RESUMO
A 2002 analysis documented $54.9 billion in annual costs of environmentally mediated diseases in US children. However, few important changes in federal policy have been implemented to prevent exposures to toxic chemicals. We therefore updated and expanded the previous analysis and found that the costs of lead poisoning, prenatal methylmercury exposure, childhood cancer, asthma, intellectual disability, autism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were $76.6 billion in 2008. To prevent further increases in these costs, efforts are needed to institute premarket testing of new chemicals; conduct toxicity testing on chemicals already in use; reduce lead-based paint hazards; and curb mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants.
Assuntos
Doença Crônica/economia , Doença Crônica/prevenção & controle , Doença Ambiental/economia , Doença Ambiental/prevenção & controle , Política Ambiental/legislação & jurisprudência , Substâncias Perigosas/toxicidade , Custos de Cuidados de Saúde/tendências , Criança , Análise Custo-Benefício , Deficiências do Desenvolvimento/economia , Deficiências do Desenvolvimento/prevenção & controle , Substâncias Perigosas/economia , Humanos , Intoxicação por Chumbo/economia , Intoxicação por Chumbo/prevenção & controle , Intoxicação por Mercúrio/economia , Intoxicação por Mercúrio/prevenção & controle , Testes de Toxicidade/economia , Estados UnidosRESUMO
Pennwalt Inc., a multinational chemical and pharmaceutical firm based in the United States, operates a chloralkali plant in Managua, Nicaragua. This plant utilizes elemental mercury in the production of chlorine and caustic soda for markets throughout Central America. The plant was recently found to be contaminating the waters of Lake Managua (on which the plant is located) with 2 to 4 tons of inorganic mercury effluent per year-over 40 tons in the 13-year history of the plant. Examination of the 152 workers employed in the plant showed that 56(37 percent) were suffering symptoms and signs of mercury poisoning, including tremors (in 45), memory and attention deficits (in 45) and paresthesias (in 52). Levels of airborne mercury vapor in the plant were found to range as high as 600 microgram/m3. (The airborne standard set by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is 100 microgram/m3.) Workers in the plant had never been alerted to the hazards of mercury. The plant was found to be in deteriorated condition, with no recent investments in maintenance or modern safety equipment. It is reported that the parent corporation, Pennwalt, has been withdrawing capital from the operation (and from Nicaragua) since the fall of the Somoza regime.
