Environmental impact of lead

From U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). 1979. The health and environmental impacts of lead and an assessment of a need for limitations. U.S. Environ. Protection Agency Rep. 

L.S. Burn, and B.L. Schafer, The Environmental Impact of Lead Leaching From UPVC Sewerage Waste and Vent Pipes, CSIRO Building, Construction and Engineering Technical Report No.TR97/l, Highett, Victoria, Australia, 1997. 

This part of the text covers the critical issues associated with the environmental impact of lead, its effect on human health and the necessary controls. Energy consumption for key processes is reviewed as well as processing costs and economics. 

The literature relating to the problem of lead pollution of the atmosphere in urban areas, arising from tetra-ethyl lead in gasoline is now extensive [18, 19, 213-224] and the environmental impact of lead from this source in the urban and industrial environment has now become a whole field of study in itself. 

In the past, the health and safety concerns with lead poisoning have focused on lead-based paint and lead in gasoline. However, the increasing quantity of scrap electronic products disposed into landfills has raised the question of the environmental impact of this source of lead. Studies in 1991 by Allenby, et al. [2] examined the potential for replacing lead-based solder and concluded that there were no viable alternatives at that time. They also suggested that the total environmental impact of lead and its alternatives, from mining, through manufacture, use, and end-of-life should be considered. 

Smith, E.B. Swanger, K. Environmental impact of lead-free solders. Surface Mount Technolog, July 1999 74-79 pp. 

Turbini, L.J. Munie, G.C. Bernier, D. Gamalski, J. Bergman, D.W. Examining the environmental impact of lead-free soldering alternatives. IEEE Trans. Electron. Packag. Manuf January 2001, 24 (1). 

Since process design starts with the reactor, the first decisions are those which lead to the choice of reactor. These decisions are among the most important in the whole design. Good reactor performance is of paramount importance in determining the economic viability of the overall design and fundamentally important to the environmental impact of the process. In addition to the desired products, reactors produce unwanted byproducts. These unwanted byproducts create environmental problems. As we shall discuss later in Chap. 10, the best solution to environmental problems is not elaborate treatment methods but not to produce waste in the first place. 

Lead Azide. The azides belong to a class of very few useflil explosive compounds that do not contain oxygen. Lead azide is the primary explosive used in military detonators in the United States, and has been intensively studied (see also Lead compounds). However, lead azide is being phased out as an ignition compound in commercial detonators by substances such as diazodinitrophenol (DDNP) or PETN-based mixtures because of health concerns over the lead content in the fumes and the explosion risks and environmental impact of the manufacturing process. 

Human toxicity, aquatic toxicity, and the environmental impact of engine coolants and deicing fluids ate typically measured on the fresh fluid only. Spent fluids contain varied contaminants that can drastically affect the toxicity and environmental impact of the fluid. Most pronounced is the impact of heavy-metal contaminants in spent antifreeze. Data on spent and recycled antifreeze, compiled by the ASTM Committee on Engine Coolants, show an average lead level 11 ppm, as weU as various other metal contaminants (iron, copper, zinc) (18). The presence of these contaminants in a used fluid may require special disposal techniques for the fluids. 

The environmental impact of tin is appreciable, as it is one of the three most enriched metals—only lead and tellurium precede—in the atmospheric particular matter, as compared with the abundance of the element in the earth crust (2.2 ppm). Tin releases to the environment can be methylated by aquatic organisms, yielding organometallic species of toxicity comparable to that of methylated mercury5. 

Spurgeon, D.J., SR. Hopkin, and D.T. Jones. 1994. Effects of cadmium, copper, lead and zinc on growth, reproduction and survival of the earthworm Eiseniafetida (Savigny) assessing the environmental impact of point-source metal contamination in terrestrial ecosystems. Environ. Pollut. 84 123-130. 

As informed Dr. A.I. Korableva from Institute for Environmental Management and Ecology under the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in the report "Environmental impact of automobile transport by example of Dnepropetrovsk", Dnepropetrovsk with its annual discharge of air pollutants of 177,000 t (as of 1996) is among the worst affected cities in Ukraine. In these, the automobile transport was found to be responsible for at least 30 % of the total emissions which are 15 times the maximum permissible level. Aside from the dust, chemical, photochemical and noise pollution, there is the aspect of street washout of automobile-related pollutants into the River Dnieper. The measured annual receipts of lead, particulates and petroleum derivatives via rainwater and thaw water to the river are 0.45, 80,000+ and 1.8+ t respectively. The actual levels of petroleum derivatives in storm water sometimes were 206 times the maximum permissible concentration (MPC) for the fishery basins. At 34 km downstream from the city, the estimated levels of petroleum derivatives and particulates are 61 and 10.8 times the respective MPCs. The airborne lead is mainly accumulated in the soil of housing areas. 

The factors are discussed which lead to the formation of environmental regulations in the United States, following the growing realisation over the last 150 years of the environmental impact of the new chemicals which were being developed. Initiatives for new regulations often come from the public, and their concerns at the time, particularly in relation to pollution prevention, air quality, and the protection of children s health. Current environmental regulations are discussed along with their impact on industrial research and development. Future trends are forecast to be related to air quality, children s health, and pollution prevention. 11 refs. 

Since FAS can be produced either from vegetable oil based or petrochemical-based fatty alcohol (Fig. 4.9), both types have been evaluated in a life-cycle analysis with a positive overall result for the natural based product. With vegetable-based fatty alcohol sulfate, the analysis starts with the harvesting of the oil fruits (palm kernels or coconuts) and their processing to isolate the desired plant oil. Subsequent transesterification and hydrogenation of the methyl ester intermediates lead to the fatty alcohols, which are finally sulfated to produce the desired product. Based on this analysis the environmental impact of vegetable oil based fatty alcohol sulfate compared with the petrochemical based product is as follows ... 

In addition to the economic advantages ChL also has obvious environmental advantages. Process optimisation not only leads to a reduced chemical consumption but very often also to a reduction in the consumption of other resources like energy or water. As a result the waste load as well as air and water pollution will decrease, reducing the total environmental impact of the production process. 

Recent improvements in the operation of the front end reaction furnace have not only increased sulfur recovery at this stage in the plant but have reduced the production of undesirable by-products which, ultimately, leads to a reduction in the environmental impact of the processes. 

Since the 1970s, there have been concerns about the environmental impact of poorly biodegradable cheiants such as EDTA and DTPA, as they could potentially remobilize toxic heavy metals, such as cadmium, mercury, and lead, from river sediments back into the water column [10]. More recent concern has focused on large-scale emissions from photographic laboratories, pulp and paper mills, metal treatment plants, and use of industrial detergents, as higher dosages of cheiants are more likely to cause a... 

The publication of the report Limits to Growth (4) by the Club of Rome had a major impact on thinking about the environmental impact of our cultural development. Under the assumption that the five basis elements of this study— population, the production of food, industrialization, pollution, and the use of nonrenewable resources—will keep increasing exponentially, they showed that, if unchanged, this would lead to enormous problems, as soon as the 21st century. The social consciousness of the problems caused by unlimited growth of these elements was greatly increased by this report by the Club of Rome. 

ILs are also attractive candidates for replacing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as solvents, because they have practically no vapor pressure [165]. However, the environmental impact of ILs and VOCs should be compared on the basis of life-cycle analysis, and for that we are still missing many data on the toxicity and environmental effects of I Ls [ 166,167]. Another point is that the current prices of I Ls are much higher than those of VOCs. Handy et al. recently demonstrated a handy synthesis of mim-type ILs starting from fructose, which could eventually lead to truly eco-friendly IL solvents [168]. 

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