EVALUATION OF HUMAN HEALTH RISK IN THE VICINITY OF NARELA BAWANA LANDFILL SITE

Abstract

Rapid population growth and urbanization in developing countries have led to the generation of enormous quantities of Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW) and consequential environmental degradation. Safe and reliable disposal of MSW and residues is an important component of integrated waste management. One of the most common waste disposal methods is land filling; resulting in potential sources of groundwater contamination, which is practiced by almost three-fourths of the countries worldwide. An MSW landfill is not a benign repository of discarded material; it is a biochemically active unit where toxic substances are leached or created from combinations of non-toxic precursors and gradually released into the surrounding environment over a period of decades. It is known that such releases contain a wide variety of potential carcinogens which comes in groundwater and thus intake of such polluted water directly or in directly may leave potentially toxic chemicals or carcinogens that represent a threat to public health. Thus motivation of this study was on fact of assessment of human health risk posed by various contaminants in groundwater leached from an existing landfill in Delhi.