Teesside hosts the largest concentration of heavy polluting industries in the UK. The industrial agglomeration includes iron and steel, chemicals, oil refining, pharmaceuticals and electricity generation. These industries are particularly focussed at the mouth of the river Tees within the conurbation. Here, the household income is sixty-four per cent below the national average, and the location of industry therefore typifies the national trends in the rest of the country.
The two largest polluters are the ICI petrochemical works at Wilton, and the Redcar-Lackenby steelworks. ICI routinely (and with legal permission) discharges more than one hundred and twenty tonnes of sulphuric acid and forty-five tonnes of cyanide into the North Sea each day, whilst the steelworks release large amounts of sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxides and iron oxide, much of which falls upon Teesside. The physical affects of this on the environment are only seen when considering the social aspects of the area.
Residents of nearby towns are already challenged by the social exclusion among the poor, suffering from high levels of unemployment, neighbourhood crime, and poor access to medical services, however the negative externalities of the Teesside conurbation are represented by the high degree of morbidity (ill health); rates of mortality from bronchitis and asthma are three times higher than the national average, whilst life expectancy is ten years lower. Levels of death from lung cancer are also significantly above the average, so there are strong causal links between ill health and industrial pollution.
In 1996, factories in England and Wales alone released 1.28 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide, 0.65 million tonnes of nitrogen oxide, 0.17 million tonnes of carbon monoxide and 0.08 million tonnes of sulphur oxides. When dumping on this scale occurs, the true costs of manufacturing, in the form of pollution, are passed on to society.
On a local scale, in the close vicinity of an industrial development, the dumping of toxic waste materials encourages leaching, which carries the wastes into streams, and then has a subsequent impact on the human well-being of people residing in that area. Chemical companies discharge effluent (sewage, fertilisers or industrial waste containing heavy metals) into rivers, polluting the whole water system and the coasts. The chemical pollutants remain toxic for a great number of years, and can become concentrated within the food chain, again posing a direct threat to human health. Rapid developments of plants also bring visual disamenity on the area, not only due to the unsightly factory structures and waste tips, but also due to the increased noise and traffic congestion adding to the high levels of pollution.
Although people living close to polluting factories are at greatest risk from routine emissions, the effects of pollution are not just confined to their immediate source; dust, smoke and other pollutants are continually blown across the continent, contributing to low-quality air and poor visibility.
Accidents also contribute to the risk of pollution. In 1997, a potentially dangerous gas leak of the chemical Titanium Tetrachloride occurred, causing twenty gallons of gas to escape and pass through neighbouring towns as a dense white cloud. The gas, a by product in the manufacture of titanium dioxide using in paints and plastics, is an irritant and very corrosive, causing respiratory problems and profuse coughing. This was then succeeded by an oil link into the Tees River from a sister ICI plant in Wilton a couple of hours later.
The atmosphere is the environment most affected on the regional and global scales, with the use of
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the burning of fossil fuels, and the emission of gases including
Sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxides contributing significantly to global warming and the thinning of the ozone layer.
It can therefore be said that the statement ‘rapid industrial development almost always leads to environmental problems’ is true, as demonstrated on Teesside, where industrial development on the conurbation beside the river Tees has led to numerous social and environmental problems, both through the dumping of waste products on land or in rivers and through accidental gas leaks, many of which proving to be fatal.
