Definition and types of pollution

Question 1

Ecologist’s view on pollution?

Answer 1

”..the introduction of foreign materials into the environment should be kept at a level at which no detectable biological change results.”

Question 2

Economist’s view on pollution?

Answer 2

“Discharge or other action which occasions economic damage to man.”

Question 3

Holdgate’s definition of pollution (1979)?

Answer 3

introduction by man into the environment of substances or energy liable to cause hazards to:
- human health
- living resources and ecological systems
- structures or amenity
- legitimate uses of the environment

Question 4

U.S. president advisory committee on environmental pollution (1965)?

Answer 4

• wholly or largely as a by-product of man’s actions
• direct or indirect effects of the change of energy patterns, radiation levels, chemical and physical constitution and the abundance of organisms
• affect man directly or through his supplies of water and agricultural or other bodies, his physical objects or his opportunities to recreation and appreciation of nature

Question 5

U.S.A environmental protection agency definition?

Answer 5

Any substances in water, soil, or air that:
- degrade the natural quality of the environment
- offend the senses of sight, taste, or smell - cause a health hazard
The usefulness of the natural resource is usually impaired by the presence of pollutants and contaminants

Question 6

Which 4 characteristics do all pollution events have in common?

Answer 6

• pollutant
• source
• transport medium
• target

Question 7

Example of transport medium?

Answer 7

Air, water, and/or soil

Question 8

Example of target?

Answer 8

Organism, ecosystem or object [receptor]

Question 9

Holdgate’s pollution model (1979)?

Answer 9

.

Question 10

3 ways to classify pollution?

Answer 10

• source
• media affected or travelled through
• nature & properties of pollutant

Question 11

Example of pollution classified by source?

Answer 11

agriculture

Question 12

Example of pollution classified by media?

Answer 12

air/water/land

Question 13

Example of pollution classified by its nature & properties

Answer 13

heavy metal/organic material/sewage

Question 14

Two types of sources of pollution?

Answer 14

• point sources [discrete]
• diffuse sources [non-point]

Question 15

Example of point sources?

Answer 15

• sewage effluent pipes
• industrial wastewaters

Question 16

Example of diffuse sources?

Answer 16

acid rain/fertilizers/pesticides

Question 17

Two types of properties of pollutants?

Answer 17

• effect-generating properties
• pathway-determining properties

Question 18

Example of effect-generating properties?

Answer 18

toxicity in living organisms/corrosion of metals

Question 19

Pathway-determining properties?

Answer 19

determine distance & rate of dispersion in environment

Question 20

Primary pollutants?

Answer 20

exert harmful effects in the form in which they enter the environment

Question 21

Secondary pollutants?

Answer 21

synthesized as a result of chemical processes in environment
often but not always from less harmful precursors

Question 22

Example of secondary pollutants in Holdgate’s pollution model?

Answer 22

chemical transformations in environmental media