What are the causes of environmental pollution?

The environment is very important to each of us. If we live in a polluted environment for a long time, it will not only cause problems with our physical health, but also have a great impact on our daily life and work. In fact, there are many reasons for environmental pollution, including man-made, industrial, etc. Different environmental pollutions bring different hazards.

Environmental pollution classification

1. According to environmental factors: air pollution, soil pollution, and water pollution.

2. According to properties: explicit pollution and implicit pollution.

3. According to human activities: industrial environmental pollution, urban environmental pollution, and agricultural environmental pollution.

According to the nature and source of environmental pollution:

1. Chemical pollution, biological pollution, physical pollution (noise pollution, radioactive pollution, electromagnetic wave pollution, etc.), solid waste pollution, liquid waste pollution, and energy pollution.

2. Land pollution: Garbage disposal has become a major issue in major cities. Among the tens of millions of tons of garbage produced every day, much cannot be incinerated or decomposed, such as plastic, rubber, glass, etc., which are mankind’s number one enemy.

3. Marine pollution: mainly crude oil leaked from oil tankers and oil wells, pesticides and fertilizers used in farmland, wastewater discharged from factories, and acidic solutions discharged from mines; they have polluted most oceans and lakes, resulting in not only marine life being harmed, but also birds and humans may be poisoned by eating these organisms.

4. Air pollution: refers to the concentration of pollutants in the air reaching or exceeding harmful levels, leading to damage to the ecosystem and normal human survival and development, causing harm to humans and organisms. This is the most direct and serious, mainly coming from carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide released by factories, cars, power plants, etc. Every day, people get respiratory or visual organ diseases due to exposure to these polluted air.

5. Water pollution: refers to the change of chemical, physical, biological or radioactive properties of water due to the intervention of certain substances, thereby affecting the effective use of water, endangering human health or damaging the ecological environment, and causing water quality deterioration.

6. Noise pollution: refers to the phenomenon that the environmental noise generated exceeds the national environmental noise emission standards and interferes with the normal work, study and life of others.

7. Radiation contamination: refers to the presence of radioactive substances or rays exceeding national standards on the surface or inside of materials, human bodies, places, and environmental media due to human activities.

Environmental pollution has three main effects on human health:

1. Acute hazards: When the concentration of pollutants is very high in a short period of time, or when several pollutants enter the human body together, they can cause acute hazards to the human body.

2. Chronic hazards: Chronic hazards mainly refer to the harm caused by the continuous effects of small doses of pollutants on the human body. Such as the impact of air pollution on the incidence of chronic respiratory inflammation.

3. Long-term harm: The harm of environmental pollution to the human body usually manifests itself after a long latent period, such as the carcinogenic effect of environmental factors. The main carcinogenic factors in the environment are physical, chemical and biological factors. Physical factors, such as leukemia and lung cancer caused by external radiation exposure or inhalation of radioactive substances, and biological factors, such as tropical malignant lymphoma, have been proven to be caused by a virus transmitted by blood-sucking insects. Chemical factors: According to animal experiments, there are more than 1,100 carcinogenic chemicals. In addition, pollutants have a great impact on genetics. All living things have the characteristic of genetic variation. The harm of environmental pollution to human genetics is mainly manifested in mutagenic and teratogenic effects.