Pollution

Question 1

What is pollution?

Answer 1

When a substance entering or being present in an environment has harmful or poisonous effects

Question 2

What is atmospheric pollution?

Answer 2

The release of gases or particles into the atmosphere faster than the environment can naturally rid of them

Question 3

What is water pollution?

Answer 3

Pollution that is caused by a substance that enters waterways at excessive levels.

Question 4

What is terrestrial pollution?

Answer 4

Imbalance in naturals systems caused by humans

Question 5

What is light pollution?

Answer 5

the presence of any unwanted, inappropriate, or excessive artificial lighting.

Question 6

What is noise pollution?

Answer 6

Continuous or recurrent noise that is annoying or physically harmful.

Question 7

What is thermal pollution?

Answer 7

Heat from hot water that is discharged from an industrial plant into a water body that can be fatal to aquatic life

Question 8

What are heavy metals?

Answer 8

A metal with an atomic mass greater than that of calcium (mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic)

Question 9

What is waste?

Answer 9

A material or substance that is removed and deemed no longer useful after the completion of a process. Can become a pollutant if not treated properly (but may not)

Question 10

What is a contaminant?

Answer 10

A substance presence where is does not naturally occur

Question 11

What is a pollutant

Answer 11

The substance that pollutes .

Question 12

What is a contaminating pollutant?

Answer 12

Contaminant that results in or can result in adverse biological effects to resident biota.

Question 13

What is a point source emission?

Answer 13

Pollutant that comes from a single discharge point, like a chimney.

Question 14

What is a diffuse source emission

Answer 14

something that Enters the environment across a broad area (like fertiliser run-off

Question 15

What is a pollutant sink

Answer 15

process or place that removes a pollutants from the biogeochemical cycle by either storing it or changing the substance

Question 16

What is bioaccumulation?

Answer 16

When an organism takes in a substance faster than the body can remove it and the amount of it increases over time

Question 17

What is biomagnification

Answer 17

The increasing concentration of a chemical in organisms as it goes up the food chain

Question 18

What is bioconcentration?

Answer 18

A type of bioaccumulation where a chemical taken directly from the environment, but not through food.

Question 19

What is mercury?

Answer 19

Naturally occurring heavy metal found in three forms: organic, inorganic, and elemental (metallic)

Question 20

Define exposure

Answer 20

A measure of how much of a pollutant a person is exposed to in a given time

Question 21

define dosage

Answer 21

The amount of a chemical absorbed per unit of body weight

Question 22

Define toxicity

Answer 22

A measure of the harm (through illness or death) that a substance can cause in organisms

Question 23

Define lethal dose (LD)

Answer 23

A term to describe the dose of a substance that is sufficient to kill a percentage of an animal within a given time

Question 24

What are endocrine disruptors?

Answer 24

Synthetic or naturally occurring chemicals that affect the hormonal systems in animals

Question 25

What is dispersal

Answer 25

How pollutants enter the environment

Question 26

What are primary pollutants?

Answer 26

Substances released into environment directly from a polluting source. (fossil fuels)

Question 27

What are secondary pollutants

Answer 27

Formed by chemical changes to primary pollutants

Question 28

What is direct pollution

Answer 28

Discharging a polluting directly from the source the the environment

Question 29

What is indirect pollution?

Answer 29

When a pollutant finds its way indirectly into an environment. (nitrogen run-off)

Question 30

What are the types of diffuse-source emissions?

Answer 30

- Mobile emissions - Fugitive emissions

Question 31

What are mobile emissions?

Answer 31

Comes form mobile sources. (i.e motor vehicles) These create a large diffuse emission source, but individually, they are little point source of pollution

Question 32

What are fugitive emissions?

Answer 32

Escape from an instrument or facility separate to any designated outlets

Question 33

What are local impacts?

Answer 33

Small scale impact - affects an area of a few square kms

Question 34

What are regional impacts?

Answer 34

large yet distinct are of impact

Question 35

What are global impacts?

Answer 35

global and international impact

Question 36

Define inhaled

Answer 36

Taken in through the lungs and absorbed through the membrane surfaces into the bloodstream

Question 37

Define ingested

Answer 37

Taken in through swallowing (food/drink) and absorbed from digestive system into the liver then to the bloodstream

Question 38

Define dermal absorption

Answer 38

Absorbed through the skin

Question 39

What are hormones?

Answer 39

the chemicals that coordinate different functions around the body by carrying messages to the blood in organs

Question 40

What are environmental hazards

Answer 40

Defined as factors of the environment which threaten or impair human health in some way

Question 41

What is acute toxicity

Answer 41

The adverse health effect from a single dose of a toxic substance

Question 42

What is chronic toxicity?

Answer 42

Adverse health effects of repeated exposure to the material over a prolonged period

Question 43

Define threshold

Answer 43

The level of chemical exposure below which there is no adverse effect and above which there is significant toxicological effect

Question 44

What is a carcinogen?

Answer 44

Cancer-causing substances

Question 45

What is environmental health?

Answer 45

“Those aspects of public health concerned with the factors, circumstances, and conditions in the environment or surrounding of humans that can exert an influence on health and well-being”

Question 46

what is a persistent pollutant

Answer 46

A substance is persistent if it does not break down easily

Question 47

What is e-waste?

Answer 47

Electronic waste includes all discarded electric or electronic devices

Question 48

What heavy metals are hound in e-waste that are harmful

Answer 48

Lead, cadmium and chromium

Question 49

What is a degradable pollutant?

Answer 49

A degradable pollutant breaks down in the environment due to natural environmental condition or other chemical reactions

Question 50

What is DDT

Answer 50

A synthetic insecticide used in agriculture that controlled for insect-borne human diseases, but was banned due to its impacts on the environment.

Question 51

Describe 2 things about DDT

Answer 51

Persistent, accumulates in fatty tissues

Question 52

What was outlined in the convention on mercury?

Answer 52

Bans on new mercury mines, the phase out of existing mines, control measures on air emissions

Question 53

What is agent orange

Answer 53

herbicide and defoliant chemical used in the Vietnam war that caused drastic health effects.

Question 54

Illnesses may be caused form specific environmental hazards and additional contributions from:

Answer 54

Environmental factors (housing, climate), Demographic factors (socio-economic status), genetics, other exposures like smoking

Question 55

What are potential impacts from soil contamination

Answer 55

Food chain → crop uptake Direct human health → ingestion or dermal contact Air → Volatile or dust transport Soil → Productivity Surface waters → solubilisation or sediment transport Groundwater → Leaching or infiltration

Question 56

What is arsenic

Answer 56

toxic heavy metal

Question 57

What is legionella

Answer 57

A sometimes fatal pneumonia-like illness

Question 58

What causes legionella

Answer 58

Poorly managed air-conditioning and water-cooling systems that can encourage bacteria to proliferate

Question 59

What are environmental effects of arsenic

Answer 59

reduced organism health, death of plants and animals, and imbalances of population in ecosystems

Question 60

What products was arsenic previously used in?

Answer 60

Man-made sources include glass, mining, paper products, timber treatments, etc.