Contaminated sites and waste dumps

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Introduction
01 Cancer
02 Ozone
03 Urban air
04 Air pollutants
05 Blue-green algae
06 Water mutagens
07 Contamination
08 Chernobyl
09 Radon
10 Medical geology
11 Renal hazards
12 Organohalogens
13 Estrogens
14 Food hazards
15 Mycotoxins
16 Poisoning
17 Genetics
18 Risk

Ordering

(Excerpt from Chapter 7)

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Industrialization

Since the dawn of human civilization, man has reshaped the earth in order to fulfill an ever increasing demand for food, clothes, housing, means of transportation and a myriad of everyday items to make life easier and seemingly more pleasant. However, it has become increasingly apparent that the resources of this planet are limited and have to be carefully managed in order to ensure a sustained development of mankind.

The invention of the steam-engine during the 18th century may be taken as the starting point of the industrialized era. Three epochs within this era can be broadly distinguished (Table 1). From the middle of the 18th century up until the time of the first world war, coal and steel were the main commercial commodities. Coal was used as fuel and for energy production. Sawmills, mines, smelters and steel works were the main production facilities. Networks of railroads and canals were built for efficient communication. From around 1910, throughout the world wars and up until the early 1960s, coal was being replaced by fuel oil, gasoline and electricity. Networks of highways largely replaced the railroads and the canals of the previous epoch. The chemical, pharmaceutical and petrochemical industries grew and new synthetic products such as plastics, antibiotics, pesticides and fertilizers were produced. During recent decades, the electronic industry has become ever more important and nuclear power has been used for energy production. Mass transportation by air is commonplace.

Each epoch has created its characteristic set of environmental problems. Many of the problems facing us today are legacies from the previous epochs. One of the environmental problems that has been acknowledged in recent years is the large numbers of sites contaminated through industrial or other human activities (Table 2). These sites include uncontrolled and closed-down waste dumps but also former production facilities such as mines, steelworks, refineries, chemical plants, gas works etc. Urban areas are frequently contaminated through vehicle exhaust. Military proving grounds and old battlefields are other kinds of contaminated sites. The discovery of buried and leaking drums containing toxic waste is another aspect of the problem. One major trouble with contaminated sites is that the problem pollutants can accumulate undiscovered in soil for a long time before the potential hazard is identified.

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Lennart Dock received a Ph.D. in toxicology at Karolinska Institutet in 1982. After a year of post-doctoral training at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Science Park - Research Division, he worked as a research associate at the Department of Toxicology, KI, before joining the Institute of Environmental Medicine, KI, in 1986. His main research area is metal toxicology.