A Comprehensive Overview of Environmental Pollution and Prevention

This essay provides a detailed overview of environmental pollution, defining it as any undesirable change in the chemical, biological, and physical characteristics of environmental components like air, water, and soil. It identifies three major types of environmental pollution: air, water, and land pollution, and elaborates on their specific effects on human health, including respiratory problems, cancers, waterborne diseases, and injuries from land degradation. The essay also outlines the primary causes of each type of pollution, such as industrial emissions, vehicle exhaust, improper waste disposal, and agricultural practices. Furthermore, it suggests various preventive measures, including the use of solar lighting, efficient vehicles, rechargeable batteries, groundwater protection, reduced pesticide use, and reforestation, emphasizing the importance of sustainable practices and responsible resource management to mitigate the harmful impacts of pollution.

Environmental
Pollution

What is pollution
Pollution is the influence of any substance
that cause harmful effects, nuisance and
uneasiness to the organisms (Sarkar, 2017).

Environmental pollution?
It can be defined as any change that is undesirable in the
chemical, biological and physical characteristics of any of
the environmental components such as in water, air and
soil that has harmful impacts on several forms of life and
property (Gavrilescu et al., 2015).

Three major types of environmental
pollution
• Air pollution
• Water pollution
• Land pollution

Effects of environmental pollution on
human health
Air pollution
- Any harmful substance in the air or atmosphere that damages
the environment. Increase in industries has resulted in increase
of air pollution Impact on human health
Asthma
Cancer
Respiratory problems
Tuberculosis
Birth defects
Immune system damage
Heart disease
Intellectual; disorders

Effects of environmental pollution on
human health
Water pollution
-Contamination of water bodies like rivers, groundwater, rivers
and lakes (Hutchins et al., 2018)
Impact on human health
Diarrhoea
Vomiting
Nerve disorder
Skin Lesions
Diphtheria
Typhoid
Kidney damage
Hepatitis

Effects of environmental pollution on
human health
Land pollution
- Degradation of the land surface that are often caused by the
human activities and their misuse of its resources.
Impact on human health
The key problems that are caused by land pollution are same
like that of the ones caused by air and water pollution.
Additionally, it increases the amount of human injuries from
broken glass, cans and from syringes on to the beaches and
river banks.

Causes of environmental pollution
• Water pollution occurs when the pollutants are
discharges indirectly or directly into the water
bodies without any adequate treatment for
removing the harmful compounds
• Air pollution is caused because of pollution
emitting from the vehicles, trains, industries,
airplanes etc (Kim et al., 2017).
• Land pollution is caused by the landfills and other
sites, construction activities, soil erosion,
agricultural activities and mining activities

Ways to prevent environmental pollution
• Use of solar lighting
• Washing clothes of warm or cold water rather than hot water
• Choosing efficient and low polluting vehicles’ models
• Using rechargeable batteries for devices
• Preventing groundwater contamination
• Reducing nonpoint runoff
• Slowing down the population growth
• Reducing poverty
• Finding out substitutes for toxic pollutants
• Reusing the treated waste water for irrigation and drinking
• Buying biodegradable products
• Reducing the use of pesticides
• Minimising the mining, deforestation activities (Ahuja, 2015)
• Planting more trees

References
• Sarkar, A. (2017). Environmental Pollution: Problems, Concerns and Initiatives in the
Context of Global Scenario with Special Reference to India. Educational Quest, 8(1),
171.
• Gavrilescu, M., Demnerová, K., Aamand, J., Agathos, S., & Fava, F. (2015). Emerging
pollutants in the environment: present and future challenges in biomonitoring,
ecological risks and bioremediation. New biotechnology, 32(1), 147-156.
• Hutchins, M. G., Abesser, C., Prudhomme, C., Elliott, J. A., Bloomfield, J. P., Mansour,
M. M., & Hitt, O. E. (2018). Combined impacts of future land-use and climate
stressors on water resources and quality in groundwater and surface waterbodies of
the upper Thames river basin, UK. Science of the Total Environment, 631, 962-986.
• Kim, K. H., Kumar, P., Szulejko, J. E., Adelodun, A. A., Junaid, M. F., Uchimiya, M., &
Chambers, S. (2017). Toward a better understanding of the impact of mass transit
air pollutants on human health. Chemosphere, 174, 268-279.
• Ahuja, S. (2015). Overview of Global Water Challenges and Solutions. In Water
Challenges and Solutions on a Global Scale (pp. 1-25). American Chemical Society.

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