![mohandasgandhi:
Pollution as big a health problem as malaria or TB, harming well over 125 million people, finds report
Waste from mining, lead smelters, industrial dumps and other toxic sites affects the health of an estimated 125 million people in 49 low- and middle-income countries. This unrecognised health burden is on the scale of malaria or tuberculosis (TB), a new report has found.
This year’s World’s worst pollution problems (pdf) report was published on Tuesday by the Blacksmith Institute in partnership with Green Cross Switzerland. It documents, for the first time, the public health impact of industrial pollutants – lead, mercury, chromium, radionuclides and pesticides – in the air, water and soil of developing countries.
“This is an extremely conservative estimate,” said Bret Ericson of the Blacksmith Institute, a small international NGO based in New York City. “We’ve investigated 2,600 toxic sites in the last four years, [but] we know there are far more.”
The US has an estimated 100,000-300,000 toxic sites, mainly factories or industrial areas, but toxic sites in the low- and middle-income countries assessed in the report are often in residential areas. “We see a lot of disease when we go into these communities,” said Ericson. “But we were surprised the health burden was so high – as much as malaria.”
Ericson cited gold mining in the Nigerian state of Zamfara by way of example. In 2010, Médecins Sans Frontières doctors carrying out vaccinations in villages in Zamfara were shocked to see so few children. The villagers were small-scale gold miners who crushed gold-bearing rocks inside village compounds; the raw ore contained extremely high levels of lead, which had killed hundreds of children and left thousands more with lead poisoning.
The health impact of exposure to toxins at the 2,600 sites identified in the report was estimated using the disability adjusted life years (DALYs) metric, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other bodies use to measure overall disease burden. The metric is expressed as the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death, with one DALY equivalent to one lost year of healthy life. The estimate for impact of pollution from toxic sites is 17m DALYs; according to the WHO, malaria’s annual toll is 14m DALYs.
The human toll of pollution in terms of lost productivity, healthcare cost, lowered life expectancy and social impact is very high.Countries need to wise up to this and realise there are inexpensive ways to avoid toxic pollution, said Ericson.
Stephan Robinson, of Green Cross Switzerland, identifies globalisation, and especially mining and resource extraction, as the reason for many toxic sites. The high price of gold has led to increases in both small- and large-scale mining, while lead production rose 10% last year to meet the needs of battery and electronics manufacturers. “Much of this industrial activity is to serve our needs in the developed world,” said Robinson, who added that toxic sites have received very little attention internationally despite their significant impact on the health of millions of people.
According to Green Cross, 4m-10m tonnes of obsolete but still dangerous pesticides have been abandoned in tens of thousands of locations and must be destroyed. The cost of doing so will range from $3,000-8,000 (£1,900-5,000) a tonne, but attributing responsibility is difficult and it is unclear who will foot the bill, said Robinson. The survey did not include ongoing industrial and large petro-chemical sites.
Top 10 toxic industries in 2012, listed by DALY
Lead-acid battery recycling (4.8m)
Lead smelting (2.6m)
Mining and ore processing (2.5m)
Tannery operations (1.93m)
Industrial/municipal dump sites (1.23m)
Industrial estates (1.06m)
Artisanal gold mining (1.021m)
Product manufacturing (786,000)
Chemical manufacturing (765,000)
Dye industry (430,000)
It is extremely important to emphasize the role the developed world plays in this. The demand for goods produced in toxic industries largely comes from the developed world and many corporations based there purchase these materials from industries in the developing world with low environmental regulations and safety standards for employees simply because it’s cheaper to do so. Corporations in the developed world also buy out many of the industries in the developing world or outsource production to skid regulations and produce products at a much lower cost. They essentially exploit individuals living in countries with few environmental and worker safety regulations for cheaper products at a faster rate.
For those of us in the developed world, rather than putting pressure on governments in the developing world, which often face serious issues that slow down the legislation-making process, such as corruption, to implement stricter environmental regulations and worker safety standards, what is often effective is putting pressure on industries in the developing world to demand higher standards for those they do business with and on our governments to better regulate international trade. In our capitalistic system, these are very difficult issues to solve internationally due to the vast economic incentives of each actor. Businesses have an incentive to minimize external costs and production costs in order to maximize profits and governments in the developing world, which often govern over a poor populace, have incentives to increase revenues within their respected countries. Lending support to workers movements which petition their governments for higher working standards and increased worker control over their labor, benefits, and industries is also very important and can help stamp out these disgusting industrial practices, giving more power to the workers as opposed to corporations to solve these problems, whose only incentive is to maximize profits.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mcewp5v9Rd1qzhl7go1_500.jpg)
Waste from mining, lead smelters, industrial dumps and other toxic sites affects the health of an estimated 125 million people in 49 low- and middle-income countries. This unrecognised health burden is on the scale of malaria or tuberculosis (TB), a new report has found.
This year’s World’s worst pollution problems (pdf) report was published on Tuesday by the Blacksmith Institute in partnership with Green Cross Switzerland. It documents, for the first time, the public health impact of industrial pollutants – lead, mercury, chromium, radionuclides and pesticides – in the air, water and soil of developing countries.
“This is an extremely conservative estimate,” said Bret Ericson of the Blacksmith Institute, a small international NGO based in New York City. “We’ve investigated 2,600 toxic sites in the last four years, [but] we know there are far more.”
The US has an estimated 100,000-300,000 toxic sites, mainly factories or industrial areas, but toxic sites in the low- and middle-income countries assessed in the report are often in residential areas. “We see a lot of disease when we go into these communities,” said Ericson. “But we were surprised the health burden was so high – as much as malaria.”
Ericson cited gold mining in the Nigerian state of Zamfara by way of example. In 2010, Médecins Sans Frontières doctors carrying out vaccinations in villages in Zamfara were shocked to see so few children. The villagers were small-scale gold miners who crushed gold-bearing rocks inside village compounds; the raw ore contained extremely high levels of lead, which had killed hundreds of children and left thousands more with lead poisoning.
The health impact of exposure to toxins at the 2,600 sites identified in the report was estimated using the disability adjusted life years (DALYs) metric, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other bodies use to measure overall disease burden. The metric is expressed as the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death, with one DALY equivalent to one lost year of healthy life. The estimate for impact of pollution from toxic sites is 17m DALYs; according to the WHO, malaria’s annual toll is 14m DALYs.
The human toll of pollution in terms of lost productivity, healthcare cost, lowered life expectancy and social impact is very high.Countries need to wise up to this and realise there are inexpensive ways to avoid toxic pollution, said Ericson.
Stephan Robinson, of Green Cross Switzerland, identifies globalisation, and especially mining and resource extraction, as the reason for many toxic sites. The high price of gold has led to increases in both small- and large-scale mining, while lead production rose 10% last year to meet the needs of battery and electronics manufacturers. “Much of this industrial activity is to serve our needs in the developed world,” said Robinson, who added that toxic sites have received very little attention internationally despite their significant impact on the health of millions of people.
According to Green Cross, 4m-10m tonnes of obsolete but still dangerous pesticides have been abandoned in tens of thousands of locations and must be destroyed. The cost of doing so will range from $3,000-8,000 (£1,900-5,000) a tonne, but attributing responsibility is difficult and it is unclear who will foot the bill, said Robinson. The survey did not include ongoing industrial and large petro-chemical sites.
Top 10 toxic industries in 2012, listed by DALY
- Lead-acid battery recycling (4.8m)
- Lead smelting (2.6m)
- Mining and ore processing (2.5m)
- Tannery operations (1.93m)
- Industrial/municipal dump sites (1.23m)
- Industrial estates (1.06m)
- Artisanal gold mining (1.021m)
- Product manufacturing (786,000)
- Chemical manufacturing (765,000)
- Dye industry (430,000)
It is extremely important to emphasize the role the developed world plays in this. The demand for goods produced in toxic industries largely comes from the developed world and many corporations based there purchase these materials from industries in the developing world with low environmental regulations and safety standards for employees simply because it’s cheaper to do so. Corporations in the developed world also buy out many of the industries in the developing world or outsource production to skid regulations and produce products at a much lower cost. They essentially exploit individuals living in countries with few environmental and worker safety regulations for cheaper products at a faster rate.
For those of us in the developed world, rather than putting pressure on governments in the developing world, which often face serious issues that slow down the legislation-making process, such as corruption, to implement stricter environmental regulations and worker safety standards, what is often effective is putting pressure on industries in the developing world to demand higher standards for those they do business with and on our governments to better regulate international trade. In our capitalistic system, these are very difficult issues to solve internationally due to the vast economic incentives of each actor. Businesses have an incentive to minimize external costs and production costs in order to maximize profits and governments in the developing world, which often govern over a poor populace, have incentives to increase revenues within their respected countries. Lending support to workers movements which petition their governments for higher working standards and increased worker control over their labor, benefits, and industries is also very important and can help stamp out these disgusting industrial practices, giving more power to the workers as opposed to corporations to solve these problems, whose only incentive is to maximize profits.
