POLLUTION

for pollution are intend any kind of substances or energy that can cause problem and disguise in our
lives or in the environment.
Back in time the first large quantities of pollutants produced by humans are those from the
industrial revolution in 1750s. In those years steam machines became popular for moving any kind
of machinery in any fabric, but in order to work those machines require large quantity of coal that
was necessary to boil water and generate steam. Burning coal is the worst thing we could do whit it
because it releases large quantities of CO2 CO and sulfuric oxides in atmosphere. These are
pollutants responsible of the fog that surrounded London during those years. Also for making all
those machine steel production became very massive and during molding processes large quantities
of the same pollutants are generate.
Nowadays air pollutants aren't the same, CO2 is no longer a big problem but PM10 and PM2.5 take
its place, these are fine dusts produced during fuels combustion and are dangerous because they can
reach our lungs and accumulate there. Also motor combustion produces nitrogen oxides that
generates ozone (O3) in combination with VOC (volatile organic compounds). O3 is dangerous and
toxic humans and is very difficult to control and to reduce his level.
Watch out this ozone is not the same that is in the ozone layer. This one is called tropospheric ozone
and is toxic and can lead to other pollutants like free radicals. The O3 in the ozone layer is called
stratospheric and is about 12 km high in the atmosphere. This o3 is good and is necessary for any
kind of life on the earth because without it UV rays from the sun will hit us causing breakings in
DNA molecules that lead to death. Also this ozone is damaged from pollution, CFC
(chlorofluorocarbons) in high atmosphere have some reactions that produce chlorine gas, this one in
combination with other effects and molecule lead to the degradation of stratospheric ozone. This has
caused the hole in the ozone layers in '60s and it is still a problem because, also if we have stopped
to free the in the air, CFC stays in atmosphere for at leas 120 years.
Another kind of pollutants that are popular nowadays are green house gasses, in these categories
take part CO2, methane, H2O, O3, VOC and nitrogen oxides. These gasses are capable to absorbe
IR rays that bounces on the earth surface and spread them in any directions, also toward the ground
so IR rays stray longer in the atmosphere and raises temperature. Greenhouse gasses are not only a
bad thing, obviously they must be controlled and their emissions must be reduced but without these
gasses the average temperature on the earth would be -18°C.
Not only air pollutants are dangerous for the environment, but also ground and water pollutants: in
these categories we can find heavy metals and organic compounds.
These pollutants are a big problem because they can stay underground for many years and, after
some sort of activation, became dangerous and provoke damages. This is the case of mercury for
example, it isn't very dangerous in his ionic form, it can stay underground for many years but if it
can reach the sea by the action of acid rains that can mobilize it, it became very dangerous because
some anaerobic organisms that lives in deep oceans can metilate mercury to form Hg-CH3+ that is a
very toxic forms of mercury. Than it cam be bioaccumulate in fishes and saturate liver, pancreas and
kidneys of these organisms, after that, if the concentration remains the same, fishes continues to
accumulate it and it can fall out of those organs and create damages in brain and other organs that
bring the death to the animal.
Ground and water pollution were not considered so much relevant back in the years, so now we
have large areas full of pollutants that are very hard and expansive to reclaim.
Now we have laws and controls that regulate the emissions of pollutants, but only if all of us think
and chose to recycle all of our pollutant trash instead of spread it in the environment we could save
the planet.