Health effects of living in the vicinity of the landfills

Landfill sites are the easiest, the cheapest and the most common way of waste management and disposal. In the face of the increasing amount of waste, the dynamics of globalization and urbanization process, waste management is an important issue of ecological policy in highly developed countries. Landfill sites intensify environmental threats for the neighborhood and give rise to toxic substances which impair human health being released from the landfills. These are persistent organic pollutants (POPs), heavy metals and also biological gas, bioaerosols, bacteria and viruses. Scientists have conducted a lot of research to evaluate the impact of landfill sites on human health living in their vicinity. They found increased occurrence of congenital anomalies, increased risk of certain cancers and low birth weight of infants. The results of the studies didn’t deliver absolute proof of relation between the impact of landfill sites on the induction of cancer and other diseases. There is a necessity to conduct further research to evaluate the impact of landfill sites on people health living in the vicinit