Issues: Toxic Waste & Radiation
There are two main components in toxic waste.
One is the remainder of the cleaning fluid used by Dry Cleaners - "Perc".
The other is the waste products of nuclear power plants.
They are both highly toxic.
Dry cleaners are small businesses and listen to their customers. If you request a non-toxic cleaner, the proprietor will remember your preference. Once many customers make that request, the proprietor will seriously consider switching to the new technology. The business owners have now become aware of the toxic waste situation and are currently changing to the new types of non-toxic dry cleaner fluids.
On the other hand, nuclear power plants are very big businesses that only deal with electricity distributors, the utility companies.
It takes much longer for consumers to make a difference.
These businesses have lobbyists in government - the Nuclear Energy Institute.
The incidents at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979
and Chernobyl (Wormwood) in Ukraine (USSR) in 1986
impressed upon the public the extreme danger that these technologies pose.
In addition to the dangers of nuclear power plants, the radioactive waste materials that were produced
and ejected into the atmosphere during the atomic weapon tests in the 1950s and 1960s have become part of the ecology.
Today they are understood to be extremely poisonous.
Resources & Links
Three Mile Island
Chernobyl after the explosion
