ABSTRACT
Environmental chemistry is the discipline that describes the origin, transport, reactions, effects, and fate of chemical species in the hydrosphere, atmosphere, geosphere, biosphere, and anthrosphere.1 This denition is illustrated for a typical pollutant species in Figure 1.1, which shows the following: (1) Coal, which contains sulfur in the form of organically bound sulfur and pyrite, FeS2, is mined from the geosphere. (2) The coal is burned in a power plant that is part of the anthrosphere and the sulfur is converted to sulfur dioxide, SO2, by atmospheric chemical processes. (3) The sulfur dioxide and its reaction products are moved by wind and air currents in the atmosphere. (4) Atmospheric chemical processes convert SO2 to sulfuric acid, H2SO4. (5) The sulfuric acid falls from the atmosphere as acidic acid rain. (6) The sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere may adversely affect biospheric organisms, including asthmatic humans who inhale it, and the sulfuric acid in the acid rain may be toxic to plants and sh in the hydrosphere and may have a corrosive effect on structures and electrical equipment in the anthrosphere. (7) The sulfuric acid ends up in a sink, either soil in the geosphere or a body of water in the hydrosphere. In these locations, the H2SO4 may continue having toxic effects, including leaching phytotoxic (toxic to plants) aluminum ion from soil and rock in the geosphere and poisoning sh ngerlings in the hydrosphere.
