ABSTRACT
There would be no need for environmental laws and regulations or United States Environmental Protection Agency if there was no pollution. Therefore, it seems logical that we begin our journey with examining pollution in its many forms. However, it does not just begin and end with pollution. There are other activities that impact our environment that go beyond what is commonly termed pollution. Many of these other forms do not introduce chemicals into the natural world. For instance, any number of different land uses where humans inflict enormous harm on our environment include mining, petroleum development, urban land development, wetland destruction, deforestation, forest management techniques, and agriculture. As we are discovering, these activities do not just affect a centralized area where the activity took place. These types of activities often have a rippling effect that negatively impact surrounding areas and in some cases spreads like a disease that affects the entire planet. As we will discover in the course of this book, this is where sustainability then plays an important and central role. Sustainability goes beyond addressing pollution and examines how humans, albeit unintentional, adversely impact our planet as though we ourselves are a form of pollution.
A chemical or substance becomes pollution when it is released into the environment either inadvertently or improperly – at the wrong place or in the wrong amounts. For example, milk becomes a contaminant when large quantities are released into a stream. In urban areas, contaminants are everywhere – in the air, soil, water, inside buildings, and in our homes. Most households contain chemicals that would be considered contaminants and hazardous if they were released into the environment or disposed of improperly. There are thousands of different types of pollutants existing everywhere. They are in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, and in the dirt we play in. They are organic and inorganic. Many naturally occur – many do not. Some we know about and most we do not. Some are not so toxic and some are very toxic. Some may cause cancer and some may not. All of them have the ability to cause some adverse health effect in humans, to other organisms, or negatively impair or impact the environment, if the exposure and dose were just right. Otherwise, they would not be considered pollutants.
