Environmental Pollution and its control

Pollution can take many forms. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the ground where we grow our food, and even the increasing noise we hear every day—all contribute to health problems and a lower quality of life.

Environmental pollution is on the increase. Exhaust emissions from vehicles are adversely affecting the air quality in cities. Toxic elements have started entering the food chain. Inefficient water management is leading to increase in various communicable and water-borne diseases. Solutions devised to protect and regenerate the environment have not shown any tangible results so far. Industries, power generation plants, automobiles are the major cause of air pollution. Some of the highly polluting industries are metal smelting, cement, dyes, fertilizers, steel, leather, pesticides, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, paper, and refineries

Serious health problems are caused by the presence of fly ash in the air. Since fly ash production is only going to increase rapidly, the situation is only going to get worse. Fly ash is responsible for air pollution and wastage of land that could be used to grow crops. This same fly ash can be put to good use for building roads and pavements. It can be used to fill mines and make cement. Although technology is available to put fly ash to good use it is hardly being used for this purpose. Small scale industries located in residential areas are also major causes of pollution and related health risks. The government should have an incentive scheme for industries that install pollution control devices. Certain areas have crossed the maximum limit for allowable pollution while some areas can bear an additional pollution load. The government should identify such areas and carry out pollution carrying capacity studies of these areas.

Major forms of pollution and major polluted areas

The major forms of pollution are listed below along with the particular pollutants relevant to each of them:

Air pollution is the release of chemicals and particulates into the atmosphere. Common substances that cause air pollution include CO2, SO2, CFCs(chloro fluro carbon), and NOx produced by industry and motor vehicles. Photochemical ozone and smog are created as nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons react to sunlight.
Water Pollution is mainly due to surface runoff, leaching to groundwater, liquid spills,wastewater discharges,eutrophication and littering.

Soil Contamination occurs when chemicals are released by spill or underground storage tank leakage. The most significant contaminants are hydrocarbons,heavy metals, herbicides,pesticides and chlorinated hydrocarbons .
Noise Pollution, includes roadway noise,aircraft noise, industrial noise ,high-intensity sonar etc.

Light Pollution, includes light trespass, over-illumination and astronomical interference.
Visual Pollution refers to the presence of overhead power-lines motorway bill-boards, scarred landforms open storage of trash or municipal storage waste.
Thermal pollution, is a temperature change in natural water bodies caused by human influence,like the use of water as coolant in a power plant.