Effects of pollution

What is the world’s deadliest slow poison? Is it a drug, herb or any chemical? No, not all of them! The menace of pollution is the world’s deadliest and massive slow poison that is killing human beings, animals and plants by and by even it is not noticed by the saner elements. Pollution the unwanted introduction of various contaminants in to the various types of environment has played havoc with life and environment both.

It is not an exaggeration when we listen or read somewhere that millions of deaths occur all around the world due to various types of pollution. Under very conservative estimates nearly fifty percent deaths per year world over occur due to the harmful effects of pollution which take the life very slowly.

Biological effects of the pollution

It is widely said that environment is life and pollution is death. It is absolutely right. Wherever there is modicum of pollution the spread of diseases are obvious there. Some of the pollution-caused diseases are so fatal which ultimately lead to the human beings to the deep trench of the death.
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Effects of the air pollution on human life

·         It weakens the lungs to function well

·         It causes irritation of eyes, nose, mouth and throat

·         It brings on asthma attacks

·         It causes respiratory symptoms such as coughing and wheezing

·         It increases the chances of respiratory diseases such as bronchitis

·         It reduces the energy levels

·         It is the main reason of headaches and dizziness

·         It causes disruption of endocrine, reproductive and immune systems

·         It is the cause of neuro behavioral disorders

·         It creates cardiovascular problems

·         It may cause cancer due to presence of carcinogenic contents in it

·         It causes premature death

What is water pollution?

What is water pollution? Its answer is so simple. When water loses its natural composition owing to encroachment of any unwanted compound into it then it does not remain as pure water and called the polluted water. This situation in the water is widely termed as the water pollution which literally means the poor quality of water.

Water pollution has become global issue. Wherever there is water, pollutants are contaminating it in one way or on another and are causing water pollution. On the two-third part of this planet there is water and rest of the one-third comprises of the land. It means the water pollutants are so huge in size and so harmful in effects that they are damaging the natural features of huge amount of water available in the world and depriving us of the opportunity to consume the pollution-free water.

All the sources of the water including oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, ponds, canals, streams etc are the worst hit of water pollution. The question arises here; who is polluting the water? Unfortunately we all human beings are contributing in one way or other, knowingly or unknowingly in polluting the water. It means all the human activities and their impacts are causing water pollution all across the globe.

A few decades ago there was no any serious threat of water pollution and as intense as it is nowadays. No doubt there was the problem of water contamination during older times but it was quite nominal. Thanks to the rapid industrialization and the urbanization all over the world which unleashed the menace of the water pollution. Does it mean the development is responsible for this havoc? Not at all; the unplanned and the disorganized development is the main cause of the all types of the pollution all around the world.

Types of water pollution

Technically speaking there are two main types of the water pollution.

Surface water pollution

The surface water is the entire amount of the water found in oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, stream etc. It may be further bifurcated into various categories according to its various other features like taste, place of storage etc. So wherever there is any sort of the contamination in the surface water it is called the surface water

Oil Pollution

Can oil be polluted? Are you thinking about this? Oil can be contaminated or adulterated but can’t be polluted. Any kind of liquid may not have as harmful effects as that of oil and the most harmful is its ability to put on fire. Then what is oil pollution. It is actually a wrong wording generally used for oil spills which means unwanted flow of oil into the water or land. But generally it is called oil pollution so for the convenience of the readers better to use the same term.

Oil pollution means spilling of the liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment more particularly into the marine environment. Oil in huge quantity is mostly transported trans-border through sea routes while its transportation within a country is done through a land route. Therefore, most of the oil pollution is occurred in sea water. Large vessels transport oil in big quantity from country to country and sometimes tanks lying over them leak and release a large quantity of oil directly into the sea. The leakages in fuel tanks of ship also cause oil pollution.

Other causes of oil pollution are rare. Like if a refinery is situated near the coastal area and releases the unwanted and bad quality oil directly into the sea causing oil pollution. It may happen in countries where there are no stringent laws to control flow of industrial effluents directly into the sea and other water bodies. Similarly boats which run on petrol or diesel mostly of fishermen folk also release the oil or diesel into the sea because of seepages into their fuel tank while moving on water.

Pollutants

Who amongst us is fully aware of devastation of pollutants. We all directly or indirectly keep falling prey to pollutants in one way or another. Unfortunately most of us are not aware of them and simply know about pollution and not about the pollutants. The root cause of every type of pollution is its pollutants which usually are more than many and keep damaging our environment and eventually make our lives more miserable.

Types of pollutants

The pollutants are all types of substances which cause any kind of pollution. Various gases are pollutants of air pollution, so many poisonous chemicals create land pollution and many elements and compounds bring on water pollution. They may be physical, chemical or both. These may be in all the three forms of matter; gas, liquid and solid. All the products of waste or their by-products are pollutants.

Most of the times a balanced quantity of various substance is good for nature but their excess or shortage may convert them into pollutants. Like soil needs a good balance of phosphate and nitrates to maintain fertility but their excess is harmful for its fertility and also cause water pollution especially in ground water.