When selecting a residential area, it is essential to consider factors that might affect your wellness around that area.
You should thoroughly check the region you want to settle in before you make sound decisions.
You must do extra checks around that region if it is near a quarry.
While researching your anticipated residential area, you will want to know,
Is It Okay To Live Near A Quarry?
It is not healthy to live near a quarry. Several research carried out in different regions found that communities living near quarry and mining regions have increased health complications. The air near a quarry is usually polluted; when inhaled, the pollutants affect the body’s functionality.
The government should set regulations to control the distance between a quarry and a settlement.
This will limit individuals from establishing quarries near a residential settlement.
Keep reading to learn the effects of staying near a quarry and more reasons why you should completely avoid staying near a quarry.
FIVE Reasons Why You Should NOT Live Near A Quarry
There are several reasons why you should avoid settling near a quarry. However, the most common issue is usually health.
Unfortunately, once an individual is affected health-wise, he/she usually finds it hard to perform daily duties efficiently.
In other situations, it might lead to chronic respiratory illnesses. Here are some apparent reasons you need to avoid living near a quarry.
1. Diseases
People living near quarries are diagnosed with numerous health conditions that are believed to originate from the quarry sites.
When rocks are broken down, they create thin invisible dust particles, which are inhaled.
Once these particles get into h lungs, they bring about different respiratory diseases.
One of the most common respiratory diseases associated with quarry dust is silicosis.
Silicosis is a lung disease that progresses in stages and has yet to find a cure.
Continued exposure to rock dust leads to fatal diseases like stroke, heart-related diseases, pregnancy complications, and even infertility.
Other diseases that are believed to have a high prevalence in areas with quarries include:
- leukemia
- Pulmonary disease
- Dysrhythmia
- cognitive disorders
- Atherosclerosis
Pregnant mothers near quarries have a high likelihood of experiencing miscarriages, low birth weight for newborns, and premature birth.
Children and the elderly with asthma and other respiratory problems will suffer the most if they live near a quarry.
2. Polluted Air
The air around the quarry and mining points is usually polluted.
The main pollutant is usually fine dust and other chemicals produced in the cause of quarrying.
When the air gets a high concentration of pollutants, breathing becomes quite hard, making people get sickly.
Those who persistently stay around quarries must devise a mechanism that filters all the air they breathe.
However, if that is not the case, you will have to find a better survival tip.
Apart from air pollution, the area becomes dusty and can sometimes block your view. In the worst scenarios, you might not even be able to see your neighbors.
Such an environment is not secure enough for better coexistence.
3. Noise Pollution
A quarry site is characterized by lots of activities that prude a lot of noise.
From the quarrying process to packing the stones onto lorries, there is a lot of noise that is unfavorable for most homeowners.
Additionally, most quarry sites work in the evening and late at night when people relax.
You might never get a peaceful, silent sleep if you live near a quarry.
Over time, the loud scratching noise from this place can affect your hearing system leaving you with partial or total hearing impairments.
Basically, the noise near a quarry is not in any way welcoming to allow you to live nearby.
This noise makes it hard for schools nearby to continue with their activities. Apparently, noise near a school region makes learning difficult.
Again, your children will have to encounter a lot of traffic and noise when going to school and back home.
Their studies, health, and general school life are affected in the long run.
4. High Traffic
If you choose to live near a quarry, be prepared to deal with high traffic.
Vehicles of managers and supervisors will be visiting the site regularly, and mind you if they come in a motorcade of large and strong worksite vehicles.
These cars sometimes park beside the quarry, blocking significant space along the road.
f you are hurrying from work or picking up your little ones from school, you will likely deal with the high traffic near the quarry site.
The heavy lorries being loaded at the quarry every time contribute to high traffic near your living area.
Ultimately, the roads passing by these places get destroyed and take a lot of time to be repaired, especially if they were not designed for heavy machines and heavy loaders vehicles.
5. Degraded Land
Quarrying involves numerous land excavation activities.
In the end, the important soil nutrients are wasted or destroyed by the strong chemicals that are sometimes used in quarrying.
These chemicals are meant to weaken rocks, destroying the soil structure.
Even after quarrying stops, it will take many years before the soil structure is redeveloped and nutrients are gained.
If you are a farmer or just an enthusiastic gardener, living near a quarry can make you feel devastated by your plants.
Many resources will be spent on farm inputs, but your crops might not thrive.
After quarrying, the pits might not be filled up fully.
They then make the land appear untidy and unsightly.
A once attractive hilly place now turns out to be an eyesore. No one would love to live in such a place.
Conclusion
Living near a quarry is the last thing you can think of when locating a nice residential area.
The risks associated with quarry regions are so high that they will make your life hard and miserable.
To be safe, avoid living in areas with numerous quarrying activities.
Otherwise, you will end up paying more for your health conditions than if you had paid for a decent residential place far away from a quarry.
Sources
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/protect-the-health-of-people-who-live-near-quarries
