Chemical pollution: What is, causes and consequences

Chemical pollution is that pollution that occurs due to the Entrance of a harmful chemical agent into an ecosystem. The damage that comes to cause depends on both the amount of contaminant and its aggressiveness, as well as the resilience of the environment in which it is released.

In addition, we must take into account that there are two Types of chemical pollution According to the pollutant released. Thus, we find the Primary pollutants and secondary pollutants. A primary pollutant is one that exerts its harmful influence without suffering any subsequent modification. On the contrary, a secondary pollutant can even be an innocuous substance, but once released he suffers a series of chemical transformations that make him a harmful agent. In this other ecology article, we tell you everything about secondary pollution: what is, types and examples.

We must also take into account that ecotoxicity and toxicity or danger for people are not the same. A Ecotoxic agent It is harmful to the environment, but depending on its nature it can be perfectly acceptable (always attending to quantity) for people’s health. For example, the remains of hormonal medications can wreak havoc on aquatic ecosystems, even in ridiculous proportions, but do not cause problems in our health when it comes to such very small amounts.

There are many Causes of chemical pollutionbut all of them can be summarized in poor waste management (regardless of illegal and/or deliberate activities). Let’s see some concrete examples:

• Waste: The spills are one of the primary sources of chemical pollution, and are especially given due to industrial or livestock activity. In Spain there have been large spills of pork slurry.
• Sewage: When wastewater is not purified, or they are bad, they can carry all kinds of pollutants. Even refined, there are certain contaminants very difficult to withdraw. In these other articles you can learn about what are wastewater and how they are classified and the types of wastewater treatment.
• Leachate: leachates are liquids that are detached from accumulated materials. For example, landfills usually have a “leachate raft”, which is a containment raft of these pollutants. If you do not have, or it is poor, it can lead to pollution. Here you can learn more about leachate: definition, examples and treatment.
• Atmospheric emission and diffuse spotlights: They detach smoke -shaped pollutants, which can react with other substances giving rise to really dangerous compounds.
• BIOACUMULATION: Bioacumulation implies the accumulation of a contaminant in the tissues of living organisms, since they cannot be excreted. An animal’s own diet can be a source of pollution. It is frequent with heavy metals. In this other post we talk about how heavy metal contamination occurs in water.

The consequences of chemical pollution can become devastating, depending on the factors we have commented at the beginning. In this section we will distinguish two categories of consequences: those associated with health and those associated with the environment.

Consequences of chemical pollution for health

There are pollutants that are very harmful to health. The Endocrine disruptors (EDC) They are substances that alter our endocrine system by a lot to resemble our own hormonal signals. Some sources are medications, health products (pesticides and pesticides, etc.).

Without forgetting that there are many substances that are corrosive or irritating by their very nature (once again, we recommend knowing the security pictograms).

CONSEQUENCES FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

The consequences for the environment are varied, but in any case they always affect the living beings. For example, these are some of the consequences of pollution by more patent chemicals:

• Eutrophicization.
• Soil pollution with heavy metals.
• The contamination of water rafts with endocrine disruptors.
• Generalized acidification.

To know if a chemical is dangerous for the environment, in Europe we have the CLP pictogramsissued by the ECHA (European Chemical Agency). Pictograms are clear and simple signals that inform us of the Danger of a chemical agent in question. The ecotoxicity pictogram, or toxic to the environment, represents a shore with a dead fish and tree.

Although we advise you to know all the pictograms, that a chemist is not recognized as an ecotoxic does not mean that it is not, for several reasons:

• Only substances proven as pollutants are carried, but others may be even if they have not yet been tested.
• It does not take into account secondary pollutants, since these depend on the receiving medium.
• It tends only to put the most important pictograms. For example, the pictogram of the soda is that of corrosivity, but a significant amount of soda dissolved in water can vary the pH of the ground from an entire region.

If you want to read more articles similar to Chemical pollution: What is, causes and consequenceswe recommend that you enter our pollution category.