What do you mean by environment pollution?

What are the

effect of pollution in our country? How can we classify
pollution?
Definiton:
Environmental pollution is a multi-disciplinary science involving chemistry, physics,
life science, agriculture, medical science, public health, sanitary engineering etc. In
broader sense, it is the study of the sources, reactions, transport, effect and fate of
chemical species in the air, water and soil and the effect of human activity upon
these.

Types of Pollution:
Air Pollution

Causes of air pollution:

 motor vehicle exhaust

 power stations
 car manufacturing
 fertilizer factories
 demolishing buildings
 solvent evaporation
 volcanic eruption
 building roads
 forest fires

Effect of air pollution:

Global warming, acid rain, smog, ozone depletion are some effects of air pollution
Water Pollution

Causes of water pollution:

 man-made chemicals used in farming

 heavy metals
 waste from factories
 sediment from the river bed
 air pollution
 thermal (heat) pollution
 soil pollution from rubbish dumps

Effects of water pollution:

The water in the earth’s biosphere is used and reused again and again by all living
things

soil pollution

Causes of soil pollution:

 farming
 mining and quarrying
 household waste
 demolition and putting up buildings
 factory waste
 Effects of soil pollution:
Experts say that lots of land each year becomes unusable for humans or animals .

Noise pollution

Causes of noise pollution:

 noisy roads and traffic

 air traffic
 rail traffic
 household noise
 industrial noise

Effects of noise pollution:

We hear and make sounds nearly all the time but too much noise can make us feel
angry or depressed. The time of day that noises are heard is very important.
Radiation

Pollution from radiation can be caused by:

 nuclear power plants

 making nuclear weapons
 disposal of nuclear waste
 mining for uranium

What can happen?

Radiation occurs naturally at low levels and is a useful source of power when
concentrated.

It can also be very harmful to all living things if they are exposed to too much of it.

Light

Light pollution happens when outside lights, such as a streetlight or a security light,
points light upwards into the night sky.

This light gets scattered in the sky and makes an orange foggy glow to appear above
a town.

What can happen?

It is likely that we won’t be able to see the stars in the night sky if the amount of light
pollution isn’t closely controlled.
DISASTERS

NATURAL AND MANMADE DISASTERS

Sometimes there are drastic changes in environment due to natural disasters, e.g.
cyclone, typhoon, hurricane, tornado, earthquake, volcanic eruption etc. within a
short time.

Bush fires, are another type of natural disasters, are of common occurrence in
some regions of the world due to hot summer and lightning. During the hot summer
months bush fires are common in Australia and in the Pacific coast arid areas in
USA.

Man developed science and technology but over the years since the Industrial
Revolution (1780- todate) he continued to plunder natural resources thereby
polluting the environment. He degraded lands, destroyed forests, threw toxic wastes
into rivers and seas and also harmful gases into the atmosphere. This continuous
load of manmade pollutants into environment brought about adverse changes, which
ultimately back-fired into series of disasters from time to time.

Some examples of manmade disasters are: London smog, Minamata disease,

nuclear explosions, Bhopal disaster, Chernobyl disaster and Gulf War Hazards.

Nuclear Explosions. Two bombs were dropped by USA during World War II (Aug 6
and 9, 1945) on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. These instantly killed about 6
lakhs people, wiped out the two cities and unleashed radioactive fallout which has
caused generations to suffer from various diseases including genetic disorder.
Radiation continues to damage plants, soil and biosphere* in the region.

*the environment consists of four segments- atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere

and bioshphere.

Global Warming or Green House Effect

Among the constituents of the atmosphere, only carbon dioxide and water vapour
strongly absorb infrared radiation (14000 to 25000 nm) and effectively block a large
fraction of the earth’s emitted radiation. The radiation thus absorbed by carbon
dioxide and water vapour is partly re-emitted to the earth’s surface. The net result is
that the earth’s surface gets heated up by a phenomenon called the greenhouse
effect.
The current global trend in deforestation along with increased combustion of fossil
fuels have a cumulative effect on the net increase in carbon dioxide content (present
356 ppm, 50%). Carbon dioxide has the potential to rival nuclear wars in terms of
massive irreversible damage to the environment. It is the major greenhouse gas but
there are other greenhouse gases- methane (CH 4, 19%), chlorofluorocarbons (CFC,
17%), nitrous oxide (N2O, 4%) and water vapour (2%).

Effects in our country:

The present environmental condition of Bangladesh is not at all
equilibrium. Severe air, water and noise pollution are threatening human
health, ecosystems and economic growth of Bangladesh. Air pollution
caused due to increasing population, burning fossil fuels, industrialization
and associated motorization. The water pollution caused due to
industrialization. The under ground water of Bangladesh has been polluted
due to arsenic. The inhabitants of major cities of Bangladesh are also
exposed to high level of noise pollution. Environmental degradation of
Bangladesh is also caused due to poverty, over-population and lack of
awareness on the subject. It is manifested by deforestation, destruction
of wetlands, soil erosion and natural calamities. Few steps have been
taken by the government to improve the environmental degradation and
pollution control. This paper analyzes the different types of environmental
pollution and associated health hazard in Bangladesh. It also discusses
the different governmental steps as well as some suggested steps to
improve the pollution control.