Some Basics on Pollution

What is pollution? Some examples

You can think about pollution – in very general terms – as any contamination of the environment with substances that are harmful to the environment, animals and people. Cars and factories emit gases that contain particle pollution. Some communities dump dirty, toxic water from homes and factories directly into rivers. Plastic from our daily waste piles up in our oceans and forms islands, trapping and killing fish and other life in the oceans. Fertilizers and pesticides that we spread in our fields to grow the food we eat end up in the ground water and rivers where communities get their drinking water. In the Gulf of Mexico, for example, there is a giant “dead zone” where almost no life exists.

Where Does pollution occur?

People started building large scale factories all over the world during a time we call “industrialization.” In that time, there was little concern over what went into the environment: factories located along the Hudson River routinely dumped their chemical filled wastewater directly into the river. The smog of the factories was blown into the air unfiltered (causing cancer and asthma and making the air toxic – think of the deadly smog crisis in London in the early 1900 or today in Beijing, China). Because of this past, a significant amount of the U.S. is polluted in one way or another.

Some places where you can look for contamination:

• Soil: From the soil in your garden to the forest floor. Soil (next to water) is most extensively tested for contamination. People in the capital district particularly often test their soil in their gardens and back yards for lead, as this is a hazardous substance found in a lot of places – also due to the industrial past (the factories that existed all along the river) of the area. But not only lead is a problem: fertilizers, pesticides, volatile organic compounds, PFC, PFO or Cäsium and Chlorine-based chemicals that were (and still are) used in industrial production and in the household are also problems.
• Air: When we think of air pollution we think about the smog outdoors and the small particulates that make the air we breathe toxic, even if we can’t see or smell it. Especially close to factories, highways and other high-traffic areas are affected by outdoor air pollution. Outdoors the air quality can change within one block or a couple of streets, with different weather and at different times of the day – making it hard to get a clear idea how safe the air we breath is. This makes it even more important for citizens to gather their data – as the state (EPA, DEC) can’t measure everywhere.
• Water: Especially in New York (but also almost everywhere else in the world) the preservation and protection of water is key, as it is the very life source. Pure and clean drinking water can’t be taken for granted. In New York, large areas have encountered problems with their drinking water – from lead that comes from old pipes in most cities in the US, to the industrial waste that contaminated the drinking water in Hoosick Falls, Petersburgh and Bennington or in Long Island. As there are so many compounds that industries use, and of which we don’t know their effects on our health, testing sufficiently the quality of the water we drink is increasingly difficult.
• Food: Food is extensively tested for harmful substances by the state already. Some chemicals and toxins still are legally allowed to be used in food production. You can find for example pesticides and fertilizers on your food, and some food coloring chemicals are still considered dangerous for human health.
• Indoors: Air quality is a big issue indoors as well, from the toxins that we use in our building materials (and that evaporate into our air) to the dust that collects and becomes dangerous if we don’t ventilate our rooms often enough.