Scheduled Wastes...

Do you know what is Scheduled Wastes?

"Scheduled wastes are substances that are highly flammable, corrosive, toxic and easily react or cause explosion when mixed with other substances. They may exist in a liquid, solid form (sludge)"

Main Effects

• pollute water courses, ground water, atmosphere and land


• toxic to human, plant and other organisms


• causes cancer, damage to skin and body tissues


• fire outbreak at dumping site which can realease toxic material

Management of Scheduled Wastes

• recovery at facilities or premises licensed by DOE (departmentt of Environment)


• final disposal at secured landfills licensed by DOE


• incineration at incinerators licensed by DOE

Stop illegal Dumping of Scheduled Wastes

Maximum Penalty of 5 Years Imprisonmet and Maximum Fine of RM500,000.00 If Found Guilty

How To Solve our Environment?

Global warming

• Buy Fuel-Efficient Cars – Burning gas is one of the leading causes of global warming. By having a more efficient car, you will release less CO2 into the atmosphere.
• Carpool – These days, many people are going to school, work, or other places by themselves. By carpooling, you can save money and avoid unnecessarily polluting the atmosphere.
• Contact Your Government – Write to your local government officials and tell them that you are concerned about global warming. Find out what you can do to help and what your government is already doing.
• Insulate Your Home – By trapping heat in your home, you won't have to use heating as much. This can not only help the environment, but it will save your family large amounts of money as well.
• Plant a Tree – Remember, trees absorb CO2, so by planting more trees in your community you can reduce the amount of harmful gas in the atmosphere.
• Take Public Transportation – Many cities have buses, subways, or other forms of public transportation. Using these systems helps to keep fewer vehicles running and polluting, which contributes to global warming.
• Use Natural Gas – Rather than using oil furnaces, natural gas will produce less CO2.
  

Ozone Layer

• Avoid Aerosols – In some parts of the world, aerosols are still used in spray cans. These cans contain CFCs, which are deadly for the ozone layer.
• Check Your Car's Air Conditioner – If you can avoid buying an air conditioning system with your car, that's great. Otherwise, make sure that you keep your system checked so that coolant doesn't leak.
• Don't Buy Polystyrene – Polystyrene foam products have very destructive CFCs in them. Avoid purchasing these so that plastic makers will no longer produce them.
• Insulate Your Home Properly – When buying insulation materials for your home, be sure to purchase an insulator that does not use CFCs.
• Write to the Government – Tell your community officials and local government that CFCs are a major concern and that when refrigerators are disposed of, CFCs must not be let into the atmosphere.
  

Air pollution

• Avoid Second-Hand Smoke – Passive smoke is produced by smokers but can harm non-smokers as well. Try to avoid areas that are filled with smoke and ask smokers to smoke outdoors.
• Check For Radon – Radon arises naturally from the ground and could cause fatal lung cancer. Purchase a testing kit to find out if the radon level in your home is dangerously high.
• Don't Smoke – When you smoke, you not only harm yourself but also create problems for other people's health.
• Don't Use Wood Stoves – Wood stoves emit large amounts of CO indoors. This can build up in your home and create a dangerous health risk.
• Drive Less – Cars are one of the largest sources of air pollution. You should carpool or take public transportation whenever possible.
• Have Plants – Plants can absorb some dangerous chemicals that are polluting your air. In doing so, they reduce your risk of getting sick.
• Look For Asbestos – Many old homes still contain asbestos from when they were built. Asbestos can get into your lungs, stomach, and chest, causing problems that can prove fatal. As a result, you should look around your home for asbestos that is crumbling or loose and remove it.
• Minimize Air Conditioning – If you can avoid air-conditioning, do so. By keeping windows and shades shut, you may be able to avoid needing air conditioning, which will mean using less energy.
• Use Efficient Appliances – To cut down on energy usage, buy energy-efficient home appliances. Less energy usage will not only decrease pollution, it will decrease your energy bill too.
• Watch Out For Formaldehyde – Don't buy products containing formaldehyde because it can enter the air and cause chronic respiratory problems
  

Reducing Waste

• Avoid Heavy Packaging – When you are purchasing products, don't buy the ones that are covered in layers of unnecessary packaging. These materials often just end up in a landfill.
• Buy in Bulk – Purchasing large amounts of a product at once means that less packaging will be required. It will probably save you money as well.
• Compost – Create a compost pile of your yard waste. Eventually, it will turn into mulch and fertilizer that you can use for free.
• Contact Businesses – Write to companies whose products you buy and tell them that reducing waste matters to you. Recommend that they make their products as recyclable as possible and minimize the amount of waste produced.
• Locate Recycling Facilities – Find out where you can recycle in your community and tell others what you find out from your search.
• Participate in Community Decisions – Attend town meetings to encourage local officials to build recycling facilities and minimize the amount of waste produced in the community.
• Recycle – Always recycle when you have the chance. Even if you are away from home, there are probably recycling opportunities in the area you are in.
• Separate Recyclables – Instead of throwing everything away in the garbage, sort out your recyclable materials and set them aside for recycling.
  

Water Pollution

• Contact Your Government – Tell your local officials that you want information on the community's water supply and local polluters. Make sure officials recognize your right to know about your water supply.
• Dispose of Hazardous Waste – Make sure that hazardous waste is properly disposed of, not simply left around or placed with other garbage.
• Don't Dump Chemicals – Never pour toxic substances down the drain. Although water is cleaned, cities do not have the equipment to eliminate all toxic substances from the water supply.
• Find Your Water's Source – Learn about where your community's water comes from. Keep a close eye on this water source and encourage others to do the same.
• Read Well Reports – Community well operators often produce monitoring reports on the safety of local wells. Ask the operators to give you a copy of these materials and stay up-to-date on your wells.
• Substitute Substances – You can make your own non-toxic versions of many popular products, such as insect repellents. Doing so prevents the toxic chemicals found in these products from entering the environment and the water supply.
• Test Your Water – Especially if your water comes from a private well, you should perform periodic tests for bacteria, metals, and toxic chemicals.
• Use Nontoxic Substances – If you can avoid purchasing products containing toxic chemicals, do so. Otherwise, there is a threat that these chemicals could enter the environment and the water supply.

Extreme Events are Hazardous to our health

• Prolonged droughts fuel fires are releasing respirtory pollutants. In Southeast Asia, a high frequency of forest fires is likely to increase the risk of respiratory diseases.
• Warmer climates, accompanied by doubling carbon dioxide will increase transmission capacity by 100 times for mosquitoes than in temperate zone.
• Higher temperatures tend to increase bacterial levels and encourage the growth of toxic organisms, including those responsible for red tides (toxic algal outbreaks).
• Increased temperatures, elevated atmospheric Co2 concentrations and longer growing seasons would enourage plant growth and pollen production. This will increase the risk of respiratory diseases.
• Heat waves can reduce human productivity, and increase sickness and death.
• Floods accelerate fungi growth, such as the house mould Stachybotrys atra, associated with lung disease among children.
• Floods create mosquito-breeding sites : Malaria and Dengue prone areas are on the rise.
• Heavy rainfall and floods flush dangerous microorgnisms, nutrients and pollutants into waterways.
• Emergence of the new diseases. In some countries, diseases that were unheard of began to surface. These diseases are either associated with extreme drought or floods.

Extreme Weather Events and Epidemics

Extreme weather events have a great impact on public health and society. Climatic conditions influence the range of infectious disease while weather affects the timing and intensity of outbreaks. A long term warmimg trend encourages geographic expansion of several infectious diseases, while extreme weather events lead to clusters of disease outbreaks and sometimes surprises (Epstein, 2001). For example, the 2007 floods in Johor caused 2000 cases of diarrhoea, which commonly occurs when people are exposed to contaminated water.
However, the outbreak of a seldom heard disease called 'Leptospirosis', a disease spread through rat urine, resulting in one death, was a surprise.

Over the past decade, droughts are becoming longer while intense precipation is more frequent. Large-scale weather patterns have shifted. Warming of the land surface, for example, has apparently intensified teh monsoons which are strongly associated with mosquito and water-borne diseases in tropical contries.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), at least 30 diseases have emerged or resurged since 1975.

We are always full of complaint about the weather.."sometime hot...sometime cool"...

Can you answer this question when someone ask you????

What is the difference between weather and climate?

The anwers are:

The air that surrounds us extends upwards as far as 500km. The layer that is closest to us is known as troposphere where the air moves, flows, swirls and continuously redistributes heat and moisture from one place to another. The physical properties of the troposphere (temperature, pressure, humidity, precipitation, sunshine, cloud cover, wind direction and speed) at any spot on the earth are what we call weather.

Climate refer to the average long term weather of an area. It is a region's general pattern of atmospheric or weather conditions, including seasonal variations and weather extremes averaged over a long period.

How To Help Environment...

There are many steps on how to help environment at the certain place such as at home, on the road, while shopping and also in community. While the eco-footprint of each step is small, thousands of people doing the same thing can make a difference. In making some small changes to the way that you do, you are gradually making a difference, even as an individual. You will save on costs and improve your health at the same time, so helping to save the environment isn't a totally altruistic exercise! Next, we will go further one by one and hoping you gain information that you can be practic to keep our environment savely.

1) At Home:

• Adjust Your Water Heater – By turning your water heater down to 130 degrees Fahrenheit, you can save energy.
• Clean Your Fridge – Refrigerators use a tremendous amount of energy every year. To cut down on waste, clean the condenser coils every year. Also, do not keep the temperature unnecessarily low.
• Recharge Your Batteries – If you recharge your batteries, you will save money and help stop multiple environmental problems. You can prevent potentially hazardous metals from getting into landfills or the air, where they can be dangerous. So, buy rechargeable batteries and recharge them.
• Recycle – It is essential that you start the recycling process at your own home. Sort out recyclable materials, which includes everything from plastic bottles to printer cartridges.
• Stop Junk Mail – If you stopped all the junk mail that comes to your house, you would save the equivalent of 1.5 trees every year.
• Take Short Showers – If a family of four took 10-minute showers, they would use 1400 gallons of water every week. As a result, cutting down even a little bit can save a huge amount of water.
• Use Fluorescent Lights – Fluorescent lights will last at least ten times as long as other light bulbs. In addition, they use only one-fourth as much energy, saving you money in the long run.
• Use Reusable Goods – Everything that you throw away at home ends up in a landfill. Whenever you can, use reusable goods in place of disposable goods. For example, in the kitchen, use rags instead of paper towels

2) On The Road :

• Avoid Overfilling the Tank – The gas pump will eventually click and tell you when your tank is full of gas. Do not try to fill the tank beyond that point because doing so will create pollution.
• Carpool – Driving releases a huge number of toxic chemicals into the air and damages the environment. If you can carpool, you will cut down on the amount of pollution that is created.
• Do Not Tailgate – By having to stop and then accelerate again often, you waste gas quickly.
• Get a Fuel-Efficient Car – Not only will a fuel-efficient car pollute less and use up less gas, it will save you money too.
• Inflate Your Tires – By keeping your tires inflated, you can prevent them from wearing out as fast and increase their lifetime.
• Recycle Your Motor Oil – Every year, the United States puts about 350 million gallons of motor oil into the environment. It is possible that this oil can enter the ground and our water supply. As a result, you should always take your motor oil to a gas station to have it recycled.
• Take the Bus – Taking public transportation helps to cut down on the number of vehicles on the road, reducing the amount of pollution that is created.
• Take the Railroad – When travelling long distances, railroads are by far the most environmentally friendly option.

3) In Community:

• Celebrate Earth Day – Start an activity on Earth Day so that others in your community can become involved in saving the environment.
• Contact Your Government – Tell local officials that you are concerned about the destruction of the environment and find out what the city is doing to stop it.
• Donate Goods – If you no longer need something that might be useful to someone else, try to donate the goods rather than throwing them away.
• Don't Dump Chemicals – Avoid putting oil, grease, antifreeze, pesticides, fertilizers, paints, and cleaning agents down the gutters on sidewalks. Encourage others to do the same.
• Find Recycling Facilities – Find out where you can recycle in your community. Help to make others aware of the local recycling opportunities as well.
• Go To Schools – By telling young people about environmental problems and what they can do to save the environment, you can help to ensure that the environment will be safe in the future.
• Pick Up Garbage – Many people litter or do not properly dispose of garbage. While removing it from streets and urban areas is very important, equally important is getting rid of garbage that has found its way into the environment, especially coastal areas.
• Support Family Planning Programs – Population growth is a major threat to the environment and its ability to provide humanity with sufficient natural resources. By helping family planning programs, we can prevent the population from growing out of control.
• Start An Organization – Start a community group to ensure that others recycle and that there are plenty of recycling opportunities in your area.
• Write to the Media – Keep the media aware of environmental problems in your community and projects to help keep the local environmental clean. By contacting the media, you will be able to get through to a large audience.
  

Keep Save Our Environment

There are many things that we can do to save the environment. Whether you live in Malaysia or even outside Malaysia, you can help to clean up your local environment and work toward improving the global environment.

One way you can help the environment is by joining an Environmental Organization. Many of these groups already have developed action plans for saving the environment. Be sure to get members of your community involved in the activities as well. But there are many ways that you can help the environment in your daily life as well.