Student Projects/Environmental Pollution
Environment is the complex of physical, chemical and biotic factors that act upon an organism or a ecological community and ultimately determine its form and survival.
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION :
Pollution is introduction of contaminants in natural environment that causes adverse change.
Most forms of pollution are invisible to human eye and come in variety of different forms.
There are seven major types of pollution. They are:
1.water pollution
2.soil pollution
3.Air pollution
4. Noise pollution
1. Water pollution : This type of pollution refers to the contamination of water bodies including ground water. As all living organisms depend on water to live ,the pollution of a body of water ends to affect every level of ecosystem including human health . common causes for water pollution include industrial waste. insecticides, pesticides, detergents and oil spills. These pollutants either work by killing off organisms through their toxicity (industrial waste, insecticides), reducing oxygen values in water(known as eutrophication) by blocking out sunlight (detergents, oil).
2.Soil pollution : soil can be stripped of its nutrients by a number of chemical agents and when this occurs it is known as soil pollution. Common causes of soil pollution are insecticides, pesticides, agricultural chemicals, industrial wastes, and radioactive wastes. Plants depend on the nutrients in the soil in order to grow, but many of these chemical compounds absorb the nitrogenous compounds present in the soil which the plants depend on. Aside from making an area barren ,soil pollution is a common cause of erosion, as plants and other living organisms play an important role in keeping the soil held together.
3.Air pollution: Air usually comprises 78% nitrogen,21%oxygen,0.9% oxide gases and0.1% inert gases. When the air becomes contaminated with other elements such as poisonous gases or particles, it can cause serious problems to human health. The most common causes of air pollution include partially combusted exhaust gases, poisonous gases which are a by-product of industry including sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide ,and carcinogenic gases released through the burning of plastic, rubber and wood . Particle contamination can also occur when a substance such as friable asbestos fibres are disturbed and released into the air. Air pollution works either by poisoning living organisms which breathe it in ,or by disturbing the atmosphere and mixing with their air and clouds to cause acid rain.
4.Noise pollution: Noise pollution refers to an excess or unpleasant sounds emanating from industry, infrastructure, machinery, transportation. In humans noise pollution have detrimental effect on both mental and physical health and has been linked to high stress,heavy loss, hypertension, depression, sleep disturbances and increase in incidences of coronary artery disease.