POLLUTIONS IN EARTH

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT POLLUTION?
HOW MANY TYPES OF POLLUTIONS?
WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF POLLUTIONS FOR HUMAN BEING AND OTHER LIVING ORGANISMS?
WHAT ARE THE BEST SOLUTIONS TO CONTROL POLLUTIONS?

Monday 30 January 2012

WAYS TO PREVENT NOISE POLLUTIONS



  • Do not use car horns unnecessarily. Areas like hospitals and campuses are silence zones and honking is prohibited there.
  • Avoid loud music, which hurts your ears and others' ears.
  • Firecrackers are extremely loud. So don't try and burn them unnecessarily.
  • Motors, machines and vehicles also produce loud noises when not maintained properly. Proper maintenance should be carried out for better performance.
  • If you are working in an area where there are loud noises, you must wear earplugs to prevent loss of hearing.
  • When going to theme parks and such, avoid riding on the rides which produce a lot of noise. One example is the ATV, which is like a huge motorbike.
  • Turn off the engine of your car or motorbike when you are not using it. It stops the annoying hum, and reduces air pollution!
  • Better off, walk or cycle to school! It does wonders to the environment, reduces the amount of air pollution and noise, and makes you fit!

WAYS TO PREVENT WATER POLLUTIONS

  •  Conserve water by turning off the tap when running water is not necessary. This helps prevent water shortages and reduces the amount of contaminated water that needs treatment.
  • Be careful about what you throw down your sink or toilet. Don’t throw paints, oils or other forms of litter down the drain.
  • Use environmentally household products, such as washing powder, household cleaning agents and toiletries.
  • Take great care not to overuse pesticides and fertilisers. This will prevent runoffs of the material into nearby water sources.
  • By having more plants in your garden you are preventing fertiliser, pesticides and contaminated water from running off into nearby water sources.
  • Don’t throw litter into rivers, lakes or oceans. Help clean up any litter you see on beaches or in rivers and lakes, make sure it is safe to collect the litter and put it in a nearby dustbin.

Friday 27 January 2012

WAYS TO PREVENT AIR POLLUTIONS




When you must motor - drive smart


Since modern transport has evolved around the ICE vehicle, you will probably need to gas up and drive sometimes. Here are a few tips for those times to help reduce ICE pollution.

1. Start it, go, and stop it. Idling the internal combustion pollutes a lot more than when you are driving it. 

2. Consolidate your trips: When you start the car or truck, try to hook up more than one 
stop along the way. It will save time and money, not to mention clearing the air some.

3. Keep your car or truck tuned. Modern cars don't need much tuning, but do what is needed to keep it firing cleanly. 

4. Drive inside the law. You have most likely heard these things before, they may seem boring, but will reduce pollution. Accelerate and stop smoothly, and don't speed. Just like bikes, due to air resistance, cars require a lot more power as speed increases

5. Share the ride. When you share the load, the amount of pollution per person goes down.

6. Drive a fuel efficient vehicle where possible.

7. Park your ICE car at least one day per week for a no driving day.

Monday 16 January 2012

EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTIONS

EFFECT ON HUMAN HEALTH

Short-term health effects include irritation to the eyes, nose and throat, and upper respiratory infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia. Other symptoms can include headaches, nausea, and allergic reactions. Short-term air pollution can aggravate the medical conditions of individuals with asthma and emphysema.
Long-term health effects can include chronic respiratory disease, lung cancer, heart disease, and even damage to the brain, nerves, liver, or kidneys. Continual exposure to air pollution affects the lungs of growing children and may aggravate or complicate medical conditions in the elderly. It is estimated that half a million people die prematurely every year in the United States as a result of smoking cigarettes.
EFFECT ON FORESTS,TREES AND PLANTS
Physical injury to leaves is the immediate effect of air pollution on plants. Here is how leaves are affected by different air pollutants:

    • Ozone produces a speckle of brown spots, which appear on the flat areas of leaf between the veins
    • sulphur dioxide: larger bleached-looking areas
    • Nitrogen dioxide: irregular brown or white collapsed lesions on intercostal tissue and near the leaf edge
    • Ammonia: unnatural green appearance with tissue drying out


EFFECT ON ANIMALS

  • Probably one of the best examples here is that of acid rain and how it affects freshwater animal life.
Sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide are transformed in the atmosphere to produce acid compounds – sulphuric and nitric acids. These compounds then fall back on to the ground as particulates or raindrops – in other words, acid rain.
So acid rain also falls on streams and lakes, acidifies them and destroys fish life in these freshwater ecosystems. 
For example, in Sweden acid rain made over 18,000 lakes so acidic that all the fish died out.Salmon species appear to be particularly sensitive to acidity.
Some other populations of animals in Europe and North America that have also been declining due to acid rain are brown trout, mayfly larvae, beetle larvae, mollusks, and aquatic bird species (ex., the dipper). 
  • Pollution may also affect animals through plants on which they feed.
For example, pea aphids feed on pea plants exposed to sulfur dioxide in the air. High exposure to sulfur dioxide negatively affects the health of the pea plants, and therefore, the health of the aphids as well. 
Some other examples of air pollution effects on animals:

  • Excessive ultraviolet radiation coming from the sun through the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere which is eroded by some air pollutants, may cause skin cancer in wildlife.

EXAMPLES OF WATER POLLUTIONS