Get summay, questions, answers, solutions, notes, extras, PDF, competency-based questions of chapter- 5/unit I, Environmental Pollution: AHSEC Class 11 Environmental Education, which is part of the present syllabus. These solutions, however, should only be treated as references and can be modified/changed.
Summary
Environmental pollution is a great problem facing the world. It is the degradation of our environment caused by human actions. Fast-growing populations, expanding industries, and the clearing of forests have created imbalances in nature. Our search for economic growth has led to the careless use of natural resources. The problem began as the human population increased. A simple way to think about this is through the story of Adam and Eve, who ate an apple and threw away the peels, starting the first pollution. As societies developed with industries, cities, and modern farming, the problem grew much worse. The Earth can only absorb a certain amount of waste. Today, the amount of pollution we create is more than the land, air, and water can handle.
Pollution is an unwanted change in the physical, chemical, or biological properties of our air, water, and soil. The word itself comes from a Latin term meaning “to make dirty.” These changes can harm humans, animals, and other living things. Pollution can be categorized by the part of the environment it affects, such as air, water, or soil pollution. It can also be categorized by the type of pollutant, like noise, thermal, or radioactive pollution. Pollutants are harmful substances. Primary pollutants are released directly from a source, like smoke from a factory. Secondary pollutants are formed when primary pollutants react with each other in the environment.
Air pollution is the presence of harmful substances in the atmosphere. These include dust, smoke, and poisonous gases. The sources can be natural, like volcanic eruptions, or man-made, like emissions from vehicles and factories. These pollutants can cause headaches, breathing difficulties, and other serious health issues. Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies like rivers and lakes. It is caused by waste from homes, industries, and farms. Drinking polluted water can lead to dangerous diseases such as typhoid and cholera. Keeping drinking water sources clean is necessary for good health. Simple methods like filtration and boiling can help make water safer.
Soil pollution happens when toxic chemicals from industrial waste and pesticides get into the soil. This reduces the soil’s fertility and can contaminate the food grown in it. Noise pollution is unwanted and disturbing sound from sources like traffic, machinery, and loudspeakers. It can harm our hearing and cause stress. Solid waste pollution comes from all the trash discarded by households, businesses, and industries. The text describes this waste as “materials in the wrong place,” which means an item becomes waste only when its owner no longer finds it useful. Improper disposal of this waste pollutes the land, attracts disease-carrying pests, and can leak harmful liquids into the ground.
Textual/Exercise
1. What do you mean by environmental pollution? Name the different types of pollution.
Answer: Environmental pollution is the unfavourable alteration of our environment, largely because of anthropogenic or human activities. More precisely, pollution is an undesirable change in physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of air, water, and soil that may harmfully affect man, animal, other living organisms, or property.
Different types of pollution can be categorized in the following ways:
According to the environment affected:
a. Air pollution
b. Water pollution
c. Soil pollution
According to the pollutant:
a. Thermal pollution
b. Noise pollution
c. Radioactive pollution
d. Solid waste pollution
e. Oil pollution
f. Industrial pollution
g. Marine pollution
2. What is air pollution? Identify the sources of air pollution.
Answer: Air pollution may be defined as the presence of one or more pollutants or contaminants like dust, smoke, mist, odour, and suspended particulate matter (SPM) in the atmosphere, which are injurious to human beings, plants, and other animals, or which unreasonably obstruct the comfortable enjoyment of life and property.
The major sources of air pollution can be of two types:
Natural sources:
a. Volcanic eruption: releasing poisonous gases like SO₂, H₂S, CO etc.
b. Forest fires: liberating very large quantities of smoke and particulate matter.
c. Decomposition of organic and inorganic substances: Methane gas and carbon dioxide are released into the air.
d. Dust: Dust is always present in the atmosphere in varying amounts.
e. Pollen grains of flowers: Pollens or aeroallergens enter the atmosphere from weeds, grasses, and trees, mainly responsible for causing allergy.
f. Fungal spores: Micro-organisms such as algae, fungi, bacteria, yeasts, rusts, spores etc., are present as variable particles in the atmosphere.
g. Radioactive materials: The radioactive minerals present in the earth’s crust and the action of cosmic rays from outer space on gaseous constituents of the atmosphere are mainly responsible for the radioactivity of the atmosphere.
Man-made sources:
a. Deforestation
b. Burning of fossil fuels
c. Emission from vehicles
d. Rapid industrialization
e. Modern agricultural practices
3. Mention few effects of air pollution on human health.
Answer: A few effects of air pollution on human health are:
- Sulphur-dioxide can cause chest constriction, headache, vomiting, and death from respiratory ailments.
- Nitrogen oxides can cause headaches, drowsiness, irritated lungs, and colds in children.
- Carbon monoxide causes nausea, reduces the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood, and can lead to headaches, drowsiness, and an irregular heartbeat.
- Suspended particulate matter (SPM), ash, and soot can cause eye irritation, emphysema, and cancer.
- Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) may cause irritation in mucous membranes, headache, and fatigue.
- Asbestos can cause lung diseases and lung cancer.
4. What is water pollution? What are the effects of water pollution on human health?
Answer: Water pollution can be defined as an alteration in the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of water that may cause harmful effects on man and other aquatic biota. It is also the addition of an excess of undesirable substances to water that makes it harmful to man, animal, and aquatic life or otherwise causes a significant departure from the normal activities of various living organisms in or around water.
The effects of water pollution on human health include the introduction of a variety of intestinal pathogens like bacteria, viruses, and parasites. These can cause diseases ranging from mild gastroenteritis to severe and fatal dysentery, cholera, or typhoid. When drinking water is contaminated with sewage, gastroenteritis and infectious hepatitis may occur in epidemic proportions. Other diseases like rashes, fever, myocarditis, meningitis, and respiratory diseases are also likely. Protozoic diseases like amoebiasis and giardiasis may also occur through sewage contamination of water sources.
5. What is soil pollution? How can it be controlled?
Answer: Soil pollution occurs when the soil is contaminated by the dumping of various types of domestic and industrial wastes and the application of pesticides in agricultural fields. The addition of different types of toxic materials to the soil makes it polluted and decreases its fertility.
Soil pollution can be controlled in the following ways:
a. Industrial effluents should be properly treated before discharging them on the soil.
b. Solid wastes should be properly segregated as biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes at the source and then disposed of by adopting effective scientific methods.
c. The use of bio-fertilizers should be encouraged instead of chemical fertilizers.
d. The application of pesticides should be controlled.
e. Bioremediation can be adopted for the degradation of toxic chemicals present in the soil.
f. Necessary enactment of laws should be made for panel action against those who are involved in polluting soil.
g. Awareness should be created among the people.
6. What are solid wastes? How are they classified? Give examples.
Answer: Solid wastes are all the wastes produced by household, commercial, institutional, agricultural, mining, and industrial activities and are discarded as useless or unwanted.
They are classified based on their source of production. They are produced by household, commercial, institutional, agricultural, mining, and industrial activities. They can also be segregated as biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes.
Examples of solid wastes include wastes from industries, hospitals and nursing homes, and domestic waste.
7. Discuss the environmental effects of solid wastes.
Answer: Solid waste has the potential to degrade the air, water, and soil. The environmental effects are:
- Improper handling of solid wastes poses potential risks to the health of workers and the general public.
- Improper storage and disposal provide conditions for the breeding of disease vectors, primarily flies and rats, which can lead to health hazards like plague, dengue, and cholera.
- Garbage burning contributes significantly to urban air pollution.
- Using water polluted by solid waste for bathing, irrigation, and drinking can cause diseases like skin infections.
- It causes aesthetic damage, such as the ugliness of street litter and the destruction of the beauty of the countryside by uncontrolled dumping.
- Leachate, a liquid that oozes from a refuse dump, can enter surface water or groundwater, transferring pollution to water bodies.
- The inefficient burning of waste can cause air pollution.
- Open dumps are malodorous places where disease-carrying vermins like rats and flies proliferate.
- Methane gas is released into the air from the decomposition of solid wastes by micro-organisms.
- Hazardous materials dissolved in leachate can contaminate underground water and soil strata.
8. Mention two methods of solid waste management.
Answer: Two methods of solid waste management are:
- Solid wastes should be properly segregated as biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes at the source and then disposed of by adopting effective scientific methods.
- Determining a substitute technology toward the recycling of solid wastes, with due consideration given to economic constraints and environmental aspects.
9. What is noise pollution? Write two probable effects of it on human health.
Answer: Noise pollution is any unwanted electromagnetic signal that produces a displeasing effect and which interferes with human communication, comfort, and health. It is the unwanted sound dumped into the environment without regard to the adverse effect it may have.
Two probable effects of noise pollution on human health are:
- Auditory effects: The most acute and immediate effect is the impairing of hearing, which may cause auditory fatigue and finally lead to deafness.
- Non-auditory effects: It can cause mental anxieties, mental stress, and psychological disorders. It also affects human health by disrupting comfort and working efficiency.
10. What measures can be taken to keep drinking water sources clean and safe?
Answer: To keep drinking water sources clean and safe, the following protective measures should be adopted:
(a) Location: Water sources should be on a higher location, at least 10m to 15m away from polluting sources like latrines, soak pits, garbage, etc.
(b) Platform: A cement concrete platform around the tube wells and ring wells, extending 1m in all directions and having a gentle slope outwards towards a drain, should be built. These platforms should be free from cracks and damages.
(c) Drain: Water sources should have sound drainage systems to check stagnancy. Waste water should not be allowed to accumulate in these areas.
(d) Covering: The mouth of a ring well should always be covered at all times to prevent foreign materials from entering it.
(e) Lining: The lining of a ring well should be built of stones set in cement up to a depth of at least 6m so that water enters from the bottom and not from the sides.
Extra/additional questions and answers
1. Define pollution?
Answer: Pollution is an undesirable change in the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of air, water, and soil that may harmfully affect man, animals, other living organisms, or property.
47. Distinguish between Water pollution and Soil pollution.
Answer: Water pollution is the alteration in the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of water that may cause harmful effects on man and other aquatic life. It is caused by the addition of excess undesirable substances to water from sources like domestic wastes, industrial effluents, and agricultural wastes.
Soil pollution, on the other hand, affects the uppermost part of the earth’s crust. It is caused by the dumping of various types of domestic and industrial wastes and the application of pesticides in agricultural fields, which make the soil polluted by adding different types of toxic materials.
Extra/additional Fill in the Blanks
1. The word pollution is derived from the Latin word ______ meaning ‘to make dirty’.
Answer: pollutionem
39. In open dumps, ______ gas is released into the air due to the decomposition of solid wastes by micro-organisms.
Answer: methane
Get notes of other classes and subjects