The book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, first published in 1962, awakened a passionate minority of environmentalists to the extent of the pollution problem in the United States. Carson chronicled the toll that decades of indiscriminate pesticide use,...
“[Effluent] trading is an innovative way for community stakeholders … to develop more ‘common sense’ solutions to water quality problems in their watersheds.” Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water,1998...
Most often used in regard to the natural environment, the term pollute means to make foul or unclean, degrade ecological and/or human health, contaminate or defile, and, in a religious sense, render ceremonially impure or desecrate. The verb pollute...
Pollution can be defined as a change in the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of the air, water, soil, or other parts of the environment that adversely affects the health, survival, or other activities of humans or other organisms....
Pollution is not a new phenomenon. In fact, it is older than most people realize. Archeologists digging through sites of Upper Paleolithic settlements (settlements of the first modern humans, between forty thousand and ten thousand years ago) routinely...
The cleanup of environmental pollution involves a variety of techniques, ranging from simple biological processes to advanced engineering technologies. Cleanup activities may address a wide range of contaminants, from common industrial chemicals such...
One key to achieving a sustainable society and tackling the complex environmental challenges of the twenty-first century is pollution prevention (P2), reducing or eliminating pollution before it is created. The idea has been discussed since 1976, but...
Between 1987 and 1992 the disintegration of Communist governments of Eastern Europe allowed the people and press of countries from the Baltic to the Black Sea to begin recounting tales of life-threatening pollution and disastrous environmental...
The presence of pollutants in soils at concentrations above background levels that pose a potential health or ecological risk. Soils can be contaminated by many human actions including the discharge of solids and liquid pollutants at the soil...
The most common interpretation of transboundary pollution is that it is pollution not contained by a single nation-state, but rather travels across national borders at varying rates. The concept of the global commons is important to an understanding...
Pollution can be defined as unwanted or detrimental changes in a natural system. Usually, pollution is associated with the presence of toxic chemicals in some large quantity, but pollution can also be caused by the presence of excess quantities of...
Pollution can be defined as unwanted or detrimental changes in a natural system. Usually, pollution is associated with the presence of toxic substances in some large quantity, but pollution can also be caused by the presence of excess quantities of...
Consumer pollution refers, in part, to traces of numerous consumer products, including pain relievers, prescription drugs, antibiotics, insect repellent, sunscreens, and fragrances—collectively called pharmaceuticals and personal care products...
The term pollution is derived from the Latin pollutus, which means to be made foul, unclean, or dirty. Anything that corrupts, degrades or makes something less valuable or desirable can be considered pollution. There is, however, a good deal of...
Pollution and other environmental impacts have been unwelcome companions in humanity's voyage to space. They shadow all stages of the journey, from manufacturing, to launch, and even to space and other worlds, as debris may be strewn along the...
Abatement is a general term used for methods or technologies that reduce the amount of pollutant generated in a chemical or other manufacturing facility. In contrast, the terms cleanup and remediation refer to removal or appropriate disposal of the...
A pollution prevention (P2) technology is one that creates less pollution in its life cycle than the one it replaces. P2 can be achieved in many ways, from better housekeeping and maintenance to redesign of products and processes. The range of P2...
Scottish-American naturalist and Sierra Club founder, John Muir (1838–1914), wrote, "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." Our rapidly growing, ever more industrialized...
Contamination is the unwanted presence of a microorganism in a particular environment. That environment can be in the laboratory setting, for example, in a medium being used for the growth of a species of bacteria during an experiment. Another...
The amount of pollution in our environment continues to pose a challenge for industry, business, and decisionmakers. Some of the major chemicals of concern are those that harm the environment on a large scale, such as chlorofluorocarbons, which destroy...
Pollution shifting is defined as the transfer of pollution from one medium (air, water, or soil) to another. Early legal efforts to control pollution focused on single media. For example, in the United States, the Clean Air Act covers air and the Clean...
Environmental regulatory organizations such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have historically dealt with pollution problems through control or remediation, as opposed to the pollution prevention (commonly called "P2")...
Conventional pollutants fall into five categories; the presence of these pollutants is commonly determined by measuring biochemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, pH levels, the amount of fecal coliform, and the quantity of oil and grease....
Dilution was the solution to pollution when populations were small. Everything people wanted to get rid of went into the water. These wastes were typically organic, such as human wastes and animal carcasses. They became food for animals,...
The term pollution is derived from the Latin pollutus, which means to be made foul, unclean, or dirty. Pollutants, then, are factors that corrupt, degrade, or make something less valuable or desirable. In environmental terms, we consider pollutants to...
Release of material into the environment either by natural or human-caused processes. This term is used especially in describing air pollution for volatile or suspended contaminants that result from processes such as burning fuel in an engine....
A diffuse, scattered source of pollution. Nonpoint sources have no fixed location where they discharge pollutants into the air or water as do chimneys, outfall pipes, or other point sources. Nonpoint sources include runoff from agricultural fields,...
A pollutant that is not broken down by natural processes. Some nondegradable pollutants, like the heavy metals, create problems because they are toxic and persistent in the environment. Others, like synthetic plastics, are a problem because of their...
Pollutants for which specific standards or criteria have not been established. Although some air pollutants are known to be toxic or hazardous, they are released in relatively small quantities or in locations where individual regulation is not...
Under the 1977 amendments to the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency is required to compile a list of priority toxic pollutants and to establish toxic pollutant effluent standards. A list of 126 key water pollutants was produced by EPA...
Criteria pollutants are air pollutants which, at certain levels of exposure, do not threaten human health and meet National Ambient Air Quality Standards. There are two types of standards for such pollutants. National primary ambient air quality...
The relationship between a dose of pollution and the physical consequences, including mortality, morbidity, crop yields and material deterioration. Lave, L. and Seskin, E. (1967) Air Pollution and Human Health, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University...
The US EPA has issued a list of 129 Priority Pollutants. It is now thought that it may be necessary to add to this list. This is due, in part, to advances in analytical instrumentation. It is now possible to detect compounds not previously...
Any substance present in some other substance or medium that is likely to cause harm or to exceed a statutory quality standard. A pollutant is essentially a CONTAMINANT that is likely to cause harm; the contaminant may, but does not necessarily,...
A substance, the presence of which is not desired, which is contained within a product or environment. It may be present, for example, as a result of environmental contamination, manufacturing or process faults, or as a result of malicious or...
A substance that is contained within or incorporated into another substance in which the presence of the former is considered to render the latter impure or unclean. The contaminant need not necessarily possess the characteristic of actually causing...
The presence of substances at concentrations which do not pose any risk or hazard to the environment. At higher concentrations these same substances may threaten health or well being of plants or...
Air pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into an environment that cause harm to human health, other living organisms, and the environment.[1] Pollution can be in the form of chemical...
