HUMAN IMPACTS

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HUMAN IMPACTS
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TYPES OF POLLUTANTS

• Synthetic Organics Exps. Pesticides, industrial
  effluents, detergents, petroleum products,
  plastics, etc.
• Heavy Metals Exps. Lead, mercury, cadmium,
  arsenic
• Other inorganics Exps. Salts, acids
• Plant nutrients Exps. Nitrates, phosphates,
  ammonium ions
• Thermal effluent Exps. Heated water from power
  plants and industry

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TYPES OF POLLUTION

• Sediments Exps. Silt and soil from runoff
• Infectious agents Exps. Bacteria, viruses,
  protozoans, parasitic worms, etc.
• Oxygen demanding wastes Exps. Organics from
  animal wastes, paper mills, food processing, etc.
• Radionuclides Exps. Iodine, cesium, etc.

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HEAVY METALS

• LEAD AND MERCURY ARE MOST PREVALENT
• are toxic to animal species and show biological
  magnification (lipid soluable)
• Effects include brain damage and birth defects
  lead also leads to fatigue, anemia and mercury
  inhibits photosynthesis

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LEAD

• Effects irritability, reduced resistance to
  disease, anemia, blood in urine, brain damage,
  partial paralysis, high blood pressure,
  blindness, mental retardation, convulsions, death
• Children are most vulnerable EPA estimates
  suggest almost 150,000 American children lose 5
  IQ points annually from consumption of lead
  contaminated tap water
• Each year gt12,000 US children under age 9 are
  treated for acute lead poisoning and 200 die

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LEAD

• Sources older plumbing (lead pipes) or use of
  lead solder to connect copper pipes old paint
  chips automobile exhausts (air and condensed in
  rain) leaching from landfills where lead
  batteries, etc. are deposited effluents from
  metal processing and other manufacturing
• About 90 tons of lead enters the Hudson River
  below NYC each year

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LEAD

• Federal lead level for drinking water is 5 ppb
• Lead in drinking water is regulated by a
  technique which requires samples to be analyzed
  at sites where lead pipes or lead solder occurs
  if more than 10 of samples have levels of 0.015
  mg/L the system must treat the water to reduce
  lead levels

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LEAD

• Clearly many people are drinking lead
  contaminated water at unsafe levels. You should
• Check your water pipes to see if they are lead or
  have lead solder
• If lead is present have the water tested for lead
  by a certified lab
• If lead levels exceed 5 ppb get a lead filter
  installed for your tap water

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MERCURY

• Effects fatigue, headache, loss of coordination,
  numbness, loss of memory and attention span,
  kidney damage, blindness, death
• Minamata Bay, Japan 1953 most people in village
  began to show these symptoms and 46 died before
  the diagnosis of mercury poisoning
• Sources (ethyl and methyl mercury) effluent from
  paper mills, plastics factories, dental fillings,
  caustic soda plants, pharmaceuticals,
  thermometers, lights paints, dyes, etc.

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MERCURY

• Mercury levels above and below a paper mill
• SPECIES ABOVE BELOW
• Isopod 65ppm 1900ppm
• Sialid 49ppm 5500ppm
• Caddis trace 1700ppm
• EPA standard for drinking water is 0.002 mg/L
• Fish with more than 1 ppm Hg is considered unsafe
  for consumption

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MERCURY

• Unsafe levels of mercury in lake and stream
  dwelling fish is not uncommon even in MS
• This may cause alerts to be posted at these
  sites with bans on eating fish caught there
• Once added to the aquatic ecosystem, mercury is
  essentially permanent (non-degradable)

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CADMIUM

• Effects degenerative bone disease ( Itai-Itai),
  crippling, high blood pressure, heart
  malfunction, kidney damage, death
• Sources mine tailings, industrial wastes from
  paints, alloys, light bulbs, pesticides,
  electroplating, etc.
• EPA limit of 0.005 mg/L in drinking water

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ARSENIC

• Effects Headache, fatigue, dizziness, diarrhea,
  vomiting, muscle and abdominal pain, blood in
  urine, anemia, paralysis, heart malfunction,
  coma, cancers of skin, bladder, lungs, kidney and
  liver, death
• Sources pesticides, defoliants, coal burning
  plant condensate, copper and lead smelters,
  leaching from landfills, wood treatment plants,
  municipal incinerators, etc.

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ARSENIC

• Since 1942, the acceptable level has been 50ppb
  in drinking water, but the international level is
  10 ppb
• WHO scientists indicate the 10ppb level is unsafe
  and proposed it be lowered to 3-5 ppb
• US National Academy of Sciences study in 2001
  indicates routine consumption of water
  contaminated with 3 ppm increases risk of bladder
  and lung cancer

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ARSENIC

• The EPA proposed a new standard of 10 ppb for US
  drinking water but W (March, 2001) opposed
  lowering the standard in less than a month he
  flip-flopped and accepted the new standard to
  take effect in 2006
• Groundwater (the source of Clintons water
  supply) and in Louisiana, the Memphis area,
  Florida, etc. typically has levels of gt50ppb

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RADIONUCLIDES

• Effects (cancer, genetic defects and death,
  dependent on amount of exposure)
• Low levels (100-200 rem) vomiting, fatigue,
  temporary sterility, miscarriages
• Moderate levels (200-500 rem) death for 50 in
  60 days of exposure
• High levels (gt1000 rem) death within a week of
  exposure
• Levels as low as 25 rem give greatly increased
  risk of cancers and genetic defects

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RADIONUCLIDES

• Radiation dosage is measured in rads (100 ergs
  energy deposited in 1 gram of material) or rems
  small doses are measured in millirems (1000 mr
  1 rem)
• The background radiation we receive from various
  sources amounts to about 0.25 rem per year

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RADIONUCLIDES

• Sources Principal sources are from weapons
  testing, nuclear power plants, medical and
  scientific labs, and radioactive wastes
• Major types strontium-90 cesium-137
  iodine-131 phosphorus-32
• Sr-90 and Cs-137 behave like calcium ions and
  cycle in ecosystems

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RADIONUCLIDES

• Most radioactive pollution enters streams from
  nuclear plants and leakage from storage sites
• These substances are trapped in substrate but mix
  with water and are absorbed by fish and
  invertebrates
• Some may show bioaccumulation (e.g. Sr, Cs) but
  others do not (e.g. P, K)

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PESTICIDES

• Any chemical used to control populations of
  pest species
• Arsenic, lead, mercury were used for centuries
  before introduction of synthetics such as DDT in
  the 1940s
• DDT and other chlorinated hydrocarbons (e.g.
  aldrin, dieldrin, lindane, etc.) dominated the
  industry through the 1960s until most were
  banned during the 1970s

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PESTICIDES

• Banned pesticides include DDT, heptachlor,
  chlordane, mirex, aldrin, dieldrin
• These were banned because they show
  bioaccumulation and persistence and cause
  thinning of eggshells, many cause cancer, and all
  killed non-target species
• In the early 1970s most maternal milk in the US
  contained DDT levels higher than that permissable
  in cows milk (0.05 ppm)

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PESTICIDES

• RAT FISH INSECT PERSISTS
• _______________________________________
• DDT 2.7 3.7 2.0 4.0
• ALDRIN 3.2 3.9 4.0 4.0
• PARATH 3.6 3.3 4.0 1.3
• MALATH 1.8 3.2 3.5 1.1
• 4.0 MAXIMUM TOXICITY/PERSISTANCE

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PESTICIDES

• Total chlorinated hydrocarbon load in human
  adipose tissue had risen to 12 ppm by 1970 and
  7.8 ppm was present in drinking water and on
  fruit and vegetables in 1974
• Even though banned in the US in the 1970s, DDT
  and other CHs are still manufactured here for
  sale in Asia, Central America and South America
• See the 1995 article from Nature about DDT as an
  oestrogenic or anti-androgenic chemical

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OTHER ORGANICS

• Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
• Effects adverse reproductive and developmental
  effects (reduced penis size and malformed testes,
  lowered sex drive in women) decrease in white
  blood cells, increased cancer risks
• Sources industrial chemicals from manufacture of
  transformers, inks pesticides etc. many of these
  are leached from landfills or introduced from air
  pollution

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OTHER ORGANICS (CONT.)

• PCBs manufacture of these stopped in US in 1977
  but they were widely used as coolants and
  lubricants in transformers and other electrical
  equipment, old fluorescent light fixtures,
  appliances, hydraulic oil and they were produced
  in the manufacture of plastics
• In the environment, PCBs do not readily break
  down, they are lipid soluable and cycle between
  air, water and soil for indefinite periods of
  time

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OTHER ORGANICS

• PCBs Contamination for people is primarily from
  breathing contaminated air, eating contaminated
  food, especially fish, meat and dairy products
• Contamination risks are higher for those near
  hazardous waste sites or for people doing repairs
  on instruments containing PCBs
• EPA standard in drinking water is 0.5 ppb in
  streams and lakes where fish, crustaceans and
  mollusks are harvested the limit is 0.17 ppt

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OTHER ORGANICS

• PCBs
• Limits in food include 0.2 ppm for infants and up
  to 3 ppm for poultry and red meat products
• Benzene
• large recent spill on river in China/Russia

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THERMAL EFFECTS

• Major source is heated water released from open
  cycle power plants (particularly nuclear) and
  from industry
• These sources use water from streams and lakes as
  cooling water CW is imported in pipes and used
  to absorb excess heat then released to the
  environment
• Effects reduces the amount of oxygen while
  raising the metabolic rates of fish and
  invertebrates

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THERMAL EFFECTS

• Large increases in water temperature can kill
  impacted organisms
• Increases in water temperature can cause
  sterility
• Impacts spawning activity and emergence timing
• Impacts diapause ques and development rates

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THERMAL EFFECTS

• Nebeker Lemke study found species with
  univoltine fast cycles (e.g. stoneflies
  Taeniopteryx and Allocapnia) were most sensitive
  (half of the test organisms died at 21-23 C in
  96 hours)
• Species with multivoltine cycles were less
  sensitive (e.g. Pteronarcys and Paragnetina, both
  tolerated temperatures of 29-30 )
• Even the tolerant species had their emergence
  cycles destroyed with Pteronarcys individuals
  dying later while trying to moult, or emerging
  successfully but much earlier than normal

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ACID DEPOSITION

• Major sources Acid rain and mine drainage
• Acid rain results from deposits of sulfur
  dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere
  which are converted to nitric acid and sulfuric
  acid and return to earths surface in various
  forms of precipitation and particulate matter

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ACID DEPOSITION

• The map on page 536 shows pH of rain in various
  zones of the US. Westen MS has a pH of 4.7-4.8
• The lowest in the US is in PA, NY, WV, etc. at
  lt4.3
• Some streams and lakes may receive major inputs
  at one time due to heavy rain or snow melts

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ACID DEPOSITION

• Effects kills fish and other gill breathing
  organisms causes lesions on body surfaces making
  organism susceptible to infection, etc.
• In terrestrial systems, acid rain is causing
  declines in forests due to leaching of nutrients
  from soil and plant tissue

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ACID DEPOSITION

• Bell Nebeker study found several species of
  dragonflies, stoneflies, mayflies and caddisflies
  had 100 survival at pH in the 5-6 range but this
  declined as pH dropped
• All stoneflies tested (Pteronarcys, Taeniopteryx,
  Isogenoides, Acroneuria) were completely
  eliminated at pH of 3.5 in long term studies