Air pollution comes from a wide variety of sources * Vehicle or manufacturing exhaust * Forest fires, volcanic eruption, dry soil erosion * Building construction or demolition Many scientists believe that global warming is also related to increased air pollution. 2. Water Pollution Water pollution involves any contaminated water, whether from chemical, particulate or bacterial matter that degrades the water’s quality and purity. It can occur in oceans, rivers, lakes and underground reservoirs. Causes of water pollution include: * Increased sediment from soil erosion * Improper waste disposal and littering * Leaching of soil pollution into water supplies The effects of water pollution include decreasing the quantity of drinkable water available, lowering water supplies for crop irrigation and impacting fish and wildlife that require water of certain purity for survival.
Carbon dioxide fire extinguishers expel a cold fog of CO2 that cuts a fire off from its air supply. Dry chemical extinguishers spray a fine power that coats fuel and cuts it off from air. Foam is applied to blanket large pools of burning liquid to cut off air. You've seen foam being applied to limit or extinguish fires involving burning fuel in films and on TV, haven't you? Sure.
2006). Other companies utilize duckweed in another way, by removing the nitrogen and phosphorus from the wastewaters making the L. minor act as a natural filter relieving clogged waterways. L. minor is also used to remove heavy ions such as chromium, from wastewaters. Anthropogenic activities are a primary cause of heavy metal pollution amongst aquatic systems. Chromium is one of these heavy metals, and a widespread contaminant entering the air, water and soil environment by different industrial activities such as iron and steel manufacturing, chrome leather, chromium plating, wood preservation and other anthropogenic sources (Uysal 2013).
They are also used as thickeners to increases density in things such as cement, ceramic glazes bricks, and drilling fluids. Barium slats are used in cloud seeding as well. Barium cloud seeding was used to bound electronic signals off the base of clouds. Too much barium can be a problem. Barium is toxic to humans and animals and causes a dramatic drop in potassium levels in the body.
A device in the exhaust system of a motor vehicle, containing a catalyst for converting pollutant gases into less harmful ones. A catalytic converter is a device that uses a catalyst to convert three harmful compounds in car exhaust into harmless compounds. The three harmful compounds are: * Hydrocarbons (in the form of unburned gasoline) * Carbon monoxide (formed by the combustion of gasoline) * Nitrogen oxides (created when the heat in the engine forces nitrogen in the air to combine with oxygen) Carbon monoxide is a poison for any air-breathing animal. Nitrogen oxides lead to smog and acid rain, and hydrocarbons produce smog. In a catalytic converter, the catalyst (in the form of platinum and palladium) is coated onto a ceramic honeycomb or ceramic beads that are housed in a muffler-like package attached to the exhaust pipe.
Atmospheric Issue SCI/275 11/9/2013 Rhonda Williams When it comes to pollution, it seems to be causing health concern with air pollution indoors, as well as issues in our atmosphere. When we look at air pollution in doors, one of the key issues is VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS. VOCs are the emitted gases from certain solids or liquids, which include varieties of chemicals that can have long-term and short-term health effects (United States Environmental Protection Agency). VOCs are emitted into the air quality by a wide verity of product, such as paints and lacquers, paint strippers, cleaning supplies, pesticides, etc. (United States Environmental Protection Agency).
High concentrations of sulfur dioxide can result in breathing problems with asthmatic children and adults who are active outdoors. With longer term exposure could include respiratory illness, alterations in the lungs defenses, and aggravation of existing cardiovascular disease. Sulfur dioxide is a precursor of acid rain, which has acidified soils, lakes and streams, accelerated corrosion of buildings and monuments, and reduced visibility which effect the environment. Nitrogen oxide is a group of gases made up of different oxygen and nitrogen. Major sources of nitrogen oxide include fuel combustion in power plants and automobiles and processes used in chemical plants.
Since acid rain has very high emission rates, some attempts have been made to try to reduce the pollution from the rain. Coal that has high sulfur levels gets washed before it’s burned to make electricity, and the sulfur dioxide that’s made when coal burns is sometimes removed during the burning of the coal, by adding powdered limestone to the combustion chamber. This removes about half of the sulfur dioxide from the coal. The rest is removed by “scrubbing” the reaction gas with Lime (CaO) and water. When acid rain falls, it sometimes raises the levels of acids in certain soils, removing nutrients from the soil that helps plants grow.
In this process, long, buoyant booms which float on the water and a skirt that hangs below the water contain the slick and keep the oil from spreading out. This makes it easier to skim oil from the surface, using boats that suck or scoop the oil from the water and into containment tanks. Larger slicks may call for a process that uses sorbents, large sponges that absorb the oil from the water, to dispose of the oil. In the most severe cases, clean-up crews may set the oil on fire in a process called in situ burning, but this produces toxic smoke, and probably would not be used in a
During the recycling process contamination is very, easily spread. If there is contamination (impurities or toxins) in or on the original material it sometimes can make it’s way through the recycling process therefore ending up in the new, recycled product. If there were to be lead paint from a spray paint can, what happens if someone isn’t careful enough and that can is recycled into a soda can, still with the contaminants from the lead in it that will then be consumed by a soda drinker? Discover magazine reports that “any contamination in the recycle bin compromises the strength and durability of the recycled plastic that is produced, which in turn compromises its future use as a material for manufacturer.” Recycling is very expensive. According to Andrew Handley, author of 10 Ways Recycling Hurts the Environment,