Health Effects of Prolonged Exposure to Landfill Chemicals: Hydrogen Sulfide and Ammonia

Hi oemBiology

Hydrogen sulfide is the scent of rotten eggs. It is definitely considered poisonous, and smelling it definitely isn't good for you.


Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2850187/

Ammonia is bad too, but we do have the ability to neutralize it by our livers.


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK546677/ (read the part on Pathophysiology).

To understand the adaption, I found one study which came up with a possible explanation.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6977057/

Those who were exposed for years to H2S were found to have elevated levels of methemoglobin. And hence the authors concluded that

I definitely feel bad about workers, who work in landfill, but somehow, we need people working on landfill, so someone needs to pay this cost of living using their health, I hope there is a better solution to solve garbage issue in city, why don't people use nuclear approach to dissolve all garbage at once, which garbage goes back to elemental chemical elements, that is clear approach.
Any suggestions?
Thanks

I feel bad too, but if it wasn't profitable to them, they probably wouldn't be doing it, right?

In the West, people who do jobs like these are usually compensated by pay. Technically, any time a job is taxing to one's health or is generally considered a dangerous profession are usually paid more, even when the skill required isn't anything "special". For example, bus drivers are paid well, and so are garage disposal men.

Many people in the West willingly have trucks that roam the streets for people's garbage containing metals. These metals are collected and brought to a waste management center where they are paid by the pound. Metals rarely go into landfills because they are easily recycled. Some plastics are recycled too to produce new products, but this ultimately requires a lot of energy to do, hence it's easier for manufacturers and more cost effective just to start over again with most plastics.

Garbage that is compostable is also re-used since it's full of organic material, this is often recycled as soil fertilizers and used as gardening products the year later.

However, the vast majority goes into landfills. A lot of it is incinerated to smoke, but this leads to a heck of a lot of CO2 emissions, leading to local issues like acid rain. Landfills simply provide a way to manage the volume of waste generated by communities. Burying waste in designated areas helps prevent it from spreading and taking up valuable space in urban or residential areas. Eventually, after 50+ years, that land can be used again.