MODULE 6 – POLLUTION: TYPES, SOURCES AND EFFECTS

I. LEARNING OUTCOMES:

1.) Identify the different types of pollution and its effects to living things
2.) Cite some ways of how to mitigate its hazards to human life

II. CONCEPTS:
A. POLLUTION
It is the undesirable change in the physical, chemical or biological
characteristics of an ecosystem that injures of kills living organisms and makes the
ecosystem unfit for use.
It’s the contamination of land, water and air of unwanted substances that
adversely affect living organisms.

B. TYPES OF POLLUTION
1. WATER POLLUTION – the physical or chemical change in surface and ground
water that affects both aquatic and terrestrial organisms.
1.1. MAJOR SOURCES:
 Point source – source that discharges pollutants or any effluent
such as waste water through pipes, ditches and sewers into bodies
of water at a specific location like sewage treatment plants of
factories, electric power plants, coal mines, oil tankers and
offshore oil wells
 Non-point source – many widely scattered sources that discharge
pollutants over a large area like seepage into groundwater in
urban and suburban lands, construction areas, parking lots and
roadways
1.2. TYPES OF WATER POLLUTANTS:
 disease-causing organisms like bacteria, viruses, protozoans,
parasites, etc.
 oxygen-demanding wastes like domestic sewage, animal manure
and other organic wastes that deplete water of dissolved oxygen
 water soluble inorganic chemicals like acids, salts, toxic metals and
their compounds
 inorganic plant nutrients like nitrates and phosphates
 organic chemicals like oil, gasoline, pesticides and cleaning
solvents
 radioactive substances like radon and uranium
1.3. EFFECTS OF WATER POLLUTION:
 depletes dissolved O2 in water that may cause aquatic organisms
to die
 outbreaks of water-borne disease like typhoid, hepatitis and
cholera
  makes water unfit for domestic use, irrigation and other industrial
uses
 algal blooms or excessive algal growth that may cause red tides or
poisoning of aquatic animals
2. AIR POLLUTION – the physical and chemical alterations of the properties of air
which is harmful to human health, vegetation and animals.
2.1. TYPES OF AIR POLLUTION:
 Outdoor pollution – include burning of fossil fuels (transportation
and energy generation), industrial smog, volcanic eruptions, forest
fires, evaporation of organic compounds from decaying plants and
animals
 Indoor pollution – include the use of aerosol sprays, air
fresheners, smoke from cigarettes, asbestos from tiles, pipes and
ceilings, paints, formaldehyde from plywood
2.2. EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION:
 damage to human health
 damage to plants and materials (acid rain)
 depletion of the ozone layer
 increased surface temperature or global warming

3. LAND POLLUTION – the presence of any solid waste on land that would be
harmful to human health, animal or plant life and property.
3.1. TYPES OF SOLID WASTES:
 Municipal wastes – include garbage, rubbish, discarded items,
street litter, construction or demolition wastes, wet market’s
degradable and non-degradable wastes, etc. to be collected by the
municipal government garbage disposal personnel.
 Agricultural solid wastes – refers to manure from livestock, post-
harvest residues, plant trimmings and damaged grains used as
animal feeds
 Litter – refers to wrappers, beer cans, waste paper, plastic bags,
cups, bottles, styrofoams and diapers
3.2. EFFECTS OF LAND POLLUTION:
 Can cause flooding during rainy days due to dumping of garbage in
canals or waterways
 Can cause infectious diseases spread by insects and rats
 Can pollute bodies of water needed for domestic use
 Can contaminate and kill marine animals and coral reefs
4. NOISE POLLUTION – consists of pressure waves that travel through the air and
perceived as unwanted or unpleasant, irritating sounds beyond the tolerance of
the human ear. It often produces or results in an annoying condition and
damages hearing and may cause deafness.
4.1. MAJOR SOURCES OF NOISE POLLUTION:
 transportation
 industrial – machineries in factories and construction business
 household – home appliances like radio, vacuum cleaners,
blenders, floor polishers, etc.
  military – includes explosives, ammunitions and other warfare
equipment
4.2. EFFECTS OF NOISE POLLUTION:
 Biosocial effects – interferes with conversation, leisure and sleep
 Biophysical/physiological effects – hearing damage or loss,
headaches, stress, muscle tension, stomach spasms, constriction
of blood vessels, increased irritability or decreased tolerance
levels

5. HAZARDOUS WASTES
A hazardous waste is a waste with properties that make it dangerous or
capable of having a harmful effect on human health or the environment.
Hazardous waste is generated from many sources, ranging from industrial
manufacturing process wastes to batteries and may come in many forms,
including liquids, solids, gases, and sludges.

5.1. CHARACTERISTICS:
 ignitability or something flammable.
 corrosivity or something that can rust or decompose.
 reactivity or something explosive.
 toxicity or something poisonous.

5.2. HAZARDOUS WASTE RECYCLING, TREATMENT, STORAGE AND DISPOSAL

 Many hazardous wastes can be recycled safely and effectively,

while other wastes will be treated and disposed of in landfills or
incinerators.
 Recycling hazardous waste has a variety of benefits including
reducing the consumption of raw materials and the volume of
waste materials that must be treated and disposed. However,
improper storage of those materials might cause spills, leaks, fires,
and contamination of soil and drinking water.
 Treatment Storage and Disposal Facilities (TSDF) provide
temporary storage and final treatment or disposal for hazardous
wastes. TSDF requirements established generic facility
management standards, specific provisions governing hazardous
waste management units and additional precautions designed to
protect soil, ground water and air resources.

6. NUCLEAR WASTES

 The use of nuclear energy results in some waste products. There are
three types of nuclear wastes, classified according to their
radioactivity: low, intermediate, and high-level. The vast majority of
the waste (90% of total volume) is composed of only lightly-
contaminated items, such as tools and work clothing, and contains
 only 1% of the total radioactivity. High-level waste, mostly comprises
used nuclear (sometimes referred to as spent) fuel that has been
designated as waste from the nuclear reactions, accounts for just 3%
of the total volume of waste, but contains 95% of the total
radioactivity.

 The electricity generated from nuclear reactors results in small

amount of wastes. There are several management strategies in
practice, such as direct disposal or reuse in reactors to generate
more low-carbon electricity.
 Nuclear fuel is very energy dense, so very little of it is required to
produce immense amounts of electricity especially when compared
to other energy sources. As a result, a correspondingly small amount
of waste is produced. On average, the waste from a reactor supplying
a person’s electricity needs for a year would be about the size of a
brick. Only 5 grams of this is high-level waste, about the same weight
as a sheet of paper.
 The generation of electricity from a typical 1,000-megawatt nuclear
power station, which would supply the needs of more than a million
people, produces only three cubic meters of vitrified high-level waste
per year, if the used fuel is recycled.

6.1. NUCLEAR WASTE MANAGEMENT

 TEMPORARY STORAGE FACILITIES - used nuclear fuel is kept in
either wet or dry storage facilities, before being recycled or
disposed of. When used fuel is taken out of a reactor, it is both hot
and radioactive and requires storage in water to allow the fuel to
cool. The fuel can be kept in wet storage, or transferred into a dry
facility after a period of initial cooling. Keeping the used fuel in
temporary storage to allow both the heat and radioactivity to
diminish makes the recycling and disposal easier.

 RECYCLING - some countries, especially the USA, treat used

nuclear fuel as waste, most of the material in used fuel can be
recycled. Approximately 97 or the vast majority of it could be used
as fuel in certain types of reactor. Recycling has mostly been
focused on the extraction of plutonium and uranium, as these
elements can be reused in conventional reactors. This separated
plutonium and uranium can subsequently be mixed with fresh
uranium and made into new fuel rods. Countries such as France,
Japan, Germany, Belgium and Russia have all used plutonium
recycling to generate electricity, whilst also reducing the
radiological footprint of their waste.
  DIRECT DISPOSAL - Direct disposal is a management strategy
where used nuclear fuel is designated as waste and disposed of in
an underground repository, without any recycling. The used fuel is
placed in canisters which, in turn, are placed in tunnels and
subsequently sealed with rocks and clay. The waste from recycling
called fission products will also be placed in the repository.

US NUCLEAR PLANT

7. BATAAN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

Bataan Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant, completed but never
fueled, on Bataan Peninsula, 100 kilometers west of Manila in the Philippines. It is located
on a 3.57 square kilometer government reservation at Napot Point in Morong, Bataan. It
was the Philippines' only attempt at building a nuclear power plant. It was cancelled due to
safety concerns in the wake of the 1986 Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster in
the former Soviet Ukraine and issues regarding corruption.

The Philippine Nuclear Program started in 1958 with the creation of

the Philippine Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) under Republic Act 2067. Under a regime
of martial law, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos in July 1973 announced the decision
to build a nuclear power plant. A presidential committee was set up to secure funding for
two 620 megawatt nuclear reactors for the energy needs of Luzon. This was in response to
the 1973 oil crisis, as the Middle East oil embargo had put a heavy strain on the Philippine
economy and Marcos believed nuclear power is the solution to meeting the country's
energy demands and decreasing dependence on imported oil.
 BATAAN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

III. REFERENCES:

A. BOOKS

Lee, Sergio J. and Anes, Myrna L.; Environmental Science, C & E Publishing Inc., 2 nd
Edition, 2010
Arsenio, Romulo S.; and Valencia, Lourdes M.; Ecological Crisis: Our Responsibility, C & E
Publishing, Inc.; 2010
Ordonez II, Jose A., Environmental Biology: Philippine Setting, National Bookstore, 2002

B. INTERNET SOURCES:

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