Environmental Concerns, Wastes, and Pollution Flashcards

Flashcards about Environmental Concerns, Wastes, and Pollution

Environment

The study of how living things interact with each other and their surroundings.

Ecology

All the external conditions, circumstances, and influences surrounding and affecting the growth and development of an organism or a community of organisms.

Biosphere

The zone of the earth where life is found.

Human Ecology

An academic discipline that deals with the association between humans and their natural environment.

Hazard

An agent which has the potential to cause harm to a vulnerable target.

Natural Environmental Hazards

Natural hazards in the environment that damage or destroy wildlife habitats, kill or harm humans, and damage property.

Physical Hazards

Hazards caused by forces either internal to the earth's surface or on the surface itself, such as earthquakes, volcanoes, winds, lightning, storms, floods, fires, and droughts.

Biological Hazards

Hazards limited to microbiological agents (pathogenic bacteria, parasites, and viruses, and their toxic biological products), such as plague, tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV.

Chemical Hazards

Non-biological substances that are toxic enough to threaten human health, resulting from the mismanagement of chemicals.

Psychological Hazards

Hazards that affect a person's outlook on life, such as boredom, stress, fear, and depression.

Sociological Hazards

Hazards that occur when societies interact in destructive ways or fail to interact in productive ways, such as excessive population growth that results in overcrowding and war.

Residues and Wastes

Materials produced as people participate in their daily activities, including human body wastes, excess materials and foods, yard wastes, construction and manufacturing wastes, agricultural wastes, transportation wastes, energy production wastes, and defense wastes.

Solid Waste

Household trash, grass clippings, tree trimmings, manure, excess stone generated from mining, and steel scraps from automobile plants.

Solid Waste Management

The collection, transportation, and disposal of solid waste, including source reduction efforts that limit the production of solid waste in the first place.

Hazardous Waste

Wastes that are dangerous to human health or the environment.

Air Pollution

Contamination of the air by substances in amounts great enough to interfere with the comfort, safety, or health of living organisms.

Criteria Pollutants

The air pollutants of greatest concern, including sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone, respirable particulate matter, and lead.

National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)

National standards established by the EPA for allowable concentration levels of criteria pollutants in the ambient air.

Indoor Air Pollution

The buildup of undesirable gases and airborne particles inside a building that can be a greater threat to human health than outdoor air pollution.

Asbestos

Naturally occurring mineral fiber found in rock and soil that was commonly used as an insulation and fireproofing material.

Biogenic pollutants

Airborne materials of biological origin such as living and non-living fungi and their toxins, bacteria, viruses, pollens, insect parts and wastes, and animal dander.

Combustion by-products

Include gases and particulates produced by burning fuels.

Radon

Naturally occurring radioactive gas that cannot be seen, smelled, or tasted.

Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS)

Also known as secondhand smoke, includes both mainstream smoke and sidestream smoke, and its inhalation by nonsmokers is referred to as passive smoking.

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)

Compounds that exist as vapor over the normal range of air pressures and temperatures.

Formaldehyde

A pungent water-soluble gas and one of the most ubiquitous VOCs.

Surface water

Water in streams, rivers, lakes, and reservoirs.

Groundwater

The water found underground in the cracks and spaces in soil, sand, and rock.

Aquifers

Porous, water-saturated layers of underground bedrock, sand, and gravel that can yield an economically significant amount of water.

Water pollution

Any physical or chemical change in water that can harm living organisms or make it unfit for other uses.

Point source pollution

A single identifiable source that discharges pollutants into the water, such as a pipe, ditch, or culvert.

Nonpoint source pollution

Pollution that occurs through the runoff, seepage, or falling of pollutants into the water.

Wastewater

The substance that remains after humans have used water for domestic or commercial purposes.

Radiation

The energy released when atoms are split or naturally decay from a less stable to more stable form.

Noise pollution

Excessive or unwanted sound.

Amplitude

Refers to the sound volume, that is, its loudness or intensity, and is measured and expressed as decibels (dB).