Chemicals+in+the+Environment

//__Science Exit Project__// Page 1 Chemicals in the Environment

There are chemicals everywhere you look. In the soil beneath your toes, in the sky you fly your kite in, in the water you drink and swim in. Water, land, air, and food are all deeply connected in a vicious cycle. They all depend on and effect each other. Water, land, and air effect each other and combine to affect crops and wildlife. Water “Clean” drinking water is in fact not “clean”. It has lots of chemicals in it to purify it. A way to do that is distillation, boiling a substance until it turns into vapor. (Distillation. (2012). (J. H. Strohl, Rev.). //The New Book of Knowledge.// Retrieved March 12, 2012, from Grolier Online.) Pesticides put on crops will get washed into run-offs when it rains. Sewage is dumped down drains and eventually into aqueducts. Some sewage sludge is even dumped at sea and animal mutations is seen thousands of miles away. ( "Water Pollution." //The New Book of Knowledge.// Grolier Online, 2012. Web. 14 Mar. 2012.) Run-offs carry chemicals into rivers, lakes, and oceans harming aquatic life. Sea creatures have no way to filter their water and the environment they live in. Factories are constantly dumping wastes, Mercury and Dioxin, are the most harmful and the tiniest amount in water or food will cause brain damage over time. Even the simplest thing as heated water is harming aquatic life and polluting. (Brennan, M. J. (2012). Environment. (J. H. Meisel, Rev.). //The New Book of Knowledge.// Retrieved March 13, 2012, from Grolier Online.) Soil/Land Chemicals are naturally in the Earth. From decomposition of dead plants and animals to natural gases deep in the Earth's layers. Now companies are “fracking”, a way to get natural gases to the surface. Fracking is causing major damage to the Earth's surface, even contaminating water and air. 1000 cases of contamination have been reported from fracking alone in the U.S. Robert Jackson, an environmental scientist at Duke University, did a study of 60 private wells near fracking sites. 85% of them were contaminated with methane gas. ("GAS found in drinking water." //Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication// 25 Nov. 2011: 13. //Junior Edition//. Web. 8 Mar. 2012.) Landfills are popular sites for mutations and chemicals in the ground. People do not dispose of their garbage correctly and just throw it in the trash can. For example batteries are supposed to be taken to the recycling center so they can dispose of the remaining chemicals inside the battery. Other examples are bleach and detergent containers. Plastic absorbs what it holds and when people put the items in landfills they leak into the land and contaminate the soil underneath. Now people are getting smarter and lining landfills with plastic. Tucker Creek is a landfill and homeowners are not allowed to swim in the creeks for fear of disease or mutations. Air Contamination When you go to the park to watch your kids play soccer you are breathing chemicals. There are so many different things you are breathing like ash, burnt wood smoke, chemicals from the paper factory a county over. Methane gas is a very common gas that is natural and most people don't think of as a pollution. Methane gas comes from cow farts. There are so many cows on this planet, that people are starting to concentrate the methane gas into an energy source.

Food Chemicals enter the food you eat everyday. When you eat meat you are eating meat that has been injected with hormones, preservatives, and other animal parts. Crops are sprayed with pesticides before and after harvest. When they are sprayed before it is to make sure the crops aren't eaten by bugs and other wildlife. When they are sprayed after harvest it is to preserve them and make sure they don't ripen or rot too soon. Preservatives are used to keep food fresh. Hormones are often injected into animals. Growth hormones quicken the growth period and speed up the maturity and size of animals so they can be slaughtered sooner. ( Rogol, Alan D. "Hormone." //The New Book of Knowledge.// Grolier Online, 2012. Web. 14 Mar. 2012) Most often though, animals are injected with steroid hormones, made by fatty molecules called cholesterol.

Work Cited Page Distillation. (2012). (J. H. Strohl, Rev.). //The New Book of Knowledge.// Retrieved March 12, 2012, from Grolier Online. ||  || "GAS found in drinking water." //Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication// 25 Nov. 2011: 13. //Junior Edition//. Web. 8 Mar. 2012.
 * || Brennan, M. J. (2012). Environment. (J. H. Meisel, Rev.). //The New Book of Knowledge.// Retrieved March 13, 2012, from Grolier Online.

Rogol, Alan D. "Hormone." //The New Book of Knowledge.// Grolier Online, 2012. Web. 14 Mar. 2012 "Water Pollution." //The New Book of Knowledge.// Grolier Online, 2012. Web. 14 Mar. 2012.