Pollutants are what? What are they and what harm do they do?

Pollutants are different kinds of environmental pollutants. They affect negatively not only the environment, but also our health. What are the pollutants, what harm they cause and how to deal with them - read in the article.

Statement of the problem and the search for its solution

The fact that we ourselves pollute the air we breathe, at first people did not even think about it. For the first time, they began to sound the alarm after an epidemic of diseases swept through London in the 1950s. People got serious health problems, up to several registered deaths, as a result of poisoning with "black smog". The blame for everything was air polluted with coal smoke.

As a result of the tragedy, humanity realized that chemical pollution is not a joke, and it has become more serious about this issue. To date, in developed countries, a number of measures have been taken to prevent the harmful effects of pollutants. But if their short-term exposure to high concentrations is virtually impossible today, in the long run, contaminants can still lead to chronic health problems. And this should not be forgotten.

What harm does the pollutant cause? Statistics and scales

Although pollutants are unequivocally negative substances for human health, the degree of their influence is difficult to classify. After all, they are very diverse, occur in relatively low concentrations and often give too much delayed effect.

However, one can get some idea of the "scale of the catastrophe". For example, according to the following data. Air pollution from automobile exhausts causes more harm to Europeans than all road accidents. And in America there is a clear statistics of deaths, according to which 4% of people die every year because of health problems caused by "bad air."

What are they like?

Although there is no clear classification to date, it is possible to identify varieties of pollutants and to identify which types represent the greatest danger to humans and the environment.

Depending on the area of contamination, the following are distinguished:

• Aeropollutants - affecting the air that we breathe.
• Hydropollutants are water pollutants.
• Terapoljutanty - these substances pollute the earth.

Classification of pollutants in place and type of pollutant

The environment is polluted from various sources. In this regard, pollutants are divided into:

• Industrial, coming in the form of production waste, for example, harmful gases.
• Household, containing chemical detergents.
• Agricultural, representing waste from farms and livestock complexes.

In addition, inorganic and organic pollutants are released from the main substance, its origin and effects.

The main industrial and technogenic pollutants are dust and gaseous substances, radioactive and magnetic radiation. They enter the atmosphere as a result of the activities of industrial and energy facilities.

On the other hand, industrial, municipal and household waste, contaminated with harmful substances, has a negative impact. Here, both pesticides and chemical-intensive mineral fertilizers, which are used in industry and agriculture.

A large percentage of pollutants is contained in petroleum products. Infecting the ecosystem, they break the biological balance for years to come. Therefore, the problem of eliminating them, and, if possible, preventing it, is very acute today.

How do pollutants affect human health?

As a rule, they enter the human body with polluted air during breathing. So, the harmful effect is primarily on the respiratory system. Suffer from almost all organs, from the lungs to the nasopharynx.

What initially looks like a common cold is accompanied by a cough or a sore throat, which can later develop into a more serious illness. Chemical pollutants lead to chronic bronchitis, can lead to the development of pneumonia or substantially exacerbate the already existing disease. They are particularly harmful to the work of the respiratory system in children, whose body is not yet strong enough to fight their effects.

Particles of polluted air can worsen the activity of the heart and blood vessels, negatively affect the nervous system, lead to the development of tumor diseases and even reduce the ability to bear children. As you can see, the usual urban air is actually much more dangerous than you think.

How is the problem solved in our country and abroad?

Scientists have long established that pollutants are substances that cause serious damage to health and the environment. In a number of countries, special laws have been adopted that strictly regulate the level of harmful emissions into the atmosphere, for example, in Germany, Japan and the USA.

In our country, this is also given serious attention. True, the problem is aggravated by the fact that the air in the European part of Russia is heavily polluted by pollutants carried over long distances. Falling with atmospheric precipitation, they negatively affect the soil and water. And since the direction of the air masses relates all the "harmful" from the countries of Western and Eastern Europe to us, and not vice versa, it is not surprising that the problem of chemical pollution is particularly acute.

Nevertheless, we strictly regulate the concentration of toxic substances, we control the processes of self-purification of the ecosystem, normal processes of embryogenesis of living organisms are maintained.

It can be said that pollutants are an irritating factor, without which it is practically impossible to dispense with today's world, saturated with industrial and chemical processes. But science does not stand still, and catastrophes like London are still avoidable.