Published On : Sat, Dec 6th, 2014

Factories, symbol of progress, emerging killers of Mother Earth and Mankind with pollutions

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factory air pollution

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Nagpur.

Industries are considered a symbol of development and progress. The more the industries the more the development and progress. But with this positive aspect comes a negative phenomenon. The deadly pollution. A report has revealed that most of the industries in Maharashtra lack pollution control system. The Government rules make it mandatory for industries to develop their own pollution control mechanism at the time of setting up of units itself. But the rules are being blow away by the industries along with the pollutants.

The report has further revealed that the apathetic attitude of Government is chiefly responsible for thriving of industries that cause life-threatening pollutions – Air, Noise, Water and other pollutions. The pollution controlling authority in the State – Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) – has gone dud. As a result, the proportion of industries causing hazardous pollution has gone up by 60 percent. The industries such as sugar producers and processors, hydrogenated oil, vegetable oil, cooking oil, spirit processors, paper and paper board, leather industries, petroleum, coal, drug and chemical products, cement, metal, and thermal plants are emitting poisonous gases in colossal proportions. However, the industries have failed to control the emission of toxic gases. In fact, the industries lack the specific machinery to control the pollution, said the report.

Factory pollution is often thought of as mostly smokestack emissions, but industry pollutes water and land as well. Once pollutants enter the atmosphere or the water system, they can spread far and wide beyond the factory. The most common factory air pollutants are greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels. Factories contribute to water and land pollution by acidifying rain, chemical spills and disposal of toxic waste.

The resultant effects of the pollution on environment, human beings, flora and fauna are devastating. Air pollutants that are inhaled have serious impact on human health affecting the lungs and the respiratory system; they are also taken up by the blood and pumped all round the body. These pollutants are also deposited on soil, plants, and in the water, further contributing to human exposure. Many of the deaths are due to acute respiratory infections in children; others are due to cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer, and chronic respiratory diseases in adults.

Water-borne diseases are infectious diseases spread primarily through contaminated water. Though these diseases are spread either directly or through flies or filth, water is the chief medium for spread of these diseases and hence they are termed as water-borne diseases. The water pollution plays havoc with typhoid, cholera, dysentery, viral infections         such as jaundice, amoebic dysentery and other diseases.

Soil contamination occurs when chemicals are released by spill or underground leakage. Among the most significant soil contaminants are hydrocarbons, heavy metals, herbicides, pesticides and chlorinated hydrocarbons.

File pic

File pic

According to information received from MPCB, out of 77,746 factories under its authority, 27 percent are causing water pollution, 26 percent adding air pollution while 7 percent factories are spreading hazardous and life threatening stuff. The number of industries adding pollution increased manifold within a period of five years. Even though the MPCB seeks bank guarantee from industries for implementing rules governing pollution control and sometimes snaps water and power connections of offending factories, the action is not proving as deterrent. The increasing number of polluting industries is an adequate pointer to the fact.

The bottom line is: Sooner or later, we will have to recognise that the Earth has rights, too, to live without pollution. What mankind must know is that human beings cannot live without Mother Earth, but the planet can live without humans.