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An Introduction of Environmental Chemistry

Lecture notes

Chemistry has played a major role in the advancement of society and in making our lives longer, healthier, more comfortable, and more enjoyable. The effects of human-made chemicals are ubiquitous and in many instances quite positive. Without chemistry there would be no pharmaceutical drugs, no computers, no automobiles, no TVs, no DVDs, no lights, no synthetic fibers. However, along with all the positive advances that result from chemistry, copious amounts of toxic and corrosive chemicals have also been produced and dispersed into the environment. Historically, chemists as a group have not always paid enough attention to the environmental consequences of their activities.

development and life of all organisms on earth. The living organisms vary from the lowest micro-organisms such as bacteria, virus, fungus, etc. to the highest, including man. Each organism has its own environment.

Environment is the sum total of all conditions and influences that affect the

The functions of the environment in relation to man have been analyzed: 1. recreation; 2. source of natural resources agricultural, mineral and forestry which man consumes directly or indirectly; 3. sink for receiving wastes produced by man and his activities. The capacity of the environment to carry out these functions is damaged by human activities which imposes four stresses on the environment: (i) eutrophic, i.e. the task of decomposing wastes produced by consumption and production activities; (ii) exploitative, i.e. cropping of plants, extraction of minerals and hunting of animals; (iii) disruptive brought about by activities like deforestation, construction of highways and towns; and (iv) chemical and industrial stress which results from industrial development.

Environmental chemistry
It can be defined as the study of the sources, reactions, transport, effects, and fates of chemical species in the air, soil and water environments; and the effect of human activity on these. Environmental chemistry is an interdisciplinary science that includes atmospheric, aquatic and soil chemistry, as well as heavily relying on analytical chemistry and being related to environmental and other areas of science. Environmental chemistry deals with the reactions, fates, movements, and sources of chemicals in the air, water, and soil In the absence of humans, the discussion would be limited to naturally occurring chemicals. Today, with the burgeoning population of the Earth, coupled with continually advancing technology, human activities have an ever-increasing influence on the chemistry of the environment. To the earliest humans, and even until less than a century ago, humans must have thought of the Earth as so vast that human activity could scarcely have any more than local effects on the soil, water, and air. Today we realize that our activities can have not only local and regional but also global consequences.

Pollution
is the introduction of contaminants into an environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat, or light. Pollutants, the elements of pollution, can be foreign substances or energies, or naturally occurring; when naturally occurring, they are considered contaminants when they exceed natural levels. Pollution is often classed as point source or nonpoint source pollution.

1. Pollutant: A pollutant may be defined as anything, living or not living, or any physical agent (e.g. heat, sound) that in its excess makes any part of the environment undesirable. A pollutant has been defined as any solid, liquid or gaseous, substance present in such concentration as may be or tend to be injurious to environment. 2. Contaminant: A contaminant may be defined as something which causes deviation from the normal composition of an environment. A contaminant does not occur in nature but gets introduced by human activity into the environment, affecting its composition. 3. Source: It is generally the logic place from which the pollutant originates. The identity of source is important to eliminate pollution. 4. Receptor It is anything which is affected by the pollutant. Man is the receptor of photochemical smog causing irritation of the eyes and respiratory tract. 5. Sink: It is the medium which is able to retain and interact with a long-lived pollutant. Limestone wall may be the sink for the atmospheric sulfuric acid, through the reaction: H2SO4 + CaCO3 CaSO4 + H2O + CO2

6. Pathway of the pollutant: It refers to the mechanism by which the pollutant gets distributed from its source into the environmental segments. Pb (C2H5)4 PbCl2 + PbBr2 (released into the air)

To food crops and food chain.

PbCl2 + PbBr2

7. Speciation: The term is used for different chemical forms or species of inorganic or organometallic compounds which are present in the environment. For example , the species such as (CH3Hg)+ and (CH3)2Hg have been found to be deadly poisonous as compared to the other species of mercury. 8. Threshold Limit Value (TLV): It refers to the permissible level of a toxic pollutant in atmosphere to which a healthy industrial worker gets exposed during an eight hour day without getting any adverse effect. TLV values for Be and Zn have been 0.002 and 1.000 mg/m3 respectively.

9. Synergism and Antagonism: In many cases the combined effects of two or more pollutants are more severe or even qualitatively different from the individual effects of separate pollutants- a phenomenon known as synergism. Some times the combined effects of two pollutants are less rather than more severe, and this situation is referred to as Antagonism. Cyanide in industrial wastes are quite poisonous to aquatic life, and in the presence of zinc or cadmium they are extremely poisonous (synergistic effect), apparently due to the formation of complexes; in the presence of nickel, however, a nickel-cyanide complex that is not very toxic is formed.

COMPONENTS OF THE EARTH/ ENVIRONMENTAL SEGMENTS

1. Lithosphere

The earths crust, made of the mantle of rocks, is the lithosphere. It includes the soil which covers the rocks crust in many places. Rocks are subjected to continuous weathering forcesrain, wind, chemical and biological. The resulting primitive soil is suitable for the growth of plantsafter death and decay, plant debris returns to soil. Soil has a loose structure consisting of solid mineral and organic matter, air spaces. It shows broadly three zones as its depth increases. The top layer, up to several inches thick, is known as the top soil which is an index of the soil quality. This is the layer of maximum biological productivity and it contains bulk of the organic matter. Hence it is very important for vegetation cover and agricultural crops. Reckless deforestation causes loss of top soil which also means loss of agricultural production. The underlying layer is the sub-soil which receives organic matter, salts and clay particles leached from the top soil. The third layer (zone) consists of weathered parent rocks from which the soil was formed. Plants draw water and nutrients from soilthey transport water into the plant body (roots and leaves) and then excess water into the atmosphere through leaves by the process of transpiration. Soils have an important function, i.e. exchange of cations whereby essential trace metals are made available to plants as nutrients.

2. Hydrosphere
The hydrosphere consists of all types of water resources oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, streams, reservoirs, glaciers, polar ice caps and ground water (i.e. water below the earths surface). Surface water gets polluted by domestic sewage, industrial waste and agricultural run-off including pesticides and fertilizers. Water-borne diseases from sewage alone kill millions of people in developing countries.

3. Atmosphere
The major components of the atmosphere are nitrogen and oxygen while the minor components are argon, carbon dioxide and some trace gases.

4. Biosphere
The biosphere consists of the earths crust, hydrosphere, atmosphere and various living species (microorganisms to man) which exist in the zone 600 meters above earths surface and 10,000 meters below sea level. Both biosphere and environment have close interactions with each other. Thus oxygen and carbon dioxide levels of the atmosphere depend entirely on the plant world. Green plants alone are responsible for the accumulations of oxygen in the atmosphere through photosynthesis and decay. In the early stages atmosphere was devoid of oxygen and there was no life form on earth.

Types of pollution

1. Air Pollution Air pollution is the presence of materials in air in such concentration which are harmful to man and his environment. Various causes of air pollution are:
Category 1. Chemical plants Examples Important pollutants Petroleum refineries, fertilizers, H S, sulphur oxide, fluorides, cements, papermills, ceramic clay 2 organic vapours and dust products, glass manufacture Pesticides and weedicides Organophosphates, chlorinated hydrocarbons, lead, arsenic

2. Crop spraying 3. Fuel burning 4. Metallurgy plants 5. Nuclear device testing 6. Ore preparations 7. Spray painting, ink, solvent cleansing 8. Transportation

Domestic burning, thermal power Sulphur and nitrogen oxides plants Aluminium refineries and steel Metal flumes (Pb and Zn) plant fluorides and particulates Radioactive fall out, Sr-90, Cs-137, Bomb explosions C-14 etc. Uranium and beryllium dust, Crushing, grinding and screening other particulates Printing and chemical Hydrocarbons and other organic separations, furniture, dyeing vapours Cars, trucks, aeroplanes and CO, NO, NO2, Pb, smoke, soot, railways smoke organic vapours etc.

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