Environmental And Health Pollution

Environmental And Health Pollution

INTRODUCTION

Humans, biodiversity, and the ecosystem are all harmed by environmental pollution. It can be produced by intentional or inadvertent human activity, by natural disasters such floods, droughts, earthquakes, and so forth, or by man-made or natural pollutants. Deforestation brought on by industrial waste as well as an increase in air pollution, which reduces the ozone layer in the atmosphere, are the main contributors to this uncontrollable environmental degradation. 
 

WHY DOES THE ENVIRONMENT BECOME POLLUTED?

•    Any unfavorable alteration to the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of air, land, water, or soil is referred to as environmental pollution. The agents responsible for this unfavorable shift are pollutants.
 
•    As a result of human activity or natural occurrences, pollutants are solid, liquid, or gaseous chemicals that are present at higher concentrations than in natural abundance.
 
•    The damage of the environment brought on by the introduction of dangerous substances (pollutants) is referred to as pollution.
 
•    Both artificial and natural factors can cause pollution. In terms of disposal, they can be either biodegradable or not, and their formation can be either primary or secondary.
 
•    There are many different types of pollution, including soil, water, radioactive, and plastic pollution. 
 
Environmental And Health Pollution

NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES OF POLLUTION

•    One of the biggest threats to human rights and public health today is pollution, which disproportionately harms the weak and poor.
 
•    Pollution affects not only the environment but also the health and happiness of entire societies.
 
•    Pollution has received little attention in national policies and international development agendas despite the significant effects it has on human health and the global economy, as well as the existence of easy and affordable solutions.
 
•    Any sort of pollution can harm the environment, wildlife, as well as people's health and well-being.
 

ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION'S IMPACT ON HEALTH

Major air pollutants' effects

•    There is a significant production of gaseous contaminants, which are harmful to human health.
 
•    Billions of tons of pollutants are released into the atmosphere as a result of human activity.
 
•    The most prevalent and serious health issues brought on by gaseous pollution are bronchitis, chest congestion, and wheezing.
 
•    Reducing exposure to pollutants will lessen these consequences, especially as sulphur dioxide is a significant contributor to lung disease. It causes bronchospasm, oedema, fluid buildup in tissues, irritation of the nasal and mucous linings, and shortness of breath.
 
•    Nitrogen oxides - Nitrogen oxides emitted by the exhaust of buses, trucks, and two-wheelers irritate the eyes and lungs. Large doses of these oxides can lead to cancer, internal bleeding, pneumonia, and gum irritation.
 
•    It is well recognised that carbon monoxide is a highly hazardous gas. It entirely prevents the combining of oxygen and haemoglobin once it reaches the bloodstream. In actuality, oxygen has a 240-fold lower affinity for blood than carbon monoxide.
 

RADIOACTIVE POLLUTION'S EFFECTS

•    The energy, kind, and amount of radiation, as well as the person's age and the body portion exposed, all affect how radiation affects health.
 
•    Ionizing radiation may have the biological effects listed below in people.
 
•    Ionizing radiation has carcinogenic effects, increasing the incidence of most malignancies.
 
•    Effects that are mutagenic alter the genetic code, and the resulting mutations are passed on to the progeny.
 
•    Teratogenic effects: Birth abnormalities result from the embryo's impaired development.
 

WATER POLLUTION EFFECTS

•    In all water supply systems, chemical pollutants can be discovered in drinking water at amounts that are either barely detectable or dangerous to human health.
 
•    Because scientists are still learning how chemicals react in the body to harm cells and cause disease, it is challenging to assess the health impacts of these contaminants.
 
•    Health effects from toxic chemical concentrations might be either immediate or long-lasting. After a substantial intake of a drug, acute effects typically start to manifest very quickly.
 
•    Acute health impacts include things like nausea, lung irritation, skin rash, vomiting, dizziness, and even death.
 

POLLUTION OF THE SOIL AND ITS EFFECTS

•    Less attention is paid to soil pollution than to air and water pollution. However, awareness of soil degradation is growing.
 
•    However, the ecosystem's potential for sustainability and recovery is outstripped by the high rate of population growth and urbanization. Soil pollution has largely been the outcome of this.
 
•    The foundation of agriculture is soil. It is necessary for the production of all crops used as food and animal feed. Accelerated corrosion is partially to blame for our loss of this valuable natural resource.
 
•    Soil pollution is also being caused or aided by vast quantities of man-made waste, including sludge and other byproducts from fresh waste treatment facilities as well as contaminated water.
 
•    Herculean control measures must be put into place in order to sustain the fertility and production of the soil, consequently enhancing the wellbeing of all living things.
 
•    Human activities primarily cause pollution when they interfere with natural elemental cycles or reservoirs.
 
•    The production of energy, industry, agriculture, transportation, and waste management are the main anthropogenic sources of pollution.
 
•    Environmental, ecotoxicological, and physiological effects of pollution are possible.
 
Environmental And Health Pollution

ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE

•    The active combination of social, institutional, and technological acts leads to environmental degradation.
 
•    Environmental degradation is a process in which the environment's health and biological diversity are diminished in some way.
 
•    Environmental degradation is the deterioration of an environment's physical components brought on by human activity to a point where it cannot be reversed by the environment's self-regulatory system.
 
•    This process may be entirely organic or it may be sped up or triggered by human activities. Environmental deterioration is viewed by many international organizations as a serious threat to societies and planets.
 
•    Environmental change may be influenced by economic growth, population expansion, urbanization, agricultural intensification, rising energy consumption, and transportation.
 
•    Another significant problem that fuels environmental problems is poverty.
 
•    In favor of concerns about growth and expansion, the economics of environmental pollution, resource depletion, and degradation have been disregarded.
 
•    India's ecology is deteriorating as a result of its fast growing population. 
 

REPORT ON POLLUTION AND HEALTH

•    According to a 2015 study, global air pollution alone is to blame for 66.7 lakh fatalities.
 
•    One in every six deaths worldwide, or 90 lakh, were reportedly caused by pollution in 2019, a number that has not changed since the 2015 investigation.
 
•    45 lakh deaths were caused by ambient air pollution, 17 lakh by dangerous chemical pollutants, and 9 lakh by lead contamination.
 

WITHIN INDIA

•    A further 6.1 lakh deaths were attributable to home air pollution, accounting for the majority of India's 16.7 lakh air pollution-related mortality.
 
•    Despite a drop in the number of fatalities attributable to pollution sources connected to extreme poverty (such as indoor air pollution and water pollution), these declines have been outweighed by a rise in fatalities attributable to industrial pollution (such as ambient air pollution and chemical pollution).
 
•    The Indo-Gangetic Plain is most adversely affected by air pollution. New Delhi and many of the most polluted cities are located in this area.
 
•    In India, crop burning and coal combustion come in order of importance as the primary causes of air pollution-related fatalities.
 
•    India has made very modest and unequal progress in reducing air pollution because it lacks a strong, centralized administrative system to guide its efforts. 
 

CONCLUSION

Around the world, environmental pollution has grown to dangerous levels. Urbanization, industrialization, and economic growth have all resulted in higher energy usage and waste emissions. Global environmental issues like greenhouse gas emissions, acid deposition, water pollution, and waste management are considered to be global public health concerns that need to be looked at from a variety of angles, including social, economic, legal, and environmental engineering systems, as well as lifestyle choices that improve health and make environmental systems more resilient to contamination.

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