school energy&environment

Industrial pollution

Pollution of industrial origin is caused by the discharge of toxic and non biodegradable substances coming from industrial processing such as cyanides originating from industries producing pesticides and weed killers, cadmium originating from companies producing batteries and accumulators, and chromium as a leftover of plating and tanning industries.
Industrial pollution can derive from the discharge of water used in productive processes that contains high amounts of solid dissolved susbstances coming from leaching of solid waste landfills carried out by rainwater or by accidental breaks of tanks and/or pipes transporting very polluting products that flow directly into rivers or disperse in the soil and subsoil and eventually reach aquifers.
To reduce industrial pollution it’s necessary to purify water through filters and treatment tanks before discharging it and favouring, when possible, natural substances in purification processes.
Thermal pollution
There is also another form of industrial pollution of water that doesn’t regard the content of polluting substances but temperature: thermal pollution. Industries, infact, pour into the sea or into rivers hot water used for their processings. Cooling water is withdrawn from seas, lakes and rivers at a certain temperature and after use is returned at a higher temperature. The temperature rise in water bodies causes the alteration of aquatic ecosystems and the variation of vital processes. Moreover, it can lead to the death of bacterial fauna which is useful in self-purification processes of water and, in most serious cases, it can also lead to the death of a great number of fish. To reduce the negative effects caused by the discharge of cooling water, hot water produced by domestic heating or for the breeding of species requiring high temperatures should be reused.