Hazards of Pollution

Hazards of Pollution and its effect 

What is Pollution Hazard?

"A hazard is something that has potential to damage, detriment or harmful effect on human, animal or environmental conditions which will disturb day to day life."

Pollution is basically related to environment. Land Water and Air is important part of an environment. So any source which gets released, dispersed contaminated with these environmental element and disturb our ecosystem is called the pollution process.

The source or substance may in any form like gas, solid or liquid.

The pollution affects our human life like any form dieselize, illness, global warming,

 Types of pollution and their contributing factors

Source: Image By Relf Vetterie from Pixbay

Air Pollution

1.     Carbon Monoxide

2.     Sulfur Dioxide

3.     Nitrogen Oxide

4.     Lead

5.     Non-Methane Organic Compounds

6.     Particulate Matter

1.     Carbon Monoxide

Source:

Carbon monoxide is primary air pollutant. Carbon Oxide is colorless, odorless toxic gas which is produced due to incomplete combustion of fossil fuel which is basically used in vehicles

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a toxic air pollutant produced largely from vehicle emissions followed by Industrial fires, coal fired boilers, Incineration of waste material, forest fires and paint manufacturing industry where methylene chloride is used.

At home CO is also getting generated from use of the woodstove, water heater, gas stove, tobacco burning

Effect of Carbon Monoxide:

Carbon Monoxide is also called a silent killer as it doesn’t have odor, taste or color, by inhaling the carbon monoxide as low as 400 ppm could result from headache and discomfort within 2-3 hours and if the concentration is above the 4000ppm then it can lead to the fatal incident.

Oxygen concentration in the blood gets reduced and which leads to headache, risk of chest pain for heart patient, nausea, vomiting, and weakness

2.     Sulfur Dioxide

Source:

Sulfur Dioxide is also mainly generated from the burning of fossil fuel, which contain the sugar mainly oil and coal.. It is also get emitted from the power plant operation, smelting operations as well coal base fires. Sulfur Dioxide also gets emitted from volcano fires.

Effect of Sulfur Dioxide

Sulfur Dioxide is colorless but its odor is pungent and it is toxic in nature.

If the concentration of Sulphur dioxide is above its TLV of 2ppm then it will lead to irritation to the body part of human-like eyes, nose, and throat and it may result in breathing disease like choking, coughing, and sometimes bronchoconstriction

Concentrations of 50-100 ppm are considered dangerous. Exposures of 400-500 ppm are immediately life-threatening. At high concentrations may result in pulmonary edema and paralysis

3.     Nitrogen Oxide

Source:

Nitrogen oxide contamination is discharged from vehicle fumes, and the burning of coal, oil, diesel fuel, and petroleum gas, particularly from electric force plants. ... Nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide respond with substances in the climate to frame corrosive rain. Nitrogen dioxide is utilized to create rocket fuel and explosives

Effect of Nitrogen Oxide.

NO2 has direct and indirect effects on human health. It can lead to breathing problems, headaches, chronically shrunk lung function, eye irritation, loss of appetite and corroded teeth. Indirectly, it can affect humans by damaging the ecosystems they depend on water and land—harming animals and plants.

4.     Lead

Source:

The main sources of lead in the air are from mining process, paint Industry and it is also present in aviation fuel which is used in aircraft engines. Other sources are process waste incinerators in chemical or mining Industry, utilities, and lead-acid battery manufacturers. The significant amount of lead is found in lead manufacturing

Effect of Lead:

Traces of Lead in blood is also not safe even 5 microgram per deciliter can lead to health problems in children.

5.     Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds (NMVOC)

Source

NMVOCs are diffused into the climate from an enormous number of sources including combustion process of organic compounds. Production of organic compounds, Organic solvent production process use and creation forms.

Volatile organic compounds released into the atmosphere, along with nitrogen oxide and sunlight, contributes to the formation of ground-level ozone. Ground-level ozone may destruct vegetation and during events of high levels, humans maybe affected by irritation of the respiratory tract

Few of the NMVOC like Benzene lead to leukemia to the human

6.     Particulate Matter:

Particulate matter is nothing but the solid tiny particles formed from dust, smoke, soot and dirt.etc. The main source of these particulate matters  are found in a construction site, road project, cement processing plant, coal crusher units, powder handling plants and incineration of material in incinerator, Industrial Boilers etc. The sizes of these particles may be different.

Particulate particles also reduced the visibility effect and Inhaling of fine particles can lead lung diseases also.

Water Pollution:

Source Image by: Rafael_Neddermeyer/Pixbay

What Is Water Pollution?

Water pollution is nothing but the contamination of water with toxic chemical compounds or germs which will degrade the water quality and lead to adverse effect on our ecosystem like health problems to human beings, the release of toxic gases to environment, dangers to aquatic living beings.

What Are the Causes of Water Pollution

The main reason for water pollution is the contamination of chemical wastes from the Industry, Municipal waste, human waste, animal waste plastic floats into the river, Well or .Lake

Examples: Release of untreated effluent from chemical Industry into river. Dumping of chemical waste into the river. Contamination of oil into the sea due to leakage into oil transportation ship. Oil contamination during the drilling process in the offshore Industry.

Ground water gets polluted from agriculture activities in which many fertilizers and pesticides are used and these are leached into water through soil.

Effect of Water Pollution

Animal or Human waste contamination into river initiates to spreading of bacteria and viruses into the water and this will lead to measure illness to human beings like cholera, Diarrhoea and thyroid.

Exposure t cooling tower vapors which contain Legionella bacteria can lead pneumonia to the human being.

Untreated effluent released from the chemical Industry content chemicals and heavy metals This is also contaminating waterways as well. These contaminated water is poisonous to aquatic life and it also affect the life cycle of these aquatic species.

The solid debris, such as plastic bags papers, construction debris, animal waste, human waste, waste food from restaurants, vegetables gets swept into sewers and storm drains and eventually float out to water reservoir, this will in turn became waste patches.

Land Pollution

Source By: Privideotv/Pixbay

Land pollution, the dumping of solid or liquid unwanted elements on land or underground in a way that could pollute the soil and groundwater, impend public health.

Examples are Municipal solid waste, Construction debris, hazardous waste from chemical Industry, Food Wastes, Paper, glass plastic, biomedical waste from hospital, Industrial effluent, sewage from septic tank etc.

Effect of Land Pollution

The solid wastes mentioned above can pollute nearby streams like lakes, rivers, and well. After decomposing this material leachate is formed and this leachate percolates downward and thus reaches to groundwater and resulted to public health effect and also affects the growth of plants, decreases soil productiveness, and changes the soil organization.

Noise Pollution:

It is generally defined as exposure to elevated sound levels (above 80dB) than the normal sound level that may lead to adverse effects in humans or other living organisms. Normal sound levels defined below the 80dM

Examples:. ... Airports, with constant elevated sounds from air traffic, i.e. planes taking off or landing. In Industry Compressor operation leads to very high noise. Boiler Operation, pneumatic conveying system, etc.

Effect of Noise Pollution: Permanent Hearing Loss to living organisms. Cardiovascular disease sleeping disorder, communication trouble, etc.

                                             

Radioactive pollution 

It is the presence of radioactive substances in the environment. It is highly hazardous when it occurs. Radioactive contamination can be caused by breaches at nuclear power plants or improper transport of radioactive chemicals. Radioactive material should be handled with great care as radiation destroys cells in living organisms that can result in illness or even death.

Conclusion and Solutions to pollution problems

Environmental pollution is one of the most important problems caused by human activities that we should always overcome to work out a tomorrow and guarantee our descendants a healthy life.

Environmental pollution has negatively affected the lives of both animals and human beings. the sole thanks to controlling current environmental issues are to implement conservation methods and make sustainable development strategies.

We should always find some effective solutions so as to revive our ecological balance.

First of all, we should always make sustainable transportation choices.

·        We should always benefit of public transportation, walk or ride bikes whenever possible, consolidate our trips, and consider purchasing an electric car.

·        It’s vital to create sustainable food choices. Choose local food whenever possible; buy organically grown vegetables and fruits or grow your own.

·        People should conserve energy. put off electronics and lights after you don't seem to be within the room.

·        Consider what small changes can result in big energy savings

·        Use energy-efficient devices.

·        It’s also essential to grasp the concept of reducing, Reuse and Recycle.

·        Attempt to buy used items whenever possible. Choose products with minimal packaging.

·        Buy reusable items. Remember that just about everything that you just purchase will be recycled.

·        Conserve water the maximum amount as possible.

·        Eliminate toxic industrial waste properly.

·        don't use herbicides and pesticides.

·        Use natural, environmentally friendly chemicals for your everyday chores.