Human Health is an Environmental Concern

Human Health is an Environmental Concern

Posted by johntarantino1 on Thursday, February 10, 2011 · Comments (0)

Environmental health is not limited to plants and animals – it also encompasses human well-being in relation to the natural world. Just because a substance is naturally occurring does not mean it cannot be a pollutant. Some plants give off VOCs, the same dangerous substances found in certain paints and solvents, and so should not be kept in unventilated indoor environments. Another natural material that humans have turned into a pollutant, an extremely fire-resistant mineral whose use has dire consequences for both human and environmental health.
If asked, most Americans will likely say that asbestos is dangerous, but they may mistakenly think it is no longer used in the United States. They also may or may not know that it is the main cause of mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive cancer of the lining of the chest or abdomen. Mesothelioma symptoms may take between 20 and 50 years to manifest after asbestos exposure, so we are just now seeing an upswing in the numbers of cases thanks to the ubiquity of asbestos in construction and manufacturing industries through the majority of the 20th century.

The International Ban Asbestos Secretariat routinely compiles a list of the countries that have placed a ban on the use of asbestos. The most recent list is from January of this year, and the United States isn’t on it. In 1989, the EPA issued a ban on most asbestos-containing products, but the ban was overturned by New Orleans’ Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Asbestos is regulated under the Clean Air Act and the Toxic Substances Control Act, but certain materials are still allowed to contain more than 1% asbestos, and the EPA does not oversee the manufacture, processing, or distribution of these products.
To see the devastation that asbestos causes, you have only to look to the vermiculite mines in the small town of Libby, Montana. Mining itself can be extremely detrimental to the environment, as the land is often stripped of vegetation and then polluted with runoff. While vermiculite is not dangerous in itself, it is often found in the same deposits as asbestos, and miners are exposed when they break up the rocks to harvest the vermiculite. Though the EPA had been aware of the asbestos-related health problems in Libby since 1978, the mine remained open until 1990 and the cleanup did not begin until 1999. To date, it is the nation’s deadliest Superfund site, with over 400 deaths directly attributable to the mines. The clean-up is ongoing, and will most likely continue for at least the next few years.
Mesothelioma symptoms, which have been documented as occurring in animals as well as humans, are serious, and the average life expectancy after diagnosis is only 9-12 months. Doubling this tragedy is the fact that approximately 80% of mesothelioma cases are preventable by avoiding exposure to asbestos. The EPA needs to use a firmer hand in regulating the toxic mineral, keeping careful track of its use until it can be phased out entirely and replaced with alternative insulating materials that are just as energy-efficient. Though asbestos itself is cheap, the cost on human and natural health is more than we can bear.