Environmental Pollution Effects

General Environmental Pollution Effects

A a very important aspect of the effect of pollution is its dose (or concentration) required to cause environmental damage.
One can define pollution response as “the change in the effect of a pollutant in response to a change in its concentration”.
In this respect,  it identifies 3 different types of response evoked by the environment to different pollution concentrations: 

• Linear effect
• Greater-than-linear effect
• Threshold effect

In the linear effect, environmental damage increases linearly with pollution concentrations. In other words, “ the total damage or risk is directly proportional to the accumulated exposure”.
This effect occurs with radioactive substances as well as mercury, lead, cadmium and asbestos.
In the greater-than-linear effect, environmental damage increases with an increase in pollution concentrations but at a decreasing rate. This means that, as pollution concentrations continue to increase the environmental damage will continue to decrease. (14)
This is the case with thermal pollution.
In the threshold effect, pollution produces no effect until a certain threshold in pollution concentrations is achieved. In other words, “so long as a given threshold is not exceeded, the damage from pollution would be completely repaired as quickly as it is produced”. (15)
This effect is found with biodegradable pollutants.
It is also important to mention synergistic effects of pollutants on the environment. While interacting with each other, pollutants can produce greater impacts than when acting individually. (16)
A good example of that is a synergy between asbestos exposure and smoking in causing lung cancer.