Environmental

Pollution
Definition, Causes, effects and control measures of Air
pollution, Water pollution, Soil pollution, Marine pollution,
Noise pollution, Thermal pollution, Nuclear hazards, Solid
waste Management: Causes, effects and control
measures of urban and industrial wastes.
CAUSES, EFFECTS AND CONTROL MEASURES OF NOISE POLLUTION
Noise Pollution
Noise may not seem as harmful as the contamination of air or water but it affects human health
and can contribute to a general deterioration of environmental quality.
Noise is undesirable and unwanted sound. Not all sound is noise. What may be considered as
music to one person may be noise to another. Sound is measured in a unit called the ‘Decibel’.
There are several sources of noise pollution that contribute to both indoor and outdoor noise
pollution.
Noise emanating from factories, vehicles, playing of loudspeakers during various festivals can
contribute to outdoor noise pollution while loudly played radio or music systems, and other
electronic gadgets can contribute to indoor noise pollution.
The differences between sound and noise is often subjective and a matter of personal opinion.
There are however some very harmful effects caused by exposure to high sound levels.
These effects can range in severity from being extremely annoying to being extremely painful and
hazardous.
EFFECTS OF NOISE POLLUTION
Effects of noise pollution on physical health
The most direct harmful effect of excessive noise is physical damage to the ear. The hearing loss
due to noise can be the temporary or permanent hearing loss.
Temporary hearing loss often called a temporary threshold shift (TTS). People suffering from this
condition are unable to detect weak sounds. However hearing ability is usually recovered within a
month after exposure.
In Maharashtra people living in close vicinity of Ganesh Mandals that play blaring music for ten
days of the Ganesh festival are usually known to suffer from this phenomenon.
Permanent loss, usually called noise induced permanent threshold shift (NIPTS) represents a loss
of hearing ability from which there is no recovery.
Below a sound level of 80 dBA hearing loss does not occur at all. However temporary effects are
noticed at sound levels between 80 and 130 dBA.
About 50 percent of the people exposed to 95 dBA sound levels at work will develop NIPTS and
most people exposed to more than 105 dBA will experience permanent hearing loss to some
degree.
A sound level of 150 dBA or more can physically rupture the human eardrum.
EFFECTS OF NOISE POLLUTION
Effects of noise pollution on physical health
The degree of hearing loss depends on the duration as well as the intensity of the noise.
For example, 1hour of exposure to a 100 dBA sound level can produce a TTS that may last for
about one day.
However in factories with noisy machinery workers are subjected to high sound levels for several
hours a day.
Exposure to 95 dBA for 8 hours everyday for over a period of 10 years may cause about 15 dBA of
NIPTS.
In addition to hearing losses excessive sound levels can cause harmful effects on the circulatory
system by raising blood pressure and altering pulse rates.
EFFECTS OF NOISE POLLUTION
Effects of noise pollution on mental health:
Noise can also cause emotional or psychological effects such as irritability, anxiety and stress.
Lack of concentration and mental fatigue are significant health effects of noise.
Many children who live near noisy airports or streets have been found to suffer from stress and
other problems, such as impairments in memory, attention level, and reading skill.
Other effects
As noise interferes with normal auditory communication, it may mask auditory warning signals
and hence increases the rate of accidents especially in industries.
It can also lead to lowered worker efficiency and productivity and higher accident rates on the job.
Thus noise is just more than a mere nuisance or annoyance. It definitely affects the quality of life.
It is thus important to ensure mitigation or control of noise pollution.
Noise Control techniques
There are four fundamental ways in which noise can be controlled:
• Reduce noise at the source,
• Block the path of noise,
• Increase the path length and
• Protect the recipient.
In general, the best control method is to reduce noise levels at the source.
Noise Control techniques
Source reduction can be done by effectively muffling vehicles and machinery to reduce the noise.
In industries, noise reduction can be done by
• Using rigid sealed enclosures around machinery lined with acoustic absorbing material.
• Isolating machines and their enclosures from the floor using special spring mounts or absorbent
mounts and pads.
• Using flexible couplings for interior pipelines.
• Regular and thorough maintenance of operating machinery.
• In industries different types of absorptive material can be used to control interior noise. Highly
absorptive interior finish material for walls, ceilings and floors can decrease indoor noise levels
significantly.
Noise levels at construction sites can be controlled using proper construction planning and
scheduling techniques.
Noisy air compressors and other equipment can be located away from the site boundary. Further,
temporary barriers can be created to physically block the noise.
CONTROL MEASURES OF NOISE POLLUTION
Noise Control techniques
Most of the vehicular noise comes from movement of the vehicle tires on the pavement and wind
resistance. However poorly maintained vehicles can add to the noise levels.
Traffic volume and speed also have significant effects on the overall sound.
For example doubling the speed increases the sound levels by about 9 dBA and doubling the
traffic volume (number of vehicles per hour) increases sound levels by about 3 dBA.
• A smooth flow of traffic also causes less noise than does a stop-and-go traffic pattern.
• Proper highway planning and design are essential for controlling traffic noise. Establishing
lower speed limits for highways that pass through residential areas, limiting traffic volume and
providing alternative routes for truck traffic are effective noise control measures.
• The path of traffic noise can also be blocked by construction of vertical barriers alongside the
highway.
• Planting of trees around houses can also act as effective noise barriers.
CAUSES, EFFECTS AND CONTROL MEASURES OF NOISE POLLUTION
Noise Control techniques
• Sound levels drop significantly with increasing distance from the noise source.
Therefore, increasing the path length between the source and the recipient offers a passive
means of control.
Municipal land-use ordinances pertaining to the location of airports make use of the attenuating
effect of distance on sound levels.
• Use of earplugs and earmuffs can protect individuals effectively from excessive noise levels.
Specially designed earmuffs can reduce the sound level reaching the eardrum by as much as 40
dBA.
However very often workers tend not to wear them on a regular basis despite company
requirements for their use.
CAUSES, EFFECTS AND CONTROL MEASURES OF THERMAL POLLUTION
Thermal pollution refers to the degradation of water quality as a result of any
process that changes the ambient water temperature.
It occurs when an industry removes water from a source, uses the water for
cooling purposes and then returns the heated water to its source.
Power plants heat water to convert it into steam, to drive the turbines that
generate electricity.
For efficient functioning of the steam turbines, the steam is condensed into water
after it leaves the turbines.
This condensation is done by taking water from a water body to absorb the heat.
This heated water, which is at least 15oC higher than the normal is discharged
back into the water body.
CAUSES, EFFECTS AND CONTROL MEASURES OF THERMAL POLLUTION
Effects: The warmer temperature decreases the solubility of oxygen and
increases the metabolism of fish. This changes the ecological balance of the
river.
Within certain limits thermal additions can promote the growth of certain fish and
the fish catch may be high in the vicinity of a power plant.
However sudden changes in temperature caused by periodic plant shutdowns
both planned and unintentional can change result in death of these fish that are
acclimatized to living in warmer waters.
Tropical marine animals are generally unable to withstand a temperature increase
of 2 to 3oC and most sponges, mollusks and crustaceans are eliminated at
temperatures above 370C.
This results in a change in the diversity of fauna as only those species that can
live in warmer water survive and proliferate excessively.
CAUSES, EFFECTS AND CONTROL MEASURES OF THERMAL POLLUTION
Control measures: Thermal pollution can be controlled by passing the heated
water through a cooling pond or a cooling tower after it leaves the condenser.
The heat is dissipated into the air and the water can then be discharged into the
river or pumped back to the plant for reuse as cooling water.
There are several ways in which thermal pollution can be reduced.
One method is to construct a large shallow pond. Hot water is pumped into one
end of the pond and cooler water is removed from the other end. The heat gets
dissipated from the pond into the atmosphere.
CAUSES, EFFECTS AND CONTROL MEASURES OF
THERMAL POLLUTION
Control measures: Cooling tower-These structures take up
less land area than the ponds. Here most of the heat
transfer occurs through evaporation.
Here warm waters coming from the condenser is sprayed
downward over vertical sheets or baffles where the water
flows in thin films.
Cool air enters the tower through the water inlet that
encircles the base of the tower and rises upwards causing
evaporative cooling.
A natural draft is maintained because of the density
difference between the cool air outside and the warmer air
inside the tower.
The waste heat is dissipated into the atmosphere about 100
m above the base of the tower. The cooled water is
collected at the floor of the tower and recycled back to the
power plant condensers.
The disadvantage in both these methods is however that
large amounts of water are lost by evaporation.
https://spxcooling.com/coolingtowers
Nuclear Hazards
Nuclear energy can be both beneficial and harmful depending on the way in which it is used.
We routinely use X-rays to examine bones for fractures, treat cancer with radiation and diagnose
diseases with the help of radioactive isotopes.
Approximately 17 % of the electrical energy generated in the world comes from nuclear power
plants.
However on the other hand it is impossible to forget the destruction that nuclear bombs caused
the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The radioactive wastes from nuclear energy have caused serious environmental damage.
Nuclear fission is the splitting of the nucleus of the atom. The resulting energy can be used for a
variety of purposes.
The first controlled fission of an atom was carried out in Germany in 1938.
However the United States was the first country to develop an atomic bomb which was
subsequently dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Nuclear Hazards
The world’s first electricity generating reactor was constructed in the United
States in 1951 and the Soviet Union built its first reactor in 1954.
In December 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his ‘Atoms for Peace’
speech made the following prediction: ‘Nuclear reactors will produce electricity
so cheaply that it will not be necessary to meter it.
The users will pay a fee and use as much electricity as they want. Atoms will
provide a safe, clean and dependable source of electricity.’
Today however though nuclear power is being used as a reliable source of
electricity the above statement sounds highly optimistic.
Several serious accidents have caused worldwide concern about safety and
disposal of radioactive wastes.
Nuclear Hazards
In order to appreciate the consequences of using nuclear fuels to generate energy it is important
to understand how the fuel is processed.
Low-grade uranium ore, which contains 0.2 percent uranium by weight, is obtained by surface or
underground mining. After it is mined the ore goes through a milling process where it is crushed
and treated with a solvent to concentrate the uranium and produces yellow cake a material
containing 70 to 90 percent uranium oxide.
Naturally occurring uranium contains only 0.7 percent of fissionable U-235, which is not high
enough for most types of reactors. Hence it is necessary to increase the amount of U-235 by
enrichment though it is a difficult and expensive process. The enrichment process increases the
U-235 content from 0.7 to 3 percent.
Fuel fabrication then converts the enriched material into a powder, which is then compacted into
pellets. These pellets are sealed in metal fuel rods about 4 meters in length which is then loaded
into the reactor. As fission occurs the concentration of U-235 atoms decreases.
After about three years, a fuel rod does not have enough radioactive material to sustain a chain
reaction and hence the spent fuel rods must be replaced by new ones. The spent rods are
however still very radioactive containing about one percent U-235 and one percent plutonium.
These rods are a major source of radioactive waste material produced by a nuclear reactor.
Nuclear Hazards
Initially it was thought that spent fuel rods could be reprocessed to not only
provide new fuel but also to reduce the amount of nuclear waste.
However the cost of producing fuel rods by reprocessing was found to be greater
than the cost of producing fuel rods from ore.
Presently India does operate reprocessing plants to reprocess spent fuel as an
alternative to storing them as nuclear waste. At each step in the cycle there is a
danger of exposure and poses several health and environmental concerns.
Although nuclear power has significant benefits an incident which changed
people’s attitudes towards nuclear power plants was the Chernobyl disaster that
occurred in 1986.
Nuclear Hazards
Chernobyl is a small city in Ukraine near the border with Belarus north of Kiev.
At 1.00 am April 25, 1986 a test to measure the amount of electricity that the still spinning turbine would
produce if steam were shut off was being conducted at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station-4.
This was important information since the emergency core cooling system required energy for its operation
and the coasting turbine could provide some of that energy until another source became available.
The amount of steam being produced was reduced by lowering the control rods into the reactor.
But the test was delayed because of a demand for electricity and a new shift of workers came on duty.
The operators failed to program the computer to maintain power at 700 megawatts and the output
dropped to 30 megawatts. This presented an immediate need to rapidly increase the power and many of
the control rods were withdrawn.
Meanwhile an inert gas (xenon) had accumulated on the fuel rods. The gas absorbed the neutrons and
slowed the rate of power increase.
In an attempt to obtain more power the operators withdrew all the control rods. This was a second serious
safety violation.
At 1.00 am, the operators shut off most of the emergency warning signals and turned on all the eight
pumps to provide adequate cooling for the reactor following the completion of the test.
Nuclear Hazards
Just as the final stages for the test were beginning a signal indicated excessive reaction in the reactor.
In spite of the warning the operators blocked the automatic reactor shutdown and began the test.
As the test continued the power output of the reactor rose beyond its normal level and continued to rise.
The operators activated the emergency system designed to put the control rods back into the reactor and
stop the fission.
But it was already too late. The core had already been deformed and the rods would not fit properly thus
the reaction could not be stopped.
In 4.5 seconds the energy level of the reactor increased two thousand times.
The fuel rods ruptured the cooling water turned into steam and a steam explosion occurred.
The lack of cooling water allowed the reactor to explode.
The explosion blew the 1000 metric ton concrete roof from the reactor and the reactor caught fire.
This resulted in the world’s worst nuclear accident and it took ten days to bring the runaway reaction
under control.
Nuclear Hazards
There were of course immediate fatalities, but the long-term consequences were devastating.
116,000 people were evacuated of which 24,000 had received high doses of radiation.
Even today many people suffer from illnesses they feel are related to their exposure to the fallout from
Chernobyl.
In 1996 ten years after the accident it was clear that one of the longterm effects was the increased
frequency of thyroid cancer in children.
The degree and the kind of damage from nuclear accidents vary with the kind of radiation, the
amount of radiation, the duration of exposure and the types of cells irradiated.
Radiation can also cause mutations which are changes in the genetic makeup of the cells.
Mutations can occur in the ovaries or the testes leading to the formation of mutated eggs or sperms which
in turn can lead to abnormal offspring.
Mutations can also occur in the tissues of the body and may manifest themselves as abnormal tissue
growths known as cancer.
Two common cancers that are linked to increased radiation exposure are leukemia and breast cancer.