Industries and businesses, whether they be small scale or large, must follow some measures to ensure that the environment they are affecting is safe.
There are 4 types of pollutants: air (dust), water (chemical spill plan), land (regulatory plan) and noise (noise control measures) that industries can create.
The intensity of pollutants depends on the importance of the industry and activity happening in the community. For example, a mine requires very strict regulations for all aspects of its operations including land use (mined areas and access roads), environmental design and of course, rehab of the area after mining is done.
Is caused by the presence of a high proportion of undesirable gases, such as sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide. Smoke is emitted by chemical and paper factories, brick kilns, refineries and smelting plants, and burning of fossil fuels leads to air pollution. It adversely affects human health, animals, plants, buildings and the atmosphere as a whole.
Is caused by organic and inorganic industrial wastes and effluents discharged into rivers. The industries which are mainly responsible for water pollution are paper, pulp, chemical, textile and dyeing, petroleum refineries, tanner’Les and electroplating industries.
Is the propagation of noise with harmful impact on the activity of human or animal life. It results in irritation, anger, cause hearing impairment, increased heart rate and blood pressure.
Control of Environmental Degradation: Here are some ways through which industrial pollution can be reduced:
- Minimising the use of water by reusing and recycling it.
- Harvesting rainwater to meet water requirements.
- Treating hot water and effluents before releasing them in rivers and ponds.
- Particulate matter in the air can be reduced by fitting smoke stacks to factories with electrostatic precipitators, fabric filters, scrubbers and inertial separators.
- Smoke can be reduced by using oil or gas instead of coal in factories.
- Machinery can be redesigned to increase energy efficiency and reduce noise.
