Chemicals in water come in a variety of forms, safe and unsafe, organic and inorganic. They also come from a variety of sources, from pollution to water treatment.
Organic and Inorganic Chemicals in Water
While some chemicals in water are harmless at lower concentrations, many chemicals in water are toxic. Chemicals in water come in two basic varieties, organic and inorganic. Organic chemicals in water are chemicals that can naturally occur. These include chemicals from food processing waste, petroleum products, and cosmetics. Inorganic chemicals are chemicals that do not naturally occur. Some inorganic chemicals in water come from heavy metals from industrial by-products, cars, and fertilizers.
Chemicals in Water: Water Treatment
We think of water treatment as a process that removes chemicals from water, purifying it. However, in the process of eliminating the chemical contaminants in water, water treatment also adds some chemicals in water. Water treatment is applied not only to drinking water, but also to water that’s used for industrial, medical, and other purposes. The goal of water treatment is to make water safe enough to return to natural environments without causing negative ecological effects. Water treatment can refer to water settling and filtration, but it can also refer to the chemical processes of disinfection, desalination and coagulation. Contaminants in water include bacteria, viruses, and chemical pollutants like fertilizers. Water treatment is hugely important because waterborne diseases kill 1.8 million people each year.
Naturally Occurring Chemicals in Water
Chemicals in water do not necessarily constitute water pollution. Some chemicals can naturally occur in water (like sodium and calcium, for instance). However, even these chemicals can harm us and Earth’s ecosystems if they are too highly concentrated.
DDT, the abbreviation for dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, is a well-known chemical pesticide with a controversial history.
The Properties of DDT
DDT does not naturally occur. Instead, it must be chemically synthesized. Because DDT has caused so much controversy, it has been marketed under several trade names, like Anofex, Chlorophenothane, Dicophane, and Neocidol. When ingested by insects, DDT causes spasms and eventually death. However, some mutated insects have developed a gene that has made them resistant to insecticides like DDT. When ingested by humans, DDT can disrupt our endocrine systems.
The History of DDT
The chemist Othmar Zeidler first synthesized DDT in 1874. However, he was not aware that the chemical could work as an insecticide. Later, in 1939, the Swiss scientist Paul Hermann Muller discovered DDT’s insecticidal properties. He was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1948 for his discovery. DDT was first used as a pesticide during WWII, where it worked so well as an insect killer that some soldiers labeled it the “atomic bomb” of pesticides. After WWII, DDT was made available to farms, where it could be used on crops. It soon became the most popular insecticide.
Rachel Carson Questions DDT’s Safety
In 1962, biologist Rachel Carson published a book called Silent Spring, a book that many credit with beginning the environmental movement. In Silent Spring, Carson questioned whether indiscriminately spraying DDT onto crops was harming the environment. She was the first scientist to truly critique the safety of releasing chemicals into the environment without knowing how they would impact us or our world. Carson worried that pesticides like DDT were harming the environment and causing cancer in humans. Largely because of Silent Spring’s popularity, the United States banned DDT’s agricultural usage in 1972.
DDT Today
After being banned, DDT is much less common today. Between 1950 and 1980, worldwide agriculture used over 40,000 tons of DDT each year. In 2009, however, only 3313 tons of DDT were produced, and they were produced mainly for the treatment of malaria, not for agricultural use. Environmentalists believe that the DDT ban has helped endangered species make comebacks, most notably the bald eagle.
Many readers may be wondering, “What are phthalates?” Phthalates are a group of petroleum-based chemicals that were originally developed to make plastics more flexible. Nearly all people in industrialized and developing countries carry varying amounts of phthalate compounds in their bodies. However, phthalates have also been found to disrupt hormones in animals and humans. Because we use plastics in virtually every part of our lives, we may limit our exposure to phthalates, but never completely eliminate it.
What Are Phthalates: Common Uses of Phthalates
Once we understand what are phthalates, we must understand what they’re used for. Phthalates are chemicals that can be found in anything plastic. Food packaging, nail polish, vinyl tiling, garden hoses, shampoos and insect repellent all contain phthalates. In fact, the coveted “new car smell” is actually the smell of phthalates vaporizing as plastic parts are exposed to heat. Given our constant exposure to phthalates, it is unsurprising that these chemicals affect human health.
What are Phthalates: Health Risks of Phthalates
What are phthalates? Dangerous. Phthalates are hormone disruptors. Phthalate exposure in the womb shortens gestation, lowers male children’s sperm count and in female children causes endocrine problems that lead to premature breast development. This is especially worrying because, according to a 2000 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, women of child-bearing age receive twenty times more phthalate exposure than any other segment of the population. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has regulated phthalates as water and air pollutants since 2005. In lab animals, phthalate exposure again lowers sperm count and also causes birth defects and testicular atrophy.
What Are Phthalates: How to Avoid Phthalates
Although research has proven phthalates’ devastating health consequences for animals, research has not yet proven phthalates’ health consequences for humans to an extent that would sufficiently justify banning phthalates’ usage. However, you can lessen your phthalate exposure in several ways. Avoid products with artificial fragrances, as these products likely contain phthalates. Shop for personal care items that are labeled “phthalate-free.” If a product’s label lists di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) or diethyl phthalate (DEP) among its ingredients, put it back on the shelf.
What Are Phthalates: Common Products That Contain Phthalates
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has published a list of 210 common household items that contain phthalates. This list can be accessed at their website and used as a guide to the products you should watch out for. The EWG also publishes a parents’ guide to phthalate-free childcare products.
Chlorine is commonly used to disinfect our water. However, chlorine in water can also harm us. Because of this, we need to learn how to remove the chlorine in water, or how to entirely replace chlorine usage in our water treatment.
Why Chlorine Is Added into Our Water Supply
Chlorine is well-known and widely used to disinfect our water. Chlorine in water deactivates various pathogenic microorganisms (like bacteria or viruses), which cause illness. Authorities chlorinate public water supplies in order to kill the hazardous bacteria present in our water or water pipes. In addition to disinfecting water, chlorine is also used to disinfect various home and hospital areas and to bleach fabrics. We have used chlorine in water as a disinfectant for over two hundred years.
How Chlorine in Water Can Hurt Us
Although chlorine can disinfect our water, it can also hurt us if ingested. Chlorine in water can form into toxins called trihalomethanes (THMs); THMs correlate with diseases like asthma, eczema, bladder cancer, and heart diseases. Studies have shown that drinking large amounts of chlorinated tap water dramatically increasespregnant women’s risk of miscarriages and birth defects.
How We Can Remove Chlorine from Water
Carbon filters remove chlorine, THMs, and other harmful contaminants from our water. Additionally, while they produce the same excellent water quality that electronic filters produce, carbon filters are much cheaper. You can also remove chlorine and other contaminants from water without a home filtration system by placing water in an uncovered container and leaving it inside your refrigerator for twenty-four hours.
Water Treatment Alternatives to Chlorine in Water
Although we need to disinfect our water, we don’t need to use chlorine to do so. Several Canadian and European cities are disinfecting their water using the ozone instead of chlorine. Some cities in the United States, like Las Vegas and Santa Clara, are also switching to this alternative. However, the easiest way to get rid of the chlorine in water is simply to filter it out.
The world’s oceans are so vast that they might seem immune to the influence of human waste. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Marine pollutants are a problem, and despite regulation and laws like the Clean Water Act, marine pollutants continue to be a problem. Marine pollutants, like urban runoff, biostimulants, petroleum, plastics, other debris and thermal pollution, severely harm our waterways and the life they contain.
Major Marine Pollutants: Urban Runoff
Human activity concentrates naturally occurring compounds until they become hazardous. When rainwater or wastewater from homes runs into storm drains, it picks up these hazardous compounds and deposits them into waterways. Man-made compounds like DDT and cleaners are also introduced into the marine environment this way. Much of human runoff results from individuals’ day-to-day activities.
Major Marine Pollutants: Biostimulants and Sewage
Biostimulants do not stimulate life, as their name might mislead one to believe; instead, they do more harm than good. Sewage is organic and breaks down via bacterial decay. The decay process depletes available oxygen and suffocates local animal life. Additionally, the chemical breakdown produces ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. These chemicals are toxic to fish, even in low concentrations. Bacteria and other contaminants may be consumed by shellfish, which then become hazardous to humans or other animals if consumed. Some forms of algae thrive on the nutrients created by biostimulants and can overgrow into algae blooms or “red tides.”
Marine Pollutants: Oil
Oil is introduced into waterways through spills like the massive Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010. Oil production also leads to the seepage of oil into the marine ecosystem, as does rainwater runoff. Oil floats on the surface of the water, coating and suffocating any marine life that touches the water’s surface. Oil also prevents oxygen from permeating from the air into water, and thereby suffocates life that may not even directly touch the oil.
Marine Pollutants: Plastics and Other Debris
As humans travel the earth’s waters, we leave our mark. Despite regulation, we toss debris over the sides of ships, and lose things like containers and fishing nets overboard. This debris is eaten by fish and water mammals and can eventually kill them.
Marine Pollutants: Thermal Pollution
Nuclear power plants and other industrial outlets use water as a coolant. The heated water is disposed of directly into waterways where it increases the temperature of the body of water. This, again, stimulates the dangerous growth of algae blooms.
Thermal pollution occurs when a body of water’s temperature is changed because of human activities. In nature, even a slight change in temperature can have dramatic changes on the ecosystem; it can cause some life to die off and others to proliferate until they take over.
Where Does Thermal Pollution Come From?
Nuclear power plants and other industries use water as a coolant. In other words, large quantities of water are essentially utilized as a heat sink. Therefore, after being used, the water is usually discharged back into the body of water from which it came (This may be the ocean, a lake or a river). As a result, when the water gets back into the system, it is often still heated and raises the ambient temperature of the body of water, or the area where it is being dumped.
What Effect Does Thermal Pollution Have on the Earth?
If you have ever owned a fish tank, you have probably been warned about thermal shock. When you are transferring fish from one tank to another, you have to allow water to normalize to the same temperature. As a result, if you suddenly move a fish to a new tank, the slight change in water temperature might be enough to shock the fish’s system, cause it to develop a disease and even kill it.
Unfortunately, this process is what happens in thermal pollution. For example, warmer water affects spawning cycles and can kill young fish. Also, temperature changes may alter the dissolved oxygen levels, causing death in many organisms whose enzyme systems are set to function at a certain temperature. Finally, yet another major change that takes place in warmer water is an increase in decomposition, leading to an abundance of organic nutrients in the water. This causes an increase in algae (and subsequently massive algae blooms), depleting even more oxygen from the water and suffocating other life.
What Effect Does Thermal Pollution Have on Humans?
Because of the increase in bacteria and algae, thermal pollution renders bodies of freshwater unsuitable for human consumption. For example, eating seafood contaminated with algae can cause illness.
Also, thermal pollution can damage commercial and recreational fishing/shrimping industries by decreasing the amount of marine life in the contaminated area.
Ultimately, the financial cost of clean-up and rehabilitation of the affected area is damaging to local economies. As a result, time and effort has to be expended to create laws and regulations about thermal pollution and to monitor companies to make sure that these laws and regulations are followed.
In today’s society, many of us have become accustomed to the sight of birds and marine animals struggling for life on an oil-slicked beach after a massive oil spill. We have also become more aware of the devastating effects that automobile emissions have on the atmosphere. Some may even recall the hellish image of burning oil wells in Kuwait spewing black clouds into the sky after the Gulf War. However, one danger of the petroleum industry has not received much attention in recent years: the petroleum pollutants created by industrial production and refinement.
Toxins Galore
For crude oil to be converted into its many useful forms, such as gasoline, diesel, and kerosene, it must be processed extensively in large chemical refineries. These refineries are full of toxic chemicals that, especially in under-regulated third-world nations, often leak into local atmospheres and water systems. Each year the petroleum-refining industry produces hundreds of millions of pounds of pollutants, pollutants that consist of over one hundred different toxic chemicals, many of which find their way into the air, water, and land. Some of the petroleum pollutants released by refineries include sulfuric and hydrofluoric acid, ammonia, chlorine, benzine, lead, and mercury, all of which harm human health.
Air, Water and Land
When concentrated in high enough levels, these petroleum pollutants harm and disrupt ecosystems and human communities. Runoff from refineries and unlined waste ponds harms–or even destroys–local ecosystems whenever it enters the local water system. Often little can be done to undo the harm caused by this pollution. Sometimes the pollutants directly affect agriculture and livestock, harming animals and local economies, as well as humans themselves. Unprotected populations near petroleum facilities often see higher rates of cancer, dermatitis, fungal infection, headaches, and nausea.
Peripheral Damage
Transporting products to and from refineries often results in massive spills, which are also very damaging to local environments. Additionally, the creation of refineries and the roadways to and from these facilities has been responsible for the irreparable destruction of huge tracts of virgin wilderness, including the highly threatened Amazon Rainforest. As petroleum production continues, levels of petroleum pollutants will only increase and, in some areas, will eventually reach levels at which massive environmental damage may become irreversible.
The Next Step
The best thing that the average citizen can do to help stop the problems associated with petroleum pollutants is to become aware of these problems. This awareness alone will impact how you use petroleum and its products and will help you to inform others. You may also take further steps through donation or volunteer work to help mitigate the damage already caused; however, the threat of petroleum pollutants will only continue as long as the petroleum industry remains profitable.
Uranium is a naturally occurring heavy metal used in nuclear power generation, atomic weapons and nuclear medicine applications. It occurs in trace amounts in our air, water and soil, and in more concentrated amounts in rock formations that can be mined. According to the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR), much of the world’s uranium is mined in Canada. Because uranium and the byproducts of uranium production are highly radioactive, uranium in water, air and soil poses serious concerns for the environment and human health.
Uranium Pollutants
As uranium is exposed through mining, radioactivity is released from the rock and begins to decay. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, radon gas is the largest pollutant, followed by its by-products, called “daughters”: thorium, radium, polonium and lead. Sulfuric acid is used to leach uranium out of the ore. Like coal mining, uranium mining also produces high concentrations of arsenic.
Uranium Mining and Water Use
Approximately one ton of ore must be pulverized to produce two pounds of uranium. Vast amounts of water are used to keep dust down in the mines. Nuclear Free Queensland reports that one Australian mine uses up to 42 million liters of water per day. The residue, called tailings, remains dangerously radioactive for millions of years. The Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility notes that tailings were once used in the construction of schools and homes until dangerous levels of radon gas were detected. Today, tailings are often stored in open pits, or buried in closed uranium mine shafts, and abandoned. Uranium in water is left to evaporate in retention ponds.
Environmental Affects
Because radon gas is much heavier than air, it travels low to the ground on the breeze. Rain washes through it, which leads to more uranium in water being deposited on vegetation and agricultural crops. The same rain falls on the surfaces of ponds, lakes and streams, leading to more uranium in water. The toxins make their way into every part of the food chain, ending in humans who consume animals and vegetables for food. As the water evaporates from the sludge-filled retention ponds of uranium mines, toxic dry material remains. Exposed to rain and flooding over time, vast quantities of these toxins are released into the environment. Water in contact with abandoned or closed mines leaches into the water table, moving into watersheds, streams, reservoirs and the drinking water supply.
The production of stainless steel, like many industrial processes, creates dangerous water pollution. Steel pollution in water can decrease water quality for human consumption, kill native plants and animals, and make water sources unusable for agriculture. There are many factors one must consider when trying to understand the nature of pollution caused by stainless steel manufacturing.
Coke and Steel
A major source of steel pollution lies not in the production of the steel itself but in a necessary ingredient in steel production: coke. Coke, a product of bituminous coal, is used as a fuel and reducing agent in the smelting of iron ore. Although it occurs naturally, natural coke is usually of insufficient quality for industrial use. Thus, coke must be manufactured. Its manufacturing process creates air pollution in the form of coke oven gas, naphthalene, ammonium compounds, crude light oil, sulfur and coke dust. The coke production process creates large amounts of water polluted by coke breezes–tiny coke particles–and other solid compounds. Although emissions from coke facilities are filtered, these pollutants still escape into the environment. As an essential part of the process, coke pollution must be considered steel pollution.
Coal Mining
Furthermore, one must consider the mining of the bituminous coal used to create coke. Coal mining is responsible for the presence of large amounts of acidic pollutants in the water near mines (in addition to air pollution and ecosystem disruption). Water quality and agriculture are often deeply impacted by local coal-mining operations. Additionally, coal processing facilities create materials rich in iron sulfides that oxidize into sulfates, causing water to acidify. Coal pollution overlaps with steel pollution and must be considered part of the problem of steel pollution.
Pickling Steel
Sheets of stainless steel must often be softened through a heat treatment process called annealing. Annealing stainless steel leads to the presence of oxide scale deposits on the steel. These deposits are removed by treatment with nitric, hydrofluoric, and hydrochloric acids in a process known as pickling. The byproduct of pickling is highly acidic, a dangerous pollutant to groundwater.
In The End
These are just a few of the sources of pollution associated with the production of stainless steel. The causes and impacts of steel pollution are far-reaching and multifaceted. It is only through a holistic understanding of manufacturing and consumption that stainless steel pollution can be understood and addressed.
The United States has been mining coal for hundreds of years. Today, 45 percent of our electricity still comes from coal-fired plants, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The seemingly inexhaustible supply of this carbon-based fuel comes at a heavy environmental cost. The resulting air, water and soil pollution has a serious impact on human health as well. Beyond currently-operating coal production, abandoned mines also pollute water. It is estimated that Pennsylvania has 2,400 miles of streams still being polluted from closed mines.
Types of Coal Mining
Coal can be extracted in two basic ways. Deep extraction requires digging shafts far underground that follow seams of coal underground. Strip mining involves clearing huge tracts of land of vegetation and stripping the top layer of coal from the earth’s surface. Strip mining is by far the most damaging in terms of coal pollutants. Destruction of trees and vegetation on entire mountaintops causes erosion and landslides as well as water pollution.
Coal Pollutants
The slag produced by the unprofitable part of strip-mined soil contains large amounts of toxic metals. When coal is extracted from the profitable strip-mined soil, great amounts of fresh water are used in the process. What’s left over is called sludge, and it is even more toxic than slag. High concentrations of mercury, arsenic, lead and selenium may be found in sludge, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Water and Air Pollution
Huge amounts of slag are dumped into stream beds, where they overwhelm the ecosystem and leach into aquifers that supply drinking water. Sludge, on the other hand, is stored in abandoned mines and aboveground facilities. The leaching problem is the same, with toxic metals entering the drinking water supply. These coal pollutants often go undetected because testing is not routinely carried out.
Environmental Effects
Destruction of river, stream and reservoir ecosystems is common in areas where coal mining is carried out. Coal pollutants from the wind-blown soil of deforested mountaintops contributes to acid rain elsewhere. Loss of habitat for nearby animals further damages the natural environment. Pollutants find their way into the food chain, deforming and poisoning species as they go. These pollutants reach the top of the food chain when humans consume vegetables, meat and fish.
