| Author | Badilla, Aylen B. |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.EV-93-15 |
| Subject(s) | Factory and trade waste--Environmental aspects--Philippines--Cebu
|
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of
Science |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | The industrialization of Metro Cebu has resulted in the generation of toxic and hazardous
waste which is now posing threat to the social and physical environment. To foster the economic
growth and environmental protection in Metro Cebu, there is really an urgent need to identify the
impacts of the toxic and hazardous pollutants to implement mitigating measures at an early stage.
The focus of the study, therefore, is to assess the environmental impacts of the metal finishing
industry through inplant survey, analysis of heavy metals in wastewater and indoor air, river study
and occupational health survey. The unique feature of the study gives the profile of the three
categories of the metal finishing industry to localize the impact identification and solution.
The job shops have the highest impacts on land, groundwater and surface water. The majority
of heavy metal concentrations in job shop wastewater by far exceeded the effluent standards 100% of
the time. Total chromium ranges between 5.00-772 .00 mg/L, hexavalent chromium between 4.75-
602.10 mg/L, nickel between 2.39-280.00 mg/L and zinc levels between 15 .00-1340 mg/L. The high
water consumption in small captive shops and large captive shops at 15,195- 40,686 L/day is posing
danger of groundwater alteration. Severity of occupational health hazard is decreasing from job shops,
small captive shops to large captive shops. The Job shop % occurrence of accidents revealed about
78 % electrical, 100% machinery-related injuries and 22 % fall and slide cases. For small captive
shops, % occurrence of accidents ranges between 11-63 % with the highest percentage of machinery
accidents. Only 10-11 % of the workers in large captive shops experienced occupational injuries. The
indoor air quality of job shop and small captive shop buffing areas is at a critical level due to the high
nickel content in dust. The nickel concentration in dust ranges between 0.028 to 0.832 mg/m3 versus
0.05 mg/m3 standard. The zinc and hexavalent chromium levels of Butuanon level ranges between
0.22-3 .57 mg/L and 0.18-22.47 μg/L respectively which is generally lower than the Philippine water
Quality Criteria. Further, the concentration of zinc and hexavalent chromium decrease from 1.00-0.32
mg/L and 4. 80-4 .10 μg/L respective! y as the river water traverses downstream.
Adequate ventilation, clean work environment, good housekeeping and worker's awareness
can control occupational health hazards. The industries also need to reduce their wastewater
generation. The job shops should improve their inplant practices to lessen the heavy metal waste
loading. Essentially, the industry should implement the waste minimization alternatives prior to
reliance on any end-of-pipe approaches. However, above all, there is really a need of mutual pursuit
between the industry and the government to achieve a change and mitigate these impacts. |
| Year | 1993 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Environmental Engineering and Management (EV) |
| Chairperson(s) | Reutergardh, Lars Baetz; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Bengtsson, Bengt-Erik;Fujii, Shigeo; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | DANIDA; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1993 |