Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
and cardiovascular endocrinology.” The effects of endocrine disruption
can be subtle. For example, a number of animal studies have linked
early puberty to exposure to pesticides, PCBs, and other chemicals.
It is well known that women with more lifetime menstrual cycles are
at greater risk for breast cancer, because they are exposed to more
estrogen. A woman who began menstruating before age twelve has
a 30 percent greater risk of breast cancer than one who began at
age fi fteen or later. American girls in 1800 had their fi rst period, on
average, at about age seventeen. By 1900 that had dropped to four-
teen. Now it is twelve, and endocrine disruption is probably at least
partly responsible.
In the United States, the EPA has shown little interest in studying
endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and no legislation pending in the U.S.
Congress addresses these.
As a Native American chief once said, “Only when the last tree has
been felled, the last river poisoned and the last fi sh caught, man will
know, that he cannot eat money.”
Ocean Pollution
The world ocean is not immune from the onslaught of water pollution,
although it may be one of the ugliest when oil pollution is involved.
Contrary to the impression one gets from media reports, oil spills from
beached tankers are only a minor part of the problem.
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Large oil spills
contribute only 5 percent to the ocean's oil pollution, and by 2015, when
all oil tankers in U.S. waters will be required to be double-hulled, large
oil spills may be a thing of the past because the United States is the
biggest importer of oil. There are 706 million gallons of oil pollution per
year, most of which can, in principle, be controlled (table 1.6).
Control in principle does not necessarily mean control in practice, as
illustrated by the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, where
a blowout preventer failed on a well, causing the worst oil spill that has
ever occurred in U. S. waters. Petroleum from 18,000 feet below the sea
fl oor spewed into Gulf waters for three months, perhaps 200 million
gallons. The cause of the blowout was human error. There were multiple
warning signs, and safety procedures were not followed.
All major oil companies have intensive safety programs and processes
to prevent spills. But every human enterprise has a failure potential, as
the 2010 Gulf disaster clearly demonstrates. Since 1946 50,000 oil wells
have been drilled in the Gulf, and 3,858 of them are currently producing
11 percent of America's domestic supply. The BP disaster is the fi rst
