ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AND HEALTH EFFECTS 

1. Toxicology Effects:

Eco-toxicology is “a study of the effects of released pollutants on the environment & on the biota that inhabit it”.

It indicates biological damage. It is an estimate of the amount of radiation of any type which produces the same biological injury in man as that resulting from the absorption of a given amount of X-ray radiation or gamma radiation.

Iodine-131:

• Iodine-131 produced by nuclear tests is passed to vegetation & then appears in the milk of the cattle that consume the contaminated vegetation & is passed to humans.
• Iodine-131 causes serious damage to the thyroid gland, especially among children.
• About 90% of long-term radioactivity from either strontium or radium taken into the human body is found in the bones.

Mercury:

• Mercury is the most common most toxic in water bodies. It occurs in water as mono-methyl mercury. Most industrial effluents have mercury.
• Methyl-mercury vapors cause fatal poisoning.
• High levels of mercury in fish stocks were found mainly in coastal areas. Mumbai, Kolkata, Karwar & North Koel are some of the severely affected areas.
• The recent popularity of energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps/CFLs has added another dimension to the controversy.
• Toxicity of mercury is much greater than any other substance, about 1000 times more potent than colchicines.

Lead:

• Lead is highly toxic to plants & animals including man. Lead affects children more severely than adults.
• Lead poisoning causes a variety of symptoms. These include liver & kidney damage, reduction in haemoglobin formulation, mental retardation & abnormality in fertility & pregnancy.
• Symptoms of chronic lead poisoning are of three types- Gastrointestinal troubles, neuro-muscular effects, and central nervous system effects.

Fluorine:

• Fluorine occurs in nature as fluoride in air, soil & water.
• Fluorosis is a common problem in several states of the country due to the intake of high fluoride-content water.
• Fluoride cause dental fluorosis, and stiffness of joints (especially the spinal cord) causing humped back.
• Pain in bones, joints & outward bending of legs from the knees is called Knock-Knee syndrome.
• In cattle, fluoride intake causes staining, mottling & abrasion of teeth, lameness & decrease in milk production.

DDT:

• Toxic pesticides such as BHC, PCB, DDT etc are not easily degraded & are long-lasting in the environment. Their concentration therefore goes on increasing in water & soil with successive applications.
• DDT was sprayed for many years on marshes to control mosquitoes.
• The DDT has bio-magnified from water to fish-eating birds & humans.
• DDT is known to depress the activity of estrogen, the female sex hormone & testosterone, the male sex hormone.
• Fish die due to eating of DDT-killed insects, turtles die because of eating DDT-killed fish & so on.
• DDT deposited in the butterfat of milk is a potential danger to infants.
• The result of DDT use is that a whole population of predatory birds like fish hawks (Osprey) & detritus feeders such as fiddler crab are wiped out.
• Birds are more vulnerable as DDT interferes with eggshell formation by causing a breakdown in steroid hormones which results in fragile eggs that break before the young can hatch.

High Caffeine in Energy Drinks:

• Energy drinks are controversial because of its high caffeine content. Most of these brands have up to 320 ppm of caffeine in them. These drinks are marketed as an instant source of energy.
• According to study reports, it is the sugar that gives the energy rush, the caffeine only gives a feeling of energy.
• Energy drinks fall under the category of proprietary foods in the Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Act of 1954.
• An amendment in the PFA Act 2009 ensured that caffeine in energy drinks should be capped at 145 ppm, the limit that was set for carbonated beverages.
• The Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is currently making regulations on energy drinks.

Transfat:

• Transfats are formed during the process of the addition of hydrogen atoms to oils, a process which industry prefers as it keeps the oil from turning rancid & ensures a longer shelf life.
• Transfats are associated with a host of serious health problems ranging from diabetes to heart disease to cancer.
• Junk food is high in Transfats, salt & sugar and gives no nutrition. Getting addicted to it is making the young vulnerable to hypertension, heart disease, diabetes & obesity.

Pesticide in Human Blood: Pesticides are commonly used in India but this comes at great cost to human health. It found that 15 different pesticides in 20 blood samples tested from four villages in Punjab.

Testing Pesticide Toxicity:

• All pesticides are tested to establish the toxicity dose necessary to produce a measurable harmful effect, it is usually established through tests on mice, rats, rabbits & dogs.
• Results are then extrapolated on humans & safe exposure levels predicted.
• The value commonly used to measure acute toxicity is LD 50-a lethal dose in the short term; the subscript 50 indicates the dose is toxic enough to kill 50% of lab animals exposed to the chemical.
• LD 50 values are measured from zero onwards; the lower the LD 50, the more acutely toxic the pesticide.
• To illustrate a comparison of the most used in India up to the early 1990s-with monocrotophos, is currently the most used.
• DDT’s LD 50 is 113mg/Kg; monocrotophos is 14 mg/Kg. But never forget that a lower LD 50 means higher acute toxicity.
• Pesticides once ingested, accumulate in the body fat or pass through. Organochlorine pesticides, for instance, accumulate in body fat & blood lipids. These fat-soluble chemicals persist in the body for many years.

2. Diseases Caused by Environmental Degradation:

Minimata Disease:

• Minimata disease was first discovered in Minimata city in Japan, in 1956.
• It was caused by the release of methyl mercury in the industrial wastewater from the Chisso Corporation’s chemical factory, which continued from 1932 to 1968.
• It is a neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning.
• Symptoms include ataxia, numbness in hands & feet, general muscle weakness, narrowing of the field of vision & damage to hearing and speech.
• In extreme cases, insanity, paralysis, coma & death follow within weeks of the onset of symptoms. A congenital form of the disease can also affect the fetus in the womb.
• This highly toxic chemical bio-accumulated in shellfish & fish in Minimata Bay which when eaten by the local populace resulted in mercury poisoning.
• Cat, dog, pig & human deaths continued over more than 30 years, and the government & companies did little to prevent the pollution.

Blue Baby Syndrome:

• Blue baby syndrome is caused by high nitrate contamination in groundwater resulting in the decreased oxygen-carrying capacity of hemoglobin in babies leading to death.
• The groundwater is thought to be contaminated by leaching of nitrate generated from fertilizer used in agricultural lands & waste dumps.
• It may be related to some pesticides like DDT, PCBs etc, which cause eco-toxicological problems in the food chains of living organisms, increasing BOD which kills aquatic animals.

Yokkaichi Asthma: This disease occurred in Japan during 1960 & 1972. The burning of petroleum & crude oil released large quantities of sulfur oxide that caused severe smog, resulting in severe cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic bronchitis, pulmonary emphysema & bronchial asthma among the local inhabitants.

Itai-Itai Disease: Itai-Itai disease was the documented case of mass cadmium poisoning in Japan, starting around 1912.

Pneumoconiosis: The coal miners are frequently caught by the black lung disease, which is also called Pneumoconiosis. It is caused due to the deposit of coal dust in the lungs of coal miners, leading to a serious lung disease called Black Lung disease.

Silicosis: It is caused due to the deposit of silica in the lungs of workers working in silica industries or at sandblasting sites.

Asbestosis: Workers working in the asbestos industry are caught by a serious lung disease called asbestosis.

Emphysema: The breaking down of sensitive tissue of the lungs due to air pollution & smoke from cigarettes is known as Emphysema. Once this disease happens, the lungs cannot expand & contract properly.

Sick Building Syndrome (SBS): SBS is a combination of ailments associated with an individual’s place of work or residence. Most of the sick building syndrome is related to poor indoor air quality. The causes are frequently pinned down to flaws in the heating, ventilation & air conditioning systems. Other causes attributed to contaminants produced by outgassing of some types of building materials, volatile organic compounds, moulds, improper exhaust ventilation of ozone, light industrial chemicals used within or lack of adequate fresh-air intake air filtration.

3. Environmental Movements

Chipko Movement:

• It is a social-ecological movement that practiced the Gandhian methods of satyagraha & non-violent resistance, through the act of hugging trees to protect them from falling.
• The modern Chipko movement started in the 1970s in the Garhwal Himalayas of Uttarakhand, with growing awareness towards rapid deforestation.
• This event took place on March 26^th, 1974, when a group of peasant women in Reni village, Uttarakhand acted to prevent the cutting of trees & reclaim their traditional forest rights that were threatened by the contractor system of the state Forest Department.
• By the 1980s, the movement had spread throughout India & led to the formulation of people-sensitive forest policies which put a stop to the open felling of trees in regions as far-reaching as Vindhyas & Western Ghats.
• The 1^st recorded event of the Chipko movement took place in Khejarli village, Jodhpur in 1730 AD, when 363 Bishnois, led by Amrita Devi sacrificed their life while protecting green Khejri trees, considered sacred by the community, by hugging them & braving the axes of loggers sent by the local ruler.

Appiko Movement:

• The Appiko movement was a revolutionary movement based on environmental conservation in India.
• In September 1983, men, women & children of Salkani, Karnataka hugged the trees in Kalase forest. (The local term for hugging in Kannada is Appiko).
• The Appiko movement gave birth to a new awareness all over southern India.

4. International Standards & Environment

• The ISO 14000 environmental management standards exist to help organizations comply with applicable laws, regulations & other environmentally oriented requirements.
• ISO 14000 is similar to ISO 9000 quality management in that both pertain to the process of how a product is produced, rather than to the product itself.
• The ISO 19011 audit standard applies when auditing for both 9000 & 14000 compliance at once.
• As with ISO 9000, certification is performed by third-party organizations rather than being awarded by ISO directly.

List of ISO 14000 series standards-

• ISO 14001 Environmental management systems requirements with guidance for use.
• ISO 14004 Environmental management systems guidelines on principles, systems & support techniques.
• ISO 14015 Environmental assessment of sites & organisations.
• ISO 14020 series Environmental labels & declarations.
• ISO 14030 discusses post-production environmental assessment.
• ISO 14031 Environmental Performance Evaluation Guidelines.
• ISO 14040 series, Life Cycle Assessment, LCA, discusses pre-production planning & environmental goal setting.
• ISO 14050 terms & definitions.
• ISO 14062 discussed making improvements to environmental impact goals.
• ISO 14063 Environmental communication guidelines & examples.
• ISO 14064 measuring, quantifying & reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
• ISO 19011 which specifies one audit protocol.

5. National Wastelands Development Board (NWDB):

The National Wastelands Development Board (NWDB) was set up under the Ministry of Environment & Forests in 1985 with the following objectives:

• To increase tree & other green cover on wastelands.
• To formulate within the overall nodal policy, perspective plans & programmes for the management & development of the wastelands in the country.
• To prevent good land from becoming a wasteland
• In 1992, the Board was transferred to the Ministry of Rural Development, putting under a New Department of wastelands Development under the charge of a Minister of State.

Bioassay:

• Bioassay is a test in which organisms are used to detect the presence or the effects of any other physical factor, chemical factor or any other type of ecological disturbance.
• Bioassays are very common in pollution studies. Bioassays can be conducted by using any type of organism. The fish & insect bioassays are very common.
• The aim is to find out either lethal concentration or effective concentration causing mortality or other effects.
• Ultimately they are to be used for the determination of the safe concentration of a chemical or maximum acceptable toxicant concentration.
• Out of three types, a static bioassay test is designed, where the organisms are exposed to the same toxicant solution for the whole experimental period. The other two are renewal bioassays & flow-through bioassays.

Keystone Species:

• Keystone Species is a species whose addition to or loss from an ecosystem leads to major changes in abundance or occurrence of at least one other species. Certain species in an ecosystem are considered more important in determining the presence of many other species in that ecosystem.
• Keystone species deserve special attention from the conservation point of view. Conservation of keystone species encourages the conservation of all other relevant species associated with this.
• All top predators are considered keystone species because it regulates all other animals’ population indirectly. Hence top predators are given much consideration in conservation.
• If keystone species are lost, it will result in the degradation of the whole ecosystem. For instance, certain plant species exclusively depend upon bats for their pollination. If the bat population is reduced then regeneration of particular plants becomes more difficult. This changes the vegetation structure which adversely influences the dependent animals.

Flagship Species:

• A flagship species is a species chosen to represent an environmental cause, such as an ecosystem in need of conservation.
• These species are chosen for their vulnerability, attractiveness or distinctiveness to endanger support & acknowledgement from the public at large.
• The concept of a flagship species holds that, by giving publicity to a few key species, the support given to those species will successfully leverage the conservation of entire ecosystems are all species contained therein.
• Example: Indian tiger, African Elephant, Giant panda of China, mountain gorilla of Central Africa, Orangutan of Southeast Asia & the leatherback sea turtle.

Indicator Species:

• Indicator species is a species whose presence indicates the presence of a set of other species & whose absence indicates the lack of that entire set of species.
• An indicator species is any biological species that defines a trait or characteristic of the environment.
• For instance, a species may delineate an eco-region or indicate an environmental condition such as a disease outbreak, pollution, species competition or climate change.
• Indicator species can be among the most sensitive species in a region & sometimes act as an early warning to monitoring biologists.
• Indicator species of the ocean systems are fish, invertebrates, periphyton, macrophytes & specific species of ocean birds like Atlantic puffin.
• Amphibian indicates chemicals, global warming & air pollution. Lichens are indicators of air quality & are sensitive to sulfur dioxide.

 Foundation species: Foundation species is a dominant primary producer in an ecosystem both in terms of abundance & influence. For instance, kelp in kelp forests, corals in coral reefs etc.

Umbrella Species: Umbrella species is a wide-ranging species whose requirements include those of many other species. The protection of umbrella species automatically extends protection to other species. These are species selected for making conservation-related decisions, typically because protecting these species indirectly protects many other species that make up the ecological community of its habitat.

Charismatic megafauna: These are large animal species with widespread popular appeal that environmental activists use to achieve conservation goals well beyond just those species. Examples include the Giant Panda, the Bengal Tiger & the Blue Whale etc.