Ch 13Environmental Chemistry — Class 11 Chemistry, concept-first.

Environmental pollution is defined as any undesirable change in the physical, chemical or biological characteristics of air, water or soil (or in the levels of energy such as heat, noise or radiation)…

Air pollution is dominated by five classes of primary pollutant, each with a distinct source and a distinct mechanism of harm.

Not every harmful substance in polluted air was ever directly emitted. A secondary pollutant is one that is manufactured, so to speak, by the atmosphere itself: a primary pollutant undergoes a chemica…

Classical smog, sometimes called London-type smog after the notorious mid-20th-century London episodes, is produced by the combination of smoke, fog and sulfur dioxide over an industrial city in cold,…

Photochemical smog is a brownish, oxidising haze that forms over sunny cities with heavy vehicular traffic -- Los Angeles and, more relevantly for us, many large Indian cities on a clear, bright day a…

Airborne solid and liquid particles, taken together, are called particulate matter, and they are classified by size because size, more than composition, determines how deeply a particle can travel int…

Water pollution occurs when sewage, industrial effluent, agricultural runoff or other waste enters a river, lake, pond or groundwater body faster than natural processes -- dilution, sedimentation, and…

Eutrophication is the process by which a water body becomes progressively enriched with plant nutrients -- mainly nitrogen and phosphorus compounds -- and, as a direct consequence, becomes progressive…

Soil pollution is the build-up in soil of substances -- chemical, biological, or radioactive -- at concentrations high enough to harm plant growth, soil organisms, or the humans and animals that ultim…

Solid waste is the general term for discarded solid material from households, commerce, agriculture and industry that is no longer wanted by its original owner.

Traditional pollution control largely works by treating waste after it has already been generated -- scrubbing a smokestack, treating an effluent before discharge, cleaning up a contaminated site.

Controlling environmental pollution in practice combines engineering measures applied at the source of emission with deliberate strategies to protect and conserve water resources.