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ISSUES
POLLUTION
It is defined as any undesirable
changes in the physical, chemical
and biological characteristics of air
.water and soil that adversely
affects the living organisms.
Types of pollution
1.AIR POLLUTION.
2.WATER POLLUTION.
3.SOIL POLLUTION.
In order to control environmental pollution
and to protect and improve the quality of
environment ,the government of India, passed
the Environment (protection) Act,1986.
Pollutants-types.
1.Biodegradable pollutants.-ex.sewage , paper
AIR POLLUTION
It is defined as any undesirable changes in
the physical, chemical and biological
characteristics of air , that adversely affects
the living organisms.
CAUSES 1.Smoke stacks of thermal power plants ,
smelters and other industries.
2.Burning of fossil fuels.
3.Smoke from forest fires, volcanic eruption.
Air pollutants.
Particulate matter ex, metallic particles , dust
particles ,soot , aerosoles etc.
Gaseous pollutants like CO, Sulphurdioxide,
nitrogen oxide.
It depends upon.
1.Concentration of the pollutants.
2.Duration of exposure to the pollutant.
3. The organism.
EFFECTS.
1.The respiratory system of animals gets
damaged by pollutants.
2.It causes injury to plants.
3.It causes the premature death of plants.
ESP
ESP
SCRUBBER
SCRUBBER
SCRUBER
It is used to remove gases like sulphur dioxide
from the industrial exhaust.
The exhaust is passed through a spray of
water lime.
Water dissolves the gases and lime reacts with
sulphurdioxide to form precipitate of calcium
sulphate or sulphite.
According to Central Pollution Control Board
(CPCB), particulate size 2.5 micrometers or
less in diameter are responsible for causing
CATALYTIC CONVERTER.
These are used in automobiles for reducing
emissions of harmful gases.
They have expensive metals like platinum
,palladium , rhodium as catalysts.
As the exhaust passes through the catalytic
converter, unburnt hydrocarbons are
converted into carbon dioxide and water,
carbon monoxide and nitric oxide are changed
into carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas
respectively.
NOISE POLLUTION
NOISE POLLUTION
Noise is defined as undesired high level of
sound.
Causes.
1.Loud speakers and music systems used for
entertainment.
JET planes and rockets.
Industrial noises etc.
HARMFUL EFFECTS.
Sleeplessness.
Control methods.
Industrial noise can be reduced by using
sound absorbent materials.
De elimination of horn- free zones arround
hospitals and schools.
Stringent laws should be laid for permissible
sound levels of crackers and loud speakers..
Setting timing after which loud speakers
cannot be played.
WATER POLLUTION
Water pollution
It is defined as any undesirable change in the
physical ,chemical and biological properties
of water that may affect the human beings
and domestic animals.
The Govt. of India has passed the Water(
Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act,
1974, to safe guard our water resources.
2. Industrial wastes.
Industries like petroleum , paper
manufacturing, metal extraction and
processing etc
Industries release waste water containing
heavy metals like mercury and many other
organic compounds.
Mercury and DDT are well known for
biological magnification
Biological magnification
It is defined as increase in concentration of
toxic chemicals at successive trophic levels.
Toxic chemicals cannot be metabolised or
excreted, there fore they get accumulated in
an organism and passed on to higher trophic
levels.
Effects of DDT accumulation in birds.
Calcium metabolism in birds is disturbed
which results in thinning of egg shell.
This results to decline in birds population.
Eutrophication
It is defined as the natural aging of a lake by
biological enrichment of its water.
Steps.
1.Water in a young lake is cold and clear to
support life.
2.With time , it is enriched with nutrients by
streams draining into it.
3.This encourages growth of aquatic life-plant
and animal life.
Causes a
At the point of sewage discharge fishes get
killed and clear water organisms
disappear.decomposer organisms will become
increases in number. They require a lot of
oxygen .
Thus BOD will increases and quantity of
dissolved oxygen falls.
Causes-b
At the point b there is a degradation of
organic matter and reappearance of clear
water organisms and BOD FALLS .
ALGAL BLOOM
Domestic sewage contains nutrients like
nitrogen and phosphorus which favor the
excessive growth of planktonic (free floating)
algae called an ALGAL BLOOM.
It causes fish mortality and deterioration of
water quality.
Excessive growth of water
hyacinth(Eichhornia crassipes-Terror of
Bengal), the worlds most problematic aquatic
weed grows abundantly in eutrophic water
Solid wastes.
These are discarded solid materials which are
produced due to various human activities.
Solid wastes may be biodegradable, recyclable
or non biodegradable.
Types of solid wastes.
1.Municipal solid wastes- wastes from home
,offices , schools , hospitals etc.
These are collected and disposed by
municipality, which generally consists of paper
, leather, textile ,rubber, glass etc.
Soil pollution
Undesirable changes in soil profile affecting its
productivity is called soil pollution.
Causes.
1. Chemical seepage from industries.
2. Inorganic fertilizers and pesticides etc.
HARMFUL EFFECTS.
1. Non target organisms in the soil are killed.
2. Soil becomes unfertile.
3. Pesticides can results in biomagnifications
Control methods
1.Safe disposal of industrial wastes.
2. Organic farming- It is a cyclical zero waste
procedure where waste products from one
process are cycled in as nutrients for other
process., allowing maximum utilization of
resource and increasing the efficiency of
production.
Radioactive pollution
Nuclear energy was assumed to be a natural ,
non polluting way of electricity generation till
the incidents at Three Mile Island and
Chernobyl .
It is now considered as as the most potent
pollution.
Causes.
1.Leakage of radioactive materials from power
plants.
2. Unsafe disposal of radioactive wastes.
Harmful effects.
1.Radiations from nuclear wastes cause
mutation at very high rate.
2.At high doses, nuclear radiations are lethal.
3. At low doses ,radiation causes diorders and
cancer.
Disposal of radioactive waste.
Nuclear waste should be pre-treated and
stored in shielded containers and then buried
about 500 m deep within rocks.
Greenhouse effect.
The phenomenon of keeping the earth warm
due to presence of certain gases in the
atmosphere is called green house effect.
One fourth of the incoming solar radiation is
reflected by the atmospheric gases and
clouds and only half of the incoming solar
radiation falls on the earths surface , heating
it . Of this only a small portion is reflected
back.
Global warming.
The gradual continuous increase in average
temperature of Earth as a result of increase
in concentration of green house gases is
termed as Global warming.
Cause
Increase in level of green house gases.
These gases allow the heat waves to reach
earth but prevent their escape and thus the
earth becomes warm.
Ozone depletion
Two types ozone
1.Bad ozone-formed in troposphere and is
harmful to plants and animals.
2. Good ozone- formed in stratosphere and
absorbs harmful UV radiations from the sun.
The thickness of the ozone is measured in
Dobson unit(DU).
FORMATION OF OZONE
Harmful effects.
1. UV B damages DNA and proteins of living
organisms causing mutation.
2.It causes skin aging, skin cell damage and
skin cancers.
3.UV-B is absorbed by human eye at high dose
it causes inflammation in cornea. This is
called SNOW BLINDNESS cataract.
Deforestation
National Forest Policy(NFP)1988 of India has
recommended 33% forest cover for plains and
67% for hills.
Slash and burn agriculture.( Jhum
cultivation).
In NE States of India ,farmers cut down the
trees of the forest and burn the plant remains
Ash is used as fertilizer and land is used for
farming or cattle grazing.
Thus land is left uncultivated for several years.
Reforestation
It is a process of restoring a forest that was
already existing some time.
It can be done by planting trees in a deserted
areas.
It also occurs naturally.
EI Nino effect.
It refers to the odd climatic changes due to
rise in temperature.
It leads to increased melting of polar ice caps
as well as other places like the Himalayan
snow caps.
This will result in a rise in sea level that can
submerge many coastal areas.
Thus resulting in biodiversity loss.
Oil spill
An oil spill is the release of
a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the
environment, especially marine areas, due to
human activity, and is a form of pollution. The
term is usually applied to marine oil spills,
where oil is released into the ocean or coastal
waters, but spills may also occur on land. Oil
spills may be due to releases of crude
oil from tankers, offshore platforms, drilling
rigs and wells, as well as spills of refined
Oil spill
Important terms
ACCELERATED EUTROPHICATION :- The
acceleration of aging process of water by
humans activities like effluents from the
industries and homes.
AGRO-CHEMICALS :- The chemicals used in
agriculture such as inorganic fertilizers,
pesticides, herbicides, fungicides etc. are
called agro-chemicals.
ALGAL BLOOM :- Presence of large amount of
nutrients in water that cause excessive
DIFERENCES
Primary pollutants Secondary pollutants
1.These enter our atmosphere directly from
different sources and these may be solid
,liquid and gas. 2.e.g.CO,CO2,SO2,N2O
Secondary pollutants
1.These are formed during chemical reaction
b/w primary and other atmospheric pollutants
2.e.g.smog, brown air.
Deforestation Desertification
1.It is called the cutting and clearing of forests.
2.Caused due cattle grazing, urbanization and
industrialisation
Desertification
1.It is the conversion of grassland into desert.
2.Caused due to cattle grazing and soil erosio
ASSIGNMENTS
1.Define eutrophication.
2. What is biomagnification?
3. What is BOD?
4.Which is the worlds most problematic
weed, also known as terror of Bengal
5. Differentiate between biodegradable and
non-biodegradable wastes.
6. Describe Chipko Movement.
7. Mention harmful effects of noise pollution
END