Resource exploitation and health

Pollution and other types of environmental degradation, unfortunate side effects of resource exploitation, affect human health. Workers who mine or process resources are particularly susceptible to adverse effects because of repeated exposures or exposures at high concentrations. When the obtaining, processing, or consuming of resources disseminates pollutants throughout air, soil, or water, public health is affected as well.

Background

Human well-being is inextricably linked to the Earth’s natural resources. These resources provide food, shelter, and warmth as well as transportation, medicine, and a host of other improvements, conveniences, and luxuries that enhance the quality of life. Ironically, however, the act of exploiting resources can so affect the environment that human health is affected. Resources that are toxic (such as mercury and lead) or radioactive (such as uranium) become pollutants when mining, processing, or releases them into the air, the water, and the food chain. Other wastes generated through resource exploitation are also discharged into the environment, compromising its ability to sustain life. Through overuse and misuse, human populations deplete and degrade soil and water, essential resources upon which their survival depends. Increasing population size makes it harder for ecosystems to withstand the stresses imposed upon them so that they cannot simultaneously meet human demands for materials, absorb wastes, and act as a life-support system. The growing population is also exhausting its frontiers: As pristine and productive areas disappear, so does the option of simply moving away from polluted or damaged ecosystems.

Modern societies recognize that resource exploitation involves trade-offs. The needs and desires of the Earth’s huge human population cannot be met without some disruption of the environment or some risk to workers and public health. Risk-management efforts such as regulation and environmental cleanup are intended to minimize such adverse effects, notably where human exposure to chemicals is involved. Risk management relies heavily on risk assessments—science-based estimates that combine information on exposure levels and toxicity to assess the type and magnitude of human health risk a particular substance poses. Such estimates may be expressed as a probability (for instance, one additional case of cancer per one thousand people) or a range of likely probabilities. Risk managers who determine acceptable exposure levels, impose restrictions on the use of toxic chemicals, and make other regulatory and policy decisions to protect human health base their decisions on risk-assessment results, economic considerations, legal constraints, and social concerns.

Laws, policies, and practices that pertain to resource exploitation and other activities that can degrade the environment have been influenced by an increasing public awareness of the associated health risks. Community opposition to the presence of dangerous or aesthetically offensive facilities in its vicinity—known as the “not in my back yard (NIMBY) syndrome”—often can keep an undesired operation out of a community. However, the NIMBY syndrome tends to push such facilities into minority and low-income communities that lack the financial and political clout to resist them. These areas generally experience more severe environmental contamination and are subjected to higher concentrations of harmful pollutants than their majority counterparts. Along the lower 137 kilometers of the Mississippi River, for instance, low-income residents share the area with approximately 150 oil refineries and petrochemical plants; many experts attribute above-average incidences of cancers, massive tumors, and miscarriages among the residents to chemical pollution and have even dubbed the area “Cancer Alley.”

The unequal societal distribution of environmental damage and health risk—known as “environmental injustice” or “environmental racism”—exists on a global scale as well. Developed nations often export environmentally controversial operations or products to developing countries. There, where unsafe water and inadequate sewage facilities are common, drinking and washing in water from tainted streams and wells can expose people to toxic pollutants. Economic considerations have led many mining and industrial operations to move from the United States to developing countries where regulations pertaining to environmental protection, labor, and the like are often less restrictive. Similarly, the manufacturers of Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) and related pesticides—chemicals banned in the United States—continue to supply the pesticides to developing countries.

Occupational Health

Workers who obtain or process resources have the potential to be exposed to a set of harmful substances and conditions on a regular basis. Common workplace hazards include toxic chemicals, airborne dust, poor ventilation, noise, high humidity, and extremes of heat and cold. In developed nations, efforts by labor organizations, management, and government to protect worker health have helped to track and control the incidence of work-related injuries and illnesses. Government agencies such as the United States’ Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) oversee and enforce regulations pertaining to such things as acceptable exposure levels, protective clothing, and health and safety training and notification of workers. Developing countries, however, often lack effective occupational health standards or enforcement. Workers there are also less likely to receive sufficient training or equipment to carry out their jobs safely.

In workers around the world, common occupational illnesses include hearing loss caused by excessive noise, skin disorders resulting from chemical exposures, lead poisoning, poisoning, and respiratory diseases resulting from particulate inhalation. Particulates are a problem in many industries: Wood, cotton, and dusts, for instance, all can induce illness if inhaled. Particles measuring 0.5 to 5 micrometers in diameter settle in the lungs and, over time, can cause severe respiratory disease. The most well-publicized particulate-related illnesses are found among miners and mineral-processing workers. Coal miners are susceptible to black lung disease, a lung disorder caused by coal-dust inhalation. Silicosis, a fibrous lung disease brought on by silica dust, affects workers in quarries and mines.

Perhaps the most notorious of the disease-causing particulates is asbestos. A useful fibrous mineral able to resist heat, friction, and chemical corrosion, asbestos was widely used through much of the twentieth century as an insulating and fireproofing material and as a strengthener in cement and plastics. Only after decades of use and dissemination throughout the urban environment was asbestos recognized as a health hazard. Inhaling asbestos fibers can cause asbestosis, a chronic lung inflammation whose symptoms may not appear until twenty to thirty years after exposure. According to the World Health Organization in 2024, about 200,000 people die from occupational exposure to asbestos each year.

Persons working directly with asbestos are most likely to be affected; however, extensive use of the mineral in public buildings, private residences, and consumer goods may place the general public at risk as well. (There has been considerable debate as to the seriousness of the asbestos danger to people not actively working with the material; some studies have indicated that the risk to the general population is actually quite small.)

In 1973, as part of the Clean Air Act, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was charged with developing and enforcing regulations to protect the general public from asbestos exposure, notably during building demolition and renovation and asbestos-waste transport and disposal. In the 1980s, the EPA issued regulations controlling asbestos in schools and other public buildings. OSHA also promulgated standards that covered occupational exposures. While asbestos is still in use, its consumption declined precipitously beginning in the 1970s because of regulatory and economic factors and the increased use of alternative materials.

Effects of Air Pollution

Fuel consumption by motor vehicles is a major source of urban air pollution in many cities. Vehicles emit nitrogen oxides, which mix with water vapor to form acid precipitation. Nitrogen oxides may exacerbate some chronic lung ailments and reduce the body’s natural immune response. Lead exposure is associated with neurological damage and motor-physical impairment in children. Blood-lead concentrations in the United States have decreased substantially since leaded fuels were phased out in the late 1970s.

Electric power plants that burn fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal) are another source of nitrogen oxides. They also emit sulfur dioxide, particularly when high-sulfur coal is used. Like nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide produces acid precipitation. Normally, when inhaled, sulfur dioxide will react with moisture in the upper respiratory tract to produce sulfuric acid; however, if sulfur dioxide adheres to a respirable particle, it can travel deeper into the lungs and have a greater impact on health. The adsorption of sulfur dioxide onto coal particulates is believed to have been responsible for the severity of London’s coal-smog disaster of 1952, which ultimately claimed around four thousand lives. In that year, heavy use of coal-fired home heaters during a chilly December produced a thick smog that blanketed the city for four days and exacerbated existing respiratory illnesses, particularly in children and the elderly.

In developing countries, smoky fuels (crop residues, wood, charcoal, and coal) used for cooking and heating in homes are a significant health hazard. Particulates from these fuels irritate the respiratory tract, contribute to chronic lung diseases such as bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma, and increase the risk of cancer. Women and children are most affected by smoky household fuels. In Beijing, the number of households that used these fuels was great enough that overall city air quality was affected.

Effects of Water Pollution

The Earth’s streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans are multiple-use resources. They supply humankind with water and food, serve as a means of travel and transport, and provide recreation and scenic beauty. They also are widely employed for waste disposal, which frequently conflicts with their other uses. Industrial wastes introduce toxic organic chemicals and heavy metals into aquatic ecosystems, polluting the water and tainting the food chain. Industrial pollution of water was found to be responsible for an epidemic of organic mercury poisoning among the residents of Minamata, Japan, that was first identified during the 1950s. Mercury-containing wastes discharged into Minamata Bay by a plastics and petrochemical company contaminated fish and shellfish with methyl mercury. Residents who ate the seafood subsequently developed a profound central nervous system disorder. More than a thousand persons were ultimately identified as victims of Minamata disease.

Untreated or poorly treated human sewage is another hazardous pollutant of water. Aqueous discharge of this material introduces harmful bacteria and viruses that make water unsafe for human consumption, washing, or recreation. In developing countries, where sewage is often released into open waterways, this practice can contribute to the spread of potentially fatal illnesses such as diarrheal disease and cholera.

Effects of Agrochemicals

Pesticides are used extensively in agriculture as well as in forestry and rangeland management. Indiscriminate and excessive pesticide application has dire consequences for the environment and human health. Pesticides can enter the human body through inhalation, ingestion of drinking water or food, and, in some cases, absorption through the skin. Exposure at sufficiently high concentrations causes immediate pesticide poisoning. Where safety precautions are disregarded, the potential for overexposure is great. Exposure to lower concentrations has health implications as well. Environmentally persistent chemicals such as DDT, which do not readily break down after application, accumulate in body tissues and in the food chain. Many pesticides areimmunotoxins, which, even at low concentrations, alter the human immune system and make a person more prone to contracting infectious diseases. Children, the elderly, and persons whose health is already compromised are particularly susceptible. Pesticides may also weaken the immune system’s ability to combat certain cancers, such as Hodgkin’s disease, melanoma, and leukemia.

Synthetic fertilizers are another type of agrochemical whose indiscriminate use poses a health risk. Nitrate that is not absorbed by crops can infiltrate into and thus contaminate drinking water. In infants, nitrate induces methemoglobinemia, or “blue baby syndrome,” a serious and often fatal blood disease. The nitrate is converted in the infant’s intestines to nitrite, which inhibits the blood’s ability to carry oxygen. Brain damage or death by suffocation may result. In the United States, numerous cases of methemoglobinemia have been reported in California, Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Effects of Radioactivity

Radioactive emissions occur when uranium is mined, milled, processed, and transported. Nuclear fission and breeder reactors also emit low levels of radiation; reprocessing plants that recover uranium 235 and plutonium from spent fuel rods emit more radiation than properly operating nuclear power plants. High-level radioactive wastes—which include spent fuel from reactors and radioactive water from nuclear power plants, reprocessing operations, and temporary spent-rod storage—require long-term storage in repositories capable of keeping the material safely isolated from the environment. While normal operations involve relatively low-level emissions, major accidents at nuclear power plants can introduce massive amounts of into the environment.

Persons exposed to high radiation dosages (of 1,000 rads or more) die as a result of internal-organ damage and bone-marrow destruction. Humans may survive the symptoms of exposure to lower levels of radiation (100 to 1,000 rads)—radiation burns, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, hair loss, and internal bleeding—but may experience subsequent genetic effects in the form of cancer and damage to sperm and ova. According to the National Academy of Sciences, a continuous exposure of 0.1 rem per year throughout a lifetime would be expected to produce 5.6 cancers per 1,000 people. The average person in the United States receives an annual radiation dosage of 0.62 rem, half coming from natural background sources of radiation and the other half from man-made sources of radiation.

The 1986 explosion and reactor fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the former Soviet Union released between 150 and 250 million curies of radiation. Radiation spread across twenty countries, contaminating livestock and crops and exposing human populations as far away as West Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. In 1989, unsafe radiation levels (over 15 curies per square kilometer) were reportedly present in portions of Belarus (about 7,000 square kilometers), Russia (about 2,000 square kilometers), and Ukraine (about 1,500 square kilometers); twenty years later, areas of each of these countries still exhibited some contamination. It is unclear how many persons have died as a result of the Chernobyl disaster; reported deaths range all the way from 600 to 90,000. Health effects attributed to the Chernobyl incident included neuropsychological disorders and thyroid cancer among children. Amazingly, the last of the nuclear reactors at Chernobyl remained in operation until 2001, despite the fact that scientists estimated that the area would remain contaminated and uninhabitable for at least two centuries. The effects of Chernobyl linger into the twenty-first century. In 2019, farmers in Scandinavian countries like Norway and Sweden still felt the impacts of radiation on their vegetation, feed, and livestock. Strontium-90 and Caesium-137, the most dangerous radioactive elements released in the disaster, are still present in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia due to the elements’ extended half-lives.

Effects of Environmental Change

When resource exploitation imposes stresses on an that cause it to change significantly, human health is frequently affected. Environmental change can deprive a community of food or fuel, make it more susceptible to diseases, or have other adverse effects. If environmental degradation is so severe as to force a community to evacuate or relocate, its people may be subjected to unhealthful conditions—such as crowding, poor sanitation, or psychological stress—that they did not experience previously.

Desertification, the transformation of once-productive land to a desert-like environment, is a side effect of imprudent resource use. Poor agricultural, forestry, and rangeland management practices encourage soil erosion. In semiarid climates, extreme devegetation, soil nutrient depletion, and lead to desertification. Human health is impaired through the loss of productive land. In sub-Saharan Africa, has resulted largely from and excessive harvesting of wood for fuel. The region’s rapidly expanding population has exceeded the production capabilities of its agricultural land, and widespread malnourishment has resulted.

The consumption of fossil fuels, the burning of wood, deforestation, and other factors have contributed to a buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Many scientists believe that the accumulation of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is responsible for a trend. Scientists considering the health implications of the greenhouse effect anticipate increased mortality due to heat stress, increased incidence of chronic and infectious respiratory diseases, more allergic reactions, and altered geographic ranges for insect-borne and parasitic diseases.

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