We need to use special care when using and disposing of common everyday chemicals such as motor oil, gasoline, paint and thinners, waxes, and nail-polish remover. Other hazardous products include electronics such as computer screens, cellphone batteries and digital cameras.

   When improperly disposed, these household hazardous products can make their way to Long Island Sound and result in the death or poison of creatures ranging from invaluable microscopic soil bacteria to beautiful harbor seals. It is important that we think before purchasing these products, use these products properly to protect our health and dispose of leftovers carefully to protect ourselves and the environment including the Sound.

   These chemicals and solvents contain many harmful ingredients, including lead, cadmium, mercury, copper, lithium, zinc, manganese, nickel, and bromide which can poison and kill plants, animals, and other organisms, leading to an imperiled natural environment and threatened human health. Electronics include….

Through the ground
   One of the most common causes of chemical pollution is improper disposal. Otherwise, well-intended individuals dump chemicals, oil, gasoline, and paint thinners on the ground. This is not good for the ground or the Sound and it is illegal!

   Anything dumped on the ground will travel over or through the ground and then downhill to gutters, storm drains, ponds and streams, until they arrive in your local bay or harbor and then to the Sound.

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Down the drain…
   Anything dumped in the sink or toilet bowl flows directly to either your septic system or a town sewage plant. These systems are designed to treat human waste like feces; neither of these systems can properly treat household chemicals, which pass through into ground water or your bay, harbor, or the Sound.

Faulty Machinery
   Another route for certain hazardous substances to enter our waterways is from leaking machinery, especially autos: cars, sport utility vehicles, and trucks. When machinery such as car engines are not maintained properly, they can leak or drip oil, gas, antifreeze, or transmission fluid onto the ground. Dripping cars throughout the state and the region can leak gallons of hazardous substances in a year adding up to a serious threat.

   We may think of a large oil tanker spill as the major contributor of oil contamination, however, the fact is that only 5% of marine pollution comes from such spills. It is the leaky oil pan on an automobile, the home oil change that washes spills down the storm drain, and overall improper disposal that causes 95% of the water contamination caused by oil. Only one quart of oil can contaminate up to two million gallons of drinking water!


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Disposing in Regular Trash
   Dumping on the ground is not the only disposal method that is harmful (and illegal). Household chemicals and other household hazardous waste DO NOT belong in the our household trash. Putting hazardous waste on the curb or bringing it to your local transfer station will send your hazardous materials to the landfill or incinerator. Household hazardous products including cleaning products, automobile fluids, solvents, paint thinners, polyurethane, computers, cellphones, and digital cameras contain toxic substances that will travel through soil, air or water.
   -- Landfills:
      Sanitary landfills are a somewhat recent phenomenon. Sanitary landfills provide a liner to protect soil and water from contaminants, but not all are 100% safe. Rain and snow run through a landfill and produce leachate. As leachate percolates through a landfill, it will pick up substances as it moves – which includes any hazardous substances put into the landfill.

   “In industrial landfill leachate, 32 chemicals cause cancer; 10 cause birth defects, and 21 cause genetic damage. In municipal landfill leachate, 32 chemicals cause cancer, 13 cause birth defects, and 22 cause genetic damage.”

   Municipal waste landfill leachates have been found to contain toxic chemicals in sufficient concentration to be potentially as harmful as leachate from industrial waste landfills.

   Dr. Kirk Brown and Dr. K.C. Donnelly at Texas A&M, found 113 different toxic chemicals in leachate from municipal landfills and 72 toxic chemicals in leachate from hazardous waste landfills. They said toxics in municipal landfills probably occur because the entire spectrum of consumer products ends up in municipal landfills, whereas hazardous waste landfills serve a limited number of industries within a region.

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