■ Environmental Problems

In the Third World, as in the West, one sees the familiar list of pollution problems: the heavy metals, oxides of nitrogen and sulphur, petroleum hydrocarbons, particulate matter, polychlorinated biphenyls, cyanide and arsenic as well as various organic solvents and asbestos. Some of these and certain other industrial and institutional wastes are placed in a special category of “hazardous” or “toxic” waste because special care is needed for disposal, so they are isolated from contact with humans and stored in ways which prevent them polluting the environment. Very few Third World nations have effective government systems to control the disposal of hazardous wastes; indeed, in most, there are no regulations dealing specifically with such wastes, let alone the system to implement them. Since governments in the North enforced more stringent regulations on pollution control and on the disposal of hazardous wastes, many companies from the North have tried to transfer the problem to the Third World.