What exactly we have to do so that we can reduce pollution? The agents that pollute are called as pollutants. If it is the nature of form, we call it as primary pollutants and the secondary pollutants.
No microorganisms can decompose these materials. Then we call them as non-degradable. Hello my dear students, welcome back.
Today I shall start with a new chapter. Chapter Environmental Pollution. We have been learning about pollution since we are in school, isn't it? We learn in detail about different types of pollution and what are the pollutants and what exactly we have to do so that we can reduce pollution in this chapter. Okay, so what exactly is pollution?
Pollution can be defined as any undesirable change. What is it? Undesirable change.
In the physical, chemical or biological characteristics of air, water and land that may be harmful for human beings, animals or any living organisms on the earth is called as pollution. So any undesirable change to physical, chemical structure of water or air or land which is very harmful for any living organism. and makes our life a little difficult is called as pollution. And pollution can be natural or it can be also man-made. And most of it is man-made than what is there natural, isn't it?
So, what exactly are pollutants? The agent that pollute are called as pollutants. Or the extra undesirable change is brought out by addition of something.
that agent is called as the pollutant okay and the different types of pollutants are the deposited matter it can be smoke tar dust etc then it can be gases gases like carbon monoxide nitrogen dioxide sulfur dioxide sulfur trioxide you know halogens containing chlorine bromine iodine etc are the gases again which are acting as the pollutants okay you Then we can have metals like lead, zinc, iron, chromium, mercury which are the pollutants. Then we have industrial pollutants that is the pollutants which are coming basically from industries. That it may be in the industrial effluent or it may be any industrial byproduct. It may be the gases which are coming from the industries etc.
They contain benzene, ether, acetic acid and cyanide compounds etc. They can also have heavy metals, radioactive substances. So all of these are called as industrial pollutants.
Then we have agricultural pollutants. In agriculture, we use pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers, which can act as pollutants. Then we have photochemical pollutants. Like photochemical pollutants means these pollutants are there because of the presence of sunlight.
Okay, the reaction is happening because of the sunlight. So ozone. Oxides of nitrogen, aldehyde, then we have ethylene, photochemical smog, peroxy, acetyl, nitrate, etc.
Then you have radiation pollutant. This is basically because of radioactive substances. Okay. So the pollution which is caused by radioactive substances, we call it as radiation pollutants. So these are basically few types of pollutants which we can see around us.
Isn't it? Next is about the classification of pollutants classification of pollutant if you see it is broadly classified as nature of disposal and on nature of how is it formed how are we going to dispose them depending on that there is one type of classification nature of form what is the formation how is it formed based on that there is one more classification so based on nature of disposal it can be non-degradable or biodegradable pollutants if it is the nature of form we call it as primary pollutants and the secondary pollutants okay so we learn each one of them first is based on the nature of disposal non-degradable pollutants the pollutants which cannot be degraded in the nature very easily or it is a very very very slow process which is happening okay no microorganisms can decompose these materials then we call them as non degradable pollutants. Example I can give DDT or aluminium cans which we throw anything which contain mercury etc. They only accumulate and increase over time.
Next is the biodegradable pollutants. These are the pollutants which can be degraded by the microorganisms into simpler compounds. But what happens is if you accumulate the biodegradable pollutants then the rate of accumulation is greater than the rate of decomposition and this can create a lot of problem in causing pollution. Example for biodegradable pollutants are we can take domestic sewage they are biodegradable pollutants okay next we have based on the nature of form it is primary pollutants and the secondary pollutants primary pollutants these include those substance which are emitted directly from a particular source for example from the industries directly we are getting nitrogen dioxide gas sulfur dioxide gas carbon monoxide gas hydrocarbons etc these are directly which is there it is directly coming into the environment from the source then it is a primary pollutant secondary pollutant the secondary pollutants are produced by combination of primary emitted pollutants in the atmosphere so the primary pollutants which are coming they combine with one another to form one more pollutant we call it as a secondary pollutant example we can give In bright sunlight, photochemical reaction occurs between nitrogen dioxide and oxygen and waste hydrocarbons to form, you know, peroxyacetylene nitrate that is pan and ozone which is a secondary pollutant.
Okay. Next is about different types of pollution which we are going to study in this particular chapter. Okay. We will study about the air pollution.
water pollution, soil pollution, about the noise pollution as well as the nuclear pollution. Okay, so first we will go into the details of air pollution. What is air pollution? Air pollution is one such form that refers to the contamination of the air irrespective of indoor or outdoor whether it is inside or whether it's outside environment totally if the air is getting contaminated we call it as air pollution then we have a physical biological or chemical alteration to the air in the atmosphere is also termed as air pollution and it occurs when there is harmful gases dust smoke enters into the atmosphere and makes our life difficult because there is dirty air around us okay so that is called as air pollution next is about the causes of air pollution there are several causes of air pollution which we can see for example forest fires causes air pollution agriculture causes air pollution you might ask me how agriculture is causing air pollution ma'am that is when there is spraying of pesticides or insecticides which we are doing those aerosols go into the air and that causes pollution so even agriculture can cause pollution then we have Energy and industry supplies that is from the energies and industries as well as there is nuclear power plants where the energy is produced. Okay.
There also air pollution can happen. Then there is a lot of dust, volcanoes, transport, household energy from the waste. All of this there is a lot of pollutants which is coming out which causes air pollution. So we have burning of fossil fuels, agricultural activities. exhaust from factories and industries, mining operations, okay, we have already studied of effects of mining operation under that air pollution also was there, isn't it?
Then we have suspended particulate matter, that is, we have lot of fog which is formed because of the other air pollutants are few of the causes of air pollution. Next is about the different types of air pollutants. We have primary and secondary as I explained.
Primary air pollutants is from the primary source it is coming. Example, I gave you different gases like sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, etc. And secondary pollutants are those which is caused by the reaction of the primary pollutants.
So, primary pollutants will react to give rise to secondary pollutants. So, we can see here some of the primary pollutants which we have. carbon monoxide nitric oxide sulfur dioxide ammonia nitrogen dioxide volatile organic compounds and particulates which is there all of this is directly coming from volcanoes you know agriculture or forest fire factories from the vehicles or towns and homes we have all the primary pollutants which we are coming secondary pollutants these pollutants give rise to this that is sulfur trioxide nitric acid hydrogen peroxide sulfuric acid ammonia ozone particulate matter is These reacted to give rise to the secondary pollutants which again will come back to the earth's surface and cause different effects like acid rain okay and they will spoil our crops.
Also you know lot of ailments can come up in humans like asthma or cancer etc. Okay so that's about the types of air pollutants. Next is about the effect of air pollution.
First is the effect of air pollution on humans which we can see. Air pollution affects people throughout their lifetime. You can see here during pregnancy it can cause low birth weight that is the child which is going to be born can have a low birth weight and in children it can cause asthma, slower development of lung function, developmental problems, wheezing and cough.
Start Atherosclerosis also can happen in children. In adults again, Asthma, Heart disease, Stroke, Lung cancer, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Diabetes etc. And in elderly again, Asthma, Accelerated decline in lung function, then you can see Lung cancer, Diabetes, Dementia, Heart attack, Heart failure and Stroke. All of these problems, the root cause can be Air, pollution or the pollutants which is there. Asthma you can see it is there children adults as well as elderly that is basically because the air which we are breathing is going into the lungs which can cause asthma wheezing or lung cancer and along with that there are other diseases which is coming hand in hand which can be caused basically due to air pollution.
If we see the effects of air pollution what is the other effects other than the effect on humans we can see the changing rain and snow patterns okay and the rain ph can reduce to cause acid rain okay there can be stronger storms the acid rain can damage the corals now the carbon dioxide and other gases can increase global warming Correct? And the global warming starts increasing the temperature of the earth as well as the glaciers and the snow can start melting. So less snow and ice which gives rise to rising sea level. Rising sea level means the land is getting submerged. We have very little amount of land for the population what we have that is very very less what we have land and that also starts submerging because of again air pollution.
or global warming then we have the temperature increases also we will have warmer oceans higher temperature and more heat waves will be there because of global warming again more rots and wild fires or the forest fires are there because of the increased temperature okay thawing the permafrost also can happen changes in animal migration and life cycle all of this can happen you because of the root cause of air pollution. Air pollution is the one which is causing acid rain and global warming. And these two things can give rise to all of these changes in the environment. And all the wild animals, microorganisms, as well as the birds, along with humans can be affected with air pollution.
Next, we can have some control measures which we can take. to control air pollution what we can do first thing is some measures that can be adopted directly are using unleaded petrol using fuels with low sulfur and ash content so the fuel which we use the quality of the fuel should be really good only then it should be unleaded lead should not be there sulfur should not be there then we can prevent lead poisoning as well as the sulfur dioxide which is produced from the vehicles can be reduced so that acid rain can be reduced and also encouraging people to use public transport or walk so some transport like you know cycle can be used or which does not have any pollutants which is coming out from it or we can you know pulling of the cars can be taking place or using public transport also can be encouraged also plant trees along the busy streets so that they can remove the particulates carbon dioxide and absorb the noise as well noise pollution also can be reduced so planting trees again is very very important cigars again one more cause of air pollution and industries and the waste disposal site should be situated outside the city preferably on the downwind of the city then catalytic converter should be used to help control the emission of carbon monoxide so catalytic converter can be there can be installed in all the vehicles so that carbon monoxide is reduced and thus you know the pollution can be reduced and also There should be strict action which has to be taken or the rules which has to be placed on all the industries so that they can use all the equipments which is required before they leave out the exhaust gases from these industry directly into the air. It has to pass through these equipment so that all of the air pollutants can be neutralized and then it can be left into the environment. So there has to be strict rules on using the equipments and also to control the air pollution and what is the amount of pollution that they are going to cause. All of this has to be taken care by the industries before they leave out any air pollutants into the environment and spoil the environment.
Okay. So that's about the air pollution. We have learned about the different types of pollutants. We have learned their causes.
We have learned their. effects as well as we have learned about the control measures of air pollution. So we have to be more responsible to save ourselves and save mother earth. Okay so thank you my dear children stay tuned for more updates.