Serious Health Effects Of Landfill Pollution
Most of us give very little thought to garbage. We take out the trash, recycle what we can and go on with our day. When the trash is out of sight, it is out of mind. But, trash sticks around for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
This is a problem because landfills themselves present both environmental and human health issues to communities.
The majority of the municipal waste, from homes and businesses, ends up in the landfill. There are over 2000 landfills across the United States that take in over 260 million tons of solid waste annually.
Demand for landfill space is growing as consumption, and waste, continues to increase.
It’s time to begin thinking about landfills and other sources of pollution in regard to health and health challenges. In Functional Medicine we always seek to address the root cause of symptoms and disease. Toxins and pollution can no longer be ignored in medicine and are almost always a piece of the puzzle.
Today’s article will focus specifically on pollution from landfills and what it means for your health.
Keep reading to discover:
- What landfills are
- How landfills impact the environment
- How landfill pollution impacts human health
- Some good news from landfill research
- What you can do, in your own life, to decrease trash and protect your body from landfill pollution
What Is A Landfill?
A landfill is basically a huge hole in the ground where trash is buried. If you’ve ever been to one, you certainly picture the site of piles of garbage and smell of rot and decay. Many of us have never seen one as they are typically well outside of towns and hidden from view.
New landfills are engineered, planned and monitored. Laws limit what can be disposed of in a landfill. Although, many landfill regulations still have not been updated in decades. 1993 laws require covers over the landfill and other measures to help improve safety. However, we still have gaps in our information and knowledge about landfills, especially as they fill and age.
Like most modern quick-solutions, the long-term effects of landfills are greater than the short-term solution of a place to put solid waste.
We need to remedy this and I think after learning more you’ll quickly see why time is of the essence.
The Environmental Impact Of Landfills
To understand the environmental consequences of landfills, we have to understand leachate. Leachate is the contaminated liquid that seeps from the landfill into the water of the surrounding area.
As moisture percolates through the landfill it collects a variety of toxins and carries them out of the landfill and into the environment.
Landfills are required to monitor leachate, but lists of contaminants are very incomplete and only a fraction of the thousands of chemicals and toxins in a landfill are tested for. New chemicals are continuously introduced into the environment.
Contaminants in leachate may include:
- Herbicides and pesticides
- Petroleum products
- Microplastics and plastic related chemicals, such as BPA, BPB, BPS
- Endocrine disrupting chemicals from personal care products
- Antibiotics, Birth Control, Hormones, Statins, and other prescription medications
- Household materials – paint, insulation, particle board
- Household chemicals and cleaning products
- Harmful bacteria
All of this to say, that landfills are a significant source of water pollution as leachate enters the water system.
Landfills contribute to air pollution as well. A large portion of landfill waste is organic matter – think food scraps, yard waste and paper. When organic matter decomposes naturally in an oxygen-rich environment, it turns back into compost. But, when buried in a landfill, it’s subjected to anaerobic bacteria and decomposition releases methane gas, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.
Modern landfills have systems designed to trap leachate before it gets into the ground water and capping systems designed to trap harmful gasses. Because of these efforts, older landfills may be more hazardous than new ones, but even new landfills have a high chance of releasing toxins into the environment over time as this infrastructure ages and fails.
Leakage from landfills is ten times greater for landfills as they reach 50 years of age.
In addition, the toxins released from landfills into the soil, water and air, disproportionately impact poor and minority communities who are more likely to live in closer proximity to landfills.
Health Impacts Of Landfill Pollution
Leachate and other pollution produced by landfills presents a major health hazard, especially to people living near landfills. Leachate is hazardous when ingested, inhaled or touched.
Living near landfills has been associated with an increased risk of adverse health effects including:
- Low birth weight
- Birth defects
- Certain cancers, including lung cancer
- Feeling unwell and a host of non-specific symptoms
Epidemiologic evidence suggests an increase in symptoms including fatigue, sleepiness and headaches among residents living near landfills. Symptoms may be due to the direct effects from chemical exposures as well as the stress associated with living near a hazardous waste site.
In a case study from South Africa, 78 percent of those living close to landfills reported exposure to poor air quality and odor. They experienced more frequent symptoms including flu-like symptoms, eye irritation and weakness. Fifty six percent of those in the study indicated an increase in fear about their health contributing to decreased life satisfaction.
We already know a lot about the role that air pollution plays in health and it even increases the severity of COVID-19. Constant air pollution exposure from living close to landfills increases risks as well. A landmark Italian study looked at those living within five kilometers (3.1 miles) of a landfill compared to those living farther away and specifically at the gas, hydrogen sulfide.
Average hydrogen sulfide levels were 6.3 ng/m3 versus 45 ng/m3 in the area around the landfills. Those living closer to the landfills with higher levels of hydrogen sulfide exposure were associated with hospitalization for respiratory disease, lung cancer and deaths related to the two. Children exposed to the higher levels had more acute respiratory infections.
Some Good News
A recently published article in the Journal of Environmental Management discusses a new system developed in order to identify and rank the toxins found in leachate. The system ranks 484 toxins in order of both toxicity and quantity and is similar to the systems used to manage wastewater from fracking.
The goal of this new system is to help landfills plan against leachate as well as effectively mitigate leachate when problems arise. Once a landfill is able to identify what toxins are present and which are the most harmful that need to be prioritized, they can develop more effective strategies.
As an example, there are different strategies for combating different toxins in the environment. Certain trees are good at pulling certain toxins from the soil. This new technology around leachate will help municipalities know what types of trees to plant around landfills.
Action Steps
In addition to being aware of these issues, there are things that you can do as an individual to lessen the impacts that landfills have on your life and your health. Ultimately, we need sweeping change in society that allows for a reduction in overall waste and increase in reuse, recycling and support for sustainable practices and companies.
While we advocate for bigger change, here are some things to work on in your own life:
- Consider where you live. If you have the choice, and not everyone does, live at least three miles from a landfill.
- Reduce plastic consumption. Plastics present a major environmental and health hazard both in and out of landfills.
- Think before you buy. Consider if you need the product in the first place and if so, what you will do when it’s life is over. Will it end up in the landfill?
- Compost. Food waste and yard waste don’t need to go into the landfill, they can be turned back into rich soil.
- Dispose of chemicals properly and don’t put them in the trash or down the toilet. This goes for prescription medications too. Look for collection sites and programs in your community.
- Use natural, safe products as much as possible. Some examples are Force of Nature cleaning products and Sumbody skincare.
- Filter drinking water. One option I recommend is AquaTru water filtration systems.
- Filter indoor air. I recommend IQAir or Austin Air.
Remember that there is no “away.” Even when something is thrown away, its life on earth doesn’t end. There are real consequences to the huge volumes of trash that humans create, if not for you then for people elsewhere and certainly for the earth.
Some simple strategies to curb your consumption and focus on sustainability is not only good for the earth, but also for your health and the health of your family. Let’s do our part and spread the word!
References
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30509578/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1637771/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6617357/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5005946/
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479721000931?via%3Dihub
