Pollution
CAUSES, EFFECTS AND CONTROL MEASURES
5.2.1 Air Pollution 113
5.2.2 Water Pollution 123
5.2.3 Soil Pollution 131
5.2.4 Marine Pollution 135
5.2.5 Noise Pollution 140
5.2.6 Thermal Pollution 142
5.2.7 Nuclear hazards
‘We spray our elms, and the following spring, trees are silent of robin song, not because we sprayed the robins directly but because the poison traveled step by step through the now familiar elm-earthworm-robin cycle’
This quotation appeared in Rachael Carson’s book entitled Silent Spring. In the years following the publication of Silent Spring in 1962, book has inspired controversy and has initiated a major change in thinking about the safety of using pesticides and other toxic chemicals.
DEFINITION
Pollution is the effect of undesirable changes in our surroundings that have harmful effects on plants, animals and human beings. This occurs when only short-term economic gains are made at the cost of the long-term ecological benefits for humanity.
No natural phenomenon has led to greater ecological changes than have been made by mankind. During the last few decades, we have contaminated our air, water and land on which life itself depends on a variety of waste products.
Pollutants include solid, liquid or gaseous substances present in greater than natural abundance produced due to human activity, which have a detrimental effect on our environment.
The nature and concentration of a pollutant determines the severity of detrimental effects on human health. An average human requires about 12 kg of air each day, which is nearly 12 to15 times greater than the amount of food we eat.
Thus, even a small concentration of pollutants in the air becomes more significant in comparison to the similar levels present in food. Pollutants that enter water have the ability to spread to distant places especially in the marine ecosystem.
From an ecological perspective pollutants can be classified as follows:
Degradable or non-persistent pollutants: These can be rapidly broken down by natural processes. Eg: domestic sewage, discarded vegetables, etc.
Slowly degradable or persistent pollutants: Pollutants that remain in the environment for many years in an unchanged condition and take decades or longer to degrade. Eg: DDT and most plastics.
Non-degradable pollutants: These cannot be degraded by natural processes. Once they are released into the environment, they are difficult to eradicate and continue to accumulate. Eg: toxic elements like lead or mercury.
CAUSES, EFFECTS AND CONTROL MEASURES OF POLLUTION
Air Pollution:
History of air pollution: The origin of air pollution on the earth can be traced from the times when man started using firewood as a means of cooking and heating.
Hippocrates has mentioned air pollution in 400 BC. With the discovery and increasing use of coal, air pollution became more pronounced especially in urban areas.
It was recognized as a problem 700 years ago in London in the form of smoke pollution, which prompted King Edward I to make the first antipollution law to restrict people from using coal for domestic heating in the year 1273.
In the year 1300 another Act banning the use of coal was passed. Defying the law led to imposition of capital punishment. In spite of this air pollution became a serious problem in London during the industrial revolution due to the use of coal in industries.
The earliest recorded major disaster was the ‘London Smog’ that occurred in 1952 that resulted in more than 4000 deaths due to the accumulation of air pollutants over the city for five days.
In Europe, around the middle of the 19th century, a black form of the Peppered moth was noticed in industrial areas. Usually, the normal Peppered moth is well camouflaged on a clean lichen covered tree.
However, the peppered pattern was easily spotted and picked up by birds on the smoke blackened bark of trees in the industrial area, while the black form remained well camouflaged.
Thus, while the peppered patterned moths were successful in surviving in clean non-industrial areas, the black colored moths were successful in industrial areas. With the spread of industrialization, it has been observed that the black forms are not only see in Peppered moth, but also in many other moths.
This is a classic case of pollution leading to adaptation.
Air pollution began to increase in the beginning of the twentieth century with the development of the transportation systems and large-scale use of petrol and diesel. The severe air quality problem’s due to the formation of photochemical smog from the combustion residues of diesel and petrol engines were felt for the first time in Los Angeles.
Pollution due to auto-exhaust remains a serious environmental issue in many developed and developing countries including India.
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