pollution

Question	Answer
What is pollution	- The release into the environment of materials that do harm by causing changes that would not normally have occurred.
Toxicity	- Measured in the poisonous a material is, and harms the biological processes that take place within living organisms examples: carbon monoxide; binds to haemoglobin in the blood and prevents it carrying oxygen, lead inhibits the enzyme action, DDT prevents nerve impulses by inhibiting enzyme action
Non-toxic pollutants	- cause harm indirectly by altering some other environment factor, which then cause harm examples: sewage; deoxygenation of lakes and rivers, greenhouse; cause the Earth to become warmer, CFCs; cause ozone depletion
Persistence	- a measure of the rate at which a material breaks down and therefore the length of time it remains in the environment example: CFCs; chemically stable and break down slowly, remain in the atmosphere of decades, DDT; stable, gradually breaks down
Biodegradability	- process of breakdown of a material by living organisms, usually bacteria - rate of this process affected by environmental factors like temperature and oxygen availability
Mobility	- measure of how easily a material moves in the environment

Resource summary

	Created by spoopy Gonzalez about 7 years ago