Chapter five of the book is titled “Environmental Crime”, upon reading the title I never imagined that it would be about dumping toxic wastes. I thought it was crazy to read that dumping these wastes were thought out crimes and even the mob was involved in disposing of these chemicals illegally. Reading about how one the most dangerous chemical fires ever in the United States, happened in New Jersey and the effects it caused, concerned me. It contaminated water ways between New Jersey and New York and its pollutants lasted decades long.
I thought it was shocking that waste was used in everyday structures and settings. Such as the Chromium waste, which was everywhere in Jersey City. The waste was used in buildings and sold to people to be used in construction of things we see in everyday life, including in parks and playgrounds where children are. This chapter made me realize how much of an issue waste dumping is and how it was basically an organized crime! These toxins were dumped right under the public’s eyes and no one cared about the side effects and how it changed or affected the community around them. This was all happening without the public’s knowledge, and this scares me to know what could be going on in the world today right in front of our eyes.
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This chapter of the book is about radiation protection. It discusses nuclear incidents that have happened in the past, such as Chernobyl, and some closer that have even effected people of new jersey and surrounding areas. Most interesting to me was the story of the Radium girls of South Orange, and how they were employed to handle paint containing radium. Their employers knew of the risks, however still hired these woman, who would wet their paintbrushes in their mouths and therefore ingesting the radioactive paint, causing health issues late on in their lives. Had this have been public knowledge this could have been stopped, rather than so many innocent woman facing health issues in life due to not receiving proper training or warnings about the pain they were working with.
After reading this chapter, the things that struck me the most was that, people here in new jersey, for example the Radium Girls, were affected by radiation, when I never really think of being affected by anything like that in my life unless some type of event happened like an explosion of some sort. I never really thought of possible radiation people are exposed to in their lives and jobs now and in the past. I also thought it was scary how when these woman were working no one told them of the risks! Had they have known, I’m sure they would have taken precautions when handling the paint, or found jobs elsewhere. In this chapter, Thomas Belton discusses the quality of water. After reading this chapter, it made me realize how contaminated our water has been in the past, and how contamination happens so close to home. I found it interesting how even though our drinking water is disinfected, we still need to worry about drinking disinfectant residue, even though this has now been solved. In the U.S. we take having clean water for granted and do not think about all the filters and steps our water goes through before we receive it.
A lot of our water is contaminated by pollutants or chemicals, which are bad for both wildlife and humans to consume. People and companies do not realize that by dumping waste products or other items in water systems and supplies, they are only hurting themselves. People need to realize that without a change in their actions to help keep water clean, we cannot perform our daily activities that we need to survive. I found a lot of this chapter interesting because I know several people including myself that really only drink bottled water, and won’t drink from a tap unless they have too, because it feels like what’s in the water is so unknown, even though it goes through a disinfecting process. This chapter discusses Polychlorinated Biphenyls and how they have contaminated our waters and are effecting our fish supply. After World War II PCBs became more popular and industries like Monsanto wanted it to be more commercially used. Since the commercial manufacturing, since about the 1930s the effects of PCBs has been known. It was shown in the Swann Company, where their workers showed health issues. The pollution from industries using PCBs has shown to affect their workers and also nearby residents, due to the toxicity. Until eventually people became aware that PCBs were an environmental issue. PCBs are also found in fish in our water systems and can cause serious effects in humans who are consuming fish contaminated, such as liver damage or damage to the reproductive system. These chemicals do not just go away, and these companies are damaging the environment and its people, all to make more money.
After reading this chapter it made me much more aware of how easy it can be to be eating something that could be contaminated as an effect of these companies. I personally do not eat fish, but it is something to keep in mind when I see family or friends eating fish. It was interesting to see that this is an issue that effects our home, New Jersey, and is not something we just hear about happening somewhere else. This is a real issue to be aware about and take action to fight against. |
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April 2018
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