What are Persistent Organic Pollutants?
According to a 2011 study created by several international consultants on waste management, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are chemicals that were initially created to better technology and industry from the 1950s to the late 1980s. Most of these chemicals were used to treat crops from insects infestation and to slow the infection of insect-born diseases like malaria. Other POPs were put into industrial products like fabric, furniture, and electrical equipment to lessen the chances of flammability. There were also a few POPs that were created as a byproduct of business and industry or by the accidental mixing of chemicals through incineration or municipal solid waste (landfills). What makes POPs so intimidating is the fact that these chemicals cannot break down naturally in the environment. These chemicals sit for generations in landfills and chemical waste facilities waiting for the decomposition that will never happen to them. Nobody really knows what to do with these immortal chemicals, so what happens when they escape into the environment? |
This is a chart containing a list of several harmful chemicals. The first six are a form of Persistent Organic Pollutants(POPs) and the last two are harmful chemicals that may have the potential of sickening humans and animal life
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This is a Char that shows how persistent organic pollutants reach aquatic systems and marine life
Acknowledgments
Title Home Page Picture Retrieved from: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GakGgg1KvJs/TwdYbZBXwpI/AAAAAAAAAKc/RsUtZ_Wstsc/s1600/toxic+drum+in+water.jpg
Chart of Aquatic Life Retrieved from: : http://www.bofep.org/images/fi27_2.jpg
Chemical Chart Retrieved from: http://www.theglobaleducationproject.org/earth/images/final-images/t-toxic-chemicals.gif
Title Home Page Picture Retrieved from: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GakGgg1KvJs/TwdYbZBXwpI/AAAAAAAAAKc/RsUtZ_Wstsc/s1600/toxic+drum+in+water.jpg
Chart of Aquatic Life Retrieved from: : http://www.bofep.org/images/fi27_2.jpg
Chemical Chart Retrieved from: http://www.theglobaleducationproject.org/earth/images/final-images/t-toxic-chemicals.gif