The introduction of substances that cause irritation or harm to other living organisms or ruin their environment is usually referred to as pollution. These include chemical substances as well as certain types of energy, such as light, heat or noise. They occur naturally, but become pollutants when they exceed their normal occurrence. Based on their biodegradability, Santos classified the range of pollutants. Those that can be used by living organisms for growth and are broken down by microorganisms after they have completed their use are biodegradable. These include phosphates, organic waste materials and inorganic salts. Those that cannot be broken down by living organisms remain in the ecosphere for a very long time. Examples are plastics, metals, pesticides, glass and radioactive isotopes.
Air Pollution
There are a large number of industrial, transportation and other sources of pollutants. Some of the common specific pollutants emitted by such sources include oxides of sulfur, carbon, halogen gases, nitrogen, toxic heavy metals, oxidants, volatile hydrocarbons and ozone. Many of these pollutants, despite their small quantities, remain in the environment, thus accumulating at levels that become enormous in size. Many of these are modified and become much more toxic than the original substances. High exposure levels of toxic substances cause definite acute toxicity, while prolonged exposure causes chronic toxicity. The health effects of pollution are highly variable depending on the very type of pollutant, the pollutant, the degree of exposure, the species, age, physiology and nutrition of the population, as well as the interacting chemicals present. The lower part of the atmosphere is today known as “air”, consisting mainly of oxygen, nitrogen, trace gases and particles.
Among the most fundamental causes of man-made pollution, energy consumption is important, along with technological changes linked to energy sources. This directly results in modifications in air quality. The four major groups of gaseous air pollutants, by historical significance, concentration and overall effect on plants, animals and humans, are oxides of nitrogen (NOX: NO, NO2), carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and ozone (O3). Sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide (NO) are the most important primary pollutants emitted directly from sources. Industrial processes, transportation, residential heating systems and agricultural systems are among the major groups of sources of anthropogenic air pollution. Tropospheric ozone is ranked among the most important regional-scale air pollutants posing risks to both vegetation and human health. Ozone is a secondary pollutant formed from precursors of volatile organic compounds. Of these precursors, methane and nitrogen oxides (NOX) are the most important.
Ecosystems are currently a net sink of ozone. However, this effect is reduced if the effects of deforestation are applied exclusively to forest systems, and this is intensified by a reduced canopy and the conversion of forests to agriculture, which gives rise to emissions of nitrogen oxides due to soil. Another extreme importance of ozone lies in its role related to the regulation of the climate. In addition to being like a greenhouse gas, it can also introduce large alterations of climate regulation services in terrestrial ecosystems. It is associated with enormous uncertainty about such analysis, but can also limit carbon sequestration by plants, that is, the physiological effect of ozone for vegetation is brought about by CO2 fertilization, all the increased carbon sequestration for the conifers. Acid rain is mainly caused by the release of nitrogen and sulfur into the atmosphere as a result of the burning of coal and oil by vehicles and machines of power plants. The dangers of acid rain first attracted attention in the late 1970s.
Acid rain increases the acidity of the aquatic ecosystem and thus leads to poor performance of fish species. The production of this new world of animals generates huge amounts of fresh manure, and its final emissions create ammonia, which is very dangerous for animals as well as human beings. They are accountable for the imbalance in the ecology as well as acid rain. Ammonia can give an impact of great magnitude on a very wide range of sensitive ecosystems through increased acidification as well as nitrogen deposition. Also, it has human health effects as it acts as a precursor to secondary inorganic aerosols. The emissions of ammonia affect services in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Although there are natural sources, the production of sulfur dioxide (SO2) is the most important sector with the combustion of fossil fuels by coal-fired power stations. Although sulfur deposition in the form of SOX (dry deposition as SO2 and wet deposition as SO4) reduces growth and yields of both plant matter, it, nevertheless, fertilizes the low-sulfur ecosystem. Other major impacts that sulfur deposition has in this regard include acidification effects on terrestrial as well as aquatic ecosystems.
Water Pollution
Emerging organic contaminants (ECS) are now being found in groundwater from agricultural, urban sources that were not previously detectable, or considered significant. ECs include pesticides and degradants, water treatment byproducts, industrial compounds, pharmaceuticals, fragrances, personal care products, food additives, flame retardants and surfactants, engineered nanomaterials as well as life-style compounds such as caffeine and nicotine. The effects of ECs can be potentially harmful to human health and aquatic ecosystems. During the past decades, much attention has been focused on the presence of such pollutants in both aquatic and terrestrial environments, their potential toxicity, and their fate in the environment even at low concentrations. Groundwater is still a poorly understood area of pollution compared to other freshwater resources.
More thorough descriptions of the presence of ECs were reported in surface water and wastewater than those in groundwater. The sources of ECs are more of a vasculature. The highest loads carried in surface waters are of ECs, because of wastewaters as their source. Wastewaters and surface waters should also contain a greater variety of compounds than groundwaters, partly perhaps an artifact of the method used for their detection, which relies on quantities of orders of magnitude higher than those found in groundwaters, but also because little work has been done on them. Large parts of the potential effects of ECs on human and ecosystem health are unknown; indeed, exactly how they will be transformed or degraded as they move through the environment remains mostly a mystery. Some studies, however, suggest that the most minute traces of some ECs can seriously affect biological systems. Evidence seen in aquatic species and some fish has not yet appeared in people. Pesticides have long been recognized to be present in trace concentrations in groundwater and have also been defined as contaminants worldwide.
By their nature, degradates are often toxic and most of them have biological activities. Pharmaceutical chemicals other than pesticides frequently appear in the environment. The long history of the issue of the existence of pharmaceuticals in the environment is well known for raising issues in the aquatic environment. The primary routes through which pharmaceuticals get into the environment include excretion in humans and disposal of unused products, through application in agriculture. In the last two decades, pharmaceuticals have started to show their presence in the aquatic environment at concentrations between ng/L to μg/L, mainly as a result of failures of treatment plants for wastewater. The mentioned micropollutants contain biologically active molecules with sub-lethal or chronic toxic effects; therefore, most of the above-mentioned micropollutants cause serious toxic problems. There is an extremely diverse range of industrial substances, many of which can be released into the environment, and many of these, e.g. chlorinated solvents, petroleum hydrocarbons, adipates, and phthalates, have caused well-established problems. Nicotine, caffeine, and the nicotine metabolite cotinine have also been extensively released into groundwater through sewage wastewater contamination.
Soil Pollution
Soil is an essential component of the biotic world inhabiting and supporting such a high number of species and distribution factors as fundamental for plants, animals, lochs, land forms, rocks, and rivers. It regulates the flow of water and chemicals from the earth to the atmosphere, and serves as a source and reservoir of gases in the atmosphere. Soil not only reveals natural processes but also records human activities both in the present and in the past. Soil pollution refers to the reduction of productivity or soil potential by impurities within a soil. Generally, the presence of soil pollutants adversely alters the chemical, physical, as well as biological properties of a soil.
Most chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, organic manures, refuse foods, nuclear wastes, textiles, polythene, plastics, tinned glassware, and leather goods contribute to soil pollution. Heavy metals in soil emerge and develop as a significant problem from time to time in many places around the world. For the past decades, in accordance with the rapid socio-economic development in China over the past century, its heavy metal-induced soil pollution situation appears to be both severe as well as scattered. Although some heavy metals may occur naturally in the soil, further contributions arise from these human activities which include industrialization, urbanization, agriculture and mining. This is due to the fact that a large number of studies have proven that these anthropogenic activities were the cause of the major sources of heavy metal pollution in the environment.
Chemicals such as iron, lead, copper, mercury, cyanides, zinc, aluminum, cadmium, acids and alkalis, etc. are coming into the soil directly through water or indirectly through industrial wastes. The altered main compositions of soil are caused by the continuous and unconscious pesticide use for the protection of crops from pests, through which the soil becomes poisonous for plant growth. As a result, they cause highly destructive effects on plant growth and reduction of fruit yield and size.
Their contaminants can be absorbed by plants, from where they eventually reach animals and humans through food chains. Humans have deliberately added contaminants such as pesticides, fertilizers, and other amendments to the soil. Chemical leaks and spills, especially those that are carried out industrially or commercially, also act as contaminants. Some of these contaminants move into the air where they can deposit either through dust or through rainfall. Contact with contaminated soil leads to health risks directly and indirectly in contaminated soil. The effects of pollution on soil are quite disturbing and can bring about drastic disturbances in the ecological balance and health of living beings on Earth.
Read Also:
- Introduction And History Of Anthropogenic Pollution
- Air Pollution And Your Health
- What Is Air Pollution
- Air Pollution In India
- Prevention Of Plastic Pollution
- Environmental Effects Of Plastic Pollution
- Causes Of Plastic Pollution
- Health Effects Of Air Pollution
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