy metals, but also the condition of the

soil that determines whether or not dangerous contaminants can enter our food

chain, " Prof Steve McGrath of Rothamsted Research Institute in Britain told IPS.

While science is helping detect, assess and clean up contamination safely and

economically, perhaps it is time the world considered having a global forum on

toxic contaminants similar to climate change.

(END/2009)