What are the hazard of mining on human health and natural environment?
Answers
The primary impacts of mining on the environment are-
Mining requires the clearing of large parts of land. Often, the area is completely deforested.
Along with deforestation, mining activities require transportation facilities. Construction of roads can cause serious habitat fragmentation.
The noise caused by mining activities contributes to immense noise pollution in the vicinity.
Dust coming from mine sites can cause air pollution.
The dust from mine sites can seriously affect vegetation around the area by coating the leaves and preventing exchange of air. The plants can even be suffocated to death due to this.
Open-cast mining is more dangerous to the environment than deep mining, because huge amounts of land and soil is excavated. This causes loss of precious soil.
Land degradation goes hand in hand with mining, because the land used cannot be used for anything else for many years to come.
The waste products of mines (called mine spoils) are simply dumped in a place nearby. These spoils are often toxic and can cause serious water pollution, groundwater contamination, kill soil organisms, cause bio magnification, etc.
After mining is over, the land is left as barren land.
The effects of mining sometimes vary depending on what is mined out, but these are some of the general effects you will see in all mine-areas.
I’m not an expert when it comes to health impact on miners, but here are some of the things I know will affect them-
They run the risk of serious physical injuries while handling heavy equipment or moving materials around.
Dust from the mine site are dangerous for their respiratory systems. This danger is greatest in coal mines.
If miners are working in deep mines, there is always the danger of getting trapped there due to collapse of a tunnel. No matter how low the chances, this thought will play in their minds when they go into work. It adds mental stress.
Miners generally live around the mine site with their families. The mine spoils dumped can affect their quality of life, with water related diseases being the greatest risk.
If radioactive materials are being mined (or if the wastes are radioactive), then there is high risk of getting cancer.
Answer:
Untreated human excretions are a health hazard. It causes pollution of soil and water including the underground water. Thus, it contaminates the sources of water from which people collect water for drinking and household purposes. When this contaminated water is used for drinking, it can cause diseases such as cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, dysentery, etc., which may even lead to death.