Talk:Toxic waste

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Lisaloo7.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 11:33, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Merger proposal

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

(See also related comments at Talk:Hazardous waste.)

I completely disagree. Toxicity of waste relates to its potential to be toxic to living organisms. Hazardous waste refers to wastes that may be hazardous in some way - eg physicluor risk of fire or injury. --Alex 12:48, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

The distinction between industrial, chemical, and toxic waste is splitting hairs and confusing for users. Users are very surprised to find almost no info in Wikipedia on this crucial topic; all three should redirect to hazardous waste. --Espoo 13:49, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Hazardous waste includes toxic waste by definition. The two articles should be merged.142.163.67.192 (talk) 21:06, 19 October 2011 (UTC)

"Toxic waste" and "hazardous waste" are not synonyms. Scattering broken bottles all over the place is hazardous, but not toxic.Eregli bob (talk) 08:10, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Geographical viewpoint

Needs more information about definitions, management, etc. internationally, only covers USA specifically, and certain parts need to be rewritten due to this (eg. ' ..cannot create new PCBs here in America.. ' ) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.211.120.109 (talk) 13:41, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

The section on "Handling toxic wastes during salvaging and rehabilitaion of nuclear objects in northwest Russia" is a specific regional example that doesn't seem illustrative of any concept necessary to an encyclopedic treatment of toxic waste. It should be deleted or merged into Shipbreaking.142.163.67.192 (talk) 21:47, 19 October 2011 (UTC)

NPOV

The section "US toxic waste regulations" uses weasel words and insinuation to criticize the US EPA and the engineering assumptions used historically in choosing disposal methods for toxic waste. It needs a thorough re-write with less reliance on the example of Warren County.142.163.67.192 (talk) 20:28, 22 October 2011 (UTC)

I agree, the History section focuses far too much on the Warren County landfill. Most of that content should be removed - possibly given it's own heading, with a Main tag to the Warren County PCB Landfill article. Durron597 (talk) 14:55, 20 March 2013 (UTC)

toxic waste

Toxic wastes are poisonous materials that are being dumped into the ocean. It affects marine life and plants but humans, too. How? By, food chain. The fish could eat some kind of toxic waste and we could end up eating that fish. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.240.196.224 (talk • contribs)

Could this be linked to biomagnification? Would need a source. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hughana (talk • contribs) 16:30, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

reverted text

Since recent reversions have removed wikification, even introducing an unreferenced footnote, I have reverted to last wikilinked/categorized version. I am placing the text here so that it can be properly formatted and referenced before restoration:

Toxic waste From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Toxic waste is waste material, often in chemical form, that can cause death or injury to living creatures. It usually is the product of industry or commerce, but comes also from residential use, agriculture, the military, medical facilities, radioactive sources, and light industry, such as dry cleaning establishments. As with many pollution problems, toxic waste began to be a significant issue during the industrial revolution. The term is often used interchangeably with “hazardous waste,” or discarded material that can pose a long-term risk to health or environment. Toxins can be released into air, water, or land.

Toxic waste can pollute the natural environment and contaminate groundwater. Love Canal is a famous incident in which homes and schools were built near an area where toxic waste had been dumped, causing epidemic health problems. A number of toxic substances that humans encounter regularly may pose serious health risks. Pesticide residues on vegetable crops, mercury in fish, and many industrially produced chemicals may cause cancer, birth defects, genetic mutations, or death. Many chemicals have been found to mimic estrogen, the hormone that controls the development of the female reproductive system in a large number of animal species. Preliminary results indicate that these chemicals, in trace amounts, may disrupt development and lead to a host of serious problems in both males and females. These range from infertility, increased mortality of offspring and disruptions of bodily functions (such as slowing heart rates, or breathing rates) to cold/flu like symptoms (such as vomiting, diarrhea and swelling) and behavioral changes (such as depression, tiredness and behavior confusion).

Toxic waste can refer to: Toxic waste, the environmental concern Toxic Waste, the sour confectionery Toxic Waste, the rock group

Put simply, a Hazardous waste is waste that poses substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment and generally exhibits one or more of these characteristics:

ignitable (i.e. flammable) oxidizing corrosivity toxic eco-toxic

U.S. Environmental Laws (see RCRA) additionally describe a "hazardous waste" as a waste (usually a solid waste) that has the potential to: cause, or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality (death) or an increase in serious irreversible, or incapacitating reversible illness; or pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environemnt when improperly treated, stored, transported, or disposed of , or other wise managed.

Radioactive waste are waste types containing radioactive chemical elements that do not have a practical purpose. It is sometimes the product of a nuclear process, such as nuclear fission. However, other industries not directly connected to the nuclear industry can produce large quantities of radioactive waste. For instance, over the past 20 years it is estimated that just the oil-producing endeavors of the US have accumulated 8 million tons of radioactive wastes.[1] The majority of radioactive waste is "low-level waste", meaning it has low levels of radioactivity per mass or volume. This type of waste often consists of used protective clothing, which is only slightly contaminated but still dangerous in case of radioactive contamination of a human body through ingestion, inhalation, absorption, or injection.

--Moonriddengirl 00:10, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Emasculated article

I don't see any discussion of why the above text was removed, nor do the edit descriptions explain why. For now I have just added an Expert tag and the text:

Toxic waste has been implicated in causing cancer, as when a cluster of the rare blood cancer Polycythemia vera was found around a toxic site in northeast Pennsylvania in 2008. < ref name="NEPennsylvania">MICHAEL RUBINKAM (2008). "Cancer cluster confirmed in northeast Pennsylvania". Associated Press.< /ref>

Simesa (talk) 09:54, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Copyright problem removed

Prior content in this article duplicated one or more previously published sources. Infringing material has been rewritten or removed and must not be restored, unless it is duly released under a compatible license. (For more information, please see "using copyrighted works from others" if you are not the copyright holder of this material, or "donating copyrighted materials" if you are.) For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or published material; such additions will be deleted. Contributors may use copyrighted publications as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously, and persistent violators will be blocked from editing. While we appreciate contributions, we must require all contributors to understand and comply with these policies. Thank you. 142.163.86.213 (talk) 20:40, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

Hazardous =/= toxic

There is a glaring issue with the article in that it conflates hazardous waste with toxic waste. The article tells us that "The term is often used interchangeably with 'hazardous waste'" - but neglects to point out that this is only by laymen and only in error. There looks to be a lot of conflation and confusion on first reading, so it needs a thorough edit. Keri (talk) 14:36, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

University of Southern California

Hello, My name is Lisa and I have been assigned to update and build on the topic of "Toxic Waste" for my Ecological Class at the University of Southern California. I hope to add further information that is current and specifically addresses toxic waste on a global scale as opposed to a US perspective. If there is anyone who has any information or contributions to help me with updating this subject it would be much appreciated. February 28, 2016 Lisaloo7 (talk) 01:09, 29 February 2016 (UTC)