5 possible solutions to overpopulation

1. Empower women
Studies show that women with access to reproductive health services find it easier to
break out of poverty, while those who work are more likely to use birth control. The
United Nations Population Fund aims to tackle both issues at once, running microcredit
projects to turn young women into advocates for reproductive health.

2. Promote family planning

Simply educating men and women about contraception can have a big impact. When
Iran introduced a national family planning programme in 1989, its fertility rate fell from
5.6 births per woman to 2.6 in a decade. A similar effort in Rwanda saw a threefold
increase in contraception usage in just five years.

3. Make education entertaining

The US-based Population Media Center gets creative to reach women. Its radio soap
operas, which feature culturally specific stories about reproductive issues, have been
heard by as many as 500 million people in 50 countries. In Ethiopia, 63 per cent of
women seeking reproductive health services reported tuning in.

4. Government incentives
Those at UK charity Population Matters believe there should be a senior government
official responsible for addressing population-related issues. They urge governments to
promote “responsible parenthood” and say subsidies should be limited to the first two
children unless the family is living in poverty.

5) One-child legislation
During China’s high controversial one-child policy, fertility fell from six births per woman
in the 1960s to 1.5 in 2014. However, Amnesty International reports that the policy led
to coerced or forced abortions and sterilisations. It also disrupted traditional support
structures for the elderly and led to a gender imbalance.

Responsible Parenthood and Family Planning Program

In 2006 the President ordered the Department of Health, POPCOM and local
governments to direct and implement the Responsible Parenthood and
Family Planning Program.

The Responsible Parenthood and Natural Family Planning

Program's primary policy objective is to promote natural family
 planning, birth spacing (three years birth spacing) and
breastfeeding which are good for the health of the mother, child,
family, and community. While LGUs can promote artificial family
planning because of local autonomy, the national government
advocates natural family planning.3

1) EMPOWERING WOMEN AND GIRLS

Where women and girls are empowered to choose what happens to their bodies and
lives, fertility rates plummet. Empowerment means freedom to pursue education and a
career, economic independence, easy access to sexual and reproductive healthcare,
and ending horrific injustices like child marriage and gender-based violence. Overall,
advancing the rights of women and girls is one of the most powerful solutions to our
greatest environmental and social crises. Solutions 2 and 3 below are both tightly
linked with female empowerment.

2) REMOVING BARRIERS TO CONTRACEPTION

Currently, more than 200 million women who want to avoid pregnancy are not using
modern contraception. There are a variety of reasons for this, including lack of access,
concerns about side-effects and social pressure (often from male partners) not to use
it. These women mostly live in some of the world’s poorest countries, where
population is set to rise by 3 billion by 2100. Overseas aid support for family planning
is essential – both ensuring levels are high enough and that delivery of service is
effective and goes hand-in-hand with advancing gender equality and engaging men.

Across the world, some people choose not to use contraception because they are
influenced by assumptions, practices and pressures within their nations or
communities. In some places, very large family sizes are considered desirable; in
others, the use of contraception is discouraged or forbidden. Work with women and
men to change attitudes towards contraception and family size has formed a key part
of successful family planning programmes. Religious barriers may also be overturned
or sidelined. In Iran, a very successful family planning campaign was initiated
when the country’s religious leader declared the use of contraception was consistent
with Islamic belief. In Europe, some predominantly Catholic countries such as
Portugal and Italy have some of the lowest fertility rates.
3) QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL

Ensuring every child receives a quality education is one of the most effective levers
for sustainable development. Many kids in developing countries are out of school,
with girls affected more than boys due to gender inequality. Education opens doors
and provides disadvantaged kids and young people with a "way out". There is a direct
correlation between the number of years a woman spends in education and how many
children she ends up having. According to one study, African women with no
education have, on average, 5.4 children; women who have completed secondary
school have 2.7 and those who have a college education have 2.2. When family sizes
are smaller, that also empowers women to gain education, take work and improve
their economic opportunities.

A UN survey showed that the more educated respondents were, the more likely they
were to believe that there is a climate emergency. This means that higher levels of
education lead to the election of politicians with stronger environmental policy
agendas.

4) ALLEVIATING POVERTY AND GLOBAL JUSTICE

The UN projects that population growth over the next century will be driven by the
world’s very poorest countries. Escaping poverty is not just a fundamental human
right but a vital way to bring birth rates down. The solutions above all help to
decrease poverty. In addition, lower child mortality through improved access to health
care and better economic opportunities lead to smaller family size also. International
aid, fair trade and global justice are all tools to help bring global population back to
sustainable levels. A more equal distribution of resources and transitioning away from
our damaging growth-dependent economic systems are key to a better future for
people and planet.

5) EXERCISING THE CHOICE

In the developed world, most of us have the power to choose the size of our families –
although we may also face pressures of all kinds over the size of the families we
choose to have. When making choices about that, it's important to remember that
people in the rich parts of the world have a disproportionate impact on the global
environment through our high level of consumption and greenhouse gas emissions –
in the UK, for instance, each individual produces 70 times more carbon dioxide
emissions than someone from Niger. When we understand the implications for our
environment and our children’s futures of a growing population, we can recognise that
choosing smaller families is one positive choice we can make.
Direct impact on humans
If the credits of pesticides include enhanced economic potential in terms of increased production
of food and fibre, and amelioration of vector-borne diseases, then their debits have resulted in
serious health implications to man and his environment. There is now overwhelming evidence
that some of these chemicals do pose a potential risk to humans and other life forms and
unwanted side effects to the environment (Forget, 1993; Igbedioh, 1991; Jeyaratnam, 1981). No
segment of the population is completely protected against exposure to pesticides and the
potentially serious health effects, though a disproportionate burden, is shouldered by the people
of developing countries and by high risk groups in each country (WHO, 1990). The world-wide
deaths and chronic diseases due to pesticide poisoning number about 1 million per year
(Environews Forum, 1999).
The high risk groups exposed to pesticides include production workers, formulators, sprayers,
mixers, loaders and agricultural farm workers. During manufacture and formulation, the
possibility of hazards may be higher because the processes involved are not risk free. In
industrial settings, workers are at increased risk since they handle various toxic chemicals
including pesticides, raw materials, toxic solvents and inert carriers.
OC compounds could pollute the tissues of virtually every life form on the earth, the air, the
lakes and the oceans, the fishes that live in them and the birds that feed on the fishes (Hurley et
al., 1998). The US National Academy of Sciences stated that the DDT metabolite DDE causes
eggshell thinning and that the bald eagle population in the United States declined primarily
because of exposure to DDT and its metabolites (Liroff, 2000). Certain environmental chemicals,
including pesticides termed as endocrine disruptors, are known to elicit their adverse effects by
mimicking or antagonising natural hormones in the body and it has been postulated that their
long-term, low-dose exposure is increasingly linked to human health effects such as immune
suppression, hormone disruption, diminished intelligence, reproductive abnormalities and cancer
(Brouwer et al., 1999; Crisp et al., 1998; Hurley et al., 1998)
A study on workers (N=356) in four units manufacturing HCH in India revealed neurological
symptoms (21%) which were related to the intensity of exposure (Nigam et al., 1993). The
magnitude of the toxicity risk involved in the spraying of methomyl, a carbamate insecticide, in
field conditions was assessed by the National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH)
(Saiyed et al., 1992). Significant changes were noticed in the ECG, the serum LDH levels, and
cholinesterase (ChE) activities in the spraymen, indicating cardiotoxic effects of methomyl.
Observations confined to health surveillance in male formulators engaged in production of dust
and liquid formulations of various pesticides (malathion, methyl parathion, DDT and lindane) in
industrial settings of the unorganised sector revealed a high occurrence of generalised symptoms
(headache, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, irritation of skin and eyes) besides psychological,
neurological, cardiorespiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms coupled with low plasma ChE
activity (Gupta et al., 1984).
Data on reproductive toxicity were collected from 1,106 couples when the males were associated
with the spraying of pesticides (OC, OP and carbamates) in cotton fields (Rupa et al., 1991).A
study in malaria spraymen was initiated to evaluate the effects of a short-term (16 week)
exposure in workers (N=216) spraying HCH in field conditions (Gupta et al., 1982).
A study on those affected in the Seveso diaster of 1976 in Italy during the production of 2,4,5 T,
a herbicide, concluded that chloracne (nearly 200 cases with a definite exposure dependence)
was the only effect established with certainty as a result of dioxin formation (Pier et al., 1998).
Early health investigations including liver function, immune function, neurologic impairment,
and reproductive effects yielded inconclusive results. An excess mortality from cardiovascular
and respiratory diseases was uncovered, possibly related to the psychosocial consequences of the
accident in addition to the chemical contamination. An excess of diabetes cases was also found.
Results of cancer incidence and mortality follow-up showed an increased occurrence of cancer of
the gastrointestinal sites and of the lymphatic and haematopoietic tissue. Results cannot be
viewed as conclusive, however, because of various limitations: few individual exposure data,
short latency period, and small population size for certain cancer types. A similar study in 2001
observed no increase in all-cause and all-cancer mortality. However, the results support the
notion that dioxin is carcinogenic to humans and corroborate the hypotheses of its association
with cardiovascular- and endocrine-related effects (Pier et al., 2001). During the Vietnam War,
United States military forces sprayed nearly 19 million gallons of herbicide on approximately 3.6
million acres of Vietnamese and Laotian land to remove forest cover, destroy crops, and clear
vegetation from the perimeters of US bases. This effort, known as Operation Ranch Hand, lasted
from 1962 to 1971. Various herbicide formulations were used, but most were mixtures of the
phenoxy herbicides 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic
acid (2,4,5-T). Approximately 3 million Americans served in the armed forces in Vietnam during
the Vietnam War. Some of them (as well as some Vietnamese combatants and civilians, and
members of the armed forces of other nations) were exposed to defoliant mixtures, including
Agent Orange. There was evidence on cancer risk of Vietnam veterans, workers occupationally
exposed to herbicides or dioxins (since dioxins contaminated the herbicide mixtures used in
Vietnam), and of the Vietnamese population (Frumkin, 200

Pesticides and human health:

Pesticides can cause short-term adverse health effects, called acute effects, as well as
chronic adverse effects that can occur months or years after exposure. Examples of
acute health effects include stinging eyes, rashes, blisters, blindness, nausea,
dizziness, diarrhea and death. Examples of known chronic effects are cancers, birth
defects, reproductive harm, neurological and developmental toxicity, immunotoxicity,
and disruption of the endocrine system.
Some people are more vulnerable than others to pesticide impacts. For example,
infants and young children are known to be more susceptible than adults to the toxic
effects of pesticides. Farm workers and pesticide applicators are also more vulnerable
because they receive greater exposures.
For more information about the effects of specific chemicals or pesticide products, see
Pesticide Action Network’s Pesticide Database. For a survey of scientific studies linking
pesticides to specific diseases, see Beyond Pesticides’ Pesticide-induced diseases
database.
Acute (Immediate) Health Effects
Immediate health effects from pesticide exposure includes irritation of the nose, throat,
and skin causing burning, stinging and itching as well as rashes and blisters. Nausea,
dizziness and diarrhea are also common. People with asthma may have very severe
reactions to some pesticides, particularly pyrethrin/pyrethroid, organophosphate and
carbamate pesticides.

In many cases, symptoms of pesticide poisoning mimic symptoms of colds or the flu.
Since pesticide-related illnesses appear similar or identical to other illnesses, pesticide
poisonings are often misdiagnosed and under-reported. Immediate symptoms may not
be severe enough to prompt an individual to seek medical attention, or a doctor might
not even think to ask about pesticide exposure. Still, seek medical attention immediately
if you think you may have been poisoned by pesticides.
Chronic (Long-term) Health Effects
Chronic health effects include cancer and other tumors; brain and nervous system
damage; birth defects; infertility and other reproductive problems; and damage to the
liver, kidneys, lungs and other body organs. Chronic effects may not appear for weeks,
months or even years after exposure, making it difficult to link health impacts to
pesticides.
Pesticides have been implicated in human studies of leukemia, lymphoma and cancers
of the brain, breasts, prostate, testis and ovaries. Reproductive harm from pesticides
includes birth defects, still birth, spontaneous abortion, sterility and infertility.
Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that — often at extremely low doses — interfere
with important bodily functions by mimicking or blocking hormones (the chemical
messengers that circulate in blood and regulate many body processes including
metabolism, brain development, the sleep cycle and stress response). Some pesticides
act as endocrine disruptors and have been shown to cause serious harm to animals,
including cancer, sterility and developmental problems. Similar impacts have been
associated with human exposure to these chemicals.
Children are More Vulnerable to Pesticide
Exposure
Children are not simply “little adults.” Children are more vulnerable to pesticides
exposure because their organs, nervous systems and immune systems are still
developing; their higher rates of cell division and lower body weight also increase
children’s susceptibility to pesticide exposure and risks. Their immature organs and
other developing biological systems are particularly vulnerable to toxic contaminants.
Exposure during certain early development periods can cause permanent damage.
In addition to being more vulnerable to pesticide toxicity, children’s behavior and
physiology make them more likely to receive greater pesticide exposure than adults.
Most pesticide exposure occurs through the skin and children have more skin surface
for their size than adults. Children have a higher respiratory rate and so inhale airborne
pesticides at a faster rate than adults. Children also consume proportionately more food
and water — and pesticide residues — than adults. With their increased contact with
floors, lawns and playgrounds, children’s behavior also increases their exposure to
pesticides.
Health Effects of Certain Classes of Pesticides
Organophosphates & Carbamates: These pesticides are like nerve gas: they attack
the brain and nervous system, interfering with nerve signal transmission. Symptoms
include headaches, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, chest pain, diarrhea, muscle pain and
confusion. In severe poisoning incidents, symptoms can include convulsions, difficulty
breathing, involuntary urination, coma and death. Acute poisoning of the nervous
system by these pesticides affects hundreds of thousands of people around the world
each year.
Fumigants: Fumigants like methyl bromide and metam sodium can severely injure any
tissue they touch. Effects from even minor exposures can include burning and itching of
the eyes and skin, respiratory tract irritation as well as coughing and nose bleeds.
Fumigants can severely injure the lungs.
Organochlorines: Many banned pesticides (including DDT) are organochlorines,
although several organochlorine pesticides are still in use in California, including lindane
and parathion. Organochlorines are central nervous system stimulants that can cause
tremors, hyperexcitability and seizures. Although these pesticides are generally less
acutely (immediately) toxic than organophosphates or carbamates, since they persist in
the environment and tend to accumulate in tissue as they pass up the food chain, they
 are extremely hazardous. Organochlorine pesticide residues and breakdown products
are found in human breast milk worldwide, and also in soil and plant and animal tissue
from the middle of the Pacific Ocean to the Arctic Circle.
Pyrethroids: These organic compounds, similar to the natural pyrethrins produced by
chrysanthemum flowers, are promoted by their manufacturers as harmless to humans,
and are in increasingly wide use. In fact, pyrethroids are a synthetic copy of a natural
poison. While pyrethroids are among the least toxic pesticides to humans, they are an
excitatory nerve poison and known carcinogen. They are also highly toxic to insects,
fish and birds, even in very small doses. While natural pyrethrum breaks down in as
little as twelve hours, the synthetic forms have been engineered to be more stable, and
persist in the environment for weeks.

What is Pollution Prevention?

Pollution prevention is any practice that reduces, eliminates, or prevents pollution at its source. P2,
also known as “source reduction,” is the ounce-of-prevention approach to waste management.
Reducing the amount of pollution produced means less waste to control, treat, or dispose of. Less
pollution means less hazards posed to public health and the environment.
Specific pollution prevention approaches
Pollution prevention approaches can be applied to all potential and actual pollution-generating
activities, including those found in the energy, agriculture, federal, consumer and industrial sectors.
Prevention practices are essential for preserving wetlands, groundwater sources and other critical
ecosystems – areas in which we especially want to stop pollution before it begins.
In the energy sector, pollution prevention can reduce environmental damages from extraction,
processing, transport and combustion of fuels. Pollution prevention approaches include:
 increasing efficiency in energy use;
 use of environmentally benign fuel sources.
In the agricultural sector, pollution prevention approaches include:
 Reducing the use of water and chemical inputs;
 Adoption of less environmentally harmful pesticides or cultivation of crop strains with
natural resistance to pests; and
 Protection of sensitive areas.
In the industrial sector, examples of reducing pollution practices include:
 Modifying a production process to produce less waste
 Using non-toxic or less toxic chemicals as cleaners, degreasers and other maintenance
chemicals
 Implementing water and energy conservation practices
 Reusing materials such as drums and pallets rather than disposing of them as waste
In homes and schools examples of reducing pollution practices include:
 Using reusable water bottles instead of throw-aways
 Automatically turning off lights when not in use
 Repairing leaky faucets and hoses
 Switching to “green” cleaners
Why is pollution prevention important?
Pollution prevention reduces both financial costs (waste management and cleanup) and
environmental costs (health problems and environmental damage). Pollution prevention protects the
environment by conserving and protecting natural resources while strengthening economic growth
through more efficient production in industry and less need for households, businesses and
communities to handle waste.

The best way of dealing with waste, both economically and environmentally, is to avoid
creating it in the first place. For effective waste management, waste minimization,
reuse, recycle and energy recovery are more sustainable than conventional landfill or
dumpsite disposal technique

Waste Minimization
Waste minimization is the process of reducing the amount of waste produced by a person
or a society. Waste minimization is about the way in which the products and services we
all rely on are designed, made, bought and sold, used, consumed and disposed of.

Waste Reuse
Reuse means using an item more than once. This includes conventional reuse where the
item is used again for the same function and new-life reuse where it is used for a new
function. For example, concrete is a type of construction waste which can be recycled
and used as a base for roads; inert material may be used as a layer that covers the
dumped waste on landfill at the end of the day.
 Waste Recycling
Recycling of waste involves reprocessing the particular waste materials, including e-
waste, so that it can be used as raw materials in another process. This is also known as
material recovery. A well-known process for recycling waste is composting, where
biodegradable wastes are biologically decomposed leading to the formation of nutrient-
rich compost.

Waste-to-Energy
As far as waste-to-energy is concerned, major processes involved are mass-
burn incineration, RDF incineration, anaerobic digestion, gasification and pyrolysis.
Gasification and pyrolysis involves super-heating of municipal solid waste in an oxygen-
controlled environment to avoid combustion. The primary differences among them relate
to heat source, oxygen level, and temperature, from as low as about 300°C for pyrolysis
to as high as 11 000°C for plasma gasification. The residual gases like carbon dioxide,
hydrogen, methane etc are released after a sophisticated gas cleaning mechanism.
MSW incineration produce significant amounts of a waste called bottom ash, of which
about 40% must be landfilled. The remaining 60% can be further treated to separate
metals, which are sold, from inert materials, which are often used as road base.
The above mentioned techniques are trending in many countries and region. As of 2014,
Tokyo (Japan) has nineteen advanced and sophisticated waste incinerator plants making
it one of the cleanest cities. From the legislature standpoint, the country has
implemented strict emission parameters in incinerator plants and waste transportation.

The European Union also has a similar legislature framework as they too faced similar
challenges with regards to waste management. Some of these policies include –
maximizing recycling and re-use, reducing landfill, ensuring the guidelines are followed
by the member states.

Singapore has also turned to converting household waste into clean fuel, which both
reduced the volume going into landfills and produced electricity. Now its four waste-to-
energy plants account for almost 3% of the country’s electricity needs, and recycling
rates are at an all-time high of 60%. By comparison, the U.S. sent 53% of its solid waste to
landfills in 2013, recycled only 34% of waste and converted 13% into electricity, according
to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Trends in Waste Collection

Since the municipal solid waste can be a mixture of all possible wastes and not just ones
belonging to the same category and recommended process, recent advances in physical
processes, sensors, and actuators used as well as control and autonomy related issues in
the area of automated sorting and recycling of source-separated municipal solid waste.

Automated vacuum waste collection systems that are located underground are also
actively used in various parts of the world like Abu Dhabi, Barcelona, Leon, Mecca and
New York etc. The utilization of the subsurface space can provide the setting for the
development of infrastructure which is capable of addressing in a more efficient manner
the limitations of existing waste management schemes.

AI-based waste management systems can help in route optimization and waste disposal
This technique also minimizes operational costs, noise and provides more flexibility.
There are various new innovations like IoT-enabled garbage cans, electric garbage trucks,
waste sorting robots, eco dumpster and mechanisms etc are also being developed and
deployed at various sites.

Conclusion
Waste management is a huge and ever growing industry that has to be analyzed and
updated at every point based on the new emergence of threats and technology. With
government educating the normal people and creating awareness among different sector
of the society, setting sufficient budgets and assisting companies and facilities for
planning, research and waste management processes can help to relax the issues to an
extent if not eradicating it completely. These actions not only help in protecting
environment, but also help in employment generation and boosting up the economy.

Effective management of solid waste depends majorly on the types of waste, whether it
is biodegradable, non-degradable, infectious, non infectious, hazardous and non-
hazardous solid waste. This makes sorting of the waste of importance. For biodegradable, non-
infectious, non-hazardous waste, recycling will be the best option while landfilling is the most
qualified method for biodegradable, infectious, non-hazardous waste, since the wastes will
decompose and add to soil nutrients. For nondegradable, infectious and hazardous waste,
incineration might be adopted and afterward the ash could be reuse in landfilling acidic soil or
in stabilization of unstable lateritic soil
 What’s the Difference between
Toxic and Hazardous Waste?
Many times the labels “toxic waste” and “hazardous waste” are used interchangeably.
People outside the hazardous waste industry often use them to label anything that poses
environmental or public health threat. It generally gets thrown under the umbrella of
hazardous or toxic waste, even though it’s not truly accurate. Even many people in the
industry misuse these labels when referring to different wastes.

It’s important to know from federal and state regulatory standpoint, hazardous waste and
toxic waste not always the same thing.  Since the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
monitors and enforces U.S. regulation on different types of waste, we’ll use them as the
source for our definition.

EPA Definition of Hazardous Waste

According to the EPA, “a solid waste is considered hazardous waste if it’s specifically listed
as a known hazardous waste or meets the characteristics of a hazardous waste.”  Wastes
listed come from common manufacturing and industrial processes, can be generated from
discarded commercial products or comes from specific industries.

If waste doesn’t appear on listed wastes group, it should be labeled hazardous if it meets 1
or more of 4 waste characteristics:

 Ignitability
 Corrosivity
 Reactivity
 Toxicity

A waste characteristic describes a specific way that the waste can be potentially hazardous.
According to EPA, toxic waste is only waste “that is harmful or fatal to living organisms
when absorbed or ingested”. Hazardous waste is the lower level of potentially harmful
substances, toxic is higher. Hazardous waste can be, but isn’t necessarily toxic. All toxic
waste is hazardous.

How are Hazardous and Toxic Wastes Regulated?

RCRA- Resource conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and CERCLA (Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act) are the 2 main pieces of
legislation that regulate hazardous and toxic waste.

EPA generally uses the designation that any waste “potentially hazardous to human health
or the environmental if not properly managed” is considered hazardous waste.

These materials are then regulated using through the EPA to ensure safe disposal and
management.

There is a specific act in place to monitor toxic wastes, called the Toxic Substances Control
Act. This law is constructed with a specific focus on reducing or eliminating harm to the
public caused by toxic materials such as asbestos, radon, lead-based paint, etc.

For more information on hazardous waste disposal or toxic waste disposal, please contact
HWH Environmental at 1-866-329-0946.