Long-Term Effects of Hazardous Waste Disposal

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) restricts how industry disposes of hazardous waste, but it can still find its way into the environment and cause serious damage. While proper disposal of toxic waste poses little harm, improper dumping often leads to long-term contamination of the environment. These toxins eventually make their way to animals and humans.

• Factory pollution

Regulation

• The EPA regulates the disposal and treatment of hazardous waste under Section C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA). The RCRA demands that companies properly dispose of toxic waste and completely bans dumping hazardous waste in the open. The EPA regulates hazardous materials from production to disposal in what is known as a "cradle to the grave" regulation.

Environmental

• Toxic and hazardous waste often get mixed with municipal waste in the sewage system. If farmers use the sludge from sewage systems for fertilizer, any toxic chemicals mixed in with sewage sludge can contaminate the soil that fertilizer is used on. Soil cannot readily bind with toxic chemicals, leading plants to capture them as they grow from the soil.

Sprawl

• Hazardous waste that leaches into the environment also tends to become a public health danger, even in places with strict dumping regulations. Toxic waste can travel hundreds, even thousands of miles and infect sites that have nothing to do with the original dumping. Science Daily reports that studies at Arizona State University show that dust clouds containing dangerous metals and bacteria can blow across the U.S. from as far away as China and Africa.

Cumulative Health Effects

• Even low concentrations of toxins can eventually build up inside body tissue to become negative to a person's health, according to MSN Encarta. Common pesticides such as DDT and Dioxin have low concentrations in water because they are not readily soluble in water, but can dilute within animal fats. In humans, the build up of toxins leads to sickness. Animals can become sick and pass toxins on to predators.

Prevention/Solution

• The EPA regulates industrial hazardous waste more strictly than hazardous waste around the home. Several common household products are often not recognized as hazardous waste. Fluorescent light bulbs save on energy but usually have toxic mercury that can leak into municipal landfills if the bulb breaks, according to the EPA. Batteries are another common source of hazardous waste that is rarely disposed of properly.