Environmental Pollution and Pollutants: We are blessed to dwell on a beautiful planet, “Earth”, with such amazing surroundings composed of green plants, water bodies, and fresh air to breathe. But are we really obliged to nature for what it has provided us? Sadly, the answer is NO! As we are developing, we are degrading our environment for our selfish ends and comfort. For example, with increased industrialisation and urbanisation, harmful, toxic, and unwanted materials are being introduced to the environment, which is the root cause of environmental pollution. Before learning about environmental pollution and pollutants, we should know what does the word ‘Environment’ mean? The surroundings and conditions in which all living beings, including humans, animals, and plants, live and perform their daily activities for survival and livelihood are defined as the environment. The surroundings are composed of air, atmosphere, water bodies, etc.

Though we are becoming very advanced in technologies with the passing time, and we have improved our quality of life to a great extent, but in that course, we forgot that we need to look after the goodness of our environment too. Environmental pollution is of different types like air pollution can cause various problems such as global warming, ozone depletion, the greenhouse effect, and many more severe issues have come up at an alarming rate. Other environmental pollution is classified as air pollution, soil pollution, water pollution, noise pollution, etc. In this article, we will study various types of environmental pollution and pollutants.

What is Environmental Pollution?

Environmental pollution is defined as the contamination of the environment with unwanted, harmful, and hazardous substances that negatively affect the biological as well as physical atmospheric constituents. With an increase in the industrial revolution and urbanisation, we unknowingly contaminated our environment, and today, it has come to a threatening level, and it needs to be checked at any cost.

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Types of Environmental Pollution and Pollutants

Environmental pollution is categorised into different types based on the sources, such as air pollution, water pollution, soil, or land pollution, and many more. The pollution causing agents are known as pollutants, and different types of pollutants cause different types of environmental pollution. Let’s study about them one by one.

1. Air Pollution

Air pollution is the presence of harmful and hazardous contaminants in the atmosphere such as smoke, smog, toxic gases, particulate matter, etc. Air pollution is one of the vital causes of environmental pollution that causes serious environmental threats such as global warming, ozone layer depletion, and many more. They cause serious health issues related to respiratory disorders in organisms.

Air Pollutants

When we breathe, we don’t even realise what pollutants we are inhaling along with the oxygen gas because air pollutants are mainly invisible gases or particles. The five major outdoor air pollutants are:

1. Ozone \(({\text{O}}_3)\)
Tropospheric ozone is an atmospheric pollutant that is not emitted directly by car engines or by industrial activities, but it is formed by the reaction of sunlight with air containing hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides that react to form ozone directly at the pollution source or many kilometres away from the source.
2. Nitrogen Oxides \(({\text{NOx}})\)
Nitrogen oxides as nitrogen oxides \(({\text{NO}} )\) or nitrogen dioxide \(({\text{NO}}_2)\) are major pollutants in the atmosphere as they are a precursor to acid rain, photochemical smog, and ozone assembling. These oxides are more common in urban areas where combustion from vehicular and industrial activities are more prevalent.
3. Sulphur Oxides \(({\text{SOx}})\)
Sulphur oxides are highly reactive gases that form particulate matter and form smog in the atmosphere. We can notice these gases from the vehicle’s pungent exhaust cloud.
4. Carbon Monoxide \(({\text{CO}})\)
Carbon monoxide is mainly produced by vehicles and factories due to incomplete combustion. It is a highly toxic gas; if inhaled too much, it can be fatal too.
5. Particulate Matter
Inhalable particles that are microscopic in size, including dust, pollen, mould, etc., are particulate matter. They are very injurious to our health because we cannot see them with our naked eyes, and once they enter our respiratory system, they can cause serious issues. One of the common problems due to these particulate matters is seen in New Delhi, where people notice a layer of grey haze all around that prevents them from clearly seeing the landscape miles ahead. Based on the diameters, these particulate matters are classified as PM \(10,\) PM \(2.5,\) etc.

2. Water Pollution

The contamination of water bodies such as rivers, lakes, oceans, etc., due to the introduction of toxic wastes is defined as water pollution. Water pollution is a result of human activities such as untreated sewage discharge, disposal of industrial wastes into the water bodies, agricultural wastes such as fertilisers, pesticides, and insecticides, and many more. Let’s learn about some major pollutants that cause water pollution.

Water Pollutants

Different types of water pollutants discharged into the water bodies either by domestic activities or as industrial effluents can be divided into the following criteria:
1. Organic pollutants
2. Inorganic pollutants
3. Pathogens
4. Suspended solids and nutrients
5. Agriculture pollutants
6. Thermal pollutants
7. Radioactive pollutants

3. Soil Pollution

The pollution of soil caused due to its contamination because of dumping harmful wastes, including plastics, garbage, clothes, medical equipment, metals, etc., into landfills is known as soil pollution. The soil quality gets degraded due to these contaminations.

Soil Pollutants

1. Solid waste disposal includes scrap vehicles, electronic gadgets, waste generated from demolished buildings, medical wastes, and many more.
2. Mining activities also degrades the soil in that area due to the spillage of toxic metals, oils, and chemicals.
3. Agricultural activities lead to the loss of soil fertility due to excessive use of chemical fertilisers.
4. Some common inorganic wastes (metals) that cause soil pollution includes lead, nickel, mercury, arsenic, copper, etc.

4. Radioactive Pollution

Due to the introduction of radioactive substances into the environment because of certain human activities like testing of nuclear weapons, nuclear explosions, mining of radioactive ores, etc., radioactive pollution occurs. Harmful radioactive rays cause serious diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disorders, anaemia, etc., in people.
Causes
1. Use of radioisotopes for medical treatments and laboratory purposes.
2. Nuclear accidents are caused by nuclear energy power plants.
3. Spillage of radioactive wastes in water bodies like in seas and oceans.
4. Testing of nuclear weapons is a major threat to spread harmful radioactive rays in that area.
Effects
Severe health issues like cancer due to mutation, damaged cells, skin burns, and many more occur due to radioactive wastes.
It leads to harmful environmental issues as radioactive substances pollute water bodies and soil to a great extent.

Radioactive Pollutants

1. Radioactive Air Pollutants includes harmful alpha, beta, and gamma radiations released into the atmosphere from nuclear reactors.
2. Radioactive Water Pollutants – Various radioactive elements such as Uranium can enter water sources from the nuclear reactor and from chemical laboratories.

Prevention of Environmental Pollution

1.The use of renewable sources of energy such as wind energy, solar energy, etc., instead of non-renewable sources of energy like coal and petroleum products should be promoted.
2. Public transport should be opted instead of private vehicles, and this would reduce air pollution to a great extent.
3. Burning of forests, agricultural farms, dry leaves, etc., should be avoided as they release lots of carbon dioxide gases, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter.
4. Factories should switch to natural gas fuel instead of coal, which can dramatically reduce emissions of harmful toxic gases like mercury, particulates matter, greenhouse gasses, and other atmospheric contaminants.
5. Instead of plastic bags, we should use jute bags or other recyclable bags for shopping.
6. Soil pollution can be reduced by afforestation, using organic farming techniques that stop the use of chemicals such as fertilisers, pesticides.

Summary

In short, we can see that every kind of environmental pollution causes a serious threat to our whole environment, including the atmosphere as well as the biological system. We need fresh air to breathe and fresh water to drink for a better life ahead. To stop environmental pollution, we should first know about the various pollutants that cause it and try to stop them. Though the origins of different types of environmental pollution are different, their effects are equally hazardous. Even we have recognised the problem and cause of environmental pollution still sincere attempts are needed to control it.

There are different types of pollutants that cause different types of environmental pollution, such as air pollution, soil pollution, water pollution, radioactive pollution, etc., and their effects also vary in living beings. Thus, we should take sincere steps and think about how to preserve our precious and unique planet before it is too late. We should focus on controlling the root cause of environmental pollution and taking initiatives that would minimise and rectify the damage already done by the pollutants.

FAQs on Environment Pollution and Pollutants

Q.1. What are the environment and environmental pollution?
Ans: The surroundings and conditions in which all living beings, including humans, animals, and plants, live and perform their daily activities for survival and livelihood are defined as the environment. Environmental pollution is defined as the contamination of the environment with unwanted, harmful, and hazardous substances that negatively affect the biological as well as physical atmospheric constituents.

Q.2. What is environmental pollution, and what are the types of pollution?
Ans: Environmental pollution is the contamination of the environment with unwanted, hazardous substances that negatively affect the biological as well as physical constituents of the environment. Based on their source, environmental pollution is classified into different types: air pollution, soil pollution, water pollution, radioactive pollution, etc.

Q.3. What is the difference between pollution and pollutants?
Ans: The term pollution refers to the adulteration of the environment with unwanted, hazardous substances that negatively affect the biological as well as physical constituents of the environment. But pollutants are the pollution causing agents. Different types of pollutants cause different types of environmental pollution.

Q.4. What are some examples of environmental pollutants?
Ans: Different types of pollutants include harmful gases like nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, ozone, and many other greenhouse gases as a cause of air pollution. Water and soil pollutants include domestic activities or industrial effluents.

Q.5. Why are environmental problems difficult?
Ans: The topic of environmental problems is difficult as it is quite complicated to understand given the complexity and how they are interrelated to the different components of the ecosystem. It is very difficult to stop many industrial and human activities at once because we cannot survive without them. Though we are switching to renewable sources of energy, still we have not yet developed them to a great extent.

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