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Summary:
On 25 January, in the heartland of Brazilian mining, a dam collapsed releasing 11.7 million cubic metres of toxic mud. A month on from the collapse, 171 people have been confirmed dead, but the recovery operation continues to search for the bodies of another 141 people - all reported missing by their families.

Pollutants:
The toxic mud.

Impacts:
Within seconds, 11.7 million cubic metres of liquid waste cascaded down the valley at more than 70km/h (43mph). The canteen building and everyone in it was buried beneath a torrent of mud.

Sources:
A steep slope design
High water level
Brazil’s National Mining Agency (ANM) released a technical report which says that Vale withheld information from it which could have prevented the tragedy.

It´s a point source pollution, is a single identifiable and localized source of contamination.

It´s persistent pollution because their effects continue and people are still in danger because of it.

It´s a chronic event becuase, we still in danger of thid type of situations, the companies are very corrupt, they just search their benefit and this is dangerous.

REFERENCES:
BBC. (2020). Brazil’s dam disaster. BBC News. Retrieved 2021, from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/brazil_dam_disaster

I. (n.d.). Several factors led to fatal Brazil dam collapse, reports expert panel. News - The Chemical Engineer. Retrieved 2021, from https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/news/several-factors-led-to-fatal-brazil-dam-collapse-reports-expert-panel/

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China air pollution far worse than thought: Study (Arturo)

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China air pollution far worse than thought: Study (Arturo)

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Summary
A U.S.-based nonprofit group called Berkley Earth has released a report, based on data collected by a network of sensors across China, that said more than 80 percent of Chinese people are regularly exposed to pollution that far exceeds levels deemed safe by the U.S.

The sensors used in the study measure several types of pollution in China: ozone, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and others. One of the most dangerous pollutants is PM2.5, which stands for particulate matter that is smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter. These small particles can enter deep into the human respiratory system, and are associated with a range of harmful or even deadly diseases.

Sources
Excessive use of machines that generate carbon dioxide, besides Beiging is one of the cities that has many factories in the world and this generates more pollution in the environment.

Impacts
The report said air pollution in China kills about 4,000 people every day, about 17 percent of all deaths in China, but noted that connecting mortality to pollution is “complicated.”

Type of pollution
It is a Non-Point Source Pollution because  is more dispersed and more continous in the damage of the Ozone layer.

Also is a Persistent Pollution because the majority of the products are made of plastic for example the face mask to prevent the respiratory issues.

And finally is a chronic situation because is repetitive and damage the enviroment and the human health.

References
Ferris, R. (2015, August 18). China air pollution far worse than thought: Study. CNBC. Retrieved October 20, 2021, from https://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/18/china-air-pollution-far-worse-than-thought-study.html

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High court rules UK government plans to tackle air pollution are illegal (max)

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High court rules UK government plans to tackle air pollution are illegal (max)

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Summary:Court rules for second time in 18 months that the government is not doing enough to combat the national air pollution crisis. The government said it would not appeal against the decision and agreed in court to discuss with ClientEarth a new timetable for more realistic pollution modelling and the steps needed to bring pollution levels down to legal levels. The parties will return to court in a week but if agreement cannot be reached, the judge could impose a timetable upon the government.

Pollutants: Air pollution made by many factors and over consumption in the city.

Sources: Occurs or is reflected in the sky thanks to the water contamination

Impacts:Air pollution causes 50,000 early deaths and £27.5bn in costs every year, according to the government’s own estimates, and was called a “public health emergency” by MPs in April.

it is  persistant

it is chronic

references:
Carrington D. ,(2016, November 2).

High court rules UK government plans to tackle air pollution are illegal. Retrieved, on October 20,2021, from:

https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/02/high-court-rules-uk-government-plans-to-tackle-air-pollution-are-illegal

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CHEMICAL POLLUTIONIS CAUSING BRAIN DAMAGE IN POLAR BEARS (Emiliano U)

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CHEMICAL POLLUTIONIS CAUSING BRAIN DAMAGE IN POLAR BEARS (Emiliano U)

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Summary
- Polar bears apart from having to worry about the sudden climate change, studies have shown that in those times some artificial chemicals end up in the bears 'food chain which affects the bears' brains, as well as studies carried out by some universities tell us that perfluorinated compounds which have been used for a long time for commercial and industrial products cause great damage to them. The arctic is also jabbed sometimes by people who are exposed precisely to the same chemical products as bears, this indicates that perfluorinated compounds can have the same impact on both humans and bears that eat the same diet.

The pollutants
- It is a primary pollutant, because it is created by humans.

The Sources
- Perfluorinated compounds, which have been used to treat industrial and commercial products

The Impacts
- It can have an impact on polar bears' behavior, hormonal balance, and their ability to survive in an already hostile environment.

Point or Non-Point Source Pollution
- It is a non-point sorce pollution because it is caused by humans not by accident.

Persistent or Biodegradable
- It is a persistent pollution because it spend a lot of time to be degraded.

Acute or Chronic
- It is a chronic pollution because it is regukarly produced

APA REFERENCES

Sjøgren, K. (2015, 15 marzo). Chemical pollution is causing brain damage in polar bears. Science Nordic. Recuperado 20 de octubre de 2021, de https://sciencenordic.com/arctic-chemicals-denmark/chemical-pollution-is-causing-brain-damage-in-polar-bears/1415520

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Photochemical smog creeps back on hot, still days (Ramses)

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Photochemical smog creeps back on hot, still days (Ramses)

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Summary

As searing hot days continue this summer, heatstroke and heat exhaustion have sent record numbers of people to hospitals.

Photochemical smog is a form of air pollution that traces its history to the 1970s when Japan’s rapid industrial growth was not only driving an economic boom but also aggravating pollution.

Although the problem is long past its peak and it’s rarely life-threatening, its hazards remain very much real, as witnessed by municipal loudspeakers set up in street corners that occasionally blare warnings as soon as dangerous levels of the pollutants are observed.

The pollutants: Photochemical smog

It’s a concentrated mass of an atmospheric pollutant called photochemical oxidants, appearing like a white fog shrouding the land when seen from a distance. These are secondary pollutants formed when primary pollutants — nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds in exhausts from factories and vehicles running on internal combustion engines — are exposed to strong ultraviolet rays from the sun.

The Sources:

The smog tends to occur on a hot summer day when the sky is clear and there is little wind, as photochemical oxidants need strong sunlight to develop.

The Impacts:

What are the symptoms and how can one avoid being affected?

Typical symptoms exhibited by people exposed to photochemical smog include irritation in the eyes, skin, and throat, which can be accompanied by coughs, and reddened skin. In more serious cases, sufferers may feel like pins and needles in hands and feet and have a headache, dizziness, fever, nausea, and breathing difficulty.

Identify if Point or Non-Point Source Pollution: It is a point source pollution and the problem originated in Japan in the decades of the 70s.

Identify if it is persistent or biodegradable: It is persistent.

Identify if Acute or Chronic: Chronic.

REFERENCES:
Kodera, A. (2015, August 10). Photochemical smog creeps back on hot, still days. The Japan Times. Retrieved October 20, 2021, from https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/08/10/reference/photochemical-smog-creeps-back-hot-still-days/

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Summary
Ambient air monitoring is a systematic long-term assessment of the level of pollutants by measuring the amount and type of certain pollutants in the outdoor air (EPA, 2021). Therefore, we supervise and monitor certain industrial activities that can generate air pollution. For this reason, this work involves working and managing local authorities and other partners to manage and improve air quality (SEPA, n.d.).

The pollutants
Air quality has developed in recent decades and is generally stable, but we have a responsibility to regulate and monitor emissions from some industrial activities that can cause air pollution.

The Sources
Some sources that can cause this pollution are transportation, industries, waste, power generation, and agriculture since they affect air quality.

The Impacts
The effects of emissions into the atmosphere can cause health problems, climate change, depletion of the ozone layer, and changes in habitats.

Identify if there is a point or diffuse source of contamination, also if it is persistent or biodegradable and, finally, if it is acute or chronic.

However, there are still critical areas of poor air quality, where the sources of pollution mentioned before are found, especially industries and transportation since they include combustion, which is considered persistent pollutants since they have increased the ozone concentrations at ground level. For this reason, they are considered to be chronic pollutants because they cause a potentially serious secondary pollutant that is generated in the presence of sunlight.

References

Scottish Environment Protection Agency. (n.d.). Air. SEPA.  https://n9.cl/ce4gv

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (August 2, 2021). Managing Air Quality - Ambient Air Monitoring. EPA. https://n9.cl/xvgxs

By: Josselyn Valeria Ramirez Galindo

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England's shoppers say goodbye to free plastic bags (Leonel)

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England's shoppers say goodbye to free plastic bags (Leonel)

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Summary
English buyers are facing a new tax on plastic bags. The introduction of this tax comes from the waste of plastic bags and the pollution produced by the bags.

Only in 2006, the English people generated 12 thousand million of plastic bags.
this is the largest number of plastic bags generated in england in its entire history

Pollutants
Plastic bags

Sources
Supermarkets

Impact
The plastic bags has an impact to the society very important because each bag needs 55 years to be degradated, and those bags are to dangerous for the marine life.

This is a point source pollution
The point of origin of the bags is the markets, it does not matter if they are small or large, they are the first producers of plastic bags.

Identify if Persistent or Biodegradable
It is persistent

Identify if Acute or Chronic
It is chronic

Reference
Smithers, R. (December 2, 2017). England’s shoppers say goodbye to free plastic bags. The Guardian. Recovered on October 20, 2021 from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/05/englands-shoppers-say-goodbye-to-free-plastic-bags

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Chemical pollution is causing brain damage in polar bears (Jose Alejandro Mendez Juarez)

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Chemical pollution is causing brain damage in polar bears (Jose Alejandro Mendez Juarez)

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Summary: A new study shows that a number of man-made chemicals end up in the Arctic food chain where they mess with the polar bears' brains.

Pollutants: perfluorinated compounds, which have been used to treat industrial and commercial products for decades, disturb different signal molecules and enzymes in the bears' brains.

Sources: scientists from Aarhus University and the University of Copenhagen, along with colleagues from Canada and the United States

Impacts: This can have an impact on polar bears' behavior, hormonal balance, and their ability to survive in an already hostile environment. The Arctic is also inhabited by people who are exposed to precisely the same toxic chemicals as polar bears.

Point or Non-Point Source Pollution: It is point-source pollution since it demonstrates how perfluorinated compounds alter different signal molecules and enzymes in the brain of bears.

Persistent or Biodegradable: Pollutants hang around

Acute or Chronic: Crhonic

Kristian Sjøgren (Mars 2015)

Chemical pollution is causing brain damage in polar bears 25/10/2021 Retrieved from:

https://sciencenordic.com/arctic-chemicals-denmark/chemical-pollution-is-causing-brain-damage-in-polar-bears/1415520

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The polar bears in the Arctic have more than just climate change to worry about these days. A new study shows that a number of man-made chemicals end up in the Arctic food chain where they mess with the polar bears' brains.

The new study, a collaboration between scientists from Aarhus University and the University of Copenhagen, along with colleagues in Canada and the United States, demonstrates how perfluorinated compounds, which have been used to treat industrial and commercial products for decades, disturb different signal molecules and enzymes in the bears' brains.

This may ultimately impact on the polar bears' behaviour, hormonal balance, and their ability to survive in an already hostile environment.

The Arctic is also inhabited by people who are exposed to precisely the same toxic chemicals as the polar bears.

"The amount of these compounds has been increasing in the Arctic in recent years. We should therefore also be aware of the effects they have on the environment and the people who live there," says study lead author Kathrine Eggers Pedersen, a Ph.D. student at the Department of Pharmacy, University of Copenhagen. "Our research shows that perfluorinated compounds may have a significant effect on polar bears and humans who live from the same diet as polar bears."

The study has just been published in the journal Environmental Research.

Polar bear's brain under stress

The study shows that the number of enzymes and signal substances in the brain of a polar bear depends on the concentration of perfluorinated compounds the bears have assimilated through their food -- which primarily consists seals.

The scientists discovered this by examining brains of dead polar bears from East Greenland.

According to another scientist involved the study, associate professor Bjarne Styrishave from the Toxicology Laboratory of the Department of Pharmacy at the University of Copenhagen, it's particularly concerning because the fall in signal substances and enzymes in the brain may get so bad that they affect the polar bears' nervous and hormonal systems.

"We don't know whether the disruption of enzymes and signal substances is enough to have an effect on the polar bears' senses and behaviour. The brain is plastic and may adapt itself and compensate for the damage to a certain extent," says Styrishave.

The problem is just that we don't know how far the polar bears' brains can be pushed before then nervous systems sustain damage, he says. "It's difficult to say whether we are a long way from the limit, or very close to it."

Brains should not be disturbed at all

According to Styrishave, the nervous and hormonal systems of the polar bears should -- ideally -- not be disturbed in any way.

The two systems control the bears' behaviour and are involved in everything from mating to searching for food.

The polar bears are dependent, among other things, on a good memory and sharp senses when navigating their surroundings.

The nervous system and the hormonal system also control the functions of all the animal's organs including the liver, kidneys, lungs, heart, muscles, and genitals.

"It's the fundamental processes vital to being a bear that can potentially be disturbed by the substances," says Styrishave.

Close to documenting correlation

Eva Cecilie Bonefeld-Jørgensen is a professor of toxicology and head of the Centre for Arctic Health at Aarhus University.

Although she did not take part in the new study she has previously performed studies that demonstrated how perfluorinated chemicals are associated with an increased risk of developing breast cancer among Greenland women.

Bonefeld-Jørgensen believes, however, that caution should be exercised before we conclude that the perfluorinated compound also affect human brains.

"Polar bears have much higher concentrations of these substances in their brains than humans. So we can't draw any conclusions about humans before we have carried out similar studies on human brains," says Bonefeld-Jørgensen. "Nevertheless, it's important that we focus on the substances so they don't reach the same high concentrations in humans as they do in polar bears."

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Read the original story in Danish on Videnskab.dk
Translated by: Hugh Matthews

Scientific links

External links

Related content

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Chemical pollution is causing brain damage in polar bears

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Toxic chemicals end up in the Arctic where they cause brain damage in polar bears. They could even affect humans, scientists warn.

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Garbage streams down streets of rainy Beirut (Arath)

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Garbage streams down streets of rainy Beirut (Arath)

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Summary: On October 25th of 2015, a video went viral published by the activist group called "You Stink" which exposed the current inefficient policy and political system of Beirut and trash collection. In the video we can appreciate that heavy rainwater washed the piles of rash down the street, making a "River of Trash".

Pollutants: Undefined (Garbage) Variety of wastes

Impacts: The inability for cars to move around the streets and massive accumulation of trash going to one place with the help of rainwater

Causes:
1.- This happened because the landfill that was currently used for storing trash was shut blocked by nearby residents in the summer of the same year.
2.- accumulation of trash by households.
3.- The inefficiency of politics the lack of organization caused

This is a Nonpoint-Source Pollution:  because many places release them. This is not a difficult pollutant to identify, but the rainwater is a secondary actor that influenced this problem to be what it was on the day.

Type of Components: It is a combination of persistent and biodegradable components, we do not know what is really inside the bags, but we can infer that because of the reference to it as "Trash" that it may be a variety of both components.

Acute or Chronic?: This is acute pollution, this requires immediate action from both the government and society, but if this continues to happen, it may turn into chronic pollution with every unknown material mixing with the water and going down the streets.

Source: AlJeezera (2015) Video: Garbage streams down streets of rainy Beirut. Retrieved from:https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/10/25/video-garbage-streams-down-streets-of-rainy-beirut/

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Japan’s Biggest Coral Reef Devastated by Bleaching (Froylán)

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Japan’s Biggest Coral Reef Devastated by Bleaching (Froylán)

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Summary: Since January of 2017, Japan's biggest coral reef has been devastated by the climate change and water pollution, it was said that more than the 70% of the coral had died due to a phenomenon called bleaching and yet there is still a small amount of coral alive.

Pollutants: Human wastes that are throwed to the water, garbage and high levels of Carbon Dioxide in the air.

Sources: Climate change and increase on water's temperature.

Impacts: Creates a phenomenon called bleaching which makes expell the algae living into the coral tissues and causing desnutrition turning the coral to a white and grey color. They coral dies after some days due to the lack of protection from the sun rays, affecting all the ecosystem into the coral reef.

Point or Non-Point Source Pollution:
This environmental problem has a strong point source pollution, garabage form urban areas generates a huge carbon dioxide footprint causing an increase of the temperature resulting in the destruction of the coral reef.
Persistent or Biodegradable:
The pollutions is persistent because people will not change their life style in a short period of time, and people is not used and prepared to stop producing lots of garbage because of thier necesities.
Acute or Chronic:
This is a chrinic problem because the coral reef damage has been caused with the pass of the years and with the increase of the water temperature in the last years, as a result of the carbon footprint and the climate change.

Reference: McCurry, J. (2017, January 16). Japan’s Biggest Coral Reef Devastated by Bleaching. Climate Central. Retrieved October 25, 2021, from https://www.climatecentral.org/news/japans-biggest-coral-devastated-by-bleaching-21056

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The EPA finally admitted that the world's most popular pesticide kills bees—20 years too late- Avril Pascacio

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The EPA finally admitted that the world's most popular pesticide kills bees—20 years too late- Avril Pascacio

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The Environmental Protection Agency the one that is suposed to protect all the things that got a relation with natural resources made a request from environmentalists and beekepers an study of what was killing the bees. At the same time that they were saying that midacloprid-treated corn likely doesn’t harm bees "the USGS studies show os thatcorn gets little or no imidacloprid. (It gets huge amounts of another neonic, clothianidin, whose EPA risk assessment hasn’t been released yet.)"(Philpott, T., 2016)
Pollutants: neonics,  imidacloprid, clothianidin, (insectisides and pestisides)
Sources:The agricultural industry use this pesticides in their plants, and the bees consume the polen of those flowers.
Impacts: This pesticides affect the pollinators bees, even to death, and without pollination, theres no plant that can grow, adding the fact that the pesticides also affect birds, butterflies and water-bone invertebrates.
Point or Non-Point Source Pollution: It's non-point source pollution since pesticides are used every day in agriculture for the plants to grow, but it's adverse effect generally goes to the animals .
Persistent or Biodegradable: Pesticides and insecticides always PERSIST in water and soil, polluting our environment. The only way to stop it's consequences is stopping using them.
Acute or Chronic: It's chronic since it's almost imposible to stop farming, the main cause of the use of pesticides and insecticides.
Reference:
Philpott, T.,(2016)The EPA Finally Admitted That the World’s Most Popular Pesticide Kills Bees—20 Years Too Late. 20/10/21. Retrived from https://www.motherjones.com/food/2016/01/epa-finds-major-pesticide-toxic-bees/

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The EPA finally admitted that the world's most popular pesticide kills bees—20 years too late