Hi everyone, I'm Rezzy and I'm back with a Post about "Pollution and it's effect on the environment".

Image Source

To Begin with the body of the Post, I would need to define pollution from my own point of view.

DEFINITION OF POLLUTION

Pollution is basically defined as the intentional or unintentional discharge/release of harmful, toxic substances in the state of solid, liquid or gas which causes reduction in the quality of living of humans and animals. Pollution occurs almost everywhere in our environment, which may be a residential area or industrial area. They are also wider types of pollution such as noise and light.

According to Wikipedia

" Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat, or light. Pollutants, the components of pollution, can be either foreign substances/energies or naturally occurring contaminants."- Source

CLASSES OF POLLUTION

1. Primary Pollution

Most times, pollutants that are released into the environment shows immediately or easily noticable adverse effects, such as bush or waste burning which drastically reduces the quality of the air we breathe. Bush burning, forest fires etc kills and chases wildlife away.

2. Secondary Pollution

the effects of the release of some pollutants are not experienced till after long periods. These pollutants tend to accumulate and thereby causing much larger effects to the environment. These class of pollution tends to disrupt the balance of the food and also brings about global warming.

TYPES OF POLLUTION

1. Land Pollution

• Image taken by me

Land is the usual point of mans industrial waste dumping, this reason accompanied with exploitation of minerals and poor agricultural practices causes physical and biological degradation of the Earth's surface.

Examples of Land Pollution

• Soil Misuse: such as poor agricultural practices, over mination of mineral resources which could lead to erosion, microbial degradation.
• Solid wastes released by households, businesses and industries
• Pesticides and Biocides: mainly meant to control destructive lifeforms such as bacteria, pests and insects who cause interrupted growth to plants, wrongful use of pesticides and Biocides has caused considerable pollution as some of these products are extremely effective.

2. Water Pollution

Image Source
This is brought about by chemicals, physical and biological particles that are introduced over time into the water which affects the quality and also the organisms living in it. Accumulation of solid wastes, pesticides, chemical compounds, heavy metals, non-degradable matter are the building blocks of these type of pollution.

3. Air Pollution

Image Source
Certain concentrations of substances in the Atmosphere tends to reduce the quality of breathing air for living things and other materials, these substances are called Air pollutants. Mans domestic and industrial environment needs energy to function, either electrical or mechanical, this has lead to large amount of heat release into the air.
Other causes of Air pollution include the use of fuel essential for vehicles, solid wastes burning, petroleum refineries, industrial processes(eg burning of coal) etc.

4. Thermal Pollution

Image Source
The main sources of thermal pollution are fossil fuel and nuclear-electric power generating facilities and cooling operations associated with industrial manufacturers of steel, chemical and petrochemical producers.
Heated water release into a waterway results in rapid deaths of fish, other aquatic life and amphibians residing in it. This unfortunate event causes change of aquatic life that's able to grow and which in turn causes imbalance in the biological community where this pollution occurs.

5. Sound Pollution

Image Source
Sound is a constant factor in our day to day lives as we try to communicate and entertain ourselves through sound systems as well as the sound produced from the industries and general working environment as a whole.
Over the past decades the ambient noise increased an average of one decibel per year during the 1980's, the unit of sound that's audible to a human is one decibel (S.I unit= dB). The average background noise in a typical home today is between 40-50 decibels.
The most common effect of noise pollution is damage to hearing, which is either temporary or permanent. Depending on individual susceptibility, duration of exposure, distribution of exposure(steady or consistent) and nature of noise, the effects of noise pollution on an individual is variable.

• i) an individual will experience a threshold shift( a difference in an individuals upper limit in sound detectability) between 75-80db for several hours until the source of the sound is removed.

• i) A short exposure to 130-140db will cause a Threshold of Pain, which will cause physical pain and/or partial hearing loss. Whilst at the Uppermost level( above 150dB) may cause physical damage inside the ear and traumatic hearing loss.
  Researchers have attributed migraine headaches, fatigue, increased tolerance levels, increased incidence of ulcers and lower productivity to higher level noise at the workplace and general environment.

HOW WE CAN TACKLE POLLUTION 🌴

• Recycling: when we start mass recycling of waste consistently in our environment, it tends to reduce the amount of pollutants circling the environment. Recycling of land and solid wastes are more safer than the conventional burning of wastes.

Image Source

• Deposition of land wastes into sanitary landfills, landfills contain aesthetic control and are mainly odourless.
• In the case of Sound Pollution, we could able to muff the intensity of the sounds coming from the sources, thereby making the risk of damage limited.
• Artificial noise barriers can be constructed between highways and also the residential areas around the highways.
• Green covers adjacent to municipal roads and in mines since sound is slowly reduced by 10dB at every 10m.
• In the case of Air pollution, afforestation (planting of tress) is the best way to mitigate the air pollutants, as trees interact with us and the atmosphere to give fresher air.
• As the most intelligent species on the Earth, man needs to invent equipment that'll be smokeless in both industries and the domestic environment.
• More renewable resources such as wind, solar and ocean currents should be used to fulfill energy needs.
• Regular treatment of sewage wastes should be adopted in developing countries
• Waste food materials, solids, plastics, paper and decaying particles shouldn't be thrown into the waterways. These accumulate over time and cause greater harm!
• Oil slicks should be separated from the surface of water bodies by suction devices or oil separators.
• Industries should reduce the amount of Nitrous oxide which is contained in fertilizers, because it's a Greenhouse gas which contributes to global warming when exposed to the open Environment.
• Switching to healthier cooking methods, why not switch to cooking equipments that produce Little or no smoke? Firewoods generate alot of smoke!
• Quit smoking 🚬, it's injurious to your health and also our environment as a whole!

Image Source

• A well maintained vehicle won't generate much noise or smoke!, we should try servicing our vehicles more often.

Image Source

• An idle vehicle while in traffic and turned on would still cause air pollution, we should try turning off our vehicles as it would reduce the heating and the air pollutants released from it.
• Creation of public awareness because most people don't really know their everyday normal activities are actually going to harm us in the short term of Long term.
• Small scale farmers should be educated on how best to use fertilizers as they could harm our soil and the air.
• And lastly for me, more holidays should be given for general cleaning of our environment, at least more than thrice a year, a general cleaning operation should be operational. It's supposed to be an everyday job to take care of our environment, but coming together to address ways to tackle pollution with different ideas is the way to go.

CONCLUSION✅

Pollution comes from our day to day activities, hence, it is our duty to manage it so as to keep a healthy balance within our environment and workplace.

Image Source
In man's quest to survive and enjoy his environment, we must not forget we have only one Home, Earth, we must always make it our priority to take care of our home 🌍.
A little change in our ways would go a long way in reducing the hazards in our environment, making it healthier and preserving it for generations to come!!

Thank You and Have a wonderful day ahead.