Environmental pollution, global problem

Observing a brown gas dissolve in water to form an acidic solution has greater relevance to a high school audience when the observation is related to the global problems of atmospheric pollution and acid precipitation. The environmental issues mean more to the students for having seen the demonstrations. 

Environmental pollution from chemicals is a global problem, and poses many risks. If we are to quantify those risks, it is necessary to have knowledge of the ways in which a chemical can be distributed in the environment. The fugacity model (Mackay, 1991 Mackay et al 1992) incorporates the factors responsible for such distribution, one of which is soil sorption. Delle Site (2001) and Doucette (2000 2003) have reviewed soil sorption in detail. 

Environmental exposures are present through the human lifetime. However, they may vary considerably over time at the same location, for example, because of the local or global changes in emission and environmental pollution levels. Environmental exposures of humans consist of exposures outdoors and indoors as well as at workplaces these environments may significantly differ. The exposure media include air, water, and soil and dust. Historically, research on human exposures to chemicals and associated health effects has been conducted mostly on single chemicals. In addition, several studies have dealt with complex mixtures, such as diesel fuel and gasoline, by-products from coal combustion, and tobacco smoke. A common problem of complex mixtures is that the composition may vary from one exposure to another and, as a result, the associated toxicity may vary. For a better understanding... 

Environmental pollution is global. Both developed and developing countries all experience this problem. These countries therefore enact laws and regulations to... 

Several types of nature-humans interactions with respect to materials and energy include resources, waste and global environmental problems (Fig. 6.1). In this Chapter we focus on the global environmental and waste problems such as acid rain, CO2 emission, underground CO2 sequestration, geological disposal of high level nuclear waste, and water and soil pollutions. 

The pollution of air, water, and soil is a huge global problem, and environmental quaUty is not a simple, easy issue. The costs of environmental damages are high. For example, the annual costs of damage only from emissions of sulfur oxides... 

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