3.3.2 Pollution

1. Welcome to our new unit... 3.3.2 Pollution

2. All: To be able describe a pollutant and define the term pollution (D) Most: To be able to explain the different possible properties of polluting substances (C) Some: To be able to apply the general properties of pollutants to the risks they pose for the environment (B) General properties of pollutants

3. Pollution / Pollutants • You have 10 min to research the definition of the terms pollutant and pollution on your white boards using 10 words only! • Use at least 4 different web sources!

4. Key terms: • Pollution • Pollutants Using the key words we have listed define these key terms in your own words

5. General Properties of pollutants • We need to cover the general properties of pollutants to help us understand why particular pollutants cause specific problems • In pairs see how many different general properties of a pollutant you can come up with...

6. Possible properties to be considered • State of matter - Tom • Density - Kim • Point or diffuse source - Steph • Persistence or degradability - Laura • Toxicity - Ant • Chemical reactivity - Jordan • Solubility in water - Chris • Synergism - Tom • Mobility - Kim • Bio-accumulation - Steph • Bio-magnification - Laura • Synergistic action - Ant • Mutagenic action - Jordan • Carcinogenic action - Chris • Teratogenic action - Miss You will be given 2/3 of these properties to research. You must define the term in simple terms on your white board giving examples of pollutants which illustrate this property and the contrary. We will then come together to construct a table summarising all of your research

7. Property jumbles • ffsieud • eedgdraelb • oticytix • yeracivtti • yerginssm • listyubo • tiocumlacaibon • tomlibyi • enydsti • uatgenicm • maatttetfoser • topin • nceetssiper

8. Properties table

9. Material thoughts? What material is today’s lesson most like and why? Example materials – Wood, stone, wool, felt, linen, silk, charcoal

10. All: To be able describe a pollutant and define the term pollution (D) Most: To be able to explain the different possible properties of polluting substances (C) Some: To be able to apply the general properties of pollutants to the risks they pose for the environment (B) General properties of pollutants 1

11. All: To be able describe factors that will effect how a pollutant will move in the environment (D) Most: To be able to explain how the different properties of polluting substances will control how a pollutant moves through the environment (C) Some: To be able to apply the properties of a pollutant to its effect in different environments (B) General properties of pollutants 2

12. State of matter: The state of a pollutant directly effects how it flows or moves, this is also dependant on the state of matter it is placed into in the environment e.g. Liquid sewage leaked in to a river will spread through the environment much quicker than pollution from solid wastes which have to be broken down over time Diamond 9 Most important Your task: Look over your list of properties from last lesson. Fill in the Diamond 9 template based on which properties will most effect how a pollutant moves through the environment. For each property try to give a reason for you choice and an real life example of such a pollutant. Least important

13. Pyramid your thoughts from last lesson One question you want to ask from last lesson? Two words that made an impression - why Three key words that are important – why?

14. All: To be able describe different sources, pathways and sinks (D) Most: To be able to explain the difference between direct and indirect effects of pollutants (C) Some: To be able to apply the properties of a pollutant to a scenario to test your understanding (B) Properties of pollutants -sources, pathways & Sinks

15. We must consider the features of an environment into which a pollutant may be released: Where would it go and why?

16. Source • List 5 different examples of a source of pollution? • Are these point or diffuse? Point – small number of easily identifiable sources, e.g. Power station, large factories Diffuse – very large number of smaller sources, e.g. Vehicle engines or pesticide spray tractors

17. Pathways • A pathway is a route from a source to a sink. • What sort of thing could this be?

18. Sink • What is a sink? – Define!! • An unit in the environment that has more incoming flow than outgoing flow so a store builds up within it.

19. Sink Source Pathway Using your own examples write-out at least 1 source pathway  sink example

20. Direct and indirect effects of pollutants • Direct effects – the pollutant causes harm by contact with or ingestion by living organisms • Indirect effects – the pollutant does not harm the organism directly but causes harmful changes to the environment.

21. Chemical leak!! • A new and revolutionary chemical was being transported from the manufacture site to its testing facilities when the worst happened - the vehicle carrying it was involved in an accident!! • You are head of an Environment Agency Clean up and assessment team. You must research as much about the chemical as you can and then predict the movement/effects of the chemical on the environment it has been released into and suggest what preventative steps could/should be taken to reduce the impact taking its properties into account.

22. Your report • You must summaries the different properties of the chemical identified which cause the largest concern and why. • Identify the source, possible pathways and sinks in the area of the accident (these can be highlighted on you sketch) • An areal sketch of the area showing points that are in your opinion at risk. • Suggest possible clean up procedures and long term risks in the area from this contamination.

23. Dead line • Your report must be presented on a sheet of A3 on Thursday – including the sketch of the area (it may be best to work around this using it as a spring board for discussion points around the picture) • Your report poster MUST be ready for hand in on Thurs, when the rest of the group will review and assess what you have done!!

24. Take a few minutes to think about an record you answers to the following questions How can you link today’s lesson to your everyday life? In what contexts would you encounter what we have learned about today in your day-to-day life? How can you use what we have learned to day in your life inside and outside of school? Back to Plenaries

25. State of matter: The state of a pollutant directly effects how it flows or moves, this is also dependant on the state of matter it is placed into in the environment e.g. Liquid sewage leaked in to a river will spread through the environment much quicker than pollution from solid wastes which have to be broken down over time Diamond 9 Most important Your task: Look over your list of properties from last lesson. Fill in the Diamond 9 template based on which properties will most effect how a pollutant moves through the environment. For each property try to give a reason for you choice and an real life example of such a pollutant. Least important

27. All: To be able describe (D) Most: To be able to explain (C) Some: To be able to apply (B)

28. Pollution - resources • General revision notes http://envisci.googlepages.com/ • landfill emissions http://www.eper.ec.europa.eu/eper/Activity_FacilityList.asp?year=2004&area=UK&id=18&EmissionWaterDirect=on • EU pollution emission register http://www.eper.ec.europa.eu/eper/introduction.asp?i= • List of chemicals with data http://www.speclab.com/compound/chemabc.htm • NE Atlantic – OSPAR (The Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment • of the North-East Atlantic) http://www.ospar.org/eng/html/welcome.html • Atmospheric pollution Puget Sound (Washington State, USA) http://www.pscleanair.org/ • Smog City simulation http://www.smogcity.com/welcome.htm • London Smog 1952 http://www.portfolio.mvm.ed.ac.uk/studentwebs/session4/27/greatsmog52.htm • Toxic pesticides http://www.safe2use.com/poisons-pesticides/index.htm • Pesticides Action Network http://www.pan-europe.info/About.htm • Oil pollution Double hulled oil tankers (technical) http://www.amsa.gov.au/Publications/Comparison_of_single_and_double_hull_tankers.pdf • Ship tracking http://www.aisliverpool.org.uk/ • Ship hull cleaning and energy consumption http://www.hullcleaning.com/Equipment%20and%20Hull%20Performance.htm • Ship accidents & marine pollution http://dode777.jeeran.com/announcement_page5.html • Supertanker stats http://www.ihi.co.jp/ihimu/images/seihin/pl05_2.pdf • Bioremediation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioremediationhttp://www.contaminatedland.co.uk/case-stu/bio-remd.htm • Ionising radiation How smoke detectors work http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howthingswork/a/aa071401a.htm • Noise pollution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_pollution • Noise units http://www.pbia.org/Airport/Noise/Terminology.aspx

29. What words, thoughts and ideas do you get from this picture? Remember natural rain water is slightly acidic!

30. All: To be able describe the causes and effects of acid rain (D) Most: To be able to explain why acid rain is not just a national but and international problem(C) Some: To be able to apply the use of a biotic index to assess the effects of acid rain (B) Atmospheric pollution – acid rain

31. Acid rain damages trees and buildings and can harm wildlife. What causes it? Write down as many chemical that cause acid rain as you can think of!

32. Carbon dioxide: released by burning coal, oil, and natural gas. • Carbon monoxide: released by burning gasoline, oil, and wood. • Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs): CFCs are the chemicals that are used in industry, refrigeration, air conditioning systems, and consumer products. Whenever CFCs are released into the air, they reduce the stratospheric ozone layer. The stratospheric ozone layer protects Earth’s surface from the harmful rays of the sun. • Hazardous air pollutants (HAPS): HAPS are released into the air by sources such as chemical plants, dry cleaners, printing plants, and motor vehicles (cars, trucks, buses, and planes). HAPS can cause serious health problems like cancer, birth defects, nervous system problems, and deaths that are all due to people accidentally letting them go into the air. • Lead: Lead is released by house and car paint as well as the manufacturing of lead batteries, fishing lures, certain parts of bullets, some ceramic ware, water pipes, and fixtures. In young children, lead can cause nervous system damage and learning problems. • Nitrogen oxides: released into the air by burning fuels such as gasoline and coal. When nitrogen oxides combine with VOCs, they can cause breathing difficulty in people who have asthma, coughs in children, and general illness in your respiratory system.

33. Ozone: Ozone is released by motor vehicles, industries, burning coal, gasoline, and other fossil fuels, and in the chemicals that are in hairspray and paints. When ozone is close to the ground (ground level ozone) it can cause chest pain, irritated respiratory tract, or persistent cough, can make you unable to take deep breaths, and can make you more likely to get lung infections. • Particulate matter (PM): PM, little particles of pollution, is released by cars, trucks, and buses that are burning diesel fuel, fertilizers, pesticides, road construction, steel making, mining, and turning on fire places and wood stoves. When PMs mix with air particles and get breathed in by something, they get stuck in the lung tissue. There they can cause increased respiratory disease and lung damage. • Sulfur dioxides: Sulfur dioxides are released by burning coal, paper production, and melting metal. Sulfur dioxide can harm vegetation, harm metals, and cause lung problems, which include breathing problems and permanent lung damage. • Volatile organic compounds (VOCs): VOCs are released into the air by burning gasoline, wood, coal, or natural gas, solvents, paints, glues, and other products that are used at work or at home.

34. HW – Marking exam questions on general properties of pollutants

35. The Acid Rain

36. Effects of acid rain on plants • Acid rain can lead to nutrient leaching: • dissolve and wash away the nutrients and minerals in the soil which help the tree and plants to grow. • cause the release of harmful substances such as aluminium into the soil. e.g. releases aluminium from soil into the rivers and lakes restricting the growth of aquatic plant roots. Aluminium also clogs the gills of aquatic animals, attacks calcium in their bodies, and causes life-threatening deformities in their young.

37. Wears away the waxy protective coating of leaves, damaging them and preventing them from being able to photosynthesise properly. • Root hair cells are damaged reducing water and nutrient uptake • Stomata damage can lead to reduced gaseous exchange • Plant germination and reproduction is also inhibited by the effects of acid rain causing population decline The cumulative effect means that even if the plant survives it will be very weak and unable to survive climatic conditions which means that they can be more easily attacked by diseases and insects or injured by bad weather.

38. Effects of acid rain on animals • Effected tissues include: • cell membranes are damaged • enzymes are denatured • Gills are damaged leading to reduced gaseous exchange • Skin and eggs are also damaged • Knock on effects lead to: • Reduced breeding • Population reduction • Growth reduction • Reduced water and nutrient uptake

39. The global problem with acid rain Remember: Acid rain is a term which describes the acidity of wet and dry deposition. This includes acidity falling as rain, snow, sleet, hail, mist or fog (wet deposition) and the dry deposition of gases and particles. • Mixed with rain and snow, these acids then fall back to earth, usually hundreds of miles from the original source of the pollution. In 1998, for example, the UK received one quarter of its sulphur deposition from other countries whereas, for example, Sweden and Norway both received more than 90% of their sulphur pollution from abroad. Acid pollutants are not necessarily deposited in the same country where they were produced.

40. What does all this mean for the environment? As plants, insects, fish, amphibians and reptiles disappear, the structure of the lake's ecosystem weakens and collapses. When the lake is completely unable to support life, mammals and birds which rely on the lake as a food source become endangered. Sadly, "dead" lakes and streams often appear clear and beautiful.

42. Acid rain does not just damage the living environment. This is what acid rain does to a stone statues. • In cities, paint from buildings can peeled off and colours of cars have faded due to the effects of acid rain great monuments such as the TajMahal show the signs of damage from acid rain. • Effects: • Corrosion • Dissolving of materials • Weathering • Erosion • Leaching • Commonly effected materials include: • Metals • Limestone • Sandstone

44. The pH scale is logarithmic rather than linear, and so there is a ten-fold increase in acidity with each pH unit, such that rainfall with pH 5 is 10 times more acidic than pH 6, rainfall with pH 4 is 100 times more acidic than pH 6 and rainfall with pH 3 is 1000 times more acidic than pH 6.

45. How can we monitor levels of acid rain? A biotic index is a scale for showing the quality of an environment by indicating the types of organisms present in it.The concept of the Biotic Index was developed by William M. Beck in an effort to provide a simple measure of stream pollution and its effects on the biology of the stream.

46. Biotic index’s for acidity • Some species of plant and animal are better able to survive in acidic water than others. • Living organisms relative resistance to acidity can be used to measure how acidic a lake is. Depending on what organisms are found we can infer how damaged the lake is by acid rain. • Freshwater shrimps, snails, mussels are the most quickly affected by acidification followed by fish such as minnows, salmon and roach. The roe and fry (eggs and young) of the fish are the worst affected, the acidity of the water can cause deformity in young fish and can prevent eggs from hatching properly.

47. What would you think about when constructing a biotic index? • Presence/ abundance/absence of organisms • Health/size of organisms • Species diversity • Ease of identification/finding organisms • Sampling method • Sensitivity to acidity • Current biotic indexes e.g. Trent

48. What can be done to solve this problem?

49. Lake neutralisation Lakes that have become highly acidic, can be treated by adding large quantities of alkaline substances like quicklime, in a process called liming. Although it has worked in several places, it has not been successful where the lake is very large, making this procedure economically unfeasible, or in other lakes where the flushing rate of the lake waters is too large resulting in the lake becoming acidic again.