MUNICIPAL WASTE AND RELATED HEALTH RISKS.

The problem of environmental pollution caused by municipal waste landfills is discussed on the basis of literature data. The research identified chemical agents released to the environment, the source of which being leachate from municipal waste landfills and the incineration of landfills. In accordance with the hazards identified, possible health risks linked to the exposure to such hazards were described. Waste generation is an inevitable process, and the amount of waste continues to increase. Waste is the source of many harmful factors: physical, chemical and biological ones, whose impact on human health may be observed at every stage of waste management, i.e. from its creation and collection until its final disposal. Harmful agents emitted into the environment throughout a waste management process are a hazard to surface waters and groundwaters alike, and to the atmospheric air. It is important to highlight the sanitary-epidemiological problem of waste collection; being a medium for various organisms, waste fosters the growth and development of rodent and insect populations, as well as encouraging the predation by wild animals and microorganisms. Thus, waste poses a threat to human health. Awareness of the issue as well as the supervision of the process and direct site of every stage of municipal waste collection are incredibly important. It appears that modern findings of environmental healthcare and environmental education should stimulate people to change their approach towards the broad area of environmental actions, as well as the prevention and diagnosis of diseases of environmental etiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]