Industrial Pollution, Types and Causes

Industrial Pollution: Types and Causes:

During this 21^st Century industrial activities have become more prominent than ever all over the world. But this great boon has a great side effect that is Industrial pollution. Countries all over the world are facing this phenomenon consistently, which is deteriorating our clamatorial atmospheric balances causing serious disturbance.

Industrial Air Pollution: 
Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals particulate matter or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or cause damage to the natural environment or built environment into the atmosphere. The atmosphere is a complex dynamic natural gaseous system that is essential to support life on planet  Earth. Stratospheric ozone depletion due to air pollution has long been recognized as a threat to human health as well as to the Earth's ecosystems. Air pollution occurs when different toxic gases like Sulpher Di Oxide, Carbon Di Oxide, Nitrogen Di Oxide, chloro fluoro carbon etc get emitted from different industries and mix with atmosphere and cause environmental hazard. 
 
Industrial Water Pollution: Water pollution is caused by emission of domestic or urban sewage, agricultural waste, pollutants and industrial effluents into water bodies. Nowadays, one of the main sources of water pollution is the waste material discharged by industrial units, known as industrial water pollution. Waste materials like acids, alkalis, toxic metals, oil, grease, dyes, pesticides and even radioactive materials are poured into the water bodies by many industrial units. Some other important pollutants include polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) compounds, lubricants and hot water discharged by power plants. The pollutants unloaded into the water bodies usually dissolve or remain suspended in water. Sometimes, they also accumulate on the bottom of the water bodies.         

                                                                                                                                   

Industrial Soil Pollution: Large quantity of solid wastes like unused and rejected chemicals (like calcium carbonate, magnesium sulphate, ferrous chloride, ferrous oxide, radioactive wastes, fly ashes, sludge, press mud, saw dust, bottles, plastic materials) unwanted industrial wastes generated during manufacturing processes (rejection, broken items of metal, plastic, wooden or chemical solids, powders) are dumped over on the surface of soil by almost all industries with difference in the degree. Larger the production base, larger is the generation of wastes. Traditionally, these materials have been dumped around the factory site or around the entire city. Rarely, they are put to recycling or safe conversion. All these solid materials dumped on surface of soils are bound to change the chemical and physical nature of soil besides contributing large quantity of pollutants to underground water - whenever rain water passes through them. In most situations, solid wastes has caused problems such as foul smell (sugar and paper industry), disturbed air composition (fly ash from thermal power plants and cement industries) changed the physical nature of soil (coal and steel industrial wastes), as well as radioactive dangers (atomic power plants).

Nuclear Pollution: It is a new form of Industrial pollution which has been seen in the recent centuries. Nuclear pollution takes place in the form of radioactivity evolved from radioactive wastes from nuclear reactors.

Radioactive waste is a waste product containing radioactive material. It is usually the product of a nuclear process such as nuclear fission though industries not directly connected to the nuclear power industry may also produce radioactive waste. Radioactivity diminishes over time, so in principle the waste needs to be isolated for a period of time until it no longer poses a hazard. This can mean hours to years for some common medical or industrial radioactive wastes, or thousands of years for high-level wastes from nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons reprocessing. The majority of radioactive waste is low-level waste, meaning it has low levels of radioactivity per mass or volume. The main approaches to managing radioactive waste to date have been segregation and storage for short-lived wastes, near-surface disposal for low and some intermediate level wastes, and deep burial or transmutation for the long-lived, high-level wastes.

Radioactive waste comes from a number of sources. The majority of waste originates from the nuclear fuel cycle and nuclear weapons reprocessing. However, other sources include medical and industrial wastes, as well as naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) that can be concentrated as a result of the processing or consumption of coal, oil and gas, and some minerals

Thermal Pollution:

Thermal pollution is the degradation of water quality by any process that changes ambient water temperature. A common cause of thermal pollution is the use of water as coolant by power plants and industrial manufacturers. When water used as a coolant is returned to the natural environment at a higher temperature, the change in temperature decreases oxygen supply, and affects ecosystem composition. Urban runoff storm water discharged to surface waters from roads and parking lots–can also be a source of elevated water temperatures. When a power plant first opens or shuts down for repair or other causes, fish and other organisms adapted to particular temperature range can be killed by the abrupt rise in water temperature known as "thermal shock." Elevated temperature typically decreases the level of dissolved oxygen (DO) in water. The decrease in levels of DO can harm aquatic animals such as fish, amphibians and copepods Thermal pollution may also increase the metabolic rate of aquatic animals, as enzyme activity, resulting in these organisms consuming more food in a shorter time than if their environment were not changed.

Noise Pollution:

Industrial noise is usually considered mainly from the point of view of environmental health and safety, rather than nuisance, as sustained exposure can cause permanent hearing damage. Traditionally, workplace noise has been a hazard linked to heavy industries such as ship-building and associated only with noise induced hearing loss (NIHL). Modern thinking in occupational safety and health identifies noise as hazardous to worker safety and health in many places of employment and by a variety of means. Noise can not only cause hearing impairment (at long-term exposures of over 85 decibels (dB), known as an exposure action value, but it also acts as a causal factor for stress and raises systolic blood pressure. Additionally, it can be a causal factor in work accidents, both by masking hazards and warning signals, and by impeding concentration. Noise also acts synergistically with other hazards to increase the risk of harm to workers. A weighted measurements are commonly used to determine noise levels that can cause harm to the human ear, and special exposure meters are available that integrate noise over a period of time to give an LEQ value (equivalent sound pressure level), defined by standards.

Oil Pollution: An oil spill is a release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term often refers to marine oil spills, where oil is released into the ocean or coastal waters. Oil spills include releases of crude oil from tankers, offshore platforms, drilling rigs and wells, as well as spills
of refined petroleum products (such as gasoline, diesel) and their by-products, and heavier fuels used by large ships such as bunker fuel, or the spill of any oily white substance refuse or waste oil. Spills may take months or even years to clean up. Oil also enters the marine environment from natural oil seeps Public attention and regulation has tended to focus most sharply on seagoing oil tankers.