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First, carbon dioxide is not referred to as a pollutant. No one who works in environmental science refers to it as such. Second, this whole section is extremely disputed. At the very least, it needs citations, and a more neutral tone. -- 71.62.54.243 (talk) 22:59, 17 February 2010 (UTC)
This site does daily pollution forecasts for Asthma patients and researchers
207.106.86.85 (talk) 18:24, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
Greenhouse gasses are a natural part of the ecosystem and slight changes in their concentrations have never been refereed to as "pollution". Use in this context is a political, not a scientific context so while links to global warming should be included, no other details should be (except maybe something like this statement) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.80.186.9 (talk) 00:48, 17 July 2008 (UTC)
I just thought I'd mention it. I noticed this as I was browsing through contemplating an add. This should probably be cleaned up first though. I'll get to it later unless someone can take care of it. I don't know if the duplication is complicated by slight differences and improvements in one of the blocks so were I to do it I would want to compare both sections with some care before deleting one or the other--which could be somewhat time-consuming. The first block also has more wikilinks than the second. -Onceler 03:32, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
It looks like vandalism after (15:49, 30 December 2005) and (15:50, 30 December 2005) by (71.98.46.52) that duped this block. It must just be that it looked enough like ordinary well-intended text that it didn't catch anyone's attention. Something like a new-year's, cat's-away prank. Onceler 07:50, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
the above text belongs in Indoor air quality talk ....as for the present state of the article, we need less discussion of ambiguity which can often be an apology by industry and more technical detail regarding the manifestations of pollution..i whall be gald to help out with thisAnlace 00:59, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
hello onceler. thanks for your in depth and well thought out strategy. i think i concur with you on all matters. the hub notion of the article is good, lest this site become an encyclopedia..ill try to add some insights as i can, but the biggest job is to distill the volumes of possible regulatory and historical data into some meaningful skeleton. im in california and know the U.S. scene pretty well. sounds like you are in the UK, where it would be great to have insight for UK and rest of europe. i would hope we might find someone knowledgable on china and russia and we could do this pretty well...ill also check out the air pollution article {its on my list of things to do). i just did some updating of the aircraft noise article, which ties in (in a minor way). best regards or cheers as you say :) Anlace 13:56, 10 February 2006 (UTC) salut,sa va? moi ué!
What about a paragraph about the military, like the following: Wars and violent conflicts are a source for pollution including ammunition dumps, depleted uranium in ammunition spreading low levels of radioactive contamination, sonar radar and its effects on whale beachings, bombing remants that are dispersed while containing toxic substances, contamination of lands surrounding military bases, drinking water disruptions from groundwater contamination, landmines, etc. Iraq suffers heavily from this kind of pollution with numerous unmanaged weapons depots that were looted in 2003. - Shiftchange 23:59, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
hi again shift, you have some good ideas, but i think we need to use an outline that manifests the types of pollution (eg air, noise, water, soil). other wise we sould end up with hundreds of paragraphs such as how lumberjacks, ironmakers, food processors etc pollute the environment) By the way food processors contribute much more to world wide pollution than the military !! we can work most of your material into those categorical headings. while I am a stong advocate of the environment as you are, we also have to be extremely objective and be able to prove each point. finally we have to maintain perspective. for exammple "bombing remnants" contribute much less to groundwater contamination than do fuel spills or dry cleaning solvent leaks. i think on the whole most of your material could better fit into other articles such as landmines, radar, or depleted uranium. keep up all that thinking :) regards Anlace 01:14, 11 February 2006 (UTC)
i move that this article be renamed "environmental pollution" with a redirect from pollution. this is a more commonly used term in the scientific community to denote the class of effects discussed here. we want to clearly distinguish environmental pollution from indoor air pollution, for example...let others weigh in on this topic Anlace 05:58, 11 February 2006 (UTC)
good ideas onceler...ill wait a few days and see whether any other commenters weigh in...cheers, anlace
good point onceler, we would have to fix that category issue...would be tedious , but worth doing...by the way ive been busy upgrading the Noise pollution, Water pollution and Air Pollution articles. ive not finished with them yet, but they all needed a LOT of work and they are much improved. im getting close to being ready to come back to the environmental pollution article...i also created a new article called Noise barrier. cheers, Anlace 17:22, 13 February 2006 (UTC)
Pollution generally means environmental pollution, but may also refer to:
Can anyone present the source that says the maximum fine for dumping toxic waste is US$ 25,000? I can't seem to find any other source saying this, but has found some cases where the fines has surpassed this ammount.
There definitely needs to be some kind of disambiguation for this. I'm particularly thinking that this page is mostly concerned with one form of environmental pollution or other, completely ignoring the use of the term for 'ritual pollution'. A link along the lines of "For Ritual Pollution, see Ritual purification" would do as a stop gap until someone gets round to writing a new page, but this is a whole area of 'pollution' which is currently not mentioned at all. C Trone 13:06, 24 December 2010 (UTC)
I removed a link to this site. It didn't seem like a suitable site to be linked to from a wikipedia article, but if anyone disagrees, I'd be glad to discuss it. --Ori.livneh 10:38, 17 June 2006 (UTC).
(reposting this from User talk:82.45.233.50 as that might be a shared connection)
Thanks for catching my mistake in the Pollution article re Edward I's legislating from the grave--"1361" definitely was wrong. However, I just double-checked the source for the original information and it said "1306"--I typo'ed this edit in February. Do you have a reference for "1272"? -regards, Onceler 19:10, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
Could use votes to save this article, thanks MapleTree 22:33, 28 September 2006 (UTC) George Bush causes the most pollution. Its true, he is an alien from the fourth demension of bizanian. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.86.157.52 (talk) 00:08, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
Just completed a 3rd year University unit in Environmental Geology which focussed almost entirely on pollution and/or geological hazards (studying for the exam when I ran across this page). According to all three of my lecturers, contamination is any increase in a given pollutant above the background level, but it can only technically be defined as pollution when it reaches a point where it has an affect on health (mostly human, but also of the environment, animals etc.). Looks like it'd be a little bit of work to fix the article up, but it would increase the accuracy and technical correctness of the thing.
Weebs 01:43, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
The history section is in need of citations. We need to know this information has some sort of backup, besides our own imaginations.
In the Sources and Causes section, there's no citation for the information giving Canada as the number two emitter per capita. I think, based on info from http://cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/emis/em_cont.htm that the US is number one, and Canada is number two. Sentence needs to be rewritten for clarification. Saurdigger (talk) 19:25, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
Although the primary example of a negative externalities is pollution, the externality page should not be merged with this topic as there is much more to externalities than this one example. There are other types of negative externalities, and it is not a good fit to cover positive externalities. The focus of externalities is centered on economics, which does not seem to make that information a good fit on this page.
DJ Gregor 05:13, 16 December 2006 (UTC)
Hi everybody. I think Pollutants must be part of the Pollution article (maybe a subsection). The reasons are obvious. Wikipedia should be as concise as possible and not spread out in different articles which talk about the same thing. We are trying to gather information and make it clear for people not spread it all over Wikipedia. The Vindictive 16:44, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
I agree with the merge. -AppleZapple
I must definitely agree with all others attempting to merge this page pollutants with the page pollution76.175.24.159 04:00, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
get off the grass!
Since nobody seems to object the merger and since the articles have been tagged for some time now, I am going to undertake it in the following days, as a separate section within the Pollution article. Please let me know your ideas. The Vindictive 10:45, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
Pollutant should not have been merged if folks are just going to dilute (no pun intended) its meaning by including it in an article that reasons that because a substance may (or may not) have an effect on weather patterns that makes it (i.e. carbon dioxide) a source of "pollution". Pollutants are by definition substances that are toxic to life vis a vis direct action on living tissueAwotter 07:07, 3 September 2007 (UTC)
I removed the entire Pollution#Europe section, as it is patent nonsense:
[[Image:Urban pollution.jpg|right|thumbnail|200px|Noticeable pollution in [[Bordeaux]]]] Generally the European countries lagged significantly behind the United States in meaningful environmental regulation, including [[air pollution|air quality]] standards, [[water quality]] standards, soil [[contamination]] cleanup, [[indoor air quality]] and [[noise regulation]]s.<ref name="92-574"> Public Law No. 92-574, 86 Stat.) [[Noise Pollution]] and Abatement Act of 1972, codification amended at 42 U.S.C. (1988)</ref> In the year 2000, UK [[Air Quality Regulations]] were established and they were further amended in 2002. There has also been [[United Kingdom|British]] harmonization with [[EU]] [[regulation]]s.
The EU is presently entertaining use of the (possibly [[carcinogen]]ic) [[MTBE]] as a widespread [[gasoline]] additive, a chemical which has been in the process of phaseout in the U.S. for over a decade.
Not only does it make a bold (and false) claim, it attempts to reference that claim with an American law passed in 1988. "Look we have a law, therefore US = better". It is possible thesource does claim American proficiency, but there's obviously a significant COI, as well as it being 20 years old, making it not the ideal source. European countries vary massively, and the EU is very strict on such matters.
MTBE (which is certified non-carcinogenic) was used in Europe, but is being phased out. The section is full of anti-European mistruths. — Jack · talk · 18:11, Monday, 3 September 2007
Per your request, follow the link. The "A special issue of Environment International" is an attempt to sell you a collection of journal articles. WP:LINKSPAM pure and simple. Admittedly, calling it plain ol' vandalism was a little hasty on my part, and in retrospect, I should have rolled back the article with the edit summary of pointing to LINKSPAM instead. Mea culpa. Burzmali 03:09, 12 September 2007 (UTC)
This is a very good article and very through. Most people never consider other forms of pollution beyond chemical and waste but, light and energy are just as damaging to our delicate eco-systems as all the rest[1]. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rdaily (talk • contribs) 14 September 2007, 12:21 (UTC)
I agree, you have some people with rare skin disease thats caused sun the suns rays. some of these other pollution types have been looked past!(Shinea-sha (talk) 18:09, 14 December 2009 (UTC))
In living memory there were virtually no fish in the Thames because of the pollution. Then in the 1960s I think the pollution was stopped and fish gradually returned. It would be nice to have info about this in the Thames and other rivers, eg northern England. 80.2.201.6 17:02, 6 October 2007 (UTC)
The article begins with "CODY RUTHERFORD is the introduction of pollutants (whether chemical substances, or energy such as noise, heat, or light) into the environment to such a point that its effects become harmful to human health, other living organisms, or the environment.". Unless I have misinterpreted the meaning of this sentence, I think it has been vandalized. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.2.155.134 (talk) 17:08, 3 December 2007 (UTC)
An editor has recently changed the definition of pollution from:
substances that are "harmful to human health, other living organisms, or the environment"
to a more qualified statement that "Some pollutants cause harm to human health, other living organisms, and the environment."
This is not in keeping with the given citation, which defines pollutants as substances harmful to organisms ("Pollution means the introduction by man, directly or indirectly, of substances or energy into the environment, resulting in deleterious effects of such a nature as to endanger human health, harm living resourcesand ecosystems, and impair or interfere with amenities and other legitimate uses of the environment.“) --Newsroom hierarchies (talk) 16:13, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
I made an attempt to make better clarification of the difference between pollution and contamination. I think it answers the question "is pollution harmful by definition?" and sorts out the earlier discussion on the ambiguity between pollution and contamination. Went to merriam-webster as a reference for the definition and added some contextual description to hopefully describe the following levels: -natural levels (pristine concentration) -unnaturally elevated levels (contamination) -unnaturally elevated levels + harmful to biological life (pollution)
This is the distinction I hear in use by many scientists when communicating to the public. --Alloquep (talk) 21:04, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
The article list chemicals and energy as the only forms of pollution. My question is how do we classify Solid Waste?
Items which get into streams and the sea or are piled up in heaps all over the place spoil the environment and may be said to "pollute it". these items place the humans and ecosystems at risk in a variety of ways. 196.3.147.39 (talk) 09:34, 28 January 2008 (UTC) pollution is fake198.60.170.97 (talk) 16:25, 28 February 2008 (UTC)
A little side list of a lot of types of pollution as seen on the french pollution page would be very useful. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.227.251.9 (talk) 14:18, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
The history section is written without supporting citations. I think that most of it is as the author wishes it would be rather than as it really was. There were local areas heavily impacted by air, nutrient, and water pollution in the roman and greek empires. Sewage systems date to 2000 bc in the Harappa culture in the Indus valley, and so on. The idea that industry was reduced during the Middle ages is probably false... This section needs to be supported with archaeology and actual history before it can be trusted. If I had the background I would start...someone else should, as this would add greately to the articles worth. Furthermore, the dictionary definition at the beginning of the article is obscure and incomplete. There is no list of forms of pollution. Heat, infectious agents, acids, explosives, teratogens, and carcinongens...or where they are mentioned it is in unconventional language. The Philosophy section is not about the environment, which is the main focus of the article, yet it appears in the middle. If it is worth retaining it should be moved to a place outside of the environmental pollution discussions. The perspectives section is clothed in obfuscation and lacks application. It looks like a personal polemic. If the greenhouse gases section is worth retaining then there should be short blurbs on other major pollution issues to go along with it. I suggest acid rain, and factory farms.
[User:Primacag|Avram Primack]] (talk) 18:13, 8 November 2008 (UTC)
((editsemiprotected))
The first sentence is ungrammatical—Preceding unsigned comment added by 160.39.186.204 (talk • contribs)
dunnohhhfgggggssss —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.26.207.2 (talk) 20:30, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
Pollution is a big problem because not only can it effect the environment but it can also effect animals. Pollution effects animals by the litter we are too lazy to put in the bins. We chuck it in the creeks, rivers, oceans and also on our streets so these poor animals come along and dont know what this is so they suspect that it is food so that they eat it and choke. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.107.43.36 (talk) 09:09, 31 March 2009 (UTC)
I see lots of repeated vandalism, so can we lock this article? It is a significant topic in science. 70.135.16.77 (talk) 22:20, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
—Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.135.16.77 (talk) 22:12, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
IT IS LOCKED NOW BUT THERE IS MO SYMBOL Stuvaco922 (talk) 22:59, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
Thavks for locking ti and putting symbol.--70.253.189.141 (talk) 11:15, 7 May 2009 (UTC)
Given the findings of the UN FAO "Livestocks Long Shadow" study, surely it is hugely erroneous to not mention the meat and dairy industries anywhere on this page? At the very least there should be reference to this study in the 'sources and causes" sub? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jkaska (talk • contribs) 14:40, 15 July 2009 (UTC)
This article felt ambiguous, giving rise to the following questions: Is it pollution when a volcano erupts? Is it pollution to send nuclear waste out into space, where there are no living organisms to disturb? Is it pollution to boil water (in a solar powered oven) killing the bacteria in the water? Are houses and streets and office buildings pollution (in and of themselves)? Is chopping down an ancient redwood tree (and leaving it where it falls) pollution? Is it pollution when a wild rabbit poops in your vegetable garden, while nibbling on your prize lettuce? Do the rabbits which overran Australia count as a "contaminant"? Would it be pollution to introduce a chemical that wiped out an invasive non-native pest which was smothering an eco-system (like kudzu in the southeastern USA), while supporting the resurgence of native species that had been crowded out by the pest?
On further consideration, I think pollution entails all of the following factors:
(1) Some human activity (2) produces a by-product (pollutant) (3) which lowers the desirability or utility, to the polluter, of the location where it is produced, (4) so the polluter then removes the pollutant to somewhere else less important to them,[Note1, Note2] (5) lowering the desirability or utility of that (polluted) place (6) to other people.
Note1: The removal process may be automated, as in the case of car exhaust or the drainage of a washing machine. In that case the polluters are the people benefiting from the operation of the machine.
Note2: The polluter may produce the pollutant in a place they plan to leave soon, and then remove themselves to a more desirable location, instead of removing the pollutant.
At its root, the issue of pollution is about being considerate (or not) of other people. It is clearly not about plants or animals or chemicals in the broadest sense, but about Human Preferences for some plants and animals and chemicals (and buildings and roads...) over others, in a given place.
The issue is confused by several factors.
(a) Much pollution is invisible, like car exhaust, so people don't know they are doing it, unless they are informed. (b) Small amounts of pollution often don't matter much (like peeing in a river), so each individual might contribute a tiny amount to a huge problem and it doesn't seem fair to blame individuals for this mass effect, while on the other hand, the only way to stop the mega-problem it is for millions of individuals to each stop contributing their micro-shares. (c) There are legitimate disagreements between well-meaning people over which plants and animals are "good" in which places, and also about the relative value of, e.g. cheap coal, vs the value of the watershed the coal mining operation contaminated. (d) Ecosystems are at times disrupted by natural events (such as hurricanes or volcanoes), as opposed to human activity. (e) The people who are harmed by pollution are not always reachable for comment. Often they are not yet born. This is also true of the people who benefit from pollution. So the ethics of pollution needs to take many absent parties into account. (f) Other activities that do not involve "contaminants" may produce the same sort of harm as pollution.
A productive discussion of real life pollution problems will identify all the factors (1-8) above, and will clearly address each of the potentially confusing aspects (a-f). Davidfrayne (talk) 00:05, 5 October 2009 (UTC)
what happens if plastic burned? which gases are released to air what residues remain after burning plastic please tell me —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.98.3.50 (talk) 13:10, 9 December 2009 (UTC)
The Soviet poster ("The smoke of chimneys is the breath of Soviet Russia") is NOT about pollution. It says that industry is a key element for Soviet Russia: working industry=chimney smoke is as important for Soviet Russia as a normal breath for a human.
BTW, intensive smoke from plant chimneys was regarded in Rissia in the beginning of the 20th century (before the October Revolution) as a sign (and a sort of an advertisement) of a successfull, intensively working enterprise. An idiom труба пониже и дым пожиже (a lower chimney and a thinner smoke) emerged from this, and it is still used, with meaning "the latter is the same as the former, but of far less scale/success/intensity". 95.221.19.247 (talk) 22:32, 8 January 2010 (UTC)
do you think there is any good sides of pollution? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.49.163.49 (talk) 18:09, 19 August 2010 (UTC)
Industry and industrialists make more profit if they don't have to control polluting discharges, whilst the local ordinary people have to put up with an often seriously degraded, and sometimes harmful, environment. In the worst case we all suffer the consequences as some pollutants are now ubiquitous across the planet Velella Velella Talk 19:07, 19 August 2010 (UTC)
I cut this out:
It is taken from here [2]
This paper reviews a group of Arabic texts that studied environmental pollution as a cause of various illnesses, endemic and epidemic.
Cited reference 2 should say "Blacksmith Institute" not "Blcksmith Institute"
128.164.214.36 (talk) 09:47, 8 December 2011 (UTC)
A Pollution Fight Powered by Bioluminescent Sea Creatures by Erik Olsen "Edith Widder's New Crusade: The marine biologist Edith Widder has spent a career studying bioluminescent sea creatures." NYT December 20, 2011
97.87.29.188 (talk) 01:01, 21 December 2011 (UTC)
Add planetary boundaries 99.19.40.211 (talk) 07:36, 21 December 2011 (UTC)
Add Global commons. 99.19.40.211 (talk) 07:38, 21 December 2011 (UTC)
There are mentioned "Lake Karatschay" and "Chelyabinsk". I think both are associated with the mayak-desaster. Is there a difference? One should somehow merge this together. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.8.220.183 (talk) 13:28, 25 January 2012 (UTC)
plz tell me it's urgent — Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.186.48.9 (talk) 13:20, 27 January 2012 (UTC)
The opening paragraph states that
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, harm, or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms.
. The source is given as Mirriam Webster Dictionary. The references does not support the text. Mirriam Webster states:
Definition of POLLUTION. the action of polluting especially by environmental contamination with man-made waste; also : the condition of being polluted .
which isn't very helpful.
I have real issues with the words Cause.... discomfit... to the ecosystem. I don't believe that ecosystem can be caused discomfit. Discomfiture is an anthropogenic concept. One could say that humans may be discomfited about the effects that pollutants have on the ecosystem, but that is a second-hand impact.
May I propose an alternative definition for consideration.
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants that cause adverse change into the natural environment.
. This is consistent with many dictionary definitions - without being an exact copy of any of them. Views welcomed . Velella Velella Talk 10:29, 30 May 2012 (UTC)