Pollutant

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Pollutants
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Surface runoff, also called nonpoint source pollution, from a farm field in Iowa, the United States during a rainstorm. Topsoil, as well as farm fertilizers and other potential pollutants, runoff unprotected farm fields when heavy rains occur.
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A pollutant or novel entity

concentration
high enough to have significant negative impacts.

A pollutant may cause long- or short-term damage by changing the growth rate of plant or animal species, or by interfering with resources used by humans, human health or wellbeing, or property values. Some pollutants are

DDT
.

Pollution has widespread negative impacts on the environment.[1] When analyzed from a planetary boundaries perspective, human society has released novel entities that well exceed safe levels.[1]

Different types of pollutants in the environment

Pollutants can be categorized in a variety of different ways. For example, it is sometimes useful to distinguish between stock pollutants and fund pollutants. Another way is to group them together according to more specific properties, such as organic, particulate, pharmaceutical, et cetera. The environment has some capacity to absorb many discharges without measurable harm, and this is called “assimilative capacity (or absorptive capacity); a pollutant actually causes pollution when the assimilative capacity is exceeded.[2]

Stock pollutants

Pollutants, towards which the environment has low

biodegradable plastics and heavy metals. Stock pollutants accumulate in the environment over time. The damage they cause increases as more pollutant is emitted, and persists as the pollutant accumulates. Stock pollutants can create a burden for the future generations, bypassing on the damage that persists well after the benefits received from incurring that damage, have been forgotten.[3] Scientists have officially deemed that the planetary boundaries safe chemical pollutant levels (novel entities) have been surpassed.[1]

Fund pollutants

In contrast to stock pollutants, for which the environment has low absorptive capacity, fund pollutants are those for which the environment has a moderate absorptive capacity. Fund pollutants do not cause damage to the environment unless the emission rate exceeds the receiving environment's absorptive capacity (e.g. carbon dioxide, which is absorbed by plants and oceans).[3] Fund pollutants are not destroyed, but rather converted into less harmful substances, or diluted/dispersed to non-harmful concentrations.[3]

Specific groups of pollutants

Many pollutants are within the following notable groups:

Light pollutant

artificial light on individual organisms and on the structure of ecosystems as a whole.[5]

The night sky viewed from Luhasoo bog, Estonia with light pollution in the background

Zones of influence

Pollutants can also be defined by their zones of influence, both horizontally and vertically.[3]

Horizontal zone

The horizontal zone refers to the area that is damaged by a pollutant. Local pollutants cause damage near the emission source. Regional pollutants cause damage further from the emission source.[3]

Vertical zone

The vertical zone refers to whether the damage is ground-level or atmospheric. Surface pollutants cause damage by accumulating near the Earth's surface. Global pollutants cause damage by concentrating on the [atmosphere].

Measuring concentration

This section is an excerpt from Measures of pollutant concentration.[edit]

Measures of pollutant concentration are used to determine risk assessment in public health.

Industry is continually synthesizing new chemicals, the regulation of which requires evaluation of the potential danger for human health and the environment. Risk assessment is nowadays considered essential for making these decisions on a scientifically sound basis.

Measures or defined limits include:

Regulation

Main article: Regulation and monitoring of pollution

International

Pollutants can cross international borders and therefore international regulations are needed for their control. The

Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers
(PRTR) are systems to collect and disseminate information on environmental releases and transfers of toxic chemicals from industrial and other facilities.

European Union

The

European Pollutant Emission Register is a type of PRTR providing access to information on the annual emissions of industrial facilities in the Member States of the European Union, as well as Norway.[7]

United States

Clean Air Act standards. Under the

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for six common air pollutants, also called "criteria pollutants": particulates; smog and ground-level ozone; carbon monoxide; sulfur oxides; nitrogen oxides; and lead.[8] The National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants are additional emission standards that are set by EPA for toxic air pollutants.[9]

Clean Water Act standards. Under the

states to publish water quality standards for individual water bodies to provide additional protection where the national standards are insufficient.[12]

RCRA standards. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulates the management, transport and disposal of municipal solid waste, hazardous waste and underground storage tanks.[13]

See also

References

Look up pollutant in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
  1. ^
    PMID 35038861
    .
  2. Simon and Schuster
    2019): “As long as the assimilative capacity of the environment is not reached, discharges will not lead to pollution.”
  3. ^
    Tietenberg T
    (2006). "Chapter 15: Economics of Pollution Control". Environmental and Natural Resource Economics (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
  4. ^ Friedman, Lisa (22 August 2022). "Democrats Designed the Climate Law to Be a Game Changer. Here's How". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 23 August 2022.
  5. ^ "Light Pollution | National Geographic Society". education.nationalgeographic.org. Retrieved 2022-09-02.
  6. ^ thefreedictionary.com/AOEL Retrieved on June 19, 2009
  7. ^ "The European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR)". environment.ec.europa.eu. 2023-09-28. Retrieved 2023-11-03.
  8. ^ "NAAQS Table". Criteria Air Pollutants. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 2016.
  9. ^ "National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants". EPA. 2018-01-25.
  10. ^ EPA. "Secondary Treatment Regulation." Code of Federal Regulations, 40 CFR 133
  11. ^ "Effluent Guidelines". EPA. 2018-02-28.
  12. ^ "Standards for Water Body Health". EPA. 2018-02-28.
  13. Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 98–616: Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984
    , November 8, 1984.
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