CHEMISTRY

PROJECT

TOPIC:
ENVIRONMENTAL
POLLUTION

BY:

C L A S S : XII-A
SCHOOL:
 CONTENTS
What is pollution

? Modern
Awareness Forms of
pollution Sources &
causes
Effects
Pollution control
Bibliography
Remarks
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I owe a great many thanks to many people who helped & supported
me during the preparation of my project.

My deepest thanks to Lecturer, ……………, the Guide of the

project for guiding and correcting various documents of mine
with attention and care. She has taken pain to go through the
project and make necessary correction as and when needed.
I would also like to thank my Institution & my faculty members
without whom this project would have been a distant reality. I
also extend my heartfelt thanks to my family and well-wishers.

I thank everyone once again & especially God,who made all

things possible.
 What is Pollution?
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural
environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to
the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution
can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise,
heat, or light.
Pollutants, the elements of pollution, can be foreign substances or
energies, or naturally occurring; when
naturally occurring, they are considered contaminants when they
exceed natural levels. Pollution is often classed as point source or
non point source pollution. The Blacksmith Institute issues an
annual list of the world's worst polluted places. In the 2007 issues
the ten top nominees are located in Azerbaijan, China, India, Peru,
Russia, Ukraine, and Zambia.
 Modern awareness
Pollution became a popular issue after World War II, due to
radioactive fallout from atomic warfare and testing. Then a non-
nuclear event, The Great Smog of 1952 in London, killed at least
4000 people. This prompted some of the first major modern
environmental legislation, The Clean Air Act of 1956.
Pollution began to draw major public attention in the United
States between the mid-1950s and early 1970s, when Congress
passed the Noise Control Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water
Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. Bad bouts of
local pollution helped increase consciousness. PCB
(Polychlorinated biphenyl)
Dumping in the Hudson River resulted in a ban by the EPA on
consumption of its fish in 1974. Long-term dioxin contamination
at Love Canal starting in 1947 became a national news story in
1978 and led to the Superfund legislation of 1980. Legal
proceedings in the 1990s helped bring to light Chromium-6
releases in California--the champions of whose victims became
famous.

The pollution of industrial land gave rise to the name Brownfield,

a term now common in city planning. DDT was banned in most of
the developed world after the publication of Rachel Carson's
Silent Spring.
The development of nuclear science introduced radioactive
contamination, which can remain lethally radioactive for hundreds
of thousands of years. Lake Karachay, named by the World watch
Institute as the "most polluted spot" on earth, served as a disposal
site for the Soviet Union throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Second
place may go to the area of Chelyabinsk U.S.S.R. as the "Most
polluted place on the planet".
Nuclear weapons continued to be tested in the Cold War,
sometimes near inhabited areas, especially in the earlier stages of
their development. The toll on the worst affected populations and
the growth since then in understanding about the critical threat to
human health posed by radioactivity has also been a prohibitive
complication associated with nuclear power. Though extreme care
is practiced in that industry, the potential for disaster suggested by
incidents such as those at Three Mile Island
and Chernobyl pose a lingering specter of public mistrust. One
legacy of nuclear testing before most forms were banned has been
significantly raised levels of background radiation.

International catastrophes such as the wreck of the Amoco Cadiz

oil tanker off the coast of Brittany in 1978 and the Bhopal disaster
in 1984 have demonstrated the universality of such events and
the scale on which efforts to address them needed to engage. The
border-less nature of atmosphere and oceans inevitably resulted in
the implication of pollution on a planetary level with the issue of
global warming. Most recently the term persistent organic
pollutant (POP) has come to describe a group of chemicals such
as PBDEs and PFCs among others.

Though their effects remain somewhat less well understood owing

to a lack of experimental data, they have been detected in various
ecological habitats far removed from industrial activity such as the
Arctic, demonstrating diffusion and bio-accumulation after only a
relatively brief period of widespread use.
Growing evidence of local and global pollution and an
increasingly informed public over time have given rise to
environmentalism and the environmental movement, which
generally seek to limit human impact on the environment.
 Forms of Pollution
The major forms of pollution are listed below along with the
particular pollutants relevant to each of them:
Air pollution, the release of chemicals and particulates into
the atmosphere. Common gaseous pollutants include carbon
monoxide, sulfur dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and
nitrogen oxides produced by industry and motor vehicles.
Photochemical ozone and smog are created as nitrogen
oxides and hydrocarbons react to sunlight. Particulate matter,
or fine dust is characterized by their micrometer size PM10 to
PM2.5.
Light pollution, includes light trespass, over-illumination and
astronomical interference.
Littering
Noise pollution, which encompasses roadway noise,
aircraft noise, industrial noise as well as high-intensity sonar.
Soil contamination occurs when chemicals are released
intentionally, by spill or underground leakage. Among the
most significant soil contaminants are hydrocarbons, heavy
metals, MTBE, herbicides, pesticides and chlorinated
hydrocarbons.
Radioactive contamination, resulting from 20th century
activities in atomic physics, such as nuclear power generation
and nuclear weapons research, manufacture and deployment.
(See alpha emitters and actinides in the environment.)
 Thermal pollution, is a temperature change in natural
water bodies caused by human influence, such as use of
water as coolant in a power plant.
Visual pollution, which can refer to the presence of
overhead power lines, motorway billboards, scarred land
forms (as from strip mining), open storage of trash or
municipal solid waste.
Water pollution, by the discharge of wastewater from
commercial and industrial waste (intentionally or through
spills) into surface waters; discharges of untreated domestic
sewage, and chemical contaminants, such as chlorine, from
treated sewage; release of waste and contaminants into
surface runoff flowing to surface waters (including urban
runoff and agricultural runoff, which may contain chemical
fertilizers and pesticides); waste disposal and leaching into
groundwater; eutrophication and littering.
 Sources and causes
Air pollution comes from both natural and man-made sources.
Though globally man made pollutants from combustion,
construction, mining, agriculture and warfare are increasingly
significant in the air pollution equation.
Motor vehicle emissions are one of the leading causes of air
pollution. China, United States, Russia, Mexico, and Japan are
the world leaders in air pollution emissions.
Principal stationary pollution sources include chemical plants, coal-
fired power plants, oil refineries, petrochemical plants, nuclear
waste disposal activity, incinerators, large livestock farms (dairy
cows, pigs, poultry, etc.), PVC factories, metals production
factories, plastics factories, and other heavy industry. Agricultural
air pollution comes from contemporary practices, which include
clear felling
and burning of natural vegetation as well as spraying of pesticides
and herbicides.
About 400 million metric tons of hazardous wastes are
generated each year. The United States alone produces about
250 million metric tons. Americans constitute less than 5% of
the world's population, but produce roughly 25% of the world’s
CO2, and generate approximately 30% of world’s waste. In
2007, China has overtaken the United States as the world's
biggest producer of CO2.
In February 2007, a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC), representing the work of 2,500 scientists,
economists, and policymakers from more than 120 countries, said
that humans have been the primary cause of global warming since
1950.
Humans have ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions and avoid
the consequences of global warming, a major climate report
concluded. But in order to change the climate, the transition from
fossil fuels like coal and oil needs to occur within decades,
according to the final report this year from the UN's
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Some of the more common soil contaminants are chlorinated
hydrocarbons (CFH), heavy metals (such as chromium, cadmium–
found in rechargeable batteries, and lead–found in lead paint,
aviation fuel and still in some countries, gasoline), MTBE, zinc,
arsenic and benzene. In 2001 a series of press reports culminating
in a book called Fateful Harvest unveiled a widespread practice of
recycling industrial byproducts into fertilizer, resulting in the
contamination of the soil with various metals.
Ordinary municipal landfills are the source of many chemical
substances entering the soil environment (and often
groundwater), emanating from the wide variety of refuse
accepted, especially substances illegally discarded there, or from
pre-1970 landfills that may have been subject to little control in
the U.S. or EU. There have also been some unusual releases of
polychlorinated dibenzodioxins, commonly called dioxins for
simplicity, such as TCDD(2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin).
Pollution can also be the consequence of a natural disaster. For
example, hurricanes often involve water contamination from
sewage, and petrochemical spills from ruptured boats or
automobiles. Larger scale and environmental damage is not
uncommon when coastal oil rigs or refineries are involved. Some
sources of pollution, such as nuclear power plants or oil tankers,
can produce widespread and potentially hazardous releases when
accidents occur.In the case of noise pollution the dominant source
class is the motor vehicle, producing about ninety percent of all
unwanted noise worldwide.
 Effects
Human health:
Adverse air quality can kill many organisms including humans.
Ozone pollution can cause respiratory disease, cardiovascular
disease, throat inflammation, chest pain, and congestion. Water
pollution causes approximately 14,000 deaths per day, mostly due
to contamination of drinking water by untreated sewage in
developing countries. An estimated 700 million Indians have no
access to a proper toilet, and 1,000 Indian children die of
diarrhoeal sickness every day. Nearly 500 million Chinese lack
access to safe drinking water. 656,000 people die prematurely
each year in China because of air pollution. In India, air pollution
is believed to cause 527,700 fatalities a year. Studies have
estimated that the number of people killed annually in the US
could be over 50,000.
Oil spills can cause skin irritations and rashes. Noise pollution
induces hearing loss, high blood pressure, stress, and sleep
disturbance. Mercury has been linked to developmental deficits in
children and neurological symptoms. Older people are majorly
exposed to diseases induced by air pollution. Those with heart or
lung disorders are under additional risk.

Children and infants are also at serious risk. Lead and other heavy
metals have been shown to cause neurological problems. Chemical
and radioactive substances can cause cancer and as well as birth
defects.
Environment:
Pollution has been found to be present widely in the environment.
There are a number of effects of this: Biomagnification describes
situations where toxins (such as heavy metals) may pass through
tropic levels, becoming exponentially more concentrated in the
process.
Carbon dioxide emissions cause ocean acidification, the
ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth's oceans as CO2
becomes dissolved.
The emission of greenhouse gases leads to global warming which
affects ecosystems in many ways.
Invasive species can out compete native species and reduce
biodiversity. Invasive plants can contribute debris and bio
molecules (allelopathy) that can alter soil and chemical
compositions of an environment, often reducing native species
competitiveness.
Nitrogen oxides are removed from the air by rain and fertilize land,
which can change the species composition of ecosystems.
Smog and haze can reduce the amount of sunlight received by
plants to carry out photosynthesis and leads to the production of
tropospheric ozone which damages plants.
Soil can become infertile and unsuitable for plants. This will affect
other organisms in the food web.
Sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide can cause acid rain, which
lowers the pH value of soil.
Environmental health information:

The Toxicology and Environmental Health Information Program

(TEHIP) at the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM)
maintains a comprehensive toxicology and environmental health
web site that includes access to resources produced by TEHIP and
by other government agencies and organizations. This web site
includes links to databases, bibliographies, tutorials, and other
scientific and consumer-oriented resources. TEHIP also is
responsible for the Toxicology Data Network (TOXNET®) an
integrated system of toxicology and environmental health
databases that are available free of charge on the web.
TOXMAP is a Geographic Information System (GIS) that is part of
TOXNET. TOXMAP uses maps of the United States to help users
visually explore data from the United States Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA) Toxics Release Inventory and
Superfund Basic Research Programs.
 Pollution control
Pollution control is a term used in environmental management. It
means the control of emissions and effluents into air, water or soil.
Without pollution control, the waste products from consumption,
heating, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, transportation and
other human activities, whether they accumulate or disperse, will
degrade the environment. In the hierarchy of controls, pollution
prevention and waste minimization are more desirable than
pollution control. In the field of land development, low impact
development is a similar technique for the prevention of urban
runoff.

Practices:
Recycling

Pollution control devices:

Dust collection systems
1. Bag-houses
2. Cyclones
3. Electrostatic precipitators

Scrubbers
1. Baffle spray scrubber
2. Cyclonic spray scrubber
3. Ejector venturi scrubber
4. Mechanically aided scrubber
5. Spray tower
6. Wet scrubber
 Sewage treatment
1. Sedimentation (Primary treatment)
2. Activated sludge biotreaters (Secondary treatment; also
used for industrial wastewater)
3. Aerated lagoons
4. Constructed wetlands (also used for urban runoff)

Industrial wastewater treatment

1. API oil-water separators
2. Biofilters
3. Dissolved air flotation (DAF)
4. Powdered activated carbon Treatment
5. Ultrafiltration

Vapor recovery systems

 Bibliography
En.wikipedia.org
Google.com
https://www.youtube.com/@ALLINVESTIGATORYPROJECTS

https://t.me/allinvestigatoryprojects
Newspapers/Magazines etc.