Noise Pollution

Pollution, what is pollution? 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. Pollution also has different components call Pollutants. (Wikipedia 2012) A pollutant is substance or energy introduced into the environment that has undesired effects, or adversely affects the usefulness of a resource. A pollutant may cause long- or short-term damage by changing the growth rate of plant or animal species, or by interfering with human amenities, comfort, health, or property values. (Wikipedia 2012) There are also different kinds of pollutants like greenhouse gases, pesticides, endocrine disruptors, petroleum and heavy metals. Carbon dioxide and methane are two of the most important of these gases, called greenhouse gases because they trap heat in the earth's atmosphere. This is already causing severe problems around the world and the situation will only get worse. The rising temperatures will likely lead to more severe weather events, which cause shifts in natural communities, and probably lead to greater species extinction rates, among numerous other effects. Pesticides are a broad group of chemicals that enable us to live more comfortable lives by and large, but whose main purpose underlies the central problem with pesticide pollution. They are all poisons. A lot of these chemicals will wash into our rivers and streams and cause direct toxicity to fishes, and may work their way up the food chain to affect birds, bears, whales, and other predatory wildlife, including humans. Some of these pesticides will persist for long periods of time in the environment. Another pollutant is Endocrine disruptors that include a variety of compounds that share the ability to mimic natural hormones. These come from a variety of sources, including pesticides and plastics. They can cause quite a lot of harm. There are many different kinds of hormones. Some hormones are produced all the time, while others are only produced when they are needed. Hormones are chemical messengers in your body which cause your body to respond in specific ways. Hormones regulate a lot of activities, including sexual maturation, weight gain and loss, stress, cancer generation, and reproduction, not only in people but in all organisms. Usually, your body produces precisely the amount of hormone you need at any particular point in time. But ED’s come in and pretends to be a hormone, making your body react in an inappropriate way. We have found some natural populations of fishes that are all or mostly female, or all male, for example. This is likely hormone mediated. Obviously, this is not a good situation, since a population that is all one sex cannot reproduce.

Another one is Petroleum , everyday water districts, cities, states, farmers, and residential consumers have to dig g deeper to another aquifer in the ground (another water source in the ground). Oil/Gas stations keep leaking and do the minimum to clean, remidiate the problem. Agencies/officials do not have strict enforcement or repremendments against this. Just light oversight. Soon, water will be even more costly than oil. It is only a matter of time. Lastly the heavy metals, Most heavy metals, such as mercury, are a natural part of the earth's crust, and would be slowly released into the environment over time anyway, just from weathering of soils and rocks. However, our consumption of fossil fuels has greatly increased the introduction of heavy metals into our environment. It is estimated that half of the mercury introduced into the environment today is due to human sources. The problem is mercury, as well as other heavy metals, cannot be detoxified. Once it is in the environment, it is here for good. Toxic effects of heavy metals vary. Mercury is a potent toxin in people targeting nervous tissue, but targets other tissues in other animals. The effects of heavy metals can also be quite severe, since plants and animals have no natural ability to deal with heavy metals specifically and heavy metals do not have any functions in our bodies.

There are also different kinds of pollution such as Air Pollution, Water Pollution, Soil Pollution, Radioactive Pollution and Noise Pollution. A disturbance in the composition of the compounds which make up the atmosphere is called air pollution. The imbalance can occur due to the excessive emission of gases or wapors into the atmosphere, saturation of the chemical compounds or particulate matters or atmospheric chemical reactions of various reactive and non-biodegradable compounds. Few commonly seen effects of air pollution are global warming, acid rain, smog and ozone depletion. Major activities which lead to contamination of atmospheric air include motor vehicle exhausts, fertilizer plants, industrial processes, automobile manufacturing, demolition of buildings, construction of roadways, disposal of solid waste, volcanic eruption, manufacturing of electrical components, extraction of metals, forest fires and numerous other activities. Another one is water pollution, When the original quality of water deteriorates due to the contamination by foreign matter, it is called water pollution. This form of pollution can occur due to release of toxic substances, pathogenic germs, substances which require a large quantity of oxygen to decompose, or radioactive substances which tend to accumulate and interfere with the aquatic ecosystem. For instance, when a water body is enriched with nutrients, it leads to an excessive growth of algae, which, in turn, leads to lack of oxygen in the water body. This condition is called eutrophication. The major sources which lead to water pollution are petroleum products, synthetic agricultural chemicals, heavy metals, hazardous wastes, excess organic matter, sediment and infectious organisms. Even, air, thermal and soil pollution lead to water pollution as well.

Another one is Water Pollution, any form of alteration in the soil chemical composition leads to soil pollution. This form of pollution occurs due to deposition of solid waste in the soil, accumulation of non-biodegradable substances or toxification of chemicals into poisons. Not following proper soil management methods, excessive tillage of soil resulting in the deterioration of soil structure, improper irrigation practices, no proper supply of organic matter in the soil or poorly drained soil can lead to soil pollution. Few major sources of this category of pollution include agriculture, mining and quarrying, demolitions and construction activities, sewage sludge and industrial wastes. Another one is called Radioactive Pollution, although nuclear energy is said to be a clean form of energy because it does not release pollutants such as carbon dioxide, the waste resulted from a nuclear reaction leads to a form of pollution known as radioactive pollution. When a radioactive element becomes unstable and begins to decay in order to regain molecular stability, the process is known as radioactivity. There are three types of radiation: alpha rays, beta rays and gamma rays. While alpha radiation can be blocked by a piece of paper as well as human skin, beta particles can penetrate through the skin but can be blocked by a piece of glass or metal. Gamma rays, in turn, penetrate through the human skin and damage cells on its way. They can be only blocked by a massive piece of concrete. Major sources which can cause radioactive pollution are nuclear power plants, nuclear weapons, improper disposal of nuclear waste and uranium mining. Lastly, Noise Pollution which is the main topic of our term paper; Noise Pollution is all about the amount of noise pollution is synonymous to the standard of living of a particular country. This form of pollution is caused when a particular sound reaches an unfavorably high intensity and in turn causes adverse effects on our daily mechanisms. The intensity of noise is measured in decibels and the scale by which it is measured is logarithmic. This implies that a 10 decibel increase in noise results in the doubling of loudness. While noises above 45 decibels can disturb a person’s sleep, noises above 120 decibels can cause hearing impairment.