Thursday, May 10, 2012

AIR POLLUTION


What is Pollution?

Pollution can be anything - which damages the ecosystem and destroys the delicate balance in the ecosystem. Thereby, it creates health hazards to human beings and animals besides damaging the ecosystem.
For e.g. industries polluting air has set imbalance in composition of air and made it unworthy to breathe - thereby causing innumerable health problems to human and animal life. Extensive use of pesticides on crops has set imbalance in ecosystems of lands besides causing drinking water pollution.

Different types of Pollutions and Its Adverse Effect on Environment. 




There are many different reasons why pollution is bad for our environment. Before mentioning the most important ones we first need to be aware that pollution has many different forms meaning that it can negatively affect environment from many different aspects. Therefore the best way to answer this question is to go through each form of pollution and talk about its negative effects on our environment.

Water pollution: 
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Water pollution is bad for environment because it leads to decline of freshwater resources which means that there isn't enough safe drinking water to support nearby ecosystems.
 - Animals that drink water filled with different chemical and other harmful waste experience poisoning and deaths.
 - Water pollution can also lead to creation of so called dead zones“ where animals and plants cannot live due to severe lack of oxygen.
 - The longer exposure to water pollution leads to severe decline of many animal species and excessive water pollution can even lead to total extinction of species like this was the case with the Yangtze River Dolphin.
 - Water pollutants also cause aquatic animals breathing difficulties.

Air pollution:
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Air pollution does big damage to our environment. Harmful greenhouse gases, for instance, not only pollute our planet, but also contribute to global warming and climate change.
 - Some air pollutants also destroy ozone layer, opening the door for harmful ultraviolet rays.
 - Air pollution also leads to creation of acid rain that can cause great damage to many plants and animals.
 - Air pollution also causes breathing problem for many animals, which can result in their deaths.


Noise pollution:
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Noise pollution is often neglected form of pollution that can be pretty bad for our environment. Noise pollution coming from cars and industry can have negative impact on nearby ecosystem by frightening animals and changing their preferred habitats.
 - Noise pollution is not only happening on land but also in our oceans, mostly because of excessive offshore drilling. Sea animals such as dolphins and whales are among most affected species because they rely heavily on their hearing sense and therefore noise pollution can make their daily activities such as hunting for prey and navigation very difficult, which can lead to decline in species.


Soil pollution:
Soil pollution isn't exactly among most talked about forms of pollution. Excessive soil pollution can lead to serious water contamination and can therefore create huge environmental damage. Contaminated soil is anything but a safe place to grow food on because the different harmful chemicals can reach into the bodies of living organisms once they digest the affected food.

What is Air Pollution?
Air Pollutions may be defined as the presence of material in the air in such a concentration which are harmful to man and the environment.




Types of air pollutants (Basis of physical state)



 Classification under Air pollutants

Pollutants can be classified as Primary Pollutants and Secondary Pollutants.

What are primary pollutants?
Primary pollutants are emitted directly in to the atmosphere like Sulphur Dioxide, Nitirc Oxide, and Carbon Monoxide.

What are secondary pollutants?
Secondary pollutants form by the photochemical reaction of primary pollutants. For Example: Smog is a combination of smoke and fog. Smoke consists of carbon particles and fog which is an emulsion of water vapor in air. 


The Negative effects of air pollutions:

Air pollution is the major problem not only in cities but across the globe. There are many reasons for the Air Pollution. The air pollution give rise to problems like Green House Effect, Ozone Depletion, and Acid Rain. Other than these major problems, Air pollutions have adverse effects on the life of human beings.
In cities the main source of air pollution is the high traffic. City roads filled with cars and other vehicles release harmful pollutants in air that cause many adverse health effects.

Air pollution has been linked with many health issues, from breathing issues such as asthma to heart attacks. Even the short exposure to pollutants found in air such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide increases significantly the risk of heart attack.

We should always have in mind that clean air is one of the main prerequisites for healthy life.
Quiz
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