ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION # 2 (SOIL)

**THE GROUND'S POLLUTION **

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Soil contamination is the alteration of the earth's surface with chemicals.
This alteration of the quality of the earth can be due to very different causes, and in the same way its consequences cause serious health problems that seriously affect flora, fauna or human health over time.

The soil may be contaminated in several ways:

We can list some of the most dangerous causes of soil contamination:

• Dangerous residues
• Radioactive waste
• Solid waste

DANGEROUS RESIDUES

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Open pit mining is just one example of how the use of energy resources can pollute the earth. Another example is the waste produced by the factories, which can contaminate the earth with toxic or poisonous chemical elements. Hazardous waste, is any waste that can cause death or serious harm to human health.
When these wastes are stored improperly in barrels buried in landfills, debris can seep into the soil and cause contamination. Ill-disposed waste in the past is a very serious problem.
There are several possible solutions for handling hazardous waste to produce less or reuse. Other wastes could be chemically treated to be less toxic prior to disposal; but this is very expensive. Most of these hazardous wastes end up buried in the depths of the earth where they are a potential source of environmental pollution.

RADIOACTIVE DISPOSAL

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Radioactive wastes, are produced as a result of the production of energy in nuclear power stations, these are classified as low and low level.
Low level wastes include clothing or equipment used by workers at the plant, which have a half-life, which means that they take time to decompose or become a non-reactive substance.
However, high-level waste and could have a life of 10,000 years or more. They are mainly fuel rods used in a nuclear reactor.
Several alternative solutions have been used for the disposal of these high level wastes. Example: Debris can be buried in rock formations without movement or salt mines.

Finding a Way to Eliminate High Levels of Radioactive Waste is one of the most important pollution issues we face these days.

SOLID WASTE

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Solid wastes are discarded, unwanted or useless materials. They include agricultural, commercial, industrial and domestic waste. Those in a landfill can be old newspapers and other paper products, glass bottles, aluminum cans, rubbers and plastics, waste food and garden waste.
To avoid the contamination of this type of trash it was decided to construct the sanitary landfills, but these also can present problems. Residues can exude and contaminate the surrounding soil.
Another problem is that when the compact trash begins to decompose, it produces methane gas. This gas is flammable and, therefore, a fire hazard. This problem can be solved by installing a gas well, where methane gas can be extracted and used as fuel.
But the problem with landfills is to find where to put them. At present, they can not house more than a fraction of the solid waste produced in a country.

Some of the alternatives are:

• marine dumps,
• The burning of garbage and
• Recycling.

Tons of debris was dumped into the ocean, carrying debris to the beaches and causing more soil contamination.

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The burning of garbage was at some point an alternative; but as the burning releases harmful gases this practice has been interrupted.

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Recycling, not only eliminates solid waste but also creates useful materials, is considered as the solution of the future by many environmentalists. You will learn more about this in my next post.

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Activities:

1- You and your world: For a week, keep a list of all the solid waste you throw away. What percentage consists of renewable sources (paper, wood ...)? What percentage consists of non-renewable sources (plastics, metals, glass ...)?

2- Create a text: Many of the things that you take for granted in your daily life contribute to the problem of garbage. Imagine trying to live a day without using anything that contributes to the contamination of solid waste. Write a 200 word composition describing what such a day would look like.

3- I invite you to watch this video of soil contamination and comment with your teacher and colleagues.

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In the next post, we will look more closely at three types of pollution: air and water, and ways people can avoid.

If you have not yet seen the first part, I invite you to visit this link ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION # 1