Archive for the 'Pollution Control' Category

When sulfur and nitrogen dioxides (both common by-products of coal and other fossil fuels) are emitted into the atmosphere, they often fall back to Earth as acid rain. While normal rainfall has a very slightly acid pH of about 5.6, acid rain can be so highly acidic that it is capable of literally melting rocks. In parts of the world with a great deal of atmospheric pollution, rain, snow and fog with a pH lower than that of vinegar has been reported.

This is a problem for urban Europe for many reasons, but perhaps most notably because the statues and buildings that have stood for thousands of years are now, suddenly, disintegrating due to the very crush of people who want to see them. Calcium containing stones such as marble, granite and limestone are particularly vulnerable, now noted in many historical districts as causing statues and buildings to quite literally flake away as bits of gypsum.
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Corals are an entire class of animals that are among the most threatened creatures on Earth. While you may think an organism that more closely resembles rock would be immune from pollution, these creatures are not only immobile but reside in some of the most commonly polluted areas: warm, shallow seas.

Growing very slowly, corals were once primarily threatened by collection and the occasional nuclear test. One of the most ancient forms of true animal life, corals have existed for over half a billion years though numerous climatological shifts. However, the effects of various types of pollution will likely destroy half the coral reefs on Earth by 2030. Most “modern” corals rely upon constant temperatures, salinity and pH. When these requirements are not met, or they’re stressed, the symbiotic algaes that help them digest food leave. The corals starve and only their “bones” are left behind in what is known as “coral bleaching.”
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Most people are aware of the damage to cognitive development that arises as a result of lead poisoning. In fact, even thought it used as a sweetener for wine during the Roman Imperial Era, even Roman contemporaries knew it was a neurotoxin. It is especially harmful to pregnant women and children, causing blood and brain disorders, accumulating in the tissues and shaving IQ points off entire neighborhoods.

Until the 1970s, lead paint and leaded gasoline were common in North America. Unlike many of the other neurotoxic metals, it also happens to be rather common, naturally. It is still used extensively in car batteries, though most of these are caught in the hazardous waste recycling stream as per federal, state and provincial law. It’s use in paint has proven particularly difficult to remediate given how long these substances are capable of persisting in soils, particularly in urban areas. The long time use of lead in gasoline has resulted in a very widespread soil contamination.
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There are more than 80,000 man-made chemicals on the market, approved for use in North America. Several thousand more are submitted for approval each year. In nearly every case, regulatory organizations are responsible for testing each of these chemicals, individually, for human toxicity.

Not all chemicals that are approved will even go through this process. However, the truly frightening thing about this process is that not one of these chemicals will be tested for how they react with the other 80,000 existing chemicals. Even when they are designed to be combined with other chemicals, are they tested together.

It is well known that chemistry does not take place in a vacuum. The human body itself has become a hodge-podge of these chemicals, often stored in body tissues and fats because the liver simply doesn’t know how to deal with and eliminate these substances. When each new one is added, this unregulated chemistry experiment begins anew, with consequences that people can only imagine.
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As if the increased levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere were not enough to worry anyone silly, climate models predict that even if another drop of fossil fuels were never burned again, things would continue getting worse for quite awhile before they got better.

This is due to the feedback effect that has already been observed in several places in the world. One prime example are the “drunken forests” of Siberia. Though the permafrost that these spruce trees grow upon is always in a state of flux, the rate of melting has increased dramatically in recent years, causing a great deal of damage in areas where people have built upon the permafrost.

More importantly, there’s a great deal of methane trapped in that permafrost, as it melts, this gas that’s known to be 45 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, is released into the atmosphere, making it melt even faster.
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Most people are aware of the damage to cognitive development that arises as a result of lead poisoning. In fact, even thought it used as a sweetener for wine during the Roman Imperial Era, even Roman contemporaries knew it was a neurotoxin. It is especially harmful to pregnant women and children, causing blood and brain disorders, accumulating in the tissues and shaving IQ points off entire neighborhoods.

Until the 1970s, lead paint and leaded gasoline were common in North America. Unlike many of the other neurotoxic metals, it also happens to be rather common, naturally. It is still used extensively in car batteries, though most of these are caught in the hazardous waste recycling stream as per federal, state and provincial law. It’s use in paint has proven particularly difficult to remediate given how long these substances are capable of persisting in soils, particularly in urban areas. The long time use of lead in gasoline has resulted in a very widespread soil contamination.
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if there’s anything people don’t want to have to deal with is an uncomfortably cold house during the wintertime. However, all across North America, as the cost of heating energy goes up, so does the number of people (not just college students) who are forced to turn the thermostat down quite a bit to save money.

This is a serious concern for anyone who has very young children in a house, as such an environment can be stressful for a newborn. Older children, however, will do just fine in temperatures down to 55 or 60.

physical activity is a good way to be warmer in your environment. Taking the stairs or even choosing a job that keeps you moving is one way to stay warm, even when you’re working in very cool or cold environments.

You can always start by turning the thermostat down to 55 or 60 each night. If you have good blankets you can even turn it down lower, though it’s good to have separate bathroom control in these instances.
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One of the most powerful air pollutants is the naturally occurring organic gas, methane. It is a far better greenhouse gas than carbon and is now found in the atmosphere at concentrations of more than 150% over pre-industrial levels.

When people put organic matter in the regular waste stream, these coffee grounds and sandwich crusts are acted upon by decomposing microorganisms, with methane being a common by-product. This is why garbage dumps must be equipped with release valves. Otherwise, they’d literally explode from the pressure.

One way to avoid the bulk and threat of such waste is to keep your own compost pile. These are not difficult to keep, even if entire books can be written on the finer points. Nor do they need to smell bad. Many cities are now separately collecting organic wastes as part of municipal compost programs, many of which are then used as fertilizer for city and park lands.
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Most North Americans are now familiar with the term “factory-farmed meat.” Though somewhat rhetorical in its use, it is an accurate way to describe the process that has become “conventional” ranching and animal husbandry. There are, of course, many concerns from a humane treatment standpoint, but the pollution concerns from such operations are equally, if not more, compelling.

Consider what happens when you put several thousand cows together who are not part of the same herd. First and foremost, you get a lot of animal waste – enough to fill entire “lagoons” with the stuff. This is rarely, if ever, given much in the way of treatment before being put into the nearby environment. Such lagoons often overflow into river systems during storms, especially in states and provinces without regulation.

The practice of “finishing” these animals on grains allows them to fatten up before slaughter. It also changes their intestinal pH, allowing them to be susceptible to dangerous organisms such as E. coli and others. These grains are also far more likely to be contaminated with heavy metals and PCBs than pasture.
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In just a few years, between their creation in 1930 and when they were banned in the late 1970s, highly toxic PCBs (also known as Polychlorinated biphenyls) were used in countless products and dumped into soil and water all over the world. In the North America, the Monsanto company (the very same one that brought the world GMO crops) was responsible for most of the PCB production – several million tons of it. While also used as an insulating oil and lubricant, PCBs were also widely used as a pesticide. In one instance, PCB-laden sludge from another company was given to local farmers as a fertilizer in an effort to get rid of it.

Unfortunately, the highly stable and non-reactive characteristics that made PCBs useful to industry also makes them persistent in the environment. They are also “lipophilic” (attracted to fats) and are very likely to bio-accumulate in any organism higher up the food chain, such as meat animals or the people who consume them.
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