Environmental Chemistry Test - 3

Nitrogen dioxide is responsible for acute respiratory disease in children. It also causes irritating red haze in traffic and congested places, damages leaves of plants, retard rate of photosynthesis, toxicity to living tissues and harm to textile fibres and metals.

Hydrocarbons are formed by incomplete combustion of fossil fuels used in automobiles. When they undergo incomplete combustion, they are partially oxidised and produce other fragments of hydrocarbons along with CO and C.

Carbon monoxide is produced by incomplete combustion of carbon, firewood, petrol.

The reaction is as follows:

2C + O₂ → 2CO

CO has more affinity to bind to Hb than oxygen. So it blocks the binding of oxygen to Hb causing deficiency of it and can lead to death.

Inadequate pollution control equipments release greater amount of carbon monoxide that increases the pollution even further.

In cold places, vegetables, fruits and flowers are grown in glass covered areas as they maintains the temperature as well as traps the solar energy. Glass is opaque to IR (heat) radiation and it partly absorbs and partly reflects the heat which maintains the temperature and traps the solar energy.

Green plants help reduce environmental pollution by removing the excess of CO₂ by using it in photosynthesis for making their food.

Deforestation and burning of fossil fuels adds to the environmental pollution As it increases the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere which traps excessive heat and increases global temperature causing global warming.

SO₂ is a naturally occurring pollutant gas with an approximate atmospheric concentration of 1 ppm. It is produced naturally by volcanic activities and burning of fossil fuels containing sulphur.

Ozone hole is the depletion of ozone layer in the stratosphere caused by some pollutants that react with ozone to convert it into other form, decreasing the thickness of the ozone layer there which is called as the "hole".