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Abstracts
Panel: Climate Change and Chemicals Use: Adaptation and Mitigation Measures for Minimizing the Emerging Environmental and Health Issues
Lead toxicity and climate change
Robert Taylor*
Elizabeth O’Brien**
Thuppil Venkatesh***
Theme
Climate change abatement actions must also reduce exposure to lead, the most common industrial contaminant, or lead poisoning rates will rise globally.
Objectives
The objectives of this paper are to reveal the contribution of lead mining, smelting, manufacturing and recycling to greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs); to explore the potential to reduce GHGs and lead use/ contamination concurrently; to examine the interactions between climate change and elevated blood lead levels (EBLLs) and how global warming and climate variability modify the health impacts of EBLLs and to suggest policy and regulatory solutions to these problems.
Sources of data
GLASS & NRCLPI case studies, Worldwatch Institute, lead/metal mining association reports, government policies on GHG, journal/newspaper articles.
Governments do not seem to be fully aware of the connections between global warming, black carbon, extreme weather events, wildfires, IQ loss and deaths from lead poisoning. The increased incidence of drastic weather events such as tornadoes, wildfires, floods and droughts will all increase the distribution of lead contamination. As the temperature rises, more people and animals will suffer lead poisoning, also known as “The Summer Disease.” Some of the connections between lead toxicity and climate change are of the nature of a technological fix for both problems. A global ban on lead in motor vehicle petrol allows the possibility of national legislation in every country to ensure that all petrol vehicles have three-way catalytic converters, thus reducing black carbon emissions, the most potent climate-warming aerosol. Lead-related problems created by addressing climate change will include increased lead use in storage batteries for electric bikes and vehicles, and seasonal lead levels in children. Gains of lead-conscious climate change policy include the removal of ceiling dust safely before installing ceiling insulation, and reducing both GHGs and lead pollution by reducing the burning of fossil fuels, especially by reducing the need for travel, and reducing the need for newly-mined lead.
References
Whitton , Evan (Editor-in-Chief). 2009, ‘Lead Poisoning and Climate Change’, LEAD Action News Vol. 9 No. 4, September, Published by The Lead Education and Abatement Design (LEAD) Group Incorporated, a Health Promotion Charity on the Register of Environmental Organisations, Australia, viewed 15 September 2009. 
*Robert Taylor is a Researcher / Writer, Global Lead Advice and Support Service, run by The LEAD Group, Sydney, Australia.
**Elizabeth Obrien is a Manager, Global Lead Advice and Support Service; President / Co-Founder (1991), The LEAD Group - aiming to achieve global elimination of lead poisoning and protection of the environment from lead.
 ***Thuppil Venkatesh is the LEAD man of India, Director, National Referral Center for Lead Poisoning in India; Advisor, Quality Council of India; Professor, Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics, StJohns National Academy of Health Sciences.
Impacts of climate change on some selected polluted sites: The emerging environmental/health issues and measures for control
Mahmood A.Khwaja*
Nazima Shaheen**
Sumaira Akram***
Farzana Yasmin****
Environmental and health impacts of polluted sites are well established through a number of investigations reported in scientific literature. These sites could result from industrial emissions, effluents and wastes as well as chemicals, so abundantly and widely used in agriculture and households.
Climate changes are evident in Asia. There are many emerging issues of climate change but little attention seems to have been given to its impacts on chemicals and on polluted sites. Changes in principal environmental parameters such as temperature, precipitation and salinity will necessarily affect toxicity, characteristics, behavior and transport/distribution of chemicals. Just as increase in temperatures would cause increased volatility of chemicals, directly and adversely affecting the air quality, increase in precipitation would have a similar impact on water bodies due to increased runs off carrying chemicals both from air, agriculture land and polluted sites. Similarly, there would be an increase both in land salinity and chemical load of water bodies with increased evaporation due to increasing temperatures and low precipitation. A high increase in the chemical incidences due to flooding (caused by high precipitation) of the polluted sites is also expected. ‘Vulnerable species and populations are expected to suffer most due to such changes resulting from climate change’ (groups.google.com/group/cai-asia/.../617ddc15eec67d71). The developing countries like Pakistan would be more severely affected, due to agriculture dependent economy, mostly rural population, poor living, lack of resources, technical know-how and awareness.
In an on-going assessment study of contaminated sites in Pakistan by SDPI, eight polluted sites have been visited in Nowshera, Abbottabad, Rawalpindi, Lehtrar and outskirts of Islamabad. The sites include chemically polluted land, water lagoons/drains and open dumps of obsolete pesticides and medical wastes. Samples of surface and sub-surface water, soil and solid wastes were taken at these sites and chemically analyzed. Interviews with stakeholders, including local governments and environmental protection agency (EPA) officials and residents at the sites were also conducted by the members of study team.
In the present paper, details of the above investigations would be described and discussed to assess the impacts of climate change on these polluted sites and their resulting environmental and health impacts. In light of this discussion, recommendations to strategize mitigation measures would be further developed.
 *Mahmood A. Khwaja is a Senior Advisor Chemicals & Sustainable Industrial Development and Visiting Fellow at SDPI. He holds a Ph.D from La Trobe University of Science and Technology, Melbourne, Australia and an M.Sc. from the University of Peshawar. He has over 60 publications to his credit.
 **Nazima Shaheen is working as a Project Coordinator in the project “The Gender Digital Divide in Rural Pakistan – to Measure and to Bridge it” at the SDPI. She holds a masters degree in Environmental Sciences from the Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi.
***Sumaira Akram obtained her Master of Sciences degree in environmental sciences and management from Lahore College for Women University, Lahore. She worked as a Research Assistant at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Islamabad and Center for Environment Protection Studies, PCSIR, Lahore. She has presented her postgraduate research work at the national and international conferences in Pakistan.
 ****Farzana Yasmin has done her Masters in Applied Environmental Science from the College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Quaid-e-Azam Campus, University of Punjab, Lahore. In 2009 she did her M.S in Environmental Science from the Islamic University, Islamabad. Currently she is working as research assistant at SDPI.
Adaptation measures to minimize climate change impacts: Construction materials – A case study
Jahangir Mirza*
Millions of tons of industrial waste materials (oil and coal burning by-products, fly ash, slag, silica fume, cement and quarry dust, tires, sewer sludge, glass, rice husk ash, bagasse, volcanic ash, bentonites and other materials) are discarded every year. Hazardous and toxic chemicals (arsenic, beryllium, boron, cadmium, chromium, chromium (VI), cobalt, lead, manganese, mercury, molybdenum, selenium, strontium, thallium, and vanadium, along with dioxins and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon compound (NRCNA 2006; USEPA 2007) present in them, leach into soil and water when the waste materials are dumped in landfills, quarries, rivers and oceans. Air and water pollution as a result, have been inextricably linked to climate change impact.
Concrete is a widely used construction material. The principal binder in concrete is Portland cement whose production depends on high-energy consumption and natural resource depletion, not to mention the exorbitant amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) produced as well. For example, each ton of Portland cement releases one ton of carbon dioxide, which is the main cause of climate change.
Clay brick production in Pakistan and South Asia is another source of toxic pollutants (carbon mono- and dioxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and others) and fine particulate matter that is regularly emitted into the air. With the global community trying to find ways to combat the unprecedented rise in GHG in the atmosphere, it has become more important than ever to look at the enormous potential of utilizing waste by-products in brick production in Pakistan and South Asia.
Studies have shown that waste materials are being successfully used in all kinds of existing and future concrete structures, by replacing cement up to 70%. This process creates a dense matrix with low porosity product. It is now well known that when incorporated in concrete, waste materials are either well absorbed in its dense matrix or react with the chemical constituents of cement to produce stable compounds. As an adopted measure, it would also minimize impacts arising from climate changes.
Durability and sustainability are compelling ways of dealing with climate change. Pakistan is lagging far behind in developing environmentally sustainable concrete by using maximum quantity of waste materials and minimum cement. The same should also be adopted for clay bricks. The local cement and brick industries should develop an array of products incorporating waste materials. It would substantially reduce waste management problems and lead to huge economical and environmental benefits.
This paper introduces adoptive measures for use of wastes in the construction materials that would minimize impacts due to climate changes.
References:
National Research Council of the National Academies (NRCNA). Managing Coal Combustion Residues in Mines, Committee on Mine Placement of Coal Combustion Wastes, National Research Council of the National Academies, 2006.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). Human and Ecological Risk Assessment of Coal Combustion Wastes, RTI, Research Triangle Park, August 6, 2007.
 *Dr. Jahangir Mirza is a senior scientist at the Research Institute of Hydro-Québec, Montreal, Canada. He is primarily involved in the APPLIED R & D of repair materials for damaged concrete structures. He also specializes in industrial and natural wastes used in construction projects to cut production cost, reduce energy consumption and minimize environmental and climate change impacts.
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