1. THE LEGACY OF TOXIC HEAVY METALS

The long history of use and unrevealed harms of quicksilver, silvery lead, and silvery-white cadmium

“The jars [of wine] must never be filled quite full […] and moreover leaden and not bronze vessels should be used.”

Plinius Secundus, A.D. 751

 

“In that direction […] lives a Hatter: and in that direction […] lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.”

Lewis Carroll, 18652

 

“The itai-itai disease was chronic cadmium poisoning caused by heavy metals such as zinc and lead contained in the water of the Jinzu River.”

Noboru Hagino, 19563

 

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Mercury barometer from the 19th century made in Hungary (photo taken by the author)

 

Lead, mercury, cadmium and their manifold compounds were long used in many products and industrial processes without awareness of their toxicity. Moreover, these toxic substances were released into the environment from some of these applications and other human activities. Once released, these pollutants can travel considerable distances in the environment (i.e., in the atmosphere and water bodies), causing health and environmental damage far from their source. It took a long time to identify these cause-and-effect links and then gradually limit the use of these heavy metals. The evolution of this environmental problematic, its globalization, and the development of the related international cooperation are presented and assessed in this chapter.

 

1  The quote is translated from Latin and is part of an ancient recipe for preserving and sweetening wine for which lead pots were used. The harmful ‘side effects’ of lead in wine were only later identified (Naturalis historia, Lib. XIV).

2  In the novel by Oxford mathematics professor Lewis Carroll, the Mad Hatter is a fictional personification of the London hatters who did not realize that they were becoming ill due to the mercury vapor from the mercury nitrate used in hat making (Alice in Wonderland).

3  The cause of this painful disease was first identified in Japan by Noboru Hagino. He discovered that its cause was the toxic cadmium (besides other pollutants) released into the Jinzu River from a mine and a smelter, the water from which was being utilized in various ways by local residents [Singh, 2005: p. 82].

Tartalomjegyzék

• IMPERILING AND SAVING OUR PLANETARY HOME • THE LEGACY OF TOXIC HEAVY METALS ● GLOBAL HAZARDOUS CHEMICAL POLLUTION AND WASTE FLOWS ● THE THREATENED OZONE LAYER ● OVERHEATING OUR COMMON GREENHOUSE
• Copyright page
• FOREWORD
• chevron_rightINTRODUCTION
  • INCREASING HUMAN INTERVENTION IN NATURE, INITIATIVES FOR A CLEAN ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTHY PLANET
  • INCREASING ENVIRONMENTAL PRESSURES AND THE RESPECTIVE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY RESPONSES
  • RELATIONSHIPS OF HAZARDOUS ENVIRONMENTAL PROCESSES
  • ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY COOPERATION AS A ‘LEARNING PROCESS’: THE ADOPTION OR REJECTION OF PREVIOUS SOLUTIONS AND THE IMPORTANCE OF SYNERGIES
  • References
• chevron_right1. THE LEGACY OF TOXIC HEAVY METALS • The long history of use and unrevealed harms of quicksilver, silvery lead, and silvery-white cadmium
  • chevron_right1.1. THE MISRECOGNITION AND THEN RECOGNITION OF THE HARMFUL EFFECTS OF LEAD AND MERCURY
    • 1.1.1. Utilization of toxic heavy metals: their ‘rise and fall’
    • 1.1.2. Exploring the harms of mercury
    • 1.1.3. Lead additive in gasoline: “the mistake of the XXth century”
    • 1.1.4. Environmental releases and the long-range transmission of toxic heavy metal pollution
  • chevron_right1.2. INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION
    • 1.2.1. Studies and research programs under the aegis of UN agencies
    • 1.2.2. Other international organizations and networks
  • chevron_right1.3. GLOBAL ‘DETOXIFICATION’: PROGRAMS AND AGREEMENTS
    • 1.3.1. International policy cooperation and instruments
    • 1.3.2. The global strategy and action plan
    • 1.3.3. International environmental agreements covering, inter alia, toxic heavy metals
    • 1.3.4. Global convention on mercury (without addressing lead and cadmium)
    • 1.3.5. Global ‘non-regulation’ on lead and cadmium
  • chevron_right1.4. WILL WE FINALLY ELIMINATE THE USE OF TOXIC HEAVY METALS?
    • 1.4.1. Differentiation in obligations and means of implementation
    • 1.4.2. Evaluation of the implementation of international programs and agreements
    • 1.4.3. Actual trends in the use and environmental releases of these toxic substances
    • 1.4.4. The need to strengthen the science-policy interface
  • 1.5. CONCLUSIONS AND LESSONS LEARNED • The history of the applications of toxic heavy metals, and the recognition and mitigation of their harmful effects
  • References
• chevron_right2. GLOBAL HAZARDOUS CHEMICAL POLLUTION AND WASTE FLOWS • the spread of a multitude of perilous chemicals and pollutants to all corners of the globe
  • chevron_right2.1. THE GLOBALIZING POLLUTION AND WASTE PROBLEM
    • 2.1.1. Increasing environmental contamination and the need to halt this hazardous process: scientists’ warnings and concepts
    • 2.1.2. Strengthening international science-policy interaction to respond to the globalizing pollution and waste-related anxiety
  • chevron_right2.2. PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS
    • 2.2.1. Sources and effects of these pollutants
    • 2.2.2. International science and policy cooperation
    • 2.2.3. Monitoring the implementation and the assessment of the effectiveness of the international response policies
  • chevron_right2.3. TRANSBOUNDARY MOVEMENT OF HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN CHEMICALS AND EMISSIONS ALLOWANCES
    • 2.3.1. A ‘simple’ way to get rid of waste?
    • 2.3.2. International conventions on the transboundary movements of and trade in hazardous substances
    • 2.3.3. Is the illegal transboundary movement of and trade in hazardous substances declining?
    • 2.3.4. Controlling the international transportation of dangerous goods
    • 2.3.5. International emissions trading systems
  • chevron_right2.4. HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES AND HARMFUL POLLUTANTS IN INTERNATIONAL AREAS
    • 2.4.1. Pollutants and hazardous wastes entering the marine environment
    • 2.4.2. Protection of the Antarctic environment from waste and waste-management-related adverse effects
    • 2.4.3. Space debris
  • chevron_right2.5. THE GLOBAL POLLUTION PROBLEM: INTERCONNECTED WITH OTHER DANGEROUS ENVIRONMENTAL PROCESSES
    • 2.5.1. The triple planetary crisis
    • 2.5.2. Intersections among some global pollution and climate change problems
    • 2.5.3. Hazardous pollution and ecosystems
  • chevron_right2.6. THE OVERARCHING SUSTAINABILITY APPROACH TO THE GLOBAL POLLUTION PROBLEM
    • 2.6.1. No sustainable development without overcoming the pollution crisis
    • 2.6.2. Managing the environmental burden from unsustainable production and consumption
    • 2.6.3. What should the economy be like: green and/or circular?
  • 2.7. CONCLUSIONS AND LESSONS LEARNED • International cooperation on pollutants, hazardous chemicals, and waste and the need for further efforts
  • References
• chevron_right3. THE THREATENED OZONE LAYER • dangerous anthropogenic environmental impacts reaching the stratosphere
  • chevron_right3.1. DISCOVERING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF AND THREATS TO THE OZONE LAYER
    • 3.1.1. Ozone in the laboratory and in the atmosphere: experiments and hypotheses
    • 3.1.2. Systematic measurements of atmospheric ozone amounts
    • 3.1.3. Ozone concentration changes in the upper atmosphere: exploring the anthropogenic causes
  • chevron_right3.2. IS THE OZONE LAYER IN DANGER AND SHOULD IT BE SAVED?
    • 3.2.1. From the possible to the certain: achievements of international scientific cooperation
    • 3.2.2. Enough reason to be cautious?
    • 3.2.3. The great decisive turning point: the discovery of the ‘ozone hole’
  • chevron_right3.3. THE THREAT TO THE OZONE LAYER MUST BE ENDED: INTERNATIONAL LEGAL INSTRUMENTS
    • 3.3.1. Substances threatening and non-threatening to the ozone layer
    • 3.3.2. Phasing out ozone-depleting substances: science, technology, and politics
    • 3.3.3. Solving the ‘ozone problem’ while exacerbating another global environmental hazard?
  • chevron_right3.4. THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SCIENCE AND POLICY COOPERATION: WILL THE OZONE LAYER BE SAVED?
    • 3.4.1. Phasing out the ozone layer depleting substances: the initial difficulties
    • 3.4.2. The need for systematic efforts to “heal” the ozone layer
  • 3.5. CONCLUSIONS AND LESSONS LEARNED
  • References
• chevron_right4. OVERHEATING OUR COMMON GREENHOUSE • the accelerating climate change process, exploration of its causal links and international policy cooperation to handle this hazard
  • chevron_right4.1. GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE: ASSUMPTIONS, DOUBTS, AND CERTAINTY
    • 4.1.1. The climate system: nature-driven shorter and longer-term changes have always occurred
    • 4.1.2. Human-induced climate change: possible or not? A protracted and heated scientific debate
    • 4.1.3. Growing scientific certainty
  • chevron_right4.2. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION FRAMEWORKS FOR CLIMATE SYSTEM OBSERVATION AND RESEARCH
    • 4.2.1. Global monitoring of the climate system
    • 4.2.2. Scientific cooperation in climate change research
    • 4.2.3. Climate science and climate policy: institutionalizing the science-policy interface
  • chevron_right4.3. INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE POLICIES: PRINCIPLES, GOALS, AND COMMITMENTS
    • 4.3.1. Clarifying the basics: Who is responsible? How certain is the hazardousness of this process? What can be done?
    • 4.3.2. The evolution of cooperation: from skepticism to recognition of climate change as a common concern of mankind
    • 4.3.3. International agreements: goals, regulations, and compromises
  • chevron_right4.4. ARE THE CLIMATE AGREEMENTS AND THEIR IMPLEMENTATION EFFECTIVE?
    • 4.4.1. The provisions of the agreements and the extent of their (f)actual fulfillment
    • 4.4.2. What about the coherence of climate science and climate policy?
  • 4.5. CONCLUSIONS AND LESSONS LEARNED • climate change: scientific investigation of the consequences of human activities and the development of international climate policy
  • References
• EPILOGUE
• International agreements
• Acronyms

Kiadó: Akadémiai Kiadó

Online megjelenés éve: 2025

ISBN: 978 963 664 165 8

Our common planetary home is affected by hazardous environmental processes stemming from human activities. These have gradually reached a global scale during the past century, especially concerning the environmental releases of toxic heavy metals, hazardous chemicals, and waste, the emissions of ozone-depleting substances, and greenhouse gases. All these are directly or indirectly related to the accelerated utilization of a multitude of natural resources and in the broadest sense, to unsustainable production and consumption patterns. These significantly influence the living conditions of present and future generations. The chapters of this book present the emergence, globalization, and escalation of the above-mentioned environmental processes, the history of the recognition of their unintended harmful impacts, the development of the associated international scientific and political cooperation.

The author of this book has been working on this topic for decades, including through his involvement in the work of several international organizations. He has a detailed understanding not only of the natural laws governing planetary environmental processes (that fundamentally determine the life of human societies) but also of the highly complex regulatory affairs concerning human activities that significantly affect the state of the natural environment. Four human-induced environmental problems are explored in this book – their historical antecedents and current situation – which have become particularly critical on a global scale. I recommend this thought-provoking and readable book to those who are interested in the most important environmental problems of our time and the process of their international management. László Bozó

The book is an invaluable source document of all the efforts made by international community over the past fifty years to preserve the health of our planet. It could be written only by someone who has closely observed these efforts. It should be compulsory reading for everyone involved in international issues and cooperation concerning environment protection, including representatives of relevant governmental and non-governmental organizations. It might not be an exaggeration to say that officials and experts at the international institutions in this field would also benefit from studying this book, to avoid repeating past mistakes and gain valuable insights from their colleagues’ experiences. I commend the author and recommended the publication of this book with professional conviction and sincere pleasure. Sándor Kerekes

Hivatkozás: https://mersz.hu/farago-imperiling-and-saving-our-planetary-home//