Environmental Crimes and Health and Safety Law

Environmental Crimes and Health and Safety Law Violation

With the current changes in weather patterns, strange climatic conditions and other uncontrollable natural disasters, there has been a lot of attention directed towards the environment and the way people may be contributing to the degradation of the environment in small ways that is summed up results into the disasters that we see on daily basis. The environment is becoming unpleasant on an increasing trend each and every day, this is a cause to worry about for each government that cares to see the consequences of our careless handling of the environment.

There are also man's contribution to the insecurity that surrounds us on a daily basis since people no longer care for the safety of the workers that work in their industries and sadly to some extent, some don care even about themselves and the safety that may be protecting their very being. There is need therefore to look at the various forms of safety law violations, the consequences as well as how to curb this trend of violations. Environmental crimes can therefore be referred to as the acts of man that are directed or intended at harming the environment (Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Republic of South Africa, 2012).

There are various criminal enforcement programs that are focused on the people who involve in negligent or willful violation of the federal laws that pertain to the environment conservation. There are some central acts that are purposefully geared towards ensuring that the environment is taken care of and protected at the highest standards possible.

The Clean Water Act which aimed at controlling the effluence that is emitted to the water bodies and in effect protect the water bodies. The main target of this Act is the criminal industries and manufacturing bodies that may tend to bypass the laws and instead of using all the required waste water treatment chemicals before they emit the effluence into the sewer systems most of which end up in the water bodies.

The other well-known Act that deals with the regulation of the environment is the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). This is majorly to tame the rogue manufactures who do not want to pay for the cost of disposal of their environment degrading wastes such as the highly flammable and acoustic wastes. Most of the culprits to the breaking of this law do conceal the waste to be dumped together with other wastes by a dumpster at municipal sites.

Clean Air Act is yet another regulation that aims at ensuring that the air we breathe is not contaminated in any manner. The act has a wide spectrum that it legally covers ranging from the industrial emissions in form of smoke, to laboratory fumes and even the dangerous asbestos fibers control during construction.

There are other industrial activities that are also considered environmental crimes within the U.S.A. These include illegal disposal of hazardous waste, illegal discharge of pollutants to a water of the United States, Export of hazardous waste without the permission of the receiving country, interfering with drinking water supply, illegal importation of certain restricted or regulated chemicals into the United States, money laundering relating to environmental criminal activities. There is need therefore to have an environmental policy that will see into it that the above Acts are implemented and people are equally sensitized about the significance of environmental conservation and sustainability of the environment for a better future.

Environmental Policy and Sustainability

The sustainability of the environment is pivotal in the long run for ensuring a safe and habitable environment for all. The bitter fact is that, when the environment is affected, then everyone gets the effect regardless of the region, race, color gender and the all the disparities that could be considered politically. To ensure a safe environment, there was a necessity of having policies that can help maintain the environment and make it safe, hence the introduction of the Environmental Justice.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (1998) defines Environmental Justice as "The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. Fair treatment means that no group of people, including racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic group should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, municipal, and commercial operations or the execution of federal, state, local, and tribal programs and policies."

From the above, it is worth noting that the fundamental pursuit of the policy was and is not to find whom to blame for the environmental degradation and pollution but to find the most adversely affected areas and those that have the potentiality to such degradation, then identify the alternative to such degradation and mitigate against them.

One example where the Environmental Justice policy came in was in the recent pollution where there was a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico by the BP Company. It is one of the policies concerning environment that was used to compel the company to take responsibility to stop the spill and clear the spill in the gulf.

Instances of environmental law breaking

With the world entering to the "Urban Era" more than half of the population globally are now staying within the cities. Such population is growing where urban areas are always rising by 60 million people in a year. This movement of the people to the cities means that their consumption of products and services increases, in using more natural resources hence generating more waste, while in this situation, cities tend to be never equipped enough in dealing with this problem. Many urban waste treatment, infrastructure, transport, among others are always not suitable enough to deal with the current population levels, without even including the growing one.

Such urban development which cannot be sustained inevitably leads to the environmental crime hence negatively impacting on our oceans and environment. Problems of global warming, urban runoff, harmful algae blooms and plastic pollution are among the most serious environmental crime issues that affect oceans.

Global warming is always the one that has the greatest threat to coral reefs worldwide, this is because in increasing of the temperatures of the surface ocean, there will be coral bleaching and stress through ocean acidification, Goldberg, J. And C. Wilkinson,(2002). From the estimation of the scientists in 1998 alone, 16% of the world's coral reefs went under destruction by bleaching episodes. Of course, the main cause of global warming is the release of greenhouse gases, through fossil fuel combustion which is an environmental crime that many industries are prone to. A lot of focus on reduction of green house gas emission has been at the national level, though it has been unsuccessful in United States. Global warming is always a great threat to coral reef ecosystems as well as some other marine systems, Orr J.C. et al., (2005).

Huge volumes of household hazardous wastes, hydrocarbons plus large collection of other toxic agents are carried to the catch-basin daily within urban areas, flowing into estuary and reef systems when there is first rain. On top, the agricultural hinterlands that surround the urban areas burden the environment of the marine with the runoff of insecticides, herbicides and topsoil which is a great environmental crime people commit on daily basis without realizing (The State of the World, 2007).

Management of solid waste like the plastics at the local level as well has impact on coastal waters, the marine ecosystems as well as the environment at large. Majorly towns and cities from developing countries dispose their solid waste in dumps which are situated within the coastal zone, mostly using the waste to be the landfills material for the purpose of filling wetlands and lagoons, which is a serious environmental crime of the contemporary society. More often, there is no lining which is provided for these landfills, giving way for contaminated leachate to filter through the waste, ferrying heavy metals, nutrients and other toxins into coastal waters and other water bodies hence greatly endangering the lives of the users.

Industries and government tends to be guilty about this "end of the pipe" pollution. These industries discharge industrial wastes into the streams and rivers which sweep the pollution load straight into near-shore marine habitats. This result in lipid soluble heavy metals getting concentrated in the food chain of the marine, causing harmful high level of pollutant in the top predator's tissue which is a nother serious environmental crime (Kleypas J.A. et al., 2006).

The communities within the coast and along other water bodies often spill or dump their sewage effluent into the wetlands and bays, which add nutrient load in the water bodies. Uncommonly high nutrient level within such habitats are capable of harming corals directly with enhanced pathogen growth or favor the growth of explosive algal which destabilizes marine ecosystems, Tundi Agardy (2002).

Freshwater algal blooms are always from the excess nutrients, specifically phosphorus. Some of the excess nutrient can come from fertilizers that are being applied to land for agriculture, which are capable of entering watersheds via water runoff. In any case phosphate gets to be introduced into the water systems, its higher concentration results to increase of growth of algae and plants. Due to the quick growth of algae from high availability of nutrient, and alga being short-lived, it result to a high concentration of dead organic matter which start to decay, and the process of decay that has been consumed dissolve oxygen in water, causing hypoxic conditions. If there is no enough dissolved oxygen in the water, there could be a great death of animal and numbers.

Sustainability cycle

There is an increasing concern by environmentalists and the environmental law/policy enforcement agencies about the environmental pollution. There are heaps of garbage growing each day in various parts of the country and the world at large, improper disposal of waste material all over the residential and even office areas. The industries are also contributing to the menace and pollution of the environment is fast becoming the number one concerning our environment. The woods, rivers, open grounds in the city suburbs, the ocean fronts and many public fields are congesting with waste polythene bags.

There is need therefore to curb the menace before it goes further than it has, indeed it has gone far enough such that if not halted at this level, it will sink with our environment. In order to curb this menace, one of the techniques that can be used part fro the policies and the laws is the three Rs approach; Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. These ensure that even before one breaks the environmental laws, they are sensitized enough to be aware of the benefits of observing the law.

Reduce: This principle encourages the reduction of the use of disposable equipment like the polythene bags from the store instead use of paper packaging, canvas bags and aluminum foils, plastic bottles instead use of stainless steel bottles, disposable cups instead use the permanent mugs with lockable top and generally encourages a reduction of use of disposable material that are not biodegradable or unnecessary to use (High Country Conservation Centre, 2011).

Reuse: If there is a necessity to use the particular product as packaging or utensil or for drinking or eating, then there is a high possibility that it can be use again. These items should not be thrown into the dustbin just because their first use is over. There are several ways through which we can use an item again in a different manner. For instance the paper bags can be used to make decorative gift pack or art work, jars can also be used for storing chemicals, plastic buckets can be used for holding leftovers in the open yards or for home flower pots and many more in that effect.

Recycling: This is the main point of solid waste reduction and recycling is a process. It's a sequence of activities in a ring, that includes, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (2011), "the separation and collection of materials that otherwise would be considered waste, the processing and remanufacturing of these items into new products, and the use of the recycled products to complete the cycle."

In the ideal situation, recycling of a material should end up in a fresh supply of the same material that had been .put into recycling, for example used torn clothes recycled into new clothes. However this has proven to be expensive as compared to using raw material of the same to produce fresh product. Due to this, the alternative recycling method which involves the reuse of the product to produce different material, for instance use of waste office paper to produce cardboard and paperboards.

Another form of recycling would involve salvage of some materials from the used products. This may be due to their intrinsic value for instance lead in car batteries, gold in old computers or due to their hazardous nature like mercury from laboratory equipment and trophies.

There are other organizations and bodies that have also taken it upon themselves to engage in sensitizing the population about the need to obey the environmental policies and the laws governing the environment conservation. There are also some businesses that have taken it upon themselves to abide by the environmental rules as well as contribute more towards the environment. One of the well-known organizations in this sector is WWF. WWF has been in existence for more that 45 years now doing the noble job of ensuring that the endangered species are protected and their population revamped (Fund Raiser Insight, 2012). The WWF has an objective of ensuring that 19 of the most important natural locations in the world are properly conserved by the year 2010. This they do by focusing on various campaigns with an aim of making the biggest impact possible. At the present time, the WWF has focused its attention on the snow leopard and the lions, the conservation of forest as well as shifting diet to sustainable seafood.