The role of Chemistry in environmental protection

Chemistry has an important role to play in environmental protection. To reduce or

eliminate pollution at the source, it is possible to limit or remove chemical feed stocks, reagents,
solvents, and products. Treatment of waste streams at the point of generation differs from
cleanup of polluted water and air streams. When doing remediation, it is feasible to isolate
hazardous chemicals from non-hazardous components and then treat or concentrate them for safe
disposal as a part of the procedure. The bulk of cleanup projects do not include the use of
chemistry. On the contrary, chemistry works to prevent dangerous substances from entering the
environment in the first place rather than remediating them after they have (Matlin, 2015).

Environmental pollutants such as ozone and other harmful gases and particles in the air
are the consequence of chemical reactions taking place in the atmosphere. A number of
additional air pollutants, such as sculpture dioxide, are discharged directly into the atmosphere as
well. Air pollution may be caused by natural or man-made causes. The most significant sources
of air pollution today are power plants, road traffic, industry, and the combustion of fossil fuels
at home. It is essential to have a good understanding of pollutants and their chemistry in order to
understand their health repercussions, emission legislation, and pollution-reducing technologies.
It has been discovered that there is a master chemical mechanism for the breakdown of volatile
organic molecules in the lower atmosphere, which has been devised by researchers.
Policymakers may use this strategy to test the effectiveness of a new regulation or piece of
legislation before implementing it. Chemists have identified trees as a source of higher levels of
organic pollutants during heat waves, which they attribute to the growth of the trees. As a result
of this unexpected revelation, the air quality estimates for the United Kingdom have been
enhanced by taking natural emissions into consideration (Sharma, 2010)

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 References

1. Matlin, S. A., Mehta, G., Hopf, H., & Krief, A. (2015). The role of chemistry in inventing
a sustainable future. Nature chemistry, 7(12), 941-943.
2. Sharma, S. K., & Mudhoo, A. (Eds.). (2010). Green chemistry for environmental
sustainability. CRC Press.

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