Pollutants

Responsible agents of pollution is called

pollutants.
 Pollutants
• Primary pollutants: Chemicals or
substances emitted directly into the air are
primary pollutants.
• Secondary pollutants: If these pollutants
react with other substances in the air and
form a new compound they are called
secondary pollutants
 Pollution

Pollution is the release of environmental

contaminants. The U.S., Russia, Mexico, China
and Japan are the world leaders in air pollution
emissions;

However, Canada is the number two country on a

per capita basis. The major forms of pollution
include:
 Types of pollution
• air pollution, the release of chemicals and particulates
into the atmosphere. Common examples include
carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs), and nitrogen oxides produced by industry and
motor vehicles. Ozone and smog are created as nitrogen
oxides and hydrocarbons react to sunlight.

• water pollution via surface runoff and leaching to

groundwater.

• Soil contamination occurs when chemicals are released

by spill or underground storage tank leakage. Among the
most significant soil contaminants are hydrocarbons,
heavy metals, MTBE, herbicides, pesticides and
chlorinated hydrocarbons.
 Types of pollution
• radioactive contamination, added in the wake of 20th-
century discoveries in atomic physics. (See
alpha emitters and actinides in the environment.)

• noise pollution, which encompasses roadway noise,

aircraft noise, industrial noise as well as high-intensity
sonar.

• light pollution, includes light trespass, over-illumination

and astronomical interference.

• visual pollution, which can refer to the presence of

overhead power lines, motorway billboards, scarred
landforms (as from strip mining), open storage of junk or
municipal solid waste.
 Air pollution
The air pollution may be defined as
qualitative and quantitative changes in the
atmospheric constituents due to addition
or contamination of such substances as
may be harmful to man and his
environment.
Fresh air composition:
N2 79%
O2 20.94%
CO2 0.032%
Others 0.028%
Air pollution may be categorized in to indoor
and out door pollutions
• In door Pollution: Pollution of atmosphere
inside building, offices and residences is
called indoor air pollution. eg. CO2 from
metabolic activities of living organisms,
and combustion of fuels.
• Out door pollution: Atmospheric pollution
in the open space is referred to as outdoor
air pollution. eg Lead from Automobiles
and industrial emission, Ozone from
photochemical reactions in atmosphere
etc.
Causes of Air Pollution:
Atmospheric pollution is increasing due to
the following major factors:
• Over population and increasing
urbanization.
• Increasing traffic
• Industrialization and energy consumption
1. Over population and Urbanization:
According to current estimates, the world population
is increasing at an average by two per cent
annually which means the addition of about one
million people every five days or five people every
couple of seconds. Increases in population would
demand more food, water and land, the three items
that are limited on the earth. This has resulted in
disturbance in ecological balance, disruption of
natural biogeochemical cycles and fast depletion
of natural resources
Growing population created problems of
employment. This leads people to move
from villages to urban areas in search of
employment, comfort and facilities. As a
result, the cities are expanding in area
and are being thickly populated. Thickly
populated areas face a variety of
problems such as congestion, large
number of vehicles and its dust and
smoke, accumulation of solid and liquid
wastes, poor sanitation and management
problems.
2. Increasing Traffic:
Rapid increase in the number of
automobiles in one of the potential
factors responsible for air pollution in
urban areas. The vehicles on road are
mobile sources of air pollution.
Combustion of fuel in aircraft engines
produces hydrocarbons, nitrogen
oxides, carbon monoxide, small amount
of particulate matter, and sulphur
oxides.
Amounts of pollutants depend upon the
fuel used, type of aircraft engine.
3. Industrial Growth and Energy Consumption:

Sources
 Industries,
 oil refineries,
 break field,
 stone crushing

These are the important sectors which are major

sources for air pollution.
Causes:
• Industries are producing a variety of
toxic substances.
• Break field, stone crushing sector
and oil refineries are releasing
tremendous amount of fly ash and
many toxic gases in to the
atmosphere.
• Domestic burning, agricultural refuse,
• firewood and dry dung burning are
also contributing considerable
amounts of pollutants to atmosphere.
• The United States alone
discharges roughtly125 million
tones of junk into the
atmosphere each year and a
conservative estimate for the
whole world would be about 520
million tones every year.
Effects of air pollution
Human beings breathe 14 kg of air into their lungs
each day. Although some of the symptoms of
pollution that people suffer involve the moist
surfaces of the eyes, nose, and throat, the major
site of impact is the lungs. Three categories of
impact can be distinguished:
a) Chronic: Pollution cause the gradual deterioration
of a variety of physiological functions over a
period of years.
b) Acute: Pollutants bring on life-threatening
reactions within a period of hours or days.
c) Carcinogenic: Pollutants initiate changes within
cells that lead to uncontrolled growth and
division (cancer).
Some effects of air pollution:
-Long term exposure to sulphur dioxide, SO2 can lead
to bronchitis.
- Chronic inhalation of ozone and particulates can cause
inflammation and ultimately fibrosis of the lungs
-Carbon monoxide (CO) reduces the capacity of the
blood to carry oxygen, and extended low levels of
carbon monoxide can contribute to heart disease.
-Chronic exposure to nitrogen oxides (NO) is known to
impair the immunesystem, leaving the lungs open to
attack by bacteria and viruses (Pfafflin & Ziegler
1992, Miller 1997).
According to a results of a study in Switzerland
the largest contribution to health cost relates
to 2100 premature deaths in Switzerland due
to exposure to fine particles (Wiederkehr
1998).
-The most sensitive to air pollution are small
children
-Asthmatics, people with chronic pulmonary and
heart disease, and the elderly. Asthma, an
immune system disorder characterized by
impaired breathing caused by constriction of
air passageways, is usually brought on by
contact with allergens.
Acid Rain an
effect of air
pollution
When the pH of rain water
or snow is less than 5.7 it
is called Acid rain. Acid
rain is man-made
ecological event. It is
mainly due to sulfuric acid
and nitric acid.
Formation of acid rain:
1. Action of sulfur dioxide leading to
acid rain: It is formed in two steps,
• Conversion of sulfur dioxide in to
sulfur trioxide by absorption of UV
radiation
• Reaction of secondary pollutant sulfur
trioxide with moisture to form
sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid dissolved
in rain drops falls on the earth surface
as acid rains.
2. Action of nitrogen dioxide leading acid
rain: Nitrogen dioxide acts to produce
acid rain in two steps:
• Formation of nitrogen dioxide and
nitrogen peroxide by absorption of UV
radiation from the sun.
• Reaction of nitrogen dioxide and
nitrogen peroxide with atmospheric
moisture to form nitric acid which
falls down as acid rain.
Effects of acid rain:
• Acid rain causes irritation in the eyes and skin of
human beings.
• It may cause corrosion of many buildings,
bridges and monuments, railings, fencings etc.
• It affects on the enzymatic activities of living
being.
• Acid rains change the pH of soils and affect the
plant growth in various ways.
• It inhibits carbon dioxide fixation and
photorespiration and adversely affects the
productivity of crops.
 Acid rain and a Monument
The Taj Mahal of Agra is also facing danger
from the acid rain because of oil refinery
situated at Mathura very close to Agra. This
refinery emits smoke and gaseous pollutants
including sulfur dioxide. If the sulfur dioxide
levels in air increases the resulting acidic
precipitation may react with marbles and
cause pitting in this wonderful monument that
attracts people from all over the world.
Control of Air pollution

What can we
DO ?
1. Automobiles must be either made to
eliminate use of gasoline and diesel
oil or complete combustion is
obtained in the engine so that
noxious compounds are not emitted.
The automobiles, trucks and other
transport systems must have an
antismog device to minimize pollution.
2. Aforestation, Reforestation
3. Excessive and undesirable burning of
vegetation should be stopped.
4. Smoking should be stopped (there is
5,00000 tones tobacco pollution
annually).
5. Proper attention should be given by the
government and general to make people
realize the implications of
environmental problem.
6. Legislation should be passed against
pollution.
7. Environmental education is the best
programme to deal with the
environmental problems