INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION CAUSE AND EFFECT

Industrialization is the process of social and economic change that transforms a

human group from a pre-industrial society into an industrial one. It is a part of a
wider modernization process, where social change and economic development
are closely related with technological innovation.

Since independence, India has achieved self-sufficiency in manufacturing of

basic and capital goods. Some of the major industries in India are textiles
industry, chemicals industry, food processing industry, steel industry, cement
industry, mining, petroleum and software industry.

Pollution can be defined as any undesirable change in physical and chemical

environment, which is harmful for human being, are called pollution. The
substances, which cause the changes, are called pollutants.

Presently many man-made things are causing the destruction of environment.

For example smoke of industries and kilns, various effluents of industries,
pesticides, wastewater of industries.

Industrial Pollution

India’s industrial rise is closely accompanied by a mounting problem of pollution

and the destruction of natural resources. Industrial pollution deteriorates the
environment in a range of ways, and it has a negative impact on human lives and
health. Pollutants can kill animals and plants, imbalance ecosystems, degrade air
quality, damage buildings, and adversely affect quality of life.

Pollution threatens natural systems, human health and esthetic sensibilities and
arises due to industrial activities. Main types of industrial pollution are, water
pollution, air pollution, pollution from solid wastes and noise pollution. Industrial
Pollution is the most prominent and immediately pressing environmental concern.

Water Pollution

Throughout history man has been ravaged by plague and epidemics visited on
him by poor sanitation and polluted water. In more modern times, the great
typhoid epidemics that swept London in the mid-19th century underscored the
peril of water pollution and launched the first organized steps to combat it. And
until very recent times this stress on preventing waterborne disease was the
major thrust of efforts to stem the decline of the environment.

Americans have acted, until recently, as though their rivers and lakes had an
infinite capacity to absorb wastes. Pollution was considered the price of progress.
Industrial water pollution control legislation and programs have now been
broadened to embrace a host of environmental concerns, including recreation
and esthetics. Epidemics due to water borne causes are largely of the past, and
our health efforts have moved to a more sophisticated concern for the effects of
small amounts of toxic chemicals on humans and other forms of life.

Three reasons, besides the changed nature of the health problems, help explain
the broader environmental concern of today:

First, the growth of industries and cities has multiplied pollution in most water
ways; second, demand for outdoor recreation has grown in a society increasingly
affluent and leisure oriented; and third a thread running through all the other is
man’s inexplicable affinity to water.

Pollution problems exist in all parts of the world in some areas of the different
countries remedial programs have succeeded in raising the levels of water
quality. However, population and industrial growth, higher water quality
demanded by the public, and the increasing severity of certain types of pollution
for example, oil spills and increased algal blooms in lakes all mean that we have
only begun to tackle the problems.

Heated water discharged into lakes and rivers often harms aquatic life. Heat
accelerates biological and chemical processes, which reduce the ability of a body
of water to retain dissolved oxygen and other dissolved gasses. Increases in
temperature often disrupt the reproduction cycles of fish. By hastening biological
processes, heat accelerates the growth of aquatic plants often algae. Finally, the
temperature level determines the types of fish and other aquatic life that can live
in any particular body of water. Taken together, these effects of excess heat
operate to change the ecology of an area sometimes drastically and rapidly.
Although there is as yet no detailed inventory of industrial wastes, indications are
that over half the volume discharged to water comes from four major industry
groups paper, organic chemicals, petroleum, and steel.

Most industrial water waste can be curbed and much has been by treatment by
designing production process that minimize waste.

“The average waste from modern sulfate pulp and paper plants is only 7 percent
of what it was in the older sulfite process4” Treatment processes are now
available for most industrial wastes. Their total estimated costs, as a percentage
of gross sales by all industry are well under 1 percent, although cost are much
higher for some industries. Also, many industrial wastes those from food
processing, for example can be treated efficiently (after pretreatment in some
cases) in municipal waste treatment systems.

Some industrial pollution, however, presents difficult abatement problems. The

trend toward using and shipping complex chemical products has greatly
increased the possibility of releasing wastes in the environment. Many of these
new chemicals are very difficult to detect and to control, and there is fear that too
little caution and study preceded the processing and marketing of some of these
materials.

Air Pollution

Air pollution is a phenomenon that occurs when the pollutants in the air increases
beyond the prescribed limit. Population and industrial growth and a high degree
of dependence on the motor vehicle cause gaseous and particulate emissions.

Main Sources of Air Pollutants are:

i) Particulate matter
ii) Sulphur oxides
iii) Carbon Monoxide
iv) Hydrocarbons
v) Nitrogen oxides

Carbon Monoxide
Co is a colorless, odorless, toxic gas, slightly lighter than air that is produced by
the in complete burning of the carbon in fuels carbon monoxide emission can be
prevented by supplying enough air to insure complete combustion. When this
occurs, carbon dioxide, a natural constituent of the atmosphere is produced
instead of carbon monoxide.

Particulate Matter
Particulate matter includes particles of solid or liquid substances in a very wide
range of sizes, from those that are visible as soot and smoke to particles too
small to detect except under an electron microscope. Particulates may be so
small that they remain in the air for long periods and can be transported great
distances by the winds.

Sulphur Oxides
Sulphur Oxides (SOX) are acid, corrosive, poisonous gases produced when fuel
containing Sulphur is burned. Electric utilities and industrial plants are its
principal producers since their most abundant fuels are coal and oil, which
contain Sulphur as an impurity. The burning of coal produces about 60% of all
Sulphur oxides emissions, oil about 14% and industrial processes that use
Sulphur 22%. Other sources of Sulphur oxides may be large industrial plants,
smelters or power plants. Any of these may throw out several hundred thousand
tons of Sulphur oxides in a year.

Nitrogen Oxides
Nitrogen Oxides comes in atmosphere from nuclear reactors and fertilizers
having nitrogen contents. “In air 5x108 tons of it is formed naturally whereas
5x103 tons is being produced by human sources3”. No is four times more
poisonous than NO2.

Hydrocarbons
Hydrocarbons like carbon monoxide represent unburned and wasted fuel. Unlike
carbon monoxide, gaseous hydrocarbons at concentrations normally found in the
atmosphere are not toxic, but they are a major pollutant because of their role in
forming photochemical smog. “Under the influence of sunlight, nitrogen oxides
combine with gaseous hydrocarbons to form a complex variety of secondary
pollutants called photochemical oxidants. These oxidants, together with solid and
liquid particles in the air, made up what is commonly known as smog”

Effects of Carbon Monoxide

Carbon monoxide shows harmful effects on various vegetables and small plants.
It enters the blood of human and takes the place of hemoglobin due to which the
oxygen absorbing capability of blood is reduced and heart has to work hard to
keep the fresh blood circulating, which causes heart piscases. Carbon monoxide
is a poisonous gas and may cause lung diseases on smelling. Longer exposure
to such atmosphere may also cause death.

Effects of Sulphur Oxides

The pressure of Sulphur oxides in air may cause many dangers to human health.
It causes lung troubles. SO2 can cause tuberculoses, asthma, whopping cough
and eye irritation. They also affect plants. These oxides cause harmful effects on
structures in which white stone is used. An example of such deterioration is
Taj Mahal at Agra.

Effects of Nitrogen Oxides

NO2 affects human lungs and may sometime cause death. It also affects plants.
Moreover it causes deterioration of dyes used in textile industry.

Noise Pollution

The simplest definition of noise is, an objectionable sound, may be owing to the
intensity or Loudness. The common unit of noise measurement is the decibel. It
is a measure of its relative loudness to the human ear.

The cause of noise in industry is generally because of faulty design of

equipment, worn machine parts, improper mounting of equipment, improper
location of machines, use of wrong type of material and recklessness in
operation of equipment.

Effects of Industrial Noise

Noise can have many adverse effects including damage to hearing, disruption of
normal activity and general annoyance. Extremely loud noise, such as sonic
boom can also cause physical damage to structures. The most common and
best-understood physiological effect of noise is hearing impairment either
temporary or permanent.

Solid Wastes Pollution

Million tons of industrial solid wastes are generated every year. These include:

• Scrap metal
• Paper and paper products wastes
• Food and Food products wastes
• Slag
• Waste plastics, and

The effect of industrial solid wastes is detriments to the lives of the local
public and fetch:

• Poor quality of food products

• Unpalatable drinking water
• Various diseases

Conclusion

The growth of technology has generated new chemicals at a rate never before
experienced. The safety of these new materials is a major concern.

Many substances utilized, formulated and manufactured in the industrial

environment possess the ability to adversely affect humans. All these substances
are call toxic substances. A toxic substance is one that demonstrates the
potential to induce cancer, tumors, or neoplastic effects in man or experimental
animals. Some industrial hazards have been known for centuries. In the first
century AD, the lead was identified as toxic substance.

Mercury intoxication was identified in France in the seventh century. Exposure to

other hazardous substances is an out growth of modern technology. It is
interesting to note that despite the fact that development in the history of
toxicology began more than 3000 years ago, a large percentage of knowledge in
this area has been developed in the last 30 years.

Industrial toxicology is a specific segment of environmental toxicology concerned

with the harmful potential of the raw materials, intermediates and finished
products encountered by workers. Environmental toxicology is primarily
concerned with the harmful effects of chemicals encountered by man in the total
ecological system.
WATER POLLUTION
AIR POLLUTION
INDUSTRIAL AIR POLLUTION