Asarco's Impact On The Mining Industry

Though ASARCO boasts a large presence on the mining industry stage, they are not alone in the collective effort to gain access to natural resources through various extraction methods. There are many other sources that are have been long mined and remain so to this day. These include: copper, silver, iron, tar sands, etc. When viewing the mining industry from a broader perspective, it is important to understand the impacts that these activities have on the environment to better understand how the threat to public health is driven. Lead smelting itself has been linked to increases in ADHD in children living close to smelting operations.23 Across the board, children have been seen as the primary concern in regards to elevated lead levels and

In the case of Flint, Michigan, citizens were subjected to contaminated drinking water due to the improper treatment of water by local officials.25 They were attempting to treat the water source in order to decrease the levels of coliform bacteria, and neglected to add anti-corrosive substances to the water. This caused the erosion of lead pipes and release of the toxin into the the drinking supply.26

While it is important to address the human related health issues related to mining practices, it is also important to understand the human driven force behind these operations in the first place. The Industrial Revolution and the years following it are recognized as a significant contributor to the human impacts on the environment. The increased mechanization allowed for more efficient and large scale methods to extract the planet’s natural resources. The Industrial Revolution increased human’s desire to gain capital through the continued and expanded extraction operations, particularly in the mining industry. The consequences of these extractive activities are often only recognized in