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Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. [1] Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the components of pollution, can be either foreign substances/energies or naturally occurring ...
Air pollution can occur naturally or be caused by human activities. [3] Air pollution causes around 7 million deaths each year. [4] [5] 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.
There are five types of air pollution dispersion models, as well as some hybrids of the five types: [1] Box model – The box model is the simplest of the model types. [2] It assumes the airshed (i.e., a given volume of atmospheric air in a geographical region) is in the shape of a box.
The risk of air pollution is determined by the pollutant's hazard and the amount of exposure that affects a person. [36] For example, a child who plays outdoor sports will have a higher likelihood of outdoor air pollution exposure than an adult who tends to spend more time indoors, whether at work or elsewhere. [36]
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 ...
Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, with a negative impact on their uses. [1]: 6 It is usually a result of human activities. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. Water pollution results when contaminants mix with these water bodies. Contaminants can come from ...
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.
Air pollution measurement is the process of collecting and measuring the components of air pollution, notably gases and particulates. The earliest devices used to measure pollution include rain gauges (in studies of acid rain ), Ringelmann charts for measuring smoke , and simple soot and dust collectors known as deposit gauges . [ 1 ]