Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
2
Pollution
People in all industrialized countries have daily contact with pollution problems:
smarting eyes in exhaust-filled streets, decaying marble monuments, murky fish-
ing water, the fact that 80-90 per cent of all cases of cancer are influenced by envi-
ronmental factors and that the number of allergies are rapidly increasing. In
Sweden it has been calculated that 12 000 to 16 000 people die every year because
of environmental pollution (Gillberg, 1988). At the same time the rate of extinc-
tion of animal and plant species is accelerating. Between 1900 and 1950 one
species disappeared annually; in 1990 between one and three species disap-
peared every hour! Species have always died out and new ones have appeared,
but the rate of extinction today is approximately a hundred times greater than
the natural rate.
The building industry is directly or indirectly responsible for a great deal of
environmental pollution. One example is the damage caused to nature by the
over-extensive exploitation of raw materials. Large open limestone, sand or grav-
el mines, and other open-cast mines, produce visual damage and destroy local
plant and animal life as well as polluting ground water.
When talking about pollution, the physical and chemical effects of gaseous
and particle pollution, electromagnetic fields and radioactivity primarily come to
mind. In these cases, damage to ecosystems tends to be at a lower level than
damage to human beings.
The problems can be referred to in terms of 'energy pollution' and 'material
pollution'. Energy pollution relates strongly to the primary energy consumption
(PEC) and the source of energy used. The sources of energy vary a great deal
from country to country. In Scandinavia hydropower and nuclear power are
diminishing; in Great Britain and on the Continent the main sources are fossil
fuels and nuclear power. Statistics for energy pollution from fossil fuels are as
follows:
