#Industrialpollution of Water

Industrial pollution is  a menace to the aquatic ecosystem. Most factories discharge three or four times more oxygen demanding wastes than sewers and they dump poisons into the water as well. Despite the shift from the industrial era to a more integrated approach as regards knowledge and the advancement of technology, this has and can be seen to remedy some of the impacts of industrial wastes. However, some sources may simply have been eliminated. The average wastes gotten from the modern sulphate, pulp and paper process is less than one tenth of what it was from the sulfite process formerly used in paper mills. So in other words, technology has contributed largely to industrial processes to this regard. Still, new and complex chemical processes are on a frequent basis developed and have increased the possibility of releasing dangerous chemical pollutants that are hard to detect and control. 

Most industries are always over eager to introduce new chemicals and materials into their production schemes without first taking into consideration the short and long term would be  effects of these chemicals on the immediate environment. The mercury problem is one of such pollution caused by industry. Mercury is a waste product of a variety of industries and it moves along the food chain from water and plants to fish, birds and humans. The effects of mercury poison in humans cause headaches, dizziness and fatigue in mild cases. 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) had suggested a maximum of 0.05 parts per million (ppm) in food. Some time back in 1969,  a Canadian study showed levels of 1.36ppm of mercury in fish from St.Clair. However, since then, Potentially dangerous levels of mercury have been found in some bodies of water in the United States and the Great Lake regions of Canada. Bans on sport and commercial fishing in affected waters are common in both countries. The poisonous effect of mercury was also seen in Japan between 1953 and 1960. A plastic manufacturing plant had been emptying its mercury wastes into Minamata Bay on the Japanese coast. This mercury became concentrated in the tissues of fish caught from these rivers. Over a hundred people who ate fish from the Bay either died or became disabled from the mercury pollution.

Cadmium and Arsenic are two more toxic metals that have been building up also in water supplies. Cadmium causes liver damage and high blood pressure in humans while arsenic pollution cause cancer and skin lesions. It affects the lungs and liver, and causes darkening and thickening of the skin. Over exposure to arsenic brings about a deficiency in vitamin A which leads to night blindness. Although the human tissues can build up a tolerance to arsenic, death can be prevented except exposure to an excessive dose. Still, arsenic is a serious threat to fish and other marine life.

Although, scientists over the years have tried to ascertain the long term effects of most metal wastes pollution, the fact still remains that these wastes have a very brutal effect on human and aquatic life and the ecosystem in general. And so there is an urgent need to end incessant pollution of these waters and adhere strictly to environmental laws and regulations to this effect.