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Plastic Pollution covering Accra beach – Muntaka Chasant<\/p><\/div>\n
The Main Culprits<\/h2>\n
A quick enquiry on Google Gemini<\/a> reveals the the top 3 most discussed enviromtal pollutant on the web, are:<\/p>\n These are quite generic categories, and certainly air and water pollution can occur via contamination with numerous substances, which can include . .\u00a0 plastic.<\/p>\n So let’s break this down a bit:<\/p>\n Below we have a list of impacts that are considered in life cycle assessment, but they are not pollutants. However, they do represent pollutants. For example ozone depletion, would take in to account release of CFCs or HCFCs when manufacturing a product.<\/p>\n Below list we look, at an actual ist of pollutants that we test for in water and soils samples.<\/p>\n So below are a list of pollutants, rather than the above list of impacts. You will note some of these are “famous” poisons.<\/p>\n Arsenic Popular with Unimaginative Murderers<\/p><\/div>\n So of the below pollutants are more nasty than others, there are some famous ones (if you read agatha Christie Novels)\u00a0 such as Arsenic, but have you ever heard of Dibenzo[a,h]anthracene? The safe level of Dibenzo[a,h]anthracene in soil, is around 60 times lower than that for Arsenic. This does not mean it is 60 times more toxic, but it gives an idea of how nasty Dibenzo[a,h]anthracene is!<\/p>\n One of humans’ favorite way of causing really bad pollution is with new wonder chemicals:<\/p>\n In order of appearance the above short list of chemical has been released into the environment before anyone really understand them.<\/p>\n Asbestos was thought to be a very good flame \/ heat resistant material (which is was) but people overlooked (or ignored) it crystal structure and the effect that would have on delicate lung tissue. We are still cleaning up asbestos now, 40 years after is was passed out.<\/p>\n DDT & PCB are both very “persistent” chemicals they don’t break down, as so are prone to bioaccumulation. Which is why inuit<\/a> mother’s breast milk has been found to be toxic<\/a>, despite them living in a seemingly pristine environment.<\/p>\n Blood PCB levels in humans, observed across the Arctic – https:\/\/www.eea.europa.eu\/<\/p><\/div>\n And more recently a group of chemical associated with fire retardation called PFAS or PFOS, are turning up absolutely everywhere, manufactures have been putting these forever chemicals in paper bags (for grease proofing) and as using them as flame retardants, and now guess what! They are turning up in people water supplies<\/a>.<\/p>\n There are a mesmerising number of ways in which humans can pollute our environment. We can pollute the air, water and the soil. All things we rely on to exist.<\/p>\n There is also a mind boggling number of ways we can impact the planet, and and very long list of substances to do it with.<\/p>\n We are still learning about all of these interactions, and substances, and we are very prone to repeating mistakes.<\/p>\n The one to watch is plastic pollution<\/a> . We each of us eat and drink 1000’s of particles a day, and that number will get higher, and subjectively speaking there is no way that can pan out well for humans (or the ecosphere<\/a>) in the long run.<\/p>\n What are the Different Ways in which Humans Cause Pollution? What are the different ways in which humans cause pollution? How many can you think of? Topics like climate change, and sewage spills get a lot of press, but what else is there and how do we measure it? The Main Culprits A quick enquiry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-air-quality","category-environmental-impact"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":549,"href":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions\/549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\nOpens in a new window<\/li>\nA Long List of Negative Impacts<\/h1>\n
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A List of Actual Pollutants<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/egyptian25-300x226.jpg\")
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Wonder Chemicals<\/h1>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/preview_image-768-b0e74cb6dc467da1e9d7c87530055fd3.png\")
Conclusions<\/h1>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/southwest-environmental.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/download-150x150.png\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"