General Information About Hydrocarbons

 Hydrocarbons are natural chemical compounds made up of carbon

and hydrogen.
 They have a carbon backbone and hydrogen bases

All hydrocarbons fall under one of the three following catagories:

-saturated hydrocarbons:
- They have no double, triple, or aromatic bonds between carbons
- These are the least dangerous of the three
-unsaturated hydrocarbons:
- They have at least one double or triple bond between carbons
-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs):
- They have at least one aromatic ring of carbons
- PAHs are the most lethal hydrocarbon
 
 
As far as water pollution goes, the PAHs are the type of
hydrocarbons that are causing a big problem. They
are mutagenic (causes body mutations), morphogenic (causes
defomities), carcinogenic (causes cancer), and teratogenic (causes
fetal mutations). The fact alone that we expose ourselves daily to
these chemicals when we know how dangerous they are is amazing,
but the fact that we are killing our planets wildlife through our
carelessness is catastrophic. Recently there has been efforts in
stopping hydrocarbon water pollution, but still each
year  157,500,000 gallons of oil and hydrocarbon emmisions are
being dumped into our oceans and lakes, and seeping into our ground
water(Andrews). Added to this number is the amount of
Hydrocarbons reaching water from atmosheric fall out. Another
prominant problem is gasoline contaminating our ground water. Once
it get into our groundwater not only are animals being effecting by
our own negligence, but we're drinking it up by the cupfulls. Work is
being done to stop hydrocarbon pollution but we're pleading for
more to be done.