Mercury, lead, chromium and other toxic compounds, used in many industrial processes, rob years of healthy life from millions each year. Simple fixes could go far in solving the issue
The "quicksilver" pictured here in a miner's hand is used to bond to gold in a slurry. The gold–mercury amalgam is then heated, usually in the open air, exposing miners, their children and the world to vaporized mercury—a potent neurotoxic element that causes developmental disorders and affects the central nervous system....[More]
ELEMENTAL MERCURY:
The "quicksilver" pictured here in a miner's hand is used to bond to gold in a slurry. The gold–mercury amalgam is then heated, usually in the open air, exposing miners, their children and the world to vaporized mercury—a potent neurotoxic element that causes developmental disorders and affects the central nervous system.
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Courtesy of the Blacksmith Institute
INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER:
Concentrating wastewater in industrial parks allows for shared environmental controls—except, too often, such technology is not employed, like the wastewater from an industrial park flowing in an open drain (pictured)....[More]
INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER:
Concentrating wastewater in industrial parks allows for shared environmental controls—except, too often, such technology is not employed, like the wastewater from an industrial park flowing in an open drain (pictured). Lead from battery manufacture, smelting, leaded glass production as well as from pigments, paints, ceramics, glazes and e-waste all too often ends up in the environment as a result, where it causes development disorders in children, among other harmful health effects. For example, the Malir River in Karachi, Pakistan, boasts lead levels of 2,170 parts per billion, or 100 times higher than the health standard for irrigation water.
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Courtesy of the Blacksmith Institute
PESTICIDE PROBLEM:
Modern agriculture relies on pesticides, requiring the application of some two million metric tons annually on fields. Health effects in humans range from skin irritation, like that pictured here, to cancer....[More]
PESTICIDE PROBLEM:
Modern agriculture relies on pesticides, requiring the application of some two million metric tons annually on fields. Health effects in humans range from skin irritation, like that pictured here, to cancer. In addition, stockpiles of old, outdated pesticides such as DDT linger. An estimated six to nine million metric tons of such pesticides persist, often improperly stored. Illiteracy compounds the problem. "Even if we put some information on the pesticide containers themselves, [most users] will not understand," says physicist Stephan Robinson of Green Cross Switzerland. "Container management in pesticides is very important. Give to a farmer a new container of pesticides only if he gives you back the empty container," so he cannot use it for food storage.
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Courtesy of the Blacksmith Institute
SMELTER:
Some 3.8 million metric tons of lead are produced annually by separating it from mined ore using high heat. Too often such smelting, like that pictured here in Vietnam, happens in backyards without any pollution controls....[More]
SMELTER:
Some 3.8 million metric tons of lead are produced annually by separating it from mined ore using high heat. Too often such smelting, like that pictured here in Vietnam, happens in backyards without any pollution controls.
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Courtesy of the Blacksmith Institute
CARCINOGENIC CHROMIUM:
Turning hides into leather in much of the world requires chromium, which in its hexavalent chemical form is a potent carcinogen. Clusters of such tanneries in countries such as Bangladesh produce vast quantities of toxic waste—200 separate tanneries in Hazaribagh combine to produce daily 7.7 million liters of wastewater and 88 million tons of solid waste, like the chromium sludge pictured here....[More]
CARCINOGENIC CHROMIUM:
Turning hides into leather in much of the world requires chromium, which in its hexavalent chemical form is a potent carcinogen. Clusters of such tanneries in countries such as Bangladesh produce vast quantities of toxic waste—200 separate tanneries in Hazaribagh combine to produce daily 7.7 million liters of wastewater and 88 million tons of solid waste, like the chromium sludge pictured here.
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Courtesy of the Blacksmith Institute
LEAD–ACID BATTERIES:
These rechargeable batteries that help start most cars and trucks are composed of lead plates and sulfuric acid in a plastic case. Used batteries can be easily and cheaply recycled—but are also classified as "toxic waste" by the Basel Convention on hazardous waste and its disposal....[More]
LEAD–ACID BATTERIES:
These rechargeable batteries that help start most cars and trucks are composed of lead plates and sulfuric acid in a plastic case. Used batteries can be easily and cheaply recycled—but are also classified as "toxic waste" by the Basel Convention on hazardous waste and its disposal. The lead plates collect a layer of very fine lead oxide that is often simply shaken off, freeing it to be inhaled or otherwise absorbed into the body. Here a boy melts the recovered lead from a battery in an open container.
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Courtesy of the Blacksmith Institute
ARSENIC AND WELL WATER:
The world's worst toxic problems are not confined solely to industrial pursuits. Arsenic leaching into groundwater afflicts some 750,000 people, largely in south Asia....[More]
ARSENIC AND WELL WATER:
The world's worst toxic problems are not confined solely to industrial pursuits. Arsenic leaching into groundwater afflicts some 750,000 people, largely in south Asia. Here a child in Nepal drinks from a well containing water contaminated with arsenic, which can lead to abnormal heart beat, blood vessel damage and cancer, among other ill effects.
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Courtesy of the Blacksmith Institute
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
David It is stunning how under-reported the actual danger of mercury is, which matters of course since risk is not only likelihood, as in the paper you cite, but consequence. (e.g., Lots of people get food poisoning, but fortunately don't get very sick from it.) The major paper which identified the substance as a neurotoxin, on which most regs are based, is Philippe Grandjean et al., “Cognitive Deficit in 7-Year-Old Children with Prenatal Exposure to Methylmercury,” Neurotoxicology and Teratology 19, no. 6 (1997), pp. 417–428. It found a deficit of less than one IQ point in children whose moms ate high mercury diets during pregnancy, compared to the kids of pregnant moms who did not eat HIGH mercury diets. That is not good, of course, and population wide presents a public health problem. but that is hardly the level of harm most people, including most journalists, assume about the notorious bogeyman of mercury. I am no fan of the stuff, but I am a fan of good journalism about risk that helps the reader understand things, and reporting about the danger of mercury that fails to describe the consequences part of the risk equation- as almost all mercury reporting is - is missing something really important.
David has a point. It would be easy enough for Scientific American to include a sentence or two about the magnitude of the threat that each pollutant poses.
7. blindboy
in reply to David Ropeik03:12 AM 11/14/11
I think you missed the point. The article is concerned with high level mercury exposure. The study you refer to is about much lower levels. I trVellex through a gold mining area in Indonesia recently and many of the miners are running significant risks of Minamata like symptoms.
Blacksmith's Bret Ericson, who managed the three-year project. "These are not large-scale, multinational corporations that are responsible for this pollution.
I find it hard to believe that large scale corporations aren't paying these industrial parks and buying this fertilizer and causing arsenic to be released into aquifers. Bret should probably peel back another layer of that rotten onion.
In France, importation data clearly show that most mercury pollution comes from standard domestic batteries that are not recycled. From landfill or incineration sites, the mercury is lixiviated and finds its way into the oceans, than up through the food chain to predators, including man. Clean up amalgam technology yes, but first recycle batteries from all your household gadgets. And don't speculate on gold.....
11. phalaris
in reply to ChapsBoy01:34 AM 11/16/11
Ok, we should start with the closest, and probably most dangerous (USA : 30,000 fatalities 2009, of whom 4,000 pedestrians http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx): traffic accidents. What do you propose?
What if over one billion people spent 1/3 of their lives breathing through a filter saturated with two chemicals identified on their MSDSs as 'highly toxic', 'do not breathe'. Would you rally against it?
What if you found that the UN and US governments were funding these filters, and touting them as safe?
As I identify in my upcoming book The Carbon Trap, the mosquito nets sent to Africa present such an issue. Don't believe me? Check out the UN WHOPES site.
Alpha-cypermethrin and Deltamethrin are the chemicals.
And straight off one MSDS: Highly Toxic (USA) Toxic (EU) Dangerous for the environment Harmful in contact with skin; readily absorbed through skin system Toxic by inhalation Very toxic if swallowed May cause sensitization by inhalation and skin contact.
Target organ(s): central nervous system, cardiovascular system
Recent efforts promoting the use of LLIN (long-lasting insecticidal nets) have shifted their emphasis from a focus on vulnerable populations to a broader objective of universal coverage, defined at the household level as the use of insecticide-treated nets by all household members regardless of age or gender
Hey David, how about you eat fish for a couple weeks and see is you don't get sick? Fact is coal is by far the largest US mercury source. And more and more people are getting mercury poisoning from fish.
There is a reason they say mad as a hatter as they used mercury. Or ask the Japanese about their mercury poisoning problems, I think something like Mataha diease.
And lead in the US cities when it was eliminated from gasoline, innercity kids IQ jumped 10%.
15. elderberrypi
in reply to Steve D06:54 AM 11/19/11
Steve's suggestion of life imprisonment for any criminal conviction poses an interesting philosophical question. "At what level in criminal activity should permanent incarceration kick in? And further more which of us should pay for that "early retirement"? Further more, what do you do when everyone is in prison? Who pays for that and how would such universal imprisonment differ from our lives right now?"
I find it interesting that tanneries are top of the list when chromium is mentioned as a pollutant, yet nobody realize, or concern themselves with the fact, that the stainless steel used in kitchen utensils and cooking containers consist of 11% plus chromium. These utensils and containers wear away by mechanical and chemical action in the process of cooking. And then we do not even talk about the cheaper chrome plated utensils which can lose flakes of chromium metal. These chromium gets into the food people eat. So for the same mode of entry into the body, chromium containing drinking water is a problem, but ingesting chromium from kitchen utensils apparently not. Sorry, does not add up for me.
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16 Comments
Add CommentDavid
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is stunning how under-reported the actual danger of mercury is, which matters of course since risk is not only likelihood, as in the paper you cite, but consequence. (e.g., Lots of people get food poisoning, but fortunately don't get very sick from it.) The major paper which identified the substance as a neurotoxin, on which most regs are based, is Philippe Grandjean et al., “Cognitive Deficit in 7-Year-Old Children with Prenatal Exposure to Methylmercury,” Neurotoxicology and Teratology 19, no. 6 (1997), pp. 417–428.
It found a deficit of less than one IQ point in children whose moms ate high mercury diets during pregnancy, compared to the kids of pregnant moms who did not eat HIGH mercury diets. That is not good, of course, and population wide presents a public health problem. but that is hardly the level of harm most people, including most journalists, assume about the notorious bogeyman of mercury. I am no fan of the stuff, but I am a fan of good journalism about risk that helps the reader understand things, and reporting about the danger of mercury that fails to describe the consequences part of the risk equation- as almost all mercury reporting is - is missing something really important.
David has a point. It would be easy enough for Scientific American to include a sentence or two about the magnitude of the threat that each pollutant poses.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy should we put up with ANY threat, if it is preventable.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWould it have been so hard to put the pictures on one page instead of a slide show? Hint: SciAm should just ban slide shows altogether.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnyone who ever commits a crime is a potential future threat, so we should never let them out?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@Steve D: "Would it have been so hard to put the pictures on one page instead of a slide show? Hint: SciAm should just ban slide shows altogether."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLet's get a movement started. I hate that presentation format, as do many others I'm sure.
I think you missed the point. The article is concerned with high level mercury exposure. The study you refer to is about much lower levels. I trVellex through a gold mining area in Indonesia recently and many of the miners are running significant risks of Minamata like symptoms.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBlacksmith's Bret Ericson, who managed the three-year project. "These are not large-scale, multinational corporations that are responsible for this pollution.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI find it hard to believe that large scale corporations aren't paying these industrial parks and buying this fertilizer and causing arsenic to be released into aquifers. Bret should probably peel back another layer of that rotten onion.
In France, importation data clearly show that most mercury pollution comes from standard domestic batteries that are not recycled. From landfill or incineration sites, the mercury is lixiviated and finds its way into the oceans, than up through the food chain to predators, including man. Clean up amalgam technology yes, but first recycle batteries from all your household gadgets. And don't speculate on gold.....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCool, so go break open some thermometers, chug down the Hg, and then let me know how you feel.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOk, we should start with the closest, and probably most dangerous (USA : 30,000 fatalities 2009, of whom 4,000 pedestrians http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx): traffic accidents.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat do you propose?
What if over one billion people spent 1/3 of their lives breathing through a filter saturated with two chemicals identified on their MSDSs as 'highly toxic', 'do not breathe'. Would you rally against it?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat if you found that the UN and US governments were funding these filters, and touting them as safe?
As I identify in my upcoming book The Carbon Trap, the mosquito nets sent to Africa present such an issue. Don't believe me? Check out the UN WHOPES site.
Alpha-cypermethrin and Deltamethrin are the chemicals.
And straight off one MSDS:
Highly Toxic (USA) Toxic (EU)
Dangerous for the environment
Harmful in contact with skin; readily absorbed through skin system
Toxic by inhalation
Very toxic if swallowed
May cause sensitization by inhalation and skin contact.
Target organ(s): central nervous system, cardiovascular system
Recent efforts promoting the use of LLIN (long-lasting insecticidal nets) have shifted their emphasis from a focus on vulnerable populations to a broader objective of universal coverage, defined at the household level as the use of insecticide-treated nets by all household members regardless of age or gender
Gold is expensive.I like gold.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHey David, how about you eat fish for a couple weeks and see is you don't get sick? Fact is coal is by far the largest US mercury source. And more and more people are getting mercury poisoning from fish.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is a reason they say mad as a hatter as they used mercury. Or ask the Japanese about their mercury poisoning problems, I think something like Mataha diease.
And lead in the US cities when it was eliminated from gasoline, innercity kids IQ jumped 10%.
Steve's suggestion of life imprisonment for any criminal conviction poses an interesting philosophical question. "At what level in criminal activity should permanent incarceration kick in? And further more which of us should pay for that "early retirement"? Further more, what do you do when everyone is in prison? Who pays for that and how would such universal imprisonment differ from our lives right now?"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI find it interesting that tanneries are top of the list when chromium is mentioned as a pollutant, yet nobody realize, or concern themselves with the fact, that the stainless steel used in kitchen utensils and cooking containers consist of 11% plus chromium. These utensils and containers wear away by mechanical and chemical action in the process of cooking. And then we do not even talk about the cheaper chrome plated utensils which can lose flakes of chromium metal. These chromium gets into the food people eat. So for the same mode of entry into the body, chromium containing drinking water is a problem, but ingesting chromium from kitchen utensils apparently not. Sorry, does not add up for me.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this