By breathing, ingesting or bathing in contaminated water, an indivudal is increasing their risk for serious and potentially fatal affects. Most often, groundwater contamination occurs when indivudals consume most of their daily water from wells. Chemicals can contaminate the ground acquifier, which eventually seeps into the drinking water exposing an indivudal to contamintation.
Groundwater contamination not only is caused through well water but can also occur through air contamination with low water tables. If the chemicals are volatile, such as gasoline or other materials, they may escape into people's basements and may be trapped, thereby exposing the homeowner who may inhale the fumes.
Soil is another way an individual can get contamination. This can occur as discussed above with groundwater contamination, but can also occur when streams or other bodies of water are contaminated with heavy metals or chemicals. When areas flood, these heavy metals and chemicals are deposited on an individual's property and thus contaminate the soil. People can be exposed to these contaminants in the following ways: skin contact (having skin contact with soil by gardening); inhalation (creating dust in the yard or tracking dust into the home); and ingestion (consuming fruits and vegetables from the ground, which was grown in the soil).
Sources of Soil Contamination
While it would be impossible to list all the potential sources of chemical contamination, the following list will serve to illustrate typical contamination sources:
* Gas stations,
* Machine shops,
* Railroad yards and other railroad-related work sites,
* Chemical manufacturing plants,
* Incinerators,
* Dry cleaning stores,
* Chemical waste storage facilities,
* Any manufacturing plant that uses any type of cleaning solvents or gasoline based products,
* Oil refineries, and
* Landfills.
Potential Injuries from Soil and Water Contamination
Contaminants are likely to cause chronic health effects, or effects that occur long after repeated exposure to small amounts of a chemical. Examples of chronic health effects include cancer, liver and kidney damage, disorders of the nervous system, damage to the immune system, and birth defects. While it would be impossible to list all the potential injuries that can be caused by various chemical agents, the list below will serve to be illustrative of those conditions, that when coupled with appropriate exposure, could be caused by chemical contamination. The potential injuries from soil and water contamination include the following:
* Cancer (such as skin, lung and brain);
* Various forms of learning disability (ADD, ADHD, LD);
* Teratogenic effects (effects on the fetus when the mother is exposed before or during pregnancy);
* Respiratory effects (breathing difficulties, allergies and other similar conditions);
* Gastrointestinal effects (stomach conditions);
* Cardiovascular effects (heart problems);
* Hepatic effects (conditions that affect the liver);
* Renal effects (various kidney effects including blood in the urine and other kidney problems); and
* Neurological effects (various nervous system disorders, including reflex malfunction and headaches).
If you have been exposed to soil and/or water contamination and have been injured, you may have a legal case.
Every day at work, employees working with diesel engines are exposed to diesel exhaust. Further, exposure to diesel exhaust is chronic. Failure to protect from diesel exhaust combined with chronic exposure will very likely result in a chemical disease. Although the harmful effects upon railroad workers of exposure to diesel exhaust has been the subject of several studies and has been known for many years, most of the railroads have done little or nothing about taking preventive measures, or informing their employees of the hazards.
There are two chemical diseases one can contract from diesel exhaust exposure: obstructive lung disease and cancer. In addition to entering the body through the respiratory system, harmful diesel exhaust components can enter the body through the eyes, possibly causing permanent damage to the optic nerve, and possibly even to the brain and central nervous system.
Diesel Exhaust and Obstructive Lung Disease
A recent study determined that between 40 percent and 50 percent of train service workers suffer from the effects of obstructive lung disease as a result of their chronic, unprotected exposure to diesel exhaust. Railroaders who work in the shop crafts, as well as the maintenance of way and signal departments, have also suffered the effects of chemical disease when exposed to diesel exhaust in the workplace.
The effect of obstructive lung disease is shortness of breath. Diesel exhaust exposure causes obstructive lung disease by the deposit of diesel soot into the lungs. Diesel exhaust's ultra-fine particles lodge in the lungs where the particles cannot be easily removed by the lung itself (mucociliary escalator). Eventually, these fine particles clog the lumen in the lungs and gradually the lungs lose their elasticity and become less and less able to expand and contract with each breath. Each day of exposure to diesel exhaust results in accumulation of the particles that restrict breathing.
Another common outcome of obstructive lung disease is diesel asthma. Diesel asthma is commonly mistaken for an allergy. Sufferers of diesel asthma notice that once exposed to diesel exhaust there is a sudden shortness of breath or quick on-set hypersensitivity to diesel exhaust, both of which occur without warning. This reaction to diesel exhaust becomes increasingly severe and persists long after exposure has ceased. Over years, obstructive lung disease may cause the loss of fifty percent or more of the lung's capacity.
Compared to chronic, unprotected, diesel exhaust exposure, cigarette smoke is innocuous. Further, modern diagnostics are capable of distinguishing between the lung damage cause by diesel exhaust as opposed to cigarette smoke.
Diesel Exhaust Exposure and Cancer
There is medical evidence that exposure to diesel exhaust causes cancer in humans. Medical studies of workers chronically exposed to diesel exhaust show that diesel exhaust causes cancer of the lung, urinary tract, bladder, stomach, prostate, mouth, larynx, esophagus, and colon. Further, the type of cancer caused by diesel exhaust typically metastasizes--the cancer spreads to other locations in the body.
Diesel Encephalopathy
Lastly, medical professionals have recently made a connection between diesel exhaust and diesel encephalopathy. A recent study of workers tied diesel exhaust exposure to memory deficits, sensory losses, equilibrium imbalances and mood swings. Diesel encephalopathy is a relatively new discovery, but some claim it can be detected.
Both Peter Kent & are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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