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Nearly every activity leaves behind some kind of waste in the environment. Households create ordinary garbage.
Cars, trucks, and buses emit exhaust gases while in operation. Industrial and manufacturing processes create solid and hazardous waste.
Some wastes contain chemicals that are hazardous to people and the environment. Once these hazardous chemicals are present in the environment, people can become exposed to them. Exposure occurs when people have contact with a chemical, either directly or through another substance contaminated with a chemical.

Sources of contamination
The place where the chemical originates is called the source. Chemicals can enter the environment from many different sources such as landfills, incinerators, tanks, drums, or factories.

Human exposure to hazardous chemicals can occur at the source or the chemical could move to a place where people can come into contact with it.
Chemicals can move through air, soil, and water. They can also be on plants or animals, and can get into the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink.

What are the exposure pathways?
The different ways a person can come into contact with hazardous chemicals are called exposure pathways. There are three basic exposure pathways:
Inhalation through breathing or inhaling into the lungs.

Skin contact occurs when something comes in direct contact with the skin.
Ingestion is taking something in by mouth. Ingestion can be a secondary exposure pathway after skin contact has occurred. For example, if you put your hands in your mouth, you will be transferring the chemical from your hands to your mouth.

How can a person be exposed to hazardous chemicals?

People are susceptible to being exposed to hazardous chemicals through some common ways such as:
1. Water: Exposure can occur when people drink contaminated groundwater or surface water, or accidentally ingest it while swimming or showering. Direct skin contact also is an exposure pathway that occurs during activities like swimming and showering

2. Soil, Sediment, or Dust: People can be exposed to hazardous chemicals in soil, sediment, or dust if they accidentally ingest it, breathe it in, or have direct skin contact. Children are highly susceptible to these exposure pathways. In their daily activities, children have a tendency to have frequent hand-to-mouth contact and introduce non-food items into their mouths.

3. Air: Exposure can occur when people breathe in hazardous chemical vapours or air that is contaminated by hazardous chemicals or dust.

4. Food: People can be exposed to hazardous chemicals through the food they eat. Food contamination can occur if the food has come into contact with hazardous chemicals. It can also occur further down the food chain such as through eating contaminated fish.

What do l need to know about Chemical Exposure?
Exposure means the chemical getting into or on your body and has to occur to make you sick or cause adverse health effects, or have any effect on your health. If you are not exposed to the chemical, it cannot make you sick. Also, even if exposure has occurred, adverse health effects may not occur.

Adverse health effects are dependent on the factors of the exposure. Factors that play a part in whether or not adverse health effects may result from an exposure are:

The type of chemical (mercury, cyanide etc);
The amount or dose (the amount or level of a chemical a person was exposed to);
The duration (how long did exposure occur); and
The frequency (how many times the person was exposed).
How the human body tolerates toxic chemicals?

The human body has the ability to tolerate certain amounts of chemicals and the ability to excrete chemicals from the body.
Once a person is exposed to a chemical, it may enter the blood stream, and eventually reach the liver.

The liver attempts to detoxify harmful chemicals in the body by converting them to less toxic ones or ones that could be used by the body.
The body naturally attempts to eliminate substances that are harmful or are not used. The kidneys filter substances out of the blood and excrete them in urine.

Also, chemicals are removed from the body in faeces, sweat and exhalation. However, the body may not be able to remove all the chemicals.
The amount, type, and length of time you are exposed to harmful substances will determine if you are at risk for adverse health effects.

Hazardous chemicals cause some of the following diseases/disorders:

1. Cancer: May be caused by Exposure to carcinogens ( these are substances capable of causing cancer in humans and animals. Carcinogens cause some dangerous changes to our cells For example, some carcinogens can directly cause genetic mutations that foster abnormal cell growth and tumors.

2. Lung Disease: Lung diseases due to chemical exposure are conditions that can be acquired from indoor and outdoor air pollution. Lung disease generates three major symptoms—coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath. It also predisposes the lungs to infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia.

3. Developmental disorders: Are caused by Endocrine disruptors (chemicals that, at certain doses, can interfere with the hormone system). These disruptions can cause cancerous tumours, birth defects etc.

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