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Various definitions of pollution exist, which may or may not recognize certain types, such as noise pollution or greenhouse gases.The United States Environmental Protection Administration defines pollution as "Any substances in water, soil, or air that degrade the natural quality of the environment, offend the senses of sight, taste, or smell, or cause a health hazard.
Air pollution can occur naturally or be caused by human activities. [4] Air pollution causes around 7 or 8 million deaths each year. [5] [6] It is a significant risk factor for a number of pollution-related diseases, including heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma and lung cancer.
A pollutant or novel entity [1] is a substance or energy introduced into the environment that has undesired effect, or adversely affects the usefulness of a resource. These can be both naturally forming (i.e. minerals or extracted compounds like oil) or anthropogenic in origin (i.e. manufactured materials or byproducts).
Five basic disciplines generally contribute to the field of environmental health: environmental epidemiology, toxicology, exposure science, environmental engineering, and environmental law. Each of these five disciplines contributes different information to describe problems and solutions in environmental health.
noise pollution (environmental noise) - displeasing human or machine created sound that disrupts the activity or happiness of human or animal life. nonpoint source pollution - water pollution affecting a water body from diffuse sources, rather than a point source which discharges to a water body at a single location.
Levels of air pollution rose during the Industrial Revolution, sparking the first modern environmental laws to be passed in the mid-19th century. The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement) is a social movement that aims to protect the natural world from harmful environmental practices in order to create ...
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Sources of water pollution are either point sources or non-point sources. [155] Point sources have one identifiable cause, such as a storm drain, a wastewater treatment plant, or an oil spill. Non-point sources are more diffuse. An example is agricultural runoff. [156] Pollution is the result of the cumulative effect over time.