TOPIC 12: Mercury poisoning: Siberia

Mercury from a polluted industrial site in Siberia is posing a serious threat to public health and the environment. This is quiet similar to the Harbin leak in china where chemicals from a industry leaks into the soil and causes harm to the environment.More than 1,500 tonnes of metallic mercury from the former Ussolsky plant in the Baikal region have seeped into soil and local rivers but clean-up efforts are moving so slowly that they will take 1,000 years to complete at the current rate of progress.The pollution affects the nervous system, and is a problem for pregnant women and newborn babies. People complain of headaches, respiratory and intestinal diseases and hand tremors, and doctors are said to be growing increasingly concerned. Mercury exposure damages the central nervous system and kidneys, creating personality changes, hallucinations, sleep difficulties, irritability, headaches and memory loss.
conclusion: the authorities are to be blames for this. if the polutants have been stored and cared for carefully the sippage would not have occured.

TOPIC 11: Pollution in the Baltic

Sweden's Commission on Marine Environment has warned that the Baltic Sea is in a "critical" condition and in danger of dying unless pollution from the Russian city of St Petersburg is drastically cut.Half of the fish species in theMuch of the city's sewage flows untreated into the Neva, and from there directly into the Baltic. The Baltic is the world's biggest brackish sea - a peculiar mix of sea and lake, salt water and fresh. Its bed is a mix of ridges and troughs that trap pollutants, and starve fish and plant life of oxygen. And because it only has a narrow outlet to the ocean - between Sweden and Denmark - the water takes 25-30 years to refresh itself. 30% of the total water dumped into the Neva river by St Petersburg companies and apartment buildings goes there unfiltered.
conclusion: Too much polution is getting into the baltic while he baltic can onli replenish its waters very slowly.This has a very harmful on the marine live and the environment. If the authorities from the russian city do not take action and stop polluting the baltic with untreated industrial and city watse the pollution will spread on a bigger scale.

Topic 10: Effect of mining activities on the environment and human health

Mining creates destruction which stretches across an area so great it has been described as perhaps the largest man-made desert in the world.Big forests are cut down to make way for the mining of nickel, cobalt and copper. As the extraction of the seemingly endless tundra's hidden wealth of mineral reserves has become increasingly lucrative, fresh plans for a massive expansion in mining and smelting operations by giant companies has emerged. There have been reports of the bad effects of mining.On the Kola peninsula, authorities say the levels of iron and chemicals in the drinking water is too high, and Monchegorsk is among the places where the quality is the worst.In addition, many of those working in the mines and processing plants suffer from ill health, ranging from throat irritation to cardio-respiratory disease and cancer
conclusion:mining brings alot of harm to the environment. with the cuting down of trees to make way for mines there is an increase chance of even more hamful chemicals released into the eonvironment.

TOPIC 9: e-waste recycling-india

Mountains of e-waste (discarded parts of computers, mobile phones and other consumer electronics equipment) are quietly creating a new environmental problem in India. Thirty million computers are thrown out every year in the US alone, and many are dumped in India and China. Some 70% of the heavy metals in landfills come from electrical equipment waste. The old computers contain toxic chemicals in them.These heavy metals and chemicals are released into the environmentm when extraction or recondition is tried.The process of extraction uses all kinds of chemicals, like acids ,which in turn get dumped into the soil and go into the groundwater.Burning things like PVC-covered copper wire, will release very toxic chemicals like dioxins into the local environment.There are also fears that the recycling process, an unregulated industry in India, is also very harmful to the health of those employed to do it.
In particular, the job involves exposure to a number of toxic chemicals both as part of the recycling process and within the computers themselves.
conclusion:it is virtualy impossble to get rid of the computer equipment with out causing some harm to the environment. Therefore manufacturers will have to eliminate such harmful substances inside the machines and reduce the amount of toxic chemicals in the products.

TOPIC 8: Mothballs: not just for humans

According to researchers, a species of termite fumigates its underground nests with naphthalene, the active ingredient in mothballs. The Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus, mixes the chemical into the soil and chewed-up wood which it uses to insulate the complex of tunnels in which it lives. The fumes are thought to keep away the termite's natural enemies such as ants, poisonous fungi and nematode worms. Traces of naphthalene have been found in magnolia flowers and in a gland on the forehead of certain deer, human users must use industrial chemistry to obtain it.
conclusion: It seems that not onli humans are smart in repelling pests. Perhaps other chemicals widely used by people could have already been used by animals or other organisms. Maybe with the discover of these naturally occuring chemicals we could wipe out the use of industries, greatly decreasing the level of pollution by harvesting the animals or organisms tt produce these chemicals.

TOPIC 7: Pesticides: Good or bad?

For hundreds of thousands of people, living in the countryside holds the promise of healthy, pollution free living, but is it the opposite? There have been reports about the health of people living in the country side.Kay Wadey and her children live at Kirtling, near Newmarket.Their home is surrounded by fields. It may look like a rural paradise but they say their health and home is being damaged by the curse of crop spraying. she claims that her child's health were caused by the crop spraying too.the government intends to make spray record keeping by farmers legally enforceable and it is to look at making those records available to the public through a third party. Some 25,000 tonnes of pesticides are used on UK fields every year.
conclusion: pesticides maybe have little effect on us when we eat fruits and vegetables containing low levels of pesticides but there is evidence that the effects of sprayed pesticides cause harm to the environment n people living near the sprayed areas. Therefore i say pesticides are bad when environmental health is concern.

TOPIC 6: Pesticides in a third of all our foods

Fruits and vegetables contain pesticides. Fruit and vegetables, meat and poultry, cereal products, tea, olive oil, fruit juice and infant foods were tested for pesticides and was found that there were no residues found in chicken, eggs, infant formula, kidneys, milk or swede. At very low levels pesticides are not a concern to health. We are all exposed to chemicals in the environment every day, but whether they are toxic or not is down to the level of the dose.
conclusion: Eating fruits containing low levels of pesticides are not harmful to our body. There is more good in eating fruits containing little pesticides than to eating those that do not contain pesticides at all such as pest free, betta quality fruits and vegetables.