Environmental Hazards At Work

Depending on your occupation, you could be exposed to numerous, dangerous chemicals in your daily work environment. While businesses are becoming more and more safety conscious, many people are still exposed to dangerous chemicals without protection.

Exposure to chemical agents in the environment -- in air, water, food, and soil -- has been implicated in numerous adverse effects, from cancer to lung disease to brain damage to birth defects. Some evidence is ironclad; some are suggestive at best. Although the acute effects such as poisonings are the best understood, it seems clear that hazardous pollutants contribute to the large and growing toll of chronic conditions, such as cancers and heart disease. Chemical pollutants can also play a role in infectious diseases, perhaps by rendering the body less able to ward off infections. The exact magnitude of the risk they pose, however, is difficult to quantify. This has fueled an intense debate over what constitutes safe use and disposal of toxic substances. This debate has occurred mostly in the affluent countries but is increasingly occurring in the developing world as well.