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INTRODUCTION

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the Natural environment that causes adverse change. Pollution
can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light. Pollutants, the components of
pollution, can be either foreign substances/energies or naturally occurring contaminants.

Environmental pollution is one of the most serious problems facing humanity and other life forms on our planet
today. “Environmental pollution is defined as “the contamination of the physical and biological components of
the earth/atmosphere system to such an extent that normal environmental processes are adversely affected.”

Pollutants can be naturally occurring substances or energies, but they are considered contaminants when in
excess of natural levels. Any use of natural resources at a rate higher than nature’s capacity to restore itself can
result in pollution of air, water, and land. Environmental pollution is of different types namely air, water, soil,
noise, etc. These cause damage to the living system. How pollution interacts with public health, environmental
medicine and the environment has undergone dramatic change.

Pollution occurs, on the one hand, because the natural environment does not know how to decompose the
unnaturally generated elements (i.e., anthropogenic pollutants), and, on the other, there is a lack of knowledge
on the part of humans on how to decompose these pollutants artificially. It may last many years during which the
nature will attempt to decompose the pollutants; in one of the worst cases – that of radioactive pollutants – it
may take as long as thousands of years for the decomposition of such pollutants to be completed.

It matters first and foremost because it has negative impacts on crucial environmental services such as provision
of clean air and clean water without which life on Earth as we know it would not exist. People are the reason we
have pollution. Pollution affects our environment because the water pollution can affect the living conditions of
people and plants. Pollution can cause our environment to start and fall. If we don’t have clean water for plants
and trees how are we going to make paper and grow veggies for people to eat? This is why the big idea affects the
environment and people are the main cause of pollution.

IMPORTANCE
Following are some reasons why it is importance to control environmental pollution:

1)Reducing pollutants in the air is important for human health and the environment.
2)Poor air quality has harmful effects on human health, particularly the respiratory and cardiovascular systems.
3)Pollutants can also damage plants and buildings, and smoke or haze can reduce visibility.

Environmental Pollution prevention reduces both financial costs (waste management and cleanup) and
environmental costs (health problems and environmental damage). Environmental Pollution prevention protects
the environment by conserving and protecting natural resources while strengthening economic growth through
more efficient production in industry and less need for households, businesses and communities to handle waste.

Environmental Pollution prevention approaches can be applied to all potential and actual pollution-generating
activities, including those found in the energy, agriculture, federal, consumer and industrial sectors. Prevention
practices are essential for preserving wetlands, groundwater sources and other critical ecosystems - areas in
which we especially want to stop pollution before it begins.

In the energy sector, Environmental pollution prevention can reduce environmental damages from extraction,
processing, transport and combustion of fuels. Environmental Pollution prevention approaches include:
1)increasing efficiency in energy use;
2)use of environmentally benign fuel sources.
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In the agricultural sector, Environmental pollution prevention approaches include:

1)Reducing the use of water and chemical inputs;
2)Adoption of less environmentally harmful pesticides or cultivation of crop strains with natural resistance to
pests; and
3)Protection of sensitive areas.

In the industrial sector:

1) a production process to produce less waste

2) Using non-toxic or less toxic chemicals as cleaners, degreasers and other maintenance chemicals
3) Implementing water and energy conservation practices
4)Reusing materials such as drums and pallets rather than disposing of them as waste

In homes and schools Environmental pollution prevention include:

1)Using reusable water bottles instead of throw-aways

2)Automatically turning off lights when not in use
3)Repairing leaky faucets and hoses
4)Switching to "green" cleaners

OBJECTIVES
The following are some aims and objectives to control the environmental pollution:

1. Awareness:
To help social groups and individuals to acquire knowledge of pollution and environmental degradation.

2. Knowledge:
To help social groups and individuals to acquire knowledge of the environment beyond the immediate
environment including a distant environment.

3. Attitudes:
To help social groups and individuals to acquire a set of values for environmental protection.

4. Skills and Capacity Building:

To help social groups and individuals to develop skills required for making discriminations in form, shape, sound,
touch, habits and habitats. Further, to develop ability to draw unbiased inferences and conclusions.

5. Participation:
To provide social groups and individuals with an opportunity to be actively involved at all levels in
environmental decision making.

6.Promote low-carbon/low-pollution society

7. Promote Sound Material-Cycle society

8. Promote societies in harmony with nature, while adapting to climate change.

Environmental pollution influences both soil and agriculture which are the two facets of valuable resource
necessary for our sustenance. For agriculture, soil is generally assumed as an inexhaustible resource, which is
used and overused continually for increasing production. The soil today has virtually become lifeless in many
places with increasing development & industrialization. Soil, microflora, fauna, nutrients and associated habitat
has the potential to influence the soil ecosystem, agriculture, environment and economy in one go. Soil and its
living organisms are an integral part of agricultural ecosystems and environment, playing a critical role in
maintaining soil health, ecosystem functions and productivity. They range from the myriad of invisible microbes,
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bacteria and fungi to the more familiar macro-fauna such as earthworms and termites. Plant roots can also be
considered as soil organisms in view of their symbiotic relationships and interactions with other soil components.
These diverse organisms interact with one another and with the various plants and animals in the ecosystem,
forming a complex web of biological activity.

The rapid pace of industrialization has made this soil ecosystem, one of the worst hit victims. The development
process has ushered in the challenges of soil contamination, microbial and biodiversity loss. Current growth
patterns are reflecting on the very productivity of our agricultural soils. It is time to recognize that the economic
and social development depends on the protection of the environment and reduction of the human impact.
Environmental problems, which may have global impacts, are complex and often interrelated with socio-
economic factors. Problems of soil contamination, pollution and degradation, loss of biodiversity do not recognize
political borders and pose major threats to human safety, health and productivity. The need to take actions to
sustain soil and its immediate environment becomes pressing and challenging task in today’s environment. One of
the important dimensions of the efforts for environmental protection is raising public awareness and
participation. The conference aims to provide a platform to deliberate on concerns on soil toxicology, soil
contamination, soil management, technologies and impacts on human health and our approaches to answer
these challenges. The deliberations are expected to provide an understanding of the complex interplay of soil,
agriculture, and the environment with the underlying concept that soil is elixir of life and is one of the five
components of earth, water, fire, air and space, essential to our existence.

PROJECT WORK METHODOLOGY

The environmental consequences of rapid industrialization have resulted in countless incidents of land, air and
water resources sites being contaminated with toxic materials and other pollutants, threatening humans and
ecosystems with serious health risks. More extensive and intensive use of materials and energy has created
cumulative pressures on the quality of local, regional and global ecosystems.

Before there was a concerted effort to restrict the impact of pollution, environmental management extended
little beyond laissez-faire tolerance, tempered by disposal of wastes to avoid disruptive local nuisance conceived
of in a short-term perspective. The need for remediation was recognized, by exception, in instances where
damage was determined to be unacceptable. As the pace of industrial activity intensified and the understanding
of cumulative effects grew, a pollution control paradigm became the dominant approach to environmental
management.

Two specific concepts served as the basis for the control approach:

1)The assimilative capacity concept, which asserts the existence of a specified level of emissions into the
environment which does not lead to unacceptable environmental or human health effects

2)The principle of control concept, which assumes that environmental damage can be avoided by controlling the
manner, time and rate at which pollutants enter the environment

Under the pollution control approach, attempts to protect the environment have especially relied on isolating
contaminants from the environment and using end-of-pipe filters and scrubbers. These solutions have tended to
focus on media-specific environmental quality objectives or emission limits, and have been primarily directed at
point source discharges into specific environmental media (air, water, soil).

(1) By means of equipments, apart from disposal of pollutants, recycling of waste could also be done. In case of
automobile exhaust system, suitable gadgets could also be provided which will not only arrest pollution but will
also reduce fuel consumption.

(2) The generated pollutants from industries must be arrested before they are passed into the air. This involves
selection of proper equipment for treating waste as well as arresting pollutants. The heat generated in the
process should also be channelised to useful purposes.
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(3) There are some industries which collect the dust and convert the same into saleable goods. There are others
which produce the waste which could be converted into useful by products. We have in hand example of gobar
gas plant where gas is converted into energy.
(4) The metal oxides and metals such as Cr, V, Cd, Cu, and Fe etc. can be easily absorbed by serpentine mineral or
bark of some trees and thus effluent can be free from metallic species. A process has been developed in Water
Pollution Lab.
(5) For reducing the noise pollution, suggestions given above should be adopted at once.

OBSERVATIONS

Environmental pollution can be simply, if somewhat generally, defined as the presence in the environment of an
agent which is potentially damaging to either the environment or human health. As such, pollutants take many
forms. They include not only chemicals, but also organisms and biological materials, as well as energy in its
various forms (e.g. noise, radiation, heat). The number of potential pollutants is therefore essentially countless.
There are, for example, some 30,000 chemicals in common use today, any one of which may be released into the
environment during processing or use. Fewer than 1% of these have been subject to a detailed assessment in
terms of their toxicity and health risks4. The number of biological pollutants is truly unquantifiable. They include
not only living and viable organisms, such as bacteria, but also the vast array of endotoxins that can be released
from the protoplasm of organisms after death. There is, therefore, no shortage of potential environmental risks to
health. What is lacking, for the most part, is an understanding of the nature and mechanisms of these risks.

Exposures to environmental pollution remain a major source of health risk throughout the world, though risks are
generally higher in developing countries, where poverty, lack of investment in modern technology and weak
environmental legislation combine to cause high pollution levels. Associations between environmental pollution
and health outcome are, however, complex and often poorly characterized. Levels of exposure, for example, are
often uncertain or unknown as a result of the lack of detailed monitoring and inevitable variations within any
population group. Exposures may occur via a range of pathways and exposure processes. Individual pollutants
may be implicated in a wide range of health effects, whereas few diseases are directly attributable to single
pollutants. Long latency times, the effects of cumulative exposures, and multiple exposures to different pollutants
which might act synergistically all create difficulties in unravelling associations between environmental pollution
and health. Nevertheless, in recent years, several attempts have been made to assess the global burden of
disease as a result of environmental pollution, either in terms of mortality or disability-adjusted life years .About
8–9% of the total disease burden may be attributed to pollution, but considerably more in developing countries.
Unsafe water, poor sanitation and poor hygiene are seen to be the major sources of exposure, along with indoor
air pollution.

ANALYSIS OF DATA

Environmental pollution is a major concern in developing countries of the world. This issue of pollution is a
terrible negative vibe or influence on all the living things and the environment. Pollution of the environment via
air, land and water by human activities is detrimental to the existence of all living things within the society which
is not an acceptable development at all. Air pollution is caused by several factors such as emission from motor
vehicles, industrial activities, volcanic eruption, emitting poisonous, forest fire, deforestation, bush burning and
cosmic clouds of dusts. Soil pollution is also caused by factors such as oil spillage, human erosion and
contamination by hazardous substances. Water pollution is caused by oil discharge from vessels, dumping from
ships and aircrafts, wastes disposal from land, oil spillage, organic sources and other means of polluting the
environment. Pollution is a vital environmental disaster due to the fact that some known and unknown diseases
are discovered and might be difficult to subdue. In this article, environmental pollution will be discussed under
three classes of pollution that is the water, the soil, and the air and their impact on human health.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

The complexities involved in the link between environmental pollution and health, and the uncertainties inherent
in the available data on mortality and morbidity, in existing knowledge about the aetiology of diseases, and in
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environmental information and estimates of exposure, all mean that any attempt to assess the environmental
contribution to the global burden of disease is fraught with difficulties. The estimates produced to date must
therefore be regarded as no more than order-of-magnitude estimates. Despite these limitations, however, several
conclusions seem beyond refute.

The first is that environmental pollution plays a significant role in a number of health outcomes, and in several
cases this adds up to a serious public health concern. Water pollution, sanitation and hygiene, indoor air
pollution, and to a lesser extent outdoor air pollution and exposures to chemicals in both the indoor and outdoor
environment are all important risk factors in this respect. Ionizing and non-ionizing radiation and noise are also
causes for concern in many cases.

Secondly, it is clear that the distribution of risks from these factors is not equal across the world. The global
burden of disease may be difficult to quantify, but stark contrasts in that burden are evident between the
developed and the developing world, between rich and poor, and often between children and adults. The
developed world is not risk-free, and development is no panacea for all environmental health ills. On occasions, in
fact, the opposite is true: developments, such as increased reliance on road transport, increased use of chemicals
in agriculture, and increased proportions of time spent in modern, hermitically sealed buildings surrounded by
chemically-based fabrics and furnishings may actually increase exposures and exacerbate health risks. But overall
the developing world is far more severely affected by pollution, and in many instances becoming more so, as
pressures from development add to traditional sources of exposure and risk.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, many of these risks and health effects are readily avoidable. Rarely does
the solution lie in advanced technologies or even expensive drugs. Instead, the need is for preventive action to
reduce the emission of pollutants into the environment in the first place—and that is largely achievable with
existing know-how. Indeed, in many cases it has already been implemented in many of the richer countries.
Science, therefore, certainly has a role to play in addressing these issues. More research is undoubtedly needed
on a range of emerging environmental health issues. But the deficit of action that has allowed environmental
pollution still to take its toll on health derives not so much from failures in science or technology as from the lack
of political will and economic empowerment. It is from that direction that salvation needs ultimately to come for
those at the mercy of environmental pollution.
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