Pollutants common sources

Table 12.6-1 lists the common indoor air pollutants, their sources and health impacts. Information for indoor VOCs is listed in a separate Table 12.6-2. A summary of indoor air quality standards and guidelines for different countries is presented in Table 12.6-3.

Common Pollutants and Sources John Cairns, Jr. (1923- ) Oxygen-depleting Substances Nutrients... 

Considerable information about pollutants, emission sources, and treatment techniques has been given in the reference document on best available techniques (BATs) in common waste-water and waste gas treatment released by the European Commission in 2003 (EC, 2003). 

Another common source of groundwater pollution is sewage, which includes drainage from septic tanks and inadequate or broken sewer lines. Animal sewage, especially from factory-style animal farms, is also a source of groundwater (and river water) pollution. Sewage water contains bacteria, which if untreated can cause waterborne diseases such as typhoid, cholera, and infectious hepatitis. If the contaminated groundwater travels relatively quickly... 

Phenols and substituted phenols such as chlorinated phenols and related aromatic compounds are known to be usual components of industrial wastes. Some of the larger and more common sources of wastewater containing phenolic compounds are pulp and paper mills, petrochemical refineries, plastics and glue manufacturers, coke plants, food industries and leachate from municipal waste dumps (Rao et al. 2002). Many phenolic compounds are thought to be highly toxic and carcinogenic so they are considered to be priority pollutants. 

These systems are common in liquid extraction and also in a multiphase reactor with an organic and an aqueous phase. Common sources of pollution are incomplete separation and contamination due to trace organics in the aqueous phase. An example is in alkylation reactions (e.g., n-butane reaction with olefins to form isooctanes). Strong acids, such as sulfuric and hydrofluoric acids, are used as catalysts, and the recovery and the recycle of acid need to be optimized in order to reduce the waste generation. 

Other common sources of polluting lead are small-arms munitions—bullets and shot—and fishing sinkers. Lead is often... 

In other words, cluster analysis is simply a method to group contaminants by similarity, for which a number of properties or parameters exist [286-290]. Various distance measurements are used, and the analysis is performed in a sequential manner, reducing the number of clusters at each step. Such a procedure has been described for pollution research as a way to group contaminants that have the most similarity between each other, indicating a common source. 

Point sources are pollution sites that have a definite identifiable source. Discharges from a chemical industry or raw sewage from wastewater treatment plants are common examples of point-source pollution. Point sources are easy to identify, control, and regulate. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the governmental agency that regulates point sources. 

The most common source of pollutant acid in water is acid mine drainage. The sulfuric acid in such drainage arises from the microbial oxidation of pyrite or other sulfide minerals as described in Section 3.5. The values of pH encountered in acid-polluted water may fall below 3, a condition deadly to most forms of aquatic life except the culprit bacteria mediating the pyrite and iron(II) oxidation, which thrive under very low pH conditions. Industrial wastes frequently have the potential to contribute strong acid to water. Sulfuric acid produced by the air oxidation of pollutant sulfur dioxide (see Chapter 7) enters natural waters as acidic rainfall. In cases where the water does not have contact with a basic mineral, such as limestone, the water pH may become dangerously low. This condition occurs in some Canadian and Scandinavian lakes, for example. 

VOCs can present special problems in the indoor microatmosphere. A common source of such emissions consists of oil-based paints from which the volatile paint vehicles evaporate as the paint dries. Water-based latex paints even have the potential to emit air pollutants. One such source consists of coalescents added to these paints that enable the colloidal particles in the paint to spread, giving a uniform painted surface. A Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge award was given to... 

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