POLLUTION

Kinds of pollution

    Pollution can be:

    1. Hydrical Pollution
    Hydrical pollution is any change of its physical, chemical or biological properties, bringing damage to health, security and well being of the population, causing damage to fauna and flora, or compromising its use for social or economical finality.
When we talk about water pollution, we must think not only in superficial water, but also in the subterranean.
    One of the most important sources of water’s pollution is urban residues, industrial and rural, that are thrown voluntarily or involuntarily.
    As example of toxic material that normally is thrown at waters, we can emphasize heavy metals, as cadmic and mercury, lead, nitrates and pesticides. These polluters are big dangerous to water’s quality, health and environment, being capable of causing big damage to live organisms, and, consequently, to the food chain and to our life.
    So, some prudence must be taken for recuperating rivers and springs reached by pollution for guaranteeing to population the supplying of non-infected water. Among these steps, is stood out the urban drain treatment.

    2. Air Pollution
    Definition: air pollution is the change of its chemical composition, caused or by the unbalance of its constitution elements, or by the presence of strange chemical elements, which can be prejudicial for the environment’s balance and consequently for human’s health”.
    Classification:
    - pollution caused by industrial detracts;
    - pollution caused by pesticides;
    - radioactive pollution.
    Fonts:
    - fixed (industries, hotels, laundries etc);
    - movable (cars, planes, ships, trains etc).
    Factors that cause it:
    - natural factors: the ones that are caused by the nature’s power, as sand storms, burnt caused by rays and volcanic activities;
    - artificial factors: the ones that are caused by man’s activity, as cars combustible emission, burnt of general fossils combustible, radioactive material, burns etc.
    Mainly consequences:
    - acid rain;
    - heater effect;
    - diminution of the ozone flayer.

    - Acid Rain
    Rain will be considered acid when its pH is inferior than 5,0, occurring not only as rain, but also as snow, frost or fog.
    It is the consequence of fossils combustibles burns, producing carbonic gas, oxidized forms of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur. These gases, when liberated to the atmosphere, may be toxic for organisms.
    The sulphur dioxide causes the acid rain when mixed to the water that is on the atmosphere, in the way of steam. The small drops of sulphuric acid resultant of this combination generate serious damage to the reached areas.
    Besides the serious damage to the natural environment, acid rain also constitute serious dangerous for the humanity’s cultural patrimony.

    - Heater Effect
    It happens with the Earth’s medium temperature elevation, that occurs by the significant increase in the atmosphere’s carbonic gas, provoked mainly by the burn of fossils combustibles and deforestation, forming a kind of “cover” on the Earth, not permitting the expansion of the heat.
    The increasingly growth of carbonic gas in the atmosphere makes that the Earth’s temperature grows constantly, what may cause big climatic problems.

    - Diminution of the ozone flayer
    Ozone can be found at the troposphere, which is the flayer of the atmosphere where we live, and also in higher zones of the stratosphere, among 12 and 50 Km of altitude, having as function the protection of the planet from the directly incidence of a big part of ultraviolet rays, which s one of the components of solar radiation.
    As this ozone flayer’s diminution, the ultraviolet rays reach the Earth in a brusque way, provoking serious diseases for human, as skin cancer, heart and lungs disturbs, burns, vision problems etc. Environment is also directly reached by the changes of food chain, because some species of animals and plants are extremely sensible to this radiation, as anures amphibious. Besides, the destruction of this ozone flayer may contribute for the melting of part of the ice from the polar cover, causing the planet’s super heating.
    A principal cause of the diminution of the ozone flayer is the liberation of industrial chemical compounds in the atmosphere, called CFC, that is a non-toxic gas, inodorous, and chemically motionless. It’s used in big scale as refrigerator agent of refrigerators and air conditioners, in the industry of foam and mainly as sprays throwing., and its chemical lassitude makes its capable of reaching big altitudes without being modified, still reaching the stratosphere, where ultraviolet radiation that comes from the Sun provoke its break. The chlorine is liberated, reacting to the ozone, and separating it in a molecule and an atom of oxygen.

    3. Soil Pollution
    Soil and subsoil pollution consists on deposition, disposition, unloading, infiltration, accumulation, and injection and buries in the soil or in the subsoil of polluters’ substances or products, in a solid, liquid or gas state.
Soil is a basic natural resource, constituting a fundamental component of the ecosystems and of the natural cycles, a water reservoir, an essential support of the agricultural system and a space for the human activities and for the produced residues.
    The principal causes are:
    - desertification;
    - use of inadequate technologies;
    - lack of practice of water’s conservation in the soil;
    - destruction of the vegetal cover.
    The contamination of the soil is caused mainly by solid and liquid residues, contaminated waters, solid and liquid effluents, effluents coming from the agricultural activities etc. Therefore, we can conclude that the contamination of the soil will always occur when there is the addiction of compounds to the soil, producing negative effects, called pollution.

    4. Sonorous Pollution
    Sonorous pollution is the production of sounds, noises, or vibrations, in disagreement to legal precautions, and it can cause irreversible audition problems, annoying people’s calming and tranquility.
    It can also cause bad humor, heart problems, and consequently, lose of physical and mental productivity.
    This kind of pollution has as causes mainly the noises coming from cars, planes, constructions, yelling etc, and it can be more or less noxious, depending on its duration, repetition and intensity.

    5. Visual Pollution
    It is the degradation of natural or artificial environment, causing visual annoying.
    The exceeding of outdoors, advertising, placards etc, makes the city visually polluted, because therefore making the city ugly, also makes it dirty, in consequence of the papers that are thrown away on streets.

    6. Radioactive Pollution
    For talking about this kind of pollution, we have first to know what is the meaning of radiation.
    Radiation is a chemical effect, coming from hot waves and energy etc. There are three kinds of radiation: alpha and beta rays, which have easier absorption, and gamma rays, that are electromagnetic waves.
    The continuous contact to radiation causes damage to alive tissue, having as mainly effects leukemia, tumors, hair lose, diminution of life’s expectation, genetic mutations, lesions to a lot of organs etc.
    Therefore, radioactive pollution is the increasing of the natural quantity of radiation by the use of natural or artificial radioactive substances.