chemical contamination water and air

by Tijani Oladimeji
(Port Harcourt, Nigeria)

Explain Environmetal quality criteria particular for chemical contamination water and air. Quality of air in Nigeria, Ghana, and Japan.

Barry's Response - Tijani:

Environmental quality, in the work that I do, is the concentrations of certain key polluting chemicals known to be prevalent in the environment.

1) A concentration is usually expressed in mass per cubic volume, such as µg/m3 in air, grams or moles per litre in water, or as a fractional content in either, using % or ppm.

2) The chemicals in question likely vary somewhat according to region and types of human activity encountered in the area. In my area we examine common components such as Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Sulphur Dioxide
(SO2), suspended particulate matter (such as dust) and many others on special occasionas for air. Water has its own list of chemicals to worry about. Here's the list I use:

http://environment.gov.ab.ca/info/library/5726.pdf

3) Global issues are becoming increasingly important. The most well known of these is global warming and the greenhouse gases that have been attributed to that effect. The gases include Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous Oxide (N2O), and three others that I don't recall. With these we are not as concerned about local concentrations as we are about total mass emissions, from which inventories are calculated and kept and countries use those statistics to trade emissions credits.

See this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol



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