Deadly Pollutants Kill Children
FRQ Bonus
Answer the following questions after reading the article below:
(a) Choose any ONE of the three pollutants mentioned above and respond to each of the following.
Lead
(i) Describe one specific source, other than the local chemical plants, for the toxic pollutant you chose.
Lead can come from lead based paints, even though in many parts of the world they are outlawed it may still be used in many poorer regions such as the town of Vabi India.
(ii) Describe how the pollutant you chose enters the human body and one specific effect it can have on human health.
A way lead may enter the body is by ingesting lead based paint. Lead ingestion may lead to paralysis, mental retardation, and brain damage
(iii) Describe TWO specific steps, other than an outright ban, that a city or nation can take to reduce the threat posed by this pollutant.
A way to reduce the spread the effects of this pollutant is to educate people on the effects of lead therefore teaching them to remove surfaces painted with lead based paint. People could also begin to substitute lead-based paint with non lead-based paint.
(b) Give one reason why Dr. Egguen is correct in asserting that children are particularly susceptible to toxic pollutants.
Children are still developing and therefore do not have an immune system as strong as adults do. Children also are more prone to putting dirty objects in their mouths.
(c) An important contributor to global climate change is the release of CO 2 from the rapidly increasing number of coal-burning power plants in China. Assume that the coal burned at these plants to provide the power to manufacture a single MP3 player releases 40 kg of CO 2 and that it costs $0.75 to capture 1 kg of CO 2 and keep it from entering the atmosphere. Determine the cost, in dollars, to capture the total amount of CO 2 released from manufacturing one MP3 player.
40 kg C02 ( $ 0.75 1 kg C02 ) =$30
(d) Coal-burning power plants also release other pollutants, including nitrogen oxides (NO x ), sulfur oxides (SO x ), and particulates. Select one of these pollutants and identify one technology that can be used to remove it from the waste stream of coal-burning power plants.
If particulates are being released from the burning of coal, then a filter could be installed in order to reduce the amount of particulates being released into the atmosphere.
(e) Discuss TWO reasons why a multinational company would choose to build a manufacturing facility in India and/or China rather than in the United States or Europe.
In third world nations like China or India, environmental policies are not as enforced as in the United States. Also labor is much cheaper in these nations. The combination of not having environmental regulations to follow that could be costly and cheaper labor amount to an overall cheaper production.