Trying to do some basic research on ill effects of landfills to the environment?

Question

I am trying to figure out some places online to research ill effects to the environment from landfills. I am looking specifically to try to find statistics on pollutants that could cause a range of illnesses from respitory infections, sinus and allergies to different cancers. If anyone is bored enough to help me find some links to this info, or if anyone knows anything about this kind of thing, all info would be greatly appreciated. I have been googling stuff all morning, but I am not smart enough to understand if what I am reading is what I am looking for. Anyway, thanks in advance for any help!

Answer 1

I recommend narrowing your approach by focusing on the impact to groundwater and then the contaminants that leach into ground water.  Then focus on the ingestion and exposure to contaminated groun water sources. If you use that approach and search on those key concepts you will certainly find a lot of data. As you may recall, the famous case with PGE made famous by the movie Erin Brochovich was based upon water contamination and the many illnesses that became common in that area.  I recommend not trying to research the air issue as landfill exposure data in this area will be sparce and questionable.  Good luck

Answer 2

The second link discusses cancer risk at a specific landfill... http://search.niehs.nih.gov/query.html?c... NIEHS is a good allover site... If you are searching for information on a specific land fill, you could try contacting your county for the most recent test results... It should show you a breakdown of the chemicals being found in their leachate or gases... and then you could track down each chemical...

Answer 3

well, you could wikipedia it to get a general sense, then go to environmental activists websites.like www.greenpeace.org, www.unep.org, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_env...

Answer 4

OK, basically the illnesses you are looking for more than likely do not pertain to current modern landfills. This is because, 1. Those studies either have not been done. 2. Modern landfills are constantly buried everyday, so the effects of air pollution and smell are very minimal.

However, where modern landfills are a problem because 1. They are nothing more than giant toxic pimples that future generations are going to have to deal with, 2. They have a liner, some more high technical than others, but most have a 4 to 5 foot thick layer of clay.  If this layer is compromised then the leachate could contaminate underground water supplies, which we know has happened.  2. The leachate that is purposefully seeping out of the landfills, this is a very toxic stew of anything you can think of and make anyone sick with a myriad of problems.

Answer 5

Even the government sites today aren't 100% trustworthy.  A lot of people who entered college with personal agendas ended there.

Wikipedia must really be viewed with care.  It has a great deal of information from everywhere, but there's no certainty at all behind it.

Assume in nearly all cases today, whatever you read or hear, the situation is a lot less dangerous than you are told.