ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

 Pollution: is any undesirable changed in physical chemical or

 biological characteristics of air, land, water or soil.
 Pollutant: Any solid, liquid or gas released into the
environment in such a huge quantities that make our
 environment unhealthy is called pollutant.
 The GOI has passed the Environment (protection) Act,
1986 to protect and improve the quality of our environment
(air, water and soil)

AIR POLLUTION AND ITS CONTROL:

Effect of air pollution:

  Cause injury to all living organisms.

  Reduce growth and yield of crops.
  Cause premature death of plants.
  Affects the respiratory system of human being.
 Particulate size 2.5 micrometers or less are responsible for
breathing and respiratory symptoms like irritation,
inflammations and damage to the lungs and premature death.

Pollution caused by thermal power plant:

  Sources of particulate matter: thermal power plant, smelters

 These plants release particulate matter and gaseous air
 pollutant.
 A harmless gas released by these plants is Nitrogen and
Oxygen.

Prevention of air pollution: ways to remove particulate matter:

  Electrostatic precipitator
o Widely used to remove particulate matter in the exhaust
from a thermal power plant.
o Electrode wires that are maintained at several thousand
volts, which produce a corona that release electrons.
o Electron binds with particulate matter giving them a net
negative charge.
o Positively charged collecting plates attract the charged
dust particle.

  Scrubber:
o Removes gases like sulphur dioxide.
o The exhaust is passed through a spray of water or lime.
  Methods to reduce vehicular pollution:
o Use of lead free petrol or diesel can
reduce vehicular pollution. o Catalytic
converter:

Having expensive metals namely platinum,
 palladium and rhodium as the catalyst.


These metals reduce emission of poisonous gases.

The unburnt hydrocarbons are converted into
CO2 and H2O.
 Carbon monoxide and nitric oxide are
changed to carbon
dioxide and nitrogen gasrespectively.

Motor vehicle equipped with catalytic converter
should use unleaded petrol because lead in the
petrol inactivates the catalyst.

Controlling Vehicular pollution: A case study of Delhi:

 Use of CNG

(compressed natural gas):

Advantages of CNG

  CNG burns most efficiently.

  Very little remain unburnt.
  Cannot be siphoned
  Cannot be adulterated like petrol or diesel.
 CNG is cheaper than petrol and diesel.

Problem of use of CNG:

  Difficulty in laying down pipelines to deliver CNG

 Non-assurance of uninterrupted supply.

Other parallel steps taken in Delhi:

  Phasing out old vehicles.

  Use of unleaded petrol.
  Use of low-sulphur petrol and diesel.
  Use of catalytic converter in vehicle.
 Application of strict pollution level norms for vehicle.

New auto fuel policy to cut down vehicular pollution.

 Steadily reducing the sulphur and aromatic content in petrol

 and diesel fuels.
 Euro-II norms
o Sulphur reduced to 350
ppm in diesel. o Sulphur
reduced to 150 ppm in
petrol
o Aromatic hydrocarbon to be
reduced to 42 %. o Up
gradation of vehicle engines.
  Due to above steps taken by Delhi Govt. there is
substantial fall in CO2 and SO2 level between 1997 and
2005.

NOISE POLLUTION:

 Undesirable high level of sound is called noise pollution.

Harm full effect of noise pollution:

  Psychological and physiological disorder in humans.

  High sound level, 150dB or more may damage ear drums.
  Noise causes sleeplessness
  Increased heart rate.
 Altered breathing pattern.

Prevention of Noise Pollution:

  Use of sound absorbent materials or by muffling noise in industries

  Demarcation of horn free zones around hospitals and schools.
  Permissible sound levels of crackers,
 Timings after which Loudspeakers cannot be played

WATER POLLUTION AND ITS CONTROL:

Domestic sewage and industrial effluents:

 A mere 0.1 percent impurities make domestic sewage unfit for human
 use
 Sewage contains dissolve salts like nitrates, phosphates, and other
nutrients, and toxic metal ions and organic compounds.
  The amount of organic matter in water is estimated by BOD.
 Biochemical oxygen demand: the amount of Oxygen required
oxidizing all organic matter present in one liter of water.
 Changes take place on discharge of sewage into the river.
 o Micro-organism involved in biodegradation of organic matter in
the receiving water body consume
a lot of oxygen, hence there is sharp decline in dissolved oxygen
downstream from the point of discharge.
o Due to low DO there is mortality of fish and other aquatic
animals.

 Presence of large amount of nutrients in water also causes excessive

 growth of Planktonic (free floating) algae, called algal bloom.
o Algal bloom imparts distinct color to water bodies.
o Deterioration of water quality and fish mortality.
o Some bloom-forming algae are extremely toxic to human and
animals.
  The world’s most problematic aquatic weed is water
 hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) called ‘Terror of Bengal’.
o Introduced to India for their
lovely flowers. o Excessive
growth causes blocks in
 waterways.
 o They grow abundantly in eutrophic water bodies.
o Causes imbalance in ecosystem and dynamics of water body.




 Sewage associated with diseases:
o Sewage from home and hospital contain pathogenic microbes.
o Discharge of such sewage without proper treatment causes
diseases like dysentery, typhoid, jaundice, cholera etc.

 Toxic heavy metals (defined as elements with density >

 5g/cm3), released from:-
o Petroleum industry.
o Paper manufacturing.
o Metal extraction and processing.
o Chemical manufacturing industries.

 Biomagnifications: increase in concentration of the toxicant at

successive trophic level is called biological magnification or
 biomagnifications.
o Toxic substance accumulated by an organism cannot be
metabolized or excreted.
o The accumulated toxic passed to the next trophic level.
o This phenomenon is well known for mercury and DDT.
  Bio magnification of DDT in Aquatic food chain.






 Eutrophication: The process of nutrient enrichment of water and
consequent loss of species diversity is referred to as
Eutrophication.
  Natural Eutrophication:
o Streams draining into the lake increase nutrients like nitrogen
and phosphorus.
o Increase in nutrient encourages growth of aquatic organisms.
o Over centuries, as silt and organic debris pileup the
lake grows shallower and warmer. o Warm-water
organisms dominate over that thrive in a cold
environment.
o Marsh plants take root in the shallows and begin to fill in the
original lake basin.
 o Eventually the lake gives way to large masses of floating plants
(bog), finally converting into land.

 Cultural or Accelerated Eutrophication:

o Pollutants from man‟s activities like effluents from the
industries and homes can radically accelerate the aging
process. This phenomenon is called Cultural
orAccelerated Eutrophication.

Causes:

  Sewage and agricultural and industrial wastes.

 Prime contaminants are nitrates and phosphates.

Effects:

  Unsightly scum and unpleasant odors.

  Robbing the dissolved oxygen form water.
  Pollutant inflow kills the fish.
  Decomposition of dead fish causes further depletion of DO.
 Finally a lake can literally choke to death.

Thermal pollution:

Cause:

 Heated (thermal) waste waters flowing out of electricity-

generating units. E.g. thermal power plants.

Effects:

 Thermal wastewater eliminates or reduces the number of

 organism sensitive to high temperature.
  Enhance the growth of plants and fish in extremely cold areas
but only after causing damage to the indigenous flora and
fauna.

A case study of integrated waste water treatment:

 Wastewater including sewage can be treated in an integrated

manner, by utilizing a mix of artificial and natural process.
 It has been done in town of Arcata, in the northern coast of
 California.
 The treatment is done in two stages:-
o The conventional sedimentation, filtering and chorine
treatment are given.
o The biologist developed a series of six connected marshes
over 60 hectares of marshland. o Appropriate plants, algae,
fungi and bacteria were seeded into this area, which
neutralize,
absorb and assimilate the pollutant
o The water flows through the marshes, it get purified
naturally.
  The marshes also constitute a sanctuary, with high level of
biodiversity in the form of fishes, animals and birds that now
 reside there.
 A citizens group called Friends of the Arcata Marsh
(FOAM) is responsible for the upkeep and safeguarding of this
project.

Ecological sanitation:

 Ecological sanitation is a sustainable system for handling

human excreta, using dry composting toilets.
 This is a practical, hygienic, efficient and cost-effective solution
 to human waste disposal.
 With this composting method human excreta can be recycled
 into are source (as natural fertilizer).
 „EcoSan‟ toilets are being used in Kerala and Srilanka.

SOLID WASTES:

  Solid wastes refer to everything that goes out in trash.

 Municipal solid wastes are wastes from homes, offices,
stores, schools, hospitals etc. It comprises paper, food wastes,
plastics, glass, metals rubber, leathers, textiles etc.
 Open damp of these wastes serve as the breeding ground for
 rats and flies.
 Sanitary landfills were adopted as substitute for open-
burning dumps.

Sanitary landfills:

 Wastes are dumped in a depression or trench after compaction

and covered with dirt everyday.

Disadvantages:

  Shortage of space for huge garbage‟s.

  Danger of seepage of chemicals, polluting the ground water
resources.

Solution to solid wastes:

 All solid wastes are

categorized into thee
types: o Bio-
 degradable.
 o Recyclable.
o Non-biodegradable.




  All the garbage generated is sorted first.
  Recyclable material to be separated and send for recycles.
 Biodegradable wastes can be put into deep pits in the ground
 and be left for natural breakdown.
 Only Non-biodegradable wastes are left and required to be
disposed.

Prevention:
  The need to reduce our garbage generation should be a prime
 goal.
  Reduction in use of plastics and use of eco-friendly packaging.
 Carrying cloth or other natural fiber carry bags when we go
 shopping.
 Refusing polythene bags.

Case study of Remedy for Plastic wastes: (Ahmed Khan)

 Polyblend, a fine powder of recycled modified plastic, was

 developed by his company.
  Polyblend is mixed with bitumen that is used to lay roads.
 It increases the water repelling property of bitumen, and helped
to increase road life by a factor of three.
 The raw material used for polyblend is plastic film waste.

Hospital wastes:

 Hospitals generate hazardous wastes that contain disinfectants and

other harmful chemicals, and also pathogenic organisms.
 The use of incinerators is crucial to disposal of hospital wastes.

Electronic wastes (e-wastes):

 Irreparable computers and other electronic goods are known

 aselectronic wastes (e-wastes).
  E- Wastes are buried in landfills or incinerated.
 Metals like copper, iron, silicon, nickel and gold are recovered during
 recycling process of e-wastes.
 Manual recycling process exposes workers to toxic substances present
 in e-wastes.
 Recycling is the only solution for the treatment of e-wastes.

AGRO-CHEMICAL AND THEIR EFFECTS:

 Use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides has increased manifold for

 enhancing crop production.
  Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides etc, are being increasingly used.
 These are toxic to non-target organisms that are important
 components of the soil ecosystem?
 Increasing amounts of artificial fertilizers causes eutrophication.

Case study of organic farming: (Ramesh Chandra Dagar of

Sonipat)

 Integrated organic farming is a cyclical, zero waste procedure, where

waste products from one process are cycled in as nutrients for other
processes.
 Maximum utilization of resource and increase the efficiency of
 production.
 He includes bee-keeping, diary management, water harvesting,
composting and agriculture in a chain of processes, which support
each other and allow an extremely economical and sustainable
venture.

Advantages:

 There is no need of use of chemical fertilizers for crops

  Cattle excreta are used as manure.
 Crop waste used to create compost, which can be used as a natural
fertilizer or can be used to generate natural gas for energy need.

RADIOACTIVE WASTES:

 Nuclear energy was hailed as a non-polluting way for generating

 electricity.
 Later on it was realized that it has two very
serious inherent problem:-o Accidental
leakage, as occurred in Three Mile Island and
Chernobyl. o Safe disposal of radioactive
wastes.




  Radiation from radioactive waste causes mutation at very high rate.
 High dose of nuclear radiation is lethal, but lower doses create genetic
disorders and also cause cancer.

Disposal of nuclear wastes:

 Storage of nuclear waste, after sufficient pre-treatment, should be

done in suitably shielded containers buried within the rocks about 500
m deep below the earth‟s surface.

GREEN HOUSE EFFECT AND GLOBAL WARMING:

 The term “Greenhouse effect” has been derived from a phenomenon

 that occurs in greenhouse.
 In a greenhouse the glass panel lets the light in, but does not allow
heat to escape. Therefore the greenhouse warms up, very much like
 inside a car that has been parked in the sun for a few hours.
 The greenhouse effect is a naturally occurring phenomenon that is
 responsible for heating of Earth‟s surface and atmosphere.
 Without greenhouse effect the average temperature at surface of earth
would have been a chilly -18o C rather than the present average of 15o
 C.
  Clouds and gases reflect about one-fourth of the incoming solar
radiation and absorb some of it but half of incoming solar radiation
falls on Earth‟s surface heating it, while a small portion is reflected
 back.
 Earth‟s surface re-emits heat in the form of infrared radiation but
some part of this does not escape into space because of atmospheric
 gases (e.g. carbon dioxide, methane etc).
 The molecule of these gases radiate heat energy and a major part of
 which again comes to Earth‟s surface, thus heating it up once again.
 Carbon dioxide and methane – are commonly called as greenhouse
 gases because they are responsible for greenhouse effect.
 Increase in the level of greenhouse gases has led to considerable
heating of Earth leading to global warmingor enhanced green
 house effect.
 During the past century, the temperature of Earth has increased by
0.6o C.

Effect of global warming:

 Deleterious changes in the environment and resulting in odd climatic

 changes (e.g. El Nino effect).
 Increased melting of polar ice caps as well as of other places like the
 Himalayan snow caps.
 Rise in sea level that can submerge many coastal areas.
Control of global warming:

  Reduce use of fossil fuel.

  Improving efficiency of energy usage.
  Reducing deforestation.
  Promoting aforestation programme.
  Slowing down growth of human population.
 International initiative to be taken to reduce emission of green house
gases.

OZONE DEPLETION IN THE STRATOSPHERE:

 ‘Bad’ ozone formed in the lower atmosphere (troposphere) that

 harms plants and animals.
 There is ‘good’ ozone also; this ozone is found in the upper part of
the atmosphere called stratosphere, and it acts as a shield
absorbing ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
 The thickness of ozone layer is measured in terms of Dobson units
 (DU)
 Ozone (O3) gas is continuously formed by the action of UV rays on
molecular oxygen, and also degraded into molecular oxygen in the
stratosphere.
 There should be proper balance of formation and degradation of
ozone.

Ozone depletion:

 Balance of ozone in stratosphere is disrupted due to enhancement of

ozone degradation bychlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
  CFCs find wide use as refrigerants.
 CFCs discharged in the lower part of atmosphere move upward and
 reach stratosphere.
  In stratosphere, UV rays acts on CFCs and release active Cl atoms.
  Cl degrades ozone releasing molecular oxygen.
  Cl acts as catalysts and not consumed during reaction.
  Whatever CFCs are added to the stratosphere, they have permanent
 and continuing affects one Ozone levels.
 The depletion is marked particularly over the Antarctic region.
This has resulted in formation of a large area of thinned ozone layer,
commonly called as the ozone hole.

Effects of UV rays:

 UV radiations shorter than UV-B are almost completely absorbed by

Earth‟s atmosphere, if the ozone layer is intact.
 DNA and proteins of living organisms are damaged by UV rays as
 they potentially absorb it.
 The high energy of UV rays breaks the chemical bond in these
 molecules.
  UV – B damages DNA and mutation may occur.
  It causes ageing of skin.
  Damage skin cells and causes skin cancers.
 In human eye cornea absorb UV – B radiation and high dose of UV –
B causes inflammation of cornea calledsnow-blindness, cataract
etc.
 Such exposes may damage cornea.
Prevention:

 Montreal Protocol was signed at Montreal (Canada) in 1987 to

control emission of ozone depleting substances.
 Many efforts are being made to reduce emission of ozone depleting
substances.

DEGRADATION BY IMPROPER RESOURCE UTILIZATION AND

MAINTENANCE:

Soil erosion

 The removal of top fertile layer due to human activities

Reasons: -

  Over cultivation
  Unrestricted grazing
  Deforestation
 Poor irrigation practices

Water logging and soil salinity:

  Irrigation with proper drainage, leads to water lodging in the soil.

  Draws salt to the surface of the soil.
  The salt starts collecting at the roots of the plants.
 The salt damages the roots and crop productions.

Deforestation:

 Conversion of forested areas to non-forested one.

How deforestation does occurs:

  Slash and burn agriculture/jhum cultivation

  Farmers cut down the trees of the forest and burn the plant remains.
  Ash is used as fertilizer and land is used for farming or cattle grazing
  Later, Land is left uncultivated for several years for replenishment of
minerals

Effects of deforestation

  Leads to global warming due to excess carbon-dioxide

  Loss of biodiversity
  Damage to hydrological cycle
  Leads to soil erosion
 Desertification of land

Reforestation
  Restoring forest that was existing earlier E.g. Observing Van-
Mahotsavas
  It also occurs naturally
 Aforestation Developing a forest in a new area where no such forest
existed in that area.

A case study of people‘s participation in forest conservation

  A king of Jodhpur wanted to arrange wood for his new palace in 1731.
 Few Bishnois hugged the trees and asked to cut them first rather than
 cutting trees.
  365 persons lost their lives in this act
  A small temple is now present there in remembrance of this act
 Amrita Devi Bishnois Wild Life Protection Award is instituted for
individuals of rural areas who take keen interest in protecting wild
life.
  Chipko movement
 It was started by local women of Garhwali; they hugged the trees to
protect them from the axes of contractors.
  Joint forest management (jfm)
  Strategy Government of India in 1980
  Local communities worked with the government to save the forest.
 Communities get forest products for encouragement.

CPC Pollutio
B: Central n Control Board
Biologica
BOD: l Oxygen Demand
Compres
CNG: sed Natural Gas
FOA
M: Friends of Arcata Marsh
Joint Forest
JFM: Management.