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Pollution

Pollution is the degradation of the natural world caused by human actions, including the addition of toxic chemicals and the accumulation of waste. Solid waste disposal methods, such as open dumps and uncontrolled burning, harm the environment and spread diseases. Water pollution, particularly eutrophication, occurs when excess nutrients from sewage and industrial waste deplete oxygen in water bodies, leading to the death of aquatic organisms.

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Pollution

Pollution is the degradation of the natural world caused by human actions, including the addition of toxic chemicals and the accumulation of waste. Solid waste disposal methods, such as open dumps and uncontrolled burning, harm the environment and spread diseases. Water pollution, particularly eutrophication, occurs when excess nutrients from sewage and industrial waste deplete oxygen in water bodies, leading to the death of aquatic organisms.

Uploaded by

mitha7461
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Pollution

Aisha Joan Felix


9125
• ‘POLLUTE’ means ‘to degrade or to contaminate’

• Pollution - an unfavorable modification of the natural world

caused entirely or partly due to direct or indirect actions

of human beings
Causes of Pollution

01. Human activities

• Example – addition of toxic chemicals through the atmosphere into the biosphere –

smoke from factories

02. Accumulation of waste

• Example – disposing of billions of metric tonnes of solid waste each year


Handling of Solid Waste is
problematic as
Disposal methods harm the environment such as
01. Open dumps and landfills - contain toxins that seep into the soil and
pollute water
02. Uncontrolled burning of accumulated waste creates smoke and
other air pollutants that release toxic substances into the
environment and cause air pollution.
03. Scavengers and stray animals invade the open garbage dumps and
spread the waste over large area, thereby, spreading germs and
diseases as well as destroying the beauty of the place.
Industrial waste contain
• Harmful chemicals like small particles and toxic heavy metals like lead
and mercury
• These toxic chemicals get deposited in animal tissues and harm living
things along the food chain.
• Example-
• The grass gets some toxic chemicals from the soil
• Animals eat the grass and get affected by the toxins
• These animals directly or indirectly pass these toxins
to humans through dairy products or meat
• As accumulated waste decomposes, it produces a large quantity of

methane gas.

• This is highly inflammable

• It can cause explosions if not managed properly


Water pollution

• Occurs when people discharge large amount of waste into water

bodies and the natural cleansing process in the water bodies cannot

function properly
EUTROPHICATION

• Is the process of depletion of oxygen from water bodies occurring either naturally or due to

human activities.

• The process of eutrophication takes place due to

• introduction of nutrients and chemicals through

1. discharge of domestic sewage

2. industrial effluents and

3. fertilizers from agricultural fields


Under normal conditions

• Algae and phytoplankton use carbon dioxide, inorganic nitrogen and

phosphate from the water as food

• They serve as food for microscopic animals – called zooplankton

• Small fish feed on zooplankton and large fish consume small fish
When nutrients become abundant
due to waste accumulation
• 01. the growth of phytoplankton and algae increases
• 02. this reduces the penetration of oxygen, light and heat into the
water body
• 03. So, aquatic plants are unable to carry on photosynthesis reducing
the oxygen content of water

• This causes death of most of the aquatic organisms, draining water of


all its oxygen

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