Group+2+Pollution

=__pollution__=

When people think about air pollution, they usually think about smog, acid rain, CFC's, and other forms of **outdoor** air pollution. But did you know that air pollution also can exist //inside// homes and other buildings? It can, and every year, the health of many people is affected by chemical substances present in the air within buildings.

Air pollution, the release of chemicals and particulates into the atmosphere. Common examples include [|carbon monoxide], [|sulfur dioxide], [|chlorofluorocarbons] (CFCs), and [|nitrog][|en oxides] produced by [|industry] and motor vehicles. Photochemical [|ozone] and [|smog] are created as nitrogen oxides and [|hydrocarbons] react to sunlight.[|Water pollution] via [|surface runoff] and leaching to [|groundwater]. Air pollution does not only damage the air; it also damages environments on Earth’s surface and their inhabitants. [|Plants] and [|animals] are harmed by air pollution. Sometimes it is the pollutants themselves that cause damage. Other times pollutants combine and change the resources that plants and animals depend upon such as water, soil, and nutrients. Read on to learn more about the ways that air pollutants can damage environments and the living things within them. When an air pollutant, such as sulfuric acid combines with the water droplets that make up clouds, the water droplets become acidic. When those droplets fall to the ground as rain or snow, the acidity of the water can have damaging effects on the environment. When [|acid rain] falls over an area, it can kill trees and harm animals, fish, and other wildlife. Acid rain destroys the leaves of plants. When acid rain infiltrates into soils, it changes the chemistry of the soil making it unfit for many living things that rely on soil as a habitat or for nutrition. Acid rain also changes the chemistry of the lakes and streams that the rainwater flows into, harming fish and other aquatic life. Air pollutants called //chlorofluorocarbons//(or CFCs) destroy [|ozone] molecules in the stratosphere. This has left places in the layer where the ozone is thin. These areas of thin ozone are called //ozone holes//. The ozone layer, located in the stratosphere layer of Earth’s atmosphere, shields our planet from the Sun’s //ultraviolet radiation////.// Ultraviolet radiation causes skin cancer and damages plants and wildlife. In recent decades the number of CFCs released into the atmosphere has decreased significantly due to an agreement between the nations of the world called the Montreal Protocol. Although it takes a long time to see the impact, the ozone holes might someday be smaller. Ozone molecules in the troposphere damage lung tissues of animals and prevent plant respiration by blocking the openings in leaves, called stomata, where respiration occurs. Without sufficient respiration, a plant is not able to photosynthesize at a high rate and will not be able to grow. [|Ozone] is also able to enter the stomata and decay plant cells directly. The interest for the protection of the night sky from light pollution is growing every day. A global scale periodic monitoring of the situation is necessary. Nighttime images of the Earth at night have been obtained from the Defense Metereological Satellite Program (DMSP) of the US Air Force since early '70. The first global image was obtained by Woodruff Sullivan in late '80. These images only showed the geographic distribution of the sources on the Earth surface because the satellite detectors were saturated by the strong flux emitted by them and no quantitative measurements were possible. =The world history of pollution= Hartford Web Publishing is not the author of the documents in [|World History Archives] and does not presume to validate their accuracy or authenticity nor to release their copyright. Introduction to news item by Kim Scipes, 12 December 1997. A number of major trade union organizations in the so-called advanced capitalist countries feel that global efforts to curtail greenhouse gas emissions could cost millions of jobs. The issue should not be couched in terms of either/or. By Jeffrey Jones, Reuters, [14 October 1998]. Pesticides and other toxic chemicals used in agriculture and industry are polluting every place on Earth. Organochlorine compounds travel through the atmosphere from where they were used and fall onto mountains with rain and snow as the air became cooler.
 * Acid rain harms living things**
 * The thinning ozone layer harms living things**
 * Tropospheric ozone harms living things**

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution [|http://www.lbl.gov/Educati]
 * [|Soil contamination] occurs when chemicals are released by spill or underground storage tank leakage. Among the most significant [|soil contaminants] are [|hydrocarbons], [|heavy metals], [|MTBE][|[2]], [|herbicides], [|pesticides] and [|chlorinated hydrocarbons].
 * [|Radioactive contamination], added in the wake of 20th-century discoveries in [|atomic physics]. (See [|alpha emitters] and [|actinides in the environment].)
 * [|Noise pollution], which encompasses [|roadway noise], [|aircraft noise], [|industrial noise] as well as high-intensity [|sonar].
 * [|Light pollution], includes light trespass, [|over-illumination] and [|astronomical] interference.
 * [|Visual pollution], which can refer to the presence of overhead [|power lines], motorway [|billboards], scarred [|landforms] (as from [|strip mining]), open storage of trash or [|municipal solid waste]. [[image:http://www.chbr.noaa.gov/categories/stressors/images/pollution.jpg width="232" height="200" align="center"]]

[|on/ELSI/polluti]

[|on-main.html] **
 * __How sea pollution harms animals__


 * 3/7 Each year millions of balloons are thrown away, but birds often mistake them for food and can get their beaks tangled in the attached string.**


 * 4/7 Dolphins are one of many species that get tangled in fishing nets and other rubbish that is dumped into the sea.**


 * 7/7 Earlier this year the wreck of HMS Scylla was sunk off the coast of Cornwall to create a new marine habitat. The ship was cleaned up to ensure it didn't create any extra pollution and is now an artificial diving reef.**

=__noise pollution__= noise pollution, human-created noise harmful to health or welfare. Transportation vehicles are the worst offenders, with aircraft, railroad stock, trucks, buses, automobiles, and motorcycles all producing excessive noise. Construction equipment, e.g., jackhammers and bulldozers, also produce substantial noise pollution. Noise intensity is measured in [|decibel] units. The decibel scale is logarithmic; each 10-decibel increase represents a tenfold increase in noise intensity. Human perception of loudness also conforms to a logarithmic scale; a 10-decibel increase is perceived as roughly a doubling of loudness. Thus, 30 decibels is 10 times more intense than 20 decibels and sounds twice as loud; 40 decibels is 100 times more intense than 20 and sounds 4 times as loud; 80 decibels is 1 million times more intense than 20 and sounds 64 times as loud. Distance diminishes the effective decibel level reaching the ear. Thus, moderate auto traffic at a distance of 100 ft (30 m) rates about 50 decibels. To a driver with a car window open or a pedestrian on the sidewalk, the same traffic rates about 70 decibels; that is, it sounds 4 times louder. At a distance of 2,000 ft (600 m), the noise of a jet takeoff reaches about 110 decibels—approximately the same as an automobile horn only 3 ft (1 m) away. Noise is recognized as a controllable pollutant that can yield to abatement technology. In the United States the Noise Control Act of 1972 empowered the Environmental Protection Agency to determine the limits of noise required to protect public health and welfare; to set noise emission standards for major sources of noise in the environment, including transportation equipment and facilities, construction equipment, and electrical machinery; and to recommend regulations for controlling aircraft noise and sonic booms. Also in the 1970s, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration began to try to reduce workplace noise. Funding for these efforts and similar local efforts was severely cut in the early 1980s, and enforcement became negligible.

__history of the pollution__

One on the major complaints made by factory reformers concerned the state of the buildings that they children were forced to work in. A report published in July 1833 stated that most factories were "dirty; low-roofed; ill-ventilated; ill-drained; no conveniences for washing or dressing; no contrivance for carrying off dust and other effluvia".

Sir Anthony Carlile, a doctor at Westminster Hospital visited some textile mills in 1832. He later gave evidence to the House of Commons on the dangers that factory pollution was causing for the young people working in factories: "labour is undergone in an atmosphere heated to a temperature of 70 to 80 and upwards". He pointed out that going from a "very hot room into damp cold air will inevitably produce inflammations of the lungs".