Devry SCI204 week 4 ilab

Exercise 1 is worth ten points.

Background:

Mercury is a heavy metal that occurs naturally in minerals and rocks. Release of mercury from natural sources has been relatively constant over time. However, anthropogenic release of mercury has increased significantly in recent years, primarily due to increased fossil fuel mining and combustion. Mercury that is released into the air eventually ends up in soils or surface water.Exercise:

Discuss any two environmental concerns of having mercury pollution in the air, soils, and surface water.

Exercise 2 is worth ten points.

Background:

After World War II, thousands of young families moved "over the hills" and into the San Fernando Valley, a suburb of Los Angeles. New neighborhoods were springing up, replacing orange groves and open space. Roads and schools were quickly established to keep pace with the rapid population growth. Ringed by beautiful mountains, the entire Los Angeles basin looked like a new, green, sun-filled paradise to the families seeking a fresh start.

In the early 1950s, one of the common family chores in Los Angeles was to carry the trash out to the stone incinerator behind the garage where each family burned all of their dry trash. "Wet" garbage was collected and taken to a city dump, where it was burned by the city. Everyone throughout the city either used an incinerator or burned things in an open trash pile—there were over 400,000 backyard trash incinerators. On warm afternoons, peoples' eyes would sometimes sting and burn. People would stop, close their eyes, and let the cleansing tears refresh their irritated eyes. They accepted this as a normal part of life in sunny California.Exercise:

Discuss any two reasons why Los Angeles has smog problems (Hint: one anthropogenic and one topographic). List at least two references.

Exercise 3 is worth ten points.

Background:

Assume you are employed in your city's Public Health Department that deals with air pollution.Exercise:

Discuss at least two policies that you would seek to implement to reduce the impact of indoor air pollution on the human health in your community.

Exercise 4 is worth ten points.

Exercise:

Examine your house for five sources of indoor air pollution. Use a chart to record the source, the potential pollutants from the source, and what you need to do to remediate the problem.Example:

If you have a furnace, it could release carbon monoxide. The risk is relatively low because you have it checked every fall, however to remediate the risk entirely, you would need to purchase a carbon monoxide detector.