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Eco-friendly

by Dr. Aubrey Love

aka Pail Writer

February 2011

It is Eco-friendly. We have gone green. This is environmentally safe. We have to save our planet. These are all common phrases that you hear on a regular basis. Okay, now for the reality of it. These are common phrases you will hear on a daily basis if you live in North America. If you look at the list of the ten most polluted cities globally you will not find any of them in the entire North American continent. While we strive to protect our planet by going green and regulating smog emissions emitted by everything from cars to factories, our neighboring countries seem to be ignoring and neglecting any effort to “save the planet”.

While America is re-tooling factories and mass producing recycle bins and facilities to reduce the amount of toxins pumped into the soil, water, and atmosphere, it almost seems like a wasted effort. We all share the same atmosphere and we all breath the same air globally since wind currents carry its contents around the world. So what exactly is in the air that we breath and where did it come from? How does this sound, industrial emissions, lead, heavy metals, hexavalent chromium, cadmium, copper, zinc, sulfur dioxide, oil, radiation, sarin and VX gases. These are the things in the air that you breathe.

Two of the most polluted cities are, not surprisingly, in China. Lifen, China is in the number one position with coal and factory emissions polluting the city and surrounding area effecting some three million residents directly. China's coal powered factories make this country the world's largest producer of CO2 and other green house gases into the atmosphere annually and experts predict that the amount of heavy metals and gases released into the atmosphere will continue to grow in the years to come.

Coming in at number two would be Tianying, China with emissions of lead and other heavy metals produced by mining and processing. In a recent interview with various college students of China, the consensus was focused more on water pollution with little or no concern for air pollution.

In third place is Sukinda, India producing hexavalent chromium and other heavy metals from mining and processing. Anyone that has watched the movie Erin Brochovich knows exactly what this is and how deadly it can be. Hexavalent chromium is a nasty heavy metal used for stainless steel production and leather tanning that is carcinogenic if inhaled or ingested. Sukinda contains one of the largest open cast chromite ore mines in the world and 60% of the drinking water contains hexavalent chromium at levels more than double international standards. An Indian health group estimated that 84.75% of deaths in the mining areas, where regulations are nonexistent, are due to chromite related diseases. There has been virtually no attempt to clean up the contamination.

Position number four belongs to Vapi, India. Due to poor mining regulations and processes, mercury levels in the ground water have grown to more than 96 times higher than safety levels allow. The mercury is also present in the air and local produce. Vapi, India sits at the southern end of an approximately 250 mile long industrial estate, all of which produce toxins well above regulation, but no one seems to be watching.

For position number five we travel to South America where we find La Oroya, Peru. Here you take in a good dose of lead, copper, zinc, and sulfur oxide. We can't blame the residents of Peru for all the contamination, the number one factory producing this is actually an American owned smelter company. A recent study has shown that 99% of the resident children have blood levels that exceed acceptable limits. Lead levels are triple the amount allowed by regulation and will remain in the soil for centuries to come. Currently there are still no plans to clean it up.

It's Russia that claims position six producing chemicals and toxin by products including sarin and VX gas. These are results of the cold war and its aftermath from production of chemical weapons. If you watched Nicolas Cage in the movie “The Rock” you are familiar with the effects of sarin gas. In the movie when Cage was asked what he knew about sarin gas his response was “it is something we wish we could un-invent”.

Russia also holds position seven at Norislk producing such toxins as sulfur dioxide and various heavy metals. This little town founded in 1935 as a slave labor camp pumps out more than four million tons of a variety of toxins including cadmium, copper, lead, nickel, arsenic, selenium, and zinc annually. There is not a single living tree within a 30-mile radius of its nickel smelting plant.

A first look at progress since we started this count down can be found in Chernobyl, Ukraine where efforts are being made to prevent any additional spills of radiation from a plant that had a nuclear accident. It was considered the worst nuclear accident in the history of the world releasing 100 times more radiation into the air than the fallout from the nuclear bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.

Another legacy of the Soviet Union's utter disregard for the environment in position nine is Sumgavit, Azerbaijan where Stalin once boasted that he could correct nature's mistakes. Sumgayit's many factories, while they were operational, released as much as 120,000 tons of harmful emissions, including mercury, into the air every year. Most of the factories have been shut down, but the pollutants remain and no one is stepping up to take responsibility for them, so the toxins remain.

We travel to Africa to find number ten at Kabwe, Zambia where pollution of cadmium and lead are bountiful. On average, lead concentrations in children are five to 10 times the permissible U.S. EPA levels. In some instances when testing kids blood levels, the amount found literally broke the machines.

So the next time you drive a little further or spend a little more to get that eco-friendly patio furniture or you shell out a few more dollars for that earth-friendly paint for your walls, you might ask yourself, am I really making a difference? The next time you ask if we as a nation are doing all we can to go green and be eco-friendly, you might instead ask yourself, what am I doing to make sure other countries are working toward these same goals?

Pail Writer

Okay, what's with the pen name of Pail Writer? I get asked this a lot, basically it comes from the fact that my whole life it seems that I have always had a bucket, or pail, of ideas to write about. hence the pen name Pail Writer.



So who is Pail Writer?

  

I am a retired disabled vet with 30 years experience in the computer industry. I hold a doctorate in computer engineering. I have written countless articles, white papers, technical manuals, executive level reports, and short stories while working for such companies as Dell Computers, NASA, General Dynamics, City of Weatherford TX. and various other companies and government agencies.  
My journeys have taken me through a wide variety of jobs and countries. While travelling through 19 countries and a few decades of living, I have worked in a whole slew of jobs such as Dairy farms, Horse ranches, Automotive Stores, LASER construction, Street Sign shops, Front end/back hole operator, Fence builder, House builder, Masonry, Antique restoration, and the list goes on. Through it all one thing that has remained constant is my writing about each of these fields. A sort of "jack of all trades" or as I prefer to put it when asked about any of these professions, I respond with "I know enough to be dangerous". Writing about them just seemed like the best thing for me to do.