Pollution Problems in Poorer Countries

From the western world, the view of environmental issues in the third world and developing countries is usually that of worrying about endangered species such as the pandas, elephants and whales, or about disappearing forests and advancing deserts (Sandbrook 33). Rarely is it thought of in terms of pollution and the damage this is doing to the people who live there. Extremely polluted conditions now exist in nearly all Third World cities and towns. Urbanization and industrialization in these countries has been rapid and the administrative systems there are not able to cope with the pollution issues these processes bring.

The late Indira Gandhi responded to the charge by environmentalists several years ago that developing nations were worsening the worldÆs pollution problems and using up natural resources by saying that the ôpeople in developing countries do care about the environment, but their first concern is survivalö

(Cusack 24). She went on to say that ôwhen children are dying because of poor nutrition, bad water, and no medical care, efforts to change

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nto peopleÆs lungs. When the occupational exposure to air pollutants and health status of potroom workers in an aluminum reduction plant in a developing country were compared with those in developed countries, exposure to airborne particulates was higher in the developing country, and so was the incidence of respiratory symptoms (Akbar-Khanzadeh 1013). This was most likely due to the fact that there were inadequate ventilation controls and not enough understanding of proper safe work practices in the developing country. All these sources of pollution need to be investigated before pollution standards can be set for developing countries. Energy subsidies to developing countries were supposedly to improve the lives of the poor, but this hasnÆt materialized because usually the only people to get connected to the electric grids are the rich (Litvin S8). More recently in developing countries, these subsidies have stopped, forcing manufacturers to become more energy-efficient and reducing pollution. Pollution can be further reduced in developing countries by the use of unleaded gasoline. Better urban planning measure can also reduce pollution, as in the Brazilian city of Curitiba, where urban growth was channeled along fiv
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Approximate Word count = 1805
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)