The presentation includes: What is Pollution? What is pollutant? An ecological view of pollution, What are the types of pollution?

1. POLLUTIONEnvironmental Pollution

2. POLLUTION
IS WHEN SOMETHING IS ADDED TO THE
ENVIRONMENT THAT IS HARMFUL OR
POISONOUS TO LIVING THINGS.

3. AN ECOLOGICAL VIEW
Pollution can be defined simply as the
accumulation of something where it is not wanted.
This is a human-centered definition, based on
human preferences and desires. The most basic
reason for seeking to prohibit a particular place is
that it has a harmful effect on people: it threatens
their health or assaults their senses.

4. AN ECOLOGICAL VIEW
Ecology is the branch of science that is
concerned with the relationships of life-forms with
each other and with their surroundings. The basic
unit in ecology is ecosystem, a fairly self-contained
system of plants and animals living in a particular
kind of environment.
Example:
A forest is an ecosystem; so is a lake.

5. WHAT IS
A POLLUTANT?

6. POLLUTANT
Pollutant may be unwanted for a variety
of reasons; in many cases, they can be
desirable in one place and undesirable
in another.

7. TWO BASIC FACTORS HAVE MADE
POLLUTION AN ECOLOGICAL PROBLEM
Population and Technology –
There are more people on Earth than ever
before, and many of them are using
technology on unique scale. This combination
of exploding population and galloping
technology means that people are consuming
tremendous amounts of energy and raw
materials. Humans are also creating great
quantities of waste, causing a worldwide
ecological crisis.

8. WHAT NOW?
An unsuccessful and certain aspect of human
history has been the destruction of the natural
environment. No other living things have had
such an impact on Earth. But by the same token,
no other living things are capable of
understanding their impact and acting in a
forthright way to reserve it.

9. THE THREE TYPES OF
POLLUTION:
1. Air Pollution
2. Soil Pollution
3. Water Pollution

10. WATER
POLLUTION

11. WATER POLLUTION
Water is the most precious natural
resource on Earth, yet it is often the first
resources to suffer from the effect of population
growth and urban and industrial development.
For centuries upon centuries, people have
thought nothing of discarding their waste into
the nearest body of water and letting the current
or the tide carry it away.

12. SOURCES OF
WATER POLLUTION

13. SOURCES OF WATER POLLUTION
Today environmental scientists recognize
two kinds of water pollution: point-source
pollution, which is factory or sewage waste
dumped directly into a waterway; and non point-
source pollution, which is polluted runoff from such
sources as agricultural fields, mines, landfills,
streets, storm sewers, lawns, golf courses, and
individual sewage systems

14. INDUSTRIAL POLLUTANTS
(TOXIC CHEMICALS)
Among the most harmful of all human waste
products are the chemical products and by-
products of industrial processes. Chemical
pollutants have been infiltrating the water supply
for hundreds of years, but their volume, variety,
and toxicity have been grown tremendously since
the middle of the 20th century.

15. INDUSTRIAL POLLUTANTS
(TOXIC CHEMICALS)
Acid Rain is an indirect form of chemical
pollution that results from the interaction of the
atmosphere with industrial pollutants such as
oxides of sulfur and nitrogen formed in the
combustion of fossil fuels, mainly by power plants.
These pollutants change chemically and become
acid aerosols that drift in the atmosphere for
weeks, then combine with water and precipitate as
dilute acid in rain and snow.

16. INDUSTRIAL POLLUTANTS
(TOXIC CHEMICALS)
Toxic metals are unique because they
neither created nor destroyed by industry and
other human activities, but become a health risk
when they are redistributed in ways that increase
human exposure to them.

17. INDUSTRIAL POLLUTANTS
(TOXIC CHEMICALS)
Hippocrates, the father of ancient Greek
medicine, recognized that lead could be poisonous,
but it has only been past few decades that efforts
have been made to keep lead, mercury and other
toxic metals out of water supplies. Lead is no
longer used as an additive in gasoline or house
paint, or as piping in water-supply systems. Use of
mercury, once a common ingredient of many
household products, is also carefully monitored.
CONTINUATION OF TOXIC METALS

18. INDUSTRIAL POLLUTANTS
(TOXIC CHEMICALS)
Thermal pollution is a common waste
product of many industries is heat. Electricity-
generating plants, nuclear power plants, petroleum
refineries, and many other manufacturing
operations require enormous amounts of water to
cool machinery that becomes very hot during
normal operations. This water is usually drawn
from a lake or river, then piped through the
generating plant or factory, where it absorbs heat.

19. INDUSTRIAL POLLUTANTS
(TOXIC CHEMICALS)
If it is discharged directly back into the lake
or river at high temperatures, it can radically alter
aquatic life. Plants and animals adapted to a
specific temperature range and oxygen level may
be unable to survive when the temperature
increases a degree or too above the upper limit of
that range. If even just one or two species
disappear, the ecosystem may lack sufficient
diversity to compensate for the loss.
CONTINUATION OF THERMAL POLLUTION

20. AIR
POLLUTION

21. AIR POLLUTION
Earth’s air, like its water and its soil, is often
poisoned by the by-products of an expanding
technological society. Air pollution is not a new
problem. For as long as people have lived in close
proximity to one another, they have polluted the
air. What is new is the scope and severity of the
problem.

22. CLASSIFYING:
AIR POLLUTION

23. CLASSIFYING: AIR POLLUTION
Many solid and liquid pollutants exist in the
form of very small particles, or particulates, that are
ligh enough to remain in the air for long periods of
time. Solid particulates include dust, soot, and ash.
Of increasing concern to health authorities are
particles of metals, including lead and lead
compounds, nickel and cadmium and beryllium.
Liquid particles include mists and sprays.

24. CLASSIFYING: AIR POLLUTION
The atmosphere contains a number of
inorganic and organic gases that are pollutants.
Inorganic gases include oxides of nitrogen, oxides of
carbon, oxides of sulfur, and substances such as
ammonia, chlorine, and hydrogen sulfide. Organic
gases include hydrocarbons such as methane,
benzene, acetylene, and ethylene; aldehydes and
ketones; and compounds such as benzopyrene,
alcohol and organic acids.

25. CLASSIFYING: AIR POLLUTION
The most familiar air pollution is smoke, a
mixture of particulates and gases released during the
combustion of wood and other fuels. The term was
fist used to describe a combination of smoke and fog,
but now is applied to other types of visible air
pollution.
The number and variety of air pollutants have
increased steadily with the development of new
chemicals. These chemicals, along with the waste
products from industrial processes, enter the
atmosphere in varying amounts.

26. SOURCES OF
AIR POLLUTION

27. SOURCES OF AIR POLLUTION
Most of the world’s major cities are afflicted with high
levels of air pollution. This urban smog-produced by cars,
incinerators, and power-generating plants-often drifts into
many sub-urban and rural areas.
There is a chemical explanation for the color and
toxicity of smog. Certain compounds that are present in
automobile-exhaust emissions-gaseous hydrocarbons and
oxides of nitrogen are invisible as they enter the atmosphere.
Once in the air, however, they react under the influence of
sunlight to form a dirty haze known as photochemical smog, a
noxious form of pollution that in high levels brings tears to the
eyes and makes people cough and choke as they breathe it.

28. SOURCES OF AIR POLLUTION
Automobiles are a major source of urban air
pollution in many other cities as well. Automobiles,
buses, and trucks account for 60 percent of the air
pollution, creating carbon monoxide (CO) levels in
Mexico City far in excess of those in Los Angeles.
Similarly, Sydney, Australia, long to believed to be
among the last outposts of clean air, has a higher
level of auto-mobile emissions in the atmosphere
than does in any US city.

29. SOURCES OF AIR POLLUTION
Trains, ships, and jet aircraft, also contribute
substantial amounts of pollutants into the
atmosphere. The long trail of black smoke left
behind by a climbing jetliner is a pollutant similar,
on a larger scale, to the exhaust cloud emitted by
and automobile or truck. Some experts are
especially alarmed by the large quantities of water
and carbon dioxide that are added to the
atmosphere by commercial aircraft flying at high
altitudes.

30. SOURCES OF AIR POLLUTION
Sadly, transportation is not the only source of
serious air pollution. Industry and electricity-
generating plants are major contributors as well.
Other offenders include incineration of solid wastes,
agricultural-burning, coal-waste fires, and forest
fires.

31. EFFECTS OF
AIR POLLUTION

32. EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION
Human Health - Air pollution has wide-ranging
effects on most forms of life,
and it poses serious and
immediate physical dangers for
human beings. It is difficult to
assess the long term effects of
air pollution on human health,
although there is no doubt that
emphysema, chronic bronchitis,
bronchial asthma, and other
respiratory are caused or
aggravated by prolonged
exposure to air pollution.

33. EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION
Effects on Plants - Substances such as carbon
monoxide, hydrocarbons, sulfur
compounds, metals, acids and
ozone are serious threats to
most vegetation. Plants that
absorb these pollutants may
develop holes in their leaves,
become discolored or wild,
sometimes leading to death of
the entire plant.

34. EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION
Effects on Buildings - Air pollutants abrade, corrode,
tarnish, soil, erode, crack, weaken,
and discolor many human-made
structures and materials. For
example, sulfur dioxide pollution
corrodes zinc, marble statues, and
building stone, and accelerates the
corrosion of steel by as much as
for times. Ozone damages rubber
and textiles, and discolors dyed
materials. The settling of
particulate matter necessitates
frequent house painting and car
washing.

35. EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION
Local Weather and
Climate –
Wind and temperatures may
also affect the quantity and
extent of pollutants in the air.
Strong air currents may disperse
pollutants in both vertical and
horizontal directions. Although
this decreases pollutants in an
industrial region, it may carry
the undesirable particle to
places far removed from the
factories.

36. EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION
- Ozone Depletion
- The atmosphere as a whole

37. SOIL
POLLUTION

38. SOIL POLLUTION
Soil Pollution is the presence of toxic
chemicals (pollutants or contaminants) in soil in
high enough concentrations to be of risk to human
health and/or ecosystem. Additionally, even when
the levels of contaminants in soil are not of risk,
soil pollution may occur simply due to the fact that
the levels of the contaminants in soil exceed the
levels that are naturally present in soil (in the case
of contaminants which occur naturally in soil).

39. CAUSES OF
SOIL POLLUTION

40. SOIL POLLUTION
1. Antropogenic – through human
activity including:
a. Accidental spills and leaks
during storage, transport or use
of chemicals
(e.g.,leaks and spills of
gasoline and diesel at gas stations);

41. SOIL POLLUTION
1. Antropogenic – through human
activity including:
b. Activities and Manufacturing
Processes
that involve furnaces or other
processes resulting in possible
dispersion of contaminants in
environment; chemicals

42. SOIL POLLUTION
1. Antropogenic – through human
activity including:
c. Mining activities
involving crushing and processing
of raw materials
(such as mining activity);

43. SOIL POLLUTION
1. Antropogenic – through human
activity including:
d. Construction activities

44. SOIL POLLUTION
1. Antropogenic – through human
activity including:
e. Agricultural activities
involving the spread of
herbicides/pesticides/insecticides
and fertilizers;

45. SOIL POLLUTION
1. Antropogenic – through human
activity including:
f. Transportaion Activities

46. SOIL POLLUTION
1. Antropogenic – through human
activity including:
g. Dumping of chemicals
(accidental or intended – such as
illegal dumping);

47. SOIL POLLUTION
1. Antropogenic – through human
activity including:
h. Storage of wastes in landfills
(which may leak to groundwater or
generate polluted vapors)

48. SOIL POLLUTION
2. Natural
a. Natural accumulation of
compounds in soil
due to imbalances between
atmospheric deposition and leaching
away with precipitation water (e.g.,
concentration and accumulation of
perchlorate in soils in arid
environments)

49. SOIL POLLUTION
2. Natural
b. Natural production in soil under
certain environmental conditions
(e.g., natural formation of perchlorate in
soil in the presence of a chlorine source,
metallic object and using the energy
generated by a thunderstorm)

50. SOIL POLLUTION
2. Natural
c. Leaks from sewer lines into
subsurface
(e.g., adding chlorine which could
generate trihalometanes such as
chloroform).

51. SOIL POLLUTION
2. Natural
c. Leaks from sewer lines into
subsurface
(e.g., adding chlorine which could
generate trihalometanes such as
chloroform).

52. EFFECTS OF
SOIL POLLUTION

53. SOIL POLLUTION
1. Effect on Health of Humans:
Considering how soil is the reason we
are able to sustain ourselves, the
contamination of it has major consequences on
our health. Crops and plants grown on polluted
soil absorb much of the pollution and then
pass these on to us. This could explain the
sudden surge in small and terminal illnesses.

54. SOIL POLLUTION
2. Effect on Growth of Plants:
The ecological balance of any system
gets affected due to the widespread
contamination of the soil. Most plants are
unable to adapt when the chemistry of the soil
changes so radically in a short period of time.
Fungi and bacteria found in the soil that bind it
together begin to decline, which creates an
additional problem of soil erosion.

55. SOIL POLLUTION
3. Decreased Soil Fertility:
The toxic chemicals present in the soil
can decrease soil fertility and therefore
decrease in the soil yield. The contaminated
soil is then used to produce fruits and
vegetables which lacks quality nutrients and
may contain some poisonous substance to
cause serious health problems in people
consuming them.

56. SOIL POLLUTION
4. Toxic Dust:
The emission of toxic and foul gases
from landfills pollutes the environment and
causes serious effects on health of some
people. The unpleasant smell causes
inconvenience to other people.

57. SOIL POLLUTION
5. Changes in Soil Structure:
The death of many soil organisms in the
soil can lead to alteration in soil structure.
Apart from that, it could also force other
predators to move to other places in search of
food.