Hazardous Waste Essay

The general principals for environmental cleaning are to ensure the hospital environment is as clean as possible to reduce the risk of infection, and that all precautions are taken in accordance to legislation and Healthcare policy’s and guidelines. “To prevent the transfer of micro-organisms which may cause infection, and to prevent the transfer of foreign protein which may cause adverse reaction and pose the risk of spreading diseases e.g. vCJD. “

Nuclear waste is a radioactive waste that is dangerous, and a fair percentage of people would agree on this topic. However, is it really dangerous or is it just harmful to an extent? In society, many debates are held over trying to prove to the world that this substance is harmful. In the essay, “Nuclear Waste,” Muller states clearly that he sides with the anti-nuke of the debate and how he pinpoints the facts of nuclear waste with great persuasion. Yet, it is uncertain whether Muller clearly has a good argument and/or answers the questions that many people linger to know.

Over the past couple of years a new environmental issue has taken place illegal dumping, which is astoundingly different than the environmental issues that the City of Houston has been commonly known for, although it has devastating effect. In, fact what is rather unusual for this issue unlike the issues of air pollution the oil and gas industry has little to no involvement with creating the issue. While the city of Houston and Galveston had created guidelines for handling illegal dumping in 1999 the need to address this issue returned in early 2015.

There are three main mechanisms by which the chemical composition of groundwater, which is our natural source of drinking water, may be changed: by natural processes, by man's waste-disposal practices such as those for sanitary wastes, liquid industrial wastes, solid wastes, and radioactive wastes, and by spills, leaks, and agricultural activities and other sources unrelated to disposal. The degree of risk posed by contaminants varies according to many factors. These include the volume and toxicity of the contaminant, its concentration in the aquifer, its persistence in the environment, and the degree of human and environmental exposure to the contaminant. In addition, the number of persons affected, or likely to be affected, over time and the percentage of available groundwater both locally and regionally should be taken into consideration. If the contaminants in the groundwater exceed the standards set for drinking water by the federal government, for example, then the water is hazardous for the use for which it was designated under the standards. These standards include, however, only a limited number of chemicals, and thus they do not necessarily protect humans or the environment against either the short-term or the long-term effects of every contaminant that might be found in

The next Superfund that has greatly influenced the environment of Butler County is the Skinner Landfill. The Landfill is on 85 acres in West Chester (2). The facility was privately owned and was never actually licensed, so it closed in the 1970's (5). The landfill contains about 100 drums of chlorinated organics, and heavy metals. Along with the presence of the drums is the fact that a nearby lagoon was once used as a disposal for these contaminants, and that the site had problems with unauthorized dumping (5). Fortunately, no contaminants have been discovered leaving the site (5). The presence of these

Municipal solid wastes are leftovers made by the population such as food, plastic bottles, household wares and many more. These items referred by most as “the garage” or “trash”. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2015) In the early 1900’s, incinerators were used to burn waste however by the Mid-20th century, lawmakers enacted the first government regulations in an attempt to address increasing concerns about the environmental impact of unregulated waste management practices. With the first waste management legislation being passed in 1965, brought along the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, thus bringing us into a new world of waste management.(Vault, n.d.)

However, these regulations have come under intense debate and interpretations by public policymakers, generator and the EPA. These debates surrounding the management, implementation process, and loopholes that continues to affect the RCRA both negatively and positively by creating addition amendments that seeks to properly regulate hazardous waste management nationwide and at the same time research has shown that the RCRA often times has satisfactorily addressed problem relating to loopholes and hazardous waste disposal and treatment in collaboration with state program on waste management. For example the authors of “Regulation by bootstrap: Contingent management of hazardous wastes under the resource conservation and recovery act” Jeffrey M Gaba revealed that EPA continues to explore new avenue that seek to address hazardous waste management by implementing the “contingent management concepts”. The author writes “EPA has explored a number of regulatory alternatives for regulating “not very hazardous” waste, but three approaches have dominated. First since the earliest regulation under the RCRA, EPA established separate and reduced requirements for certain types of hazardous in contrast to the full set of regulation normally applicable to hazardous waste

Actions are Unethical - Definition of ethical behaviour is broader than just its legality. Organizations have a broader responsibility to its stakeholders which include the surrounding communities and the environment. Government agencies are influenced by industry and do not always prioritize the interests of the public. How can any waste dumping be safe?

This case highlights the likelihood of friendly relations between industry and government. It was recorded that Ford Motor Company dumped paint waste from 1967-1971. I find it hard to believe that not a single government official considered looking into where all of the company’s waste was being disposed of within that four-year period. It also took the federal government until the 1980s to list this area of Ringwood, New Jersey as one of the most toxic superfund sites. While I do understand that historically the United States has had strong ties between industry and government I find it appalling that both federal and state governments failed to advocate for the Ramapoughs.

The state of California may run out of groundwater in as little as ten years. California is dependent on groundwater, and without it, it would be thrown into a statewide water crisis. So far, people do not know about this problem or do not care or believe in it. The state of California must prevent groundwater overuse by regulating groundwater use, making regulations telling farmers when and how to

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980 has proved to be one of the most important environmental protection programs of all time. Also known as Superfund, this act spawned dramatic changes to the environment of the United States. Superfund aimed to cleanup hazardous waste sites in America and protect the health and safety of the general public. Over the years, the Superfund legislation has authorized the government to aid in the cleanup of toxic waste in a variety of effective ways that have ensured the welfare of its citizens. On the whole, CERCLA has transformed hazardous waste sites, changed the outdated disposal methods that companies utilized, and ignited environmental awareness.

Hazardous materials can be important in everyday life when properly handled. However, when improperly handled, they can result in injury, death, and destruction as well as have lingering effects that may last for years to come. To address the risk of an uncontrolled hazardous materials release, there must be a coordinated effort to identify, locate, and quantify the hazardous materials in a particular location (Drexel University Safety & Health, 2001). Typically, industry and government agree that a hazardous materials incident is one where

In Paul Dylan Hynds article it states that, “Groundwater contamination occurs as a direct result of human or animal waste ingress to Groundwater resources aquifers or wells” Most likely when man-made products such as gasoline, oil, road salts, and chemicals get into the groundwater. Pollutants are freed to the ground making their way or path down into the Groundwater. Overall, groundwater is very difficult to remediate, except when it is being remediated in small defined areas. As a result the importance of Groundwater has to be on the preventation of contamination. Protecting sensitive aquifers, having control of discharges, releases, provision of drainage, and sanitation systems to ward off pollution discharges. However, in small areas with

Hazardous waste and its proper disposal have become a major sociological problem today due to its capability of contaminating the area in which we live and its potential to be lethal to all living things. In order for the United States and the rest of the world to save itself from a potentially life threatening problem they must fix the causes which lead to the improper disposal of hazardous wastes and like materials. Some reasons that hazardous waste has become a problem in the United States today is due to the breakdown in enforcing laws for the proper disposal of such wastes, a lack of initiative on big companies behalf to spend money on proper disposal, and the ease of disposing of such wastes illegally.

Congress passed The Solid Waste Disposal Act in 1965. The Agency of Environmental Safety considered this Act as the primary effort made by federal authority for efficient waste clearance technology. This act controls the dumping material; manage storage and management of solid, both and non-precarious and precarious wastage. It highlights the processes that are environmentally liable to dispose waste at the commercial, municipal, industrial and household levels (Tchobanoglous & Vergara, 2010). This was considered as primary initiative of a chain of systems focusing on resource management and air cleaning (Gerlak, 2005). There have been several major adjustments made to the Act with the reference to Resource Recovery and Conservation Act (1976). The involvement of federal