Pollution

Pollution is the introduction of substances or energy into the environment, resulting in deleterious effects of such a nature as to endanger human health, harm living resources and ecosystems, and impair or interfere with amenities and other legitimate uses of the environment.The major forms of pollution include:
Air pollution, the release of chemicals and particulates into the atmosphere. Common examples include carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons(CFCs), and nitrogen oxides produced by industry and motor vehicles. Photochemical ozone and smog are created as nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons react to sunlight.
Water pollution via surface runoff and leaching to groundwater.
Soil contamination occurs when chemicals are released by spill or underground storage tank leakage. Among the most significant soil contaminants are hydrocarbons, heavy metals, MTBE, herbicides, pesticides and chlorinated hydrocarbons.
Radioactive contamination, added in the wake of 20th-century discoveries in atomic physics.
Noise pollution, which encompasses roadway noise, aircraft noise, industrial noise as well as high-intensity sonar.
Light pollution, includes light trespass, over-illumination and astronomical interference.
Visual pollution, which can refer to the presence of overhead power lines, motorway billboards, scarred landforms (as from strip mining), open storage of trash or municipal solid waste.
Thermal Pollution, is a temperature change in natural water bodies caused by human influence.
Sources and causes:
Air pollution
Motor vehicle emissions are one of the leading causes of air pollution.China, United States, Russia, Mexico, and Japan are the world leaders in air pollution emissions; however, Canada is the number two country, ranked per capita. Principal stationary pollution sources include chemical plants, coal-fired power plants, oil refineries,petrochemical plants, nuclear waste disposal activity, incinerators, large livestock farms (dairy cows, pigs, poultry, etc.), PVC factories, metals production factories, plastics factories, and other heavy industry.
Some of the more common soil contaminants are chlorinated hydrocarbons (CFH), heavy metals (such as chromium, cadmium--found in rechargeable batteries, and lead--found in lead paint, aviation fuel and still in some countries, gasoline), MTBE, zinc, arsenic and benzene. Ordinary municipal landfills are the source of many chemical substances entering the soil environment (and often groundwater), emanating from the wide variety of refuse accepted, especially substances illegally discarded there, or from pre-1970 landfills that may have been subject to little control in the U.S. or EU.
Pollution can also be the consequence of a natural disaster. For example, hurricanes often involve water contamination from sewage, and petrochemical spills from ruptured boats or automobiles. Larger scale and environmental damage is not uncommon when coastal oil rigs or refineries are involved. Some sources of pollution, such as nuclear power plants or oil tankers, can produce widespread and potentially hazardous releases when accidents occur.
In the case of noise pollution the dominant source class is the motor vehicle, producing about ninety percent of all unwanted noise worldwide.

REGULATION AND MONITORING
To protect the environment from the adverse effects of pollution, many nations worldwide have enacted legislation to regulate various types of pollution as well as to mitigate the adverse effects of pollution.

United States
The United States Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) established threshold standards for air pollutants to protect human health on January 1, 1970 One of the ratings chemicals are given is carcinogenicity. In addition to the classification "unknown", designated levels range from non-carcinogen, to likely and known carcinogen. Some scientists have said that the concentrations which most of these levels indicate are far too high and the exposure of people should be less. In 1999, the United States EPA replaced the Pollution Standards Index (PSI) with the Air Quality Index(AQI) to incorporate new PM2.5 and Ozone standards.
The United States Congress passed the Clean Air Act in 1963 to legislate the reduction of smog and atmospheric pollution in general. That legislation has subsequently been amended and extended in 1966, 1970, 1977 and 1990. Numerous state and local governments have enacted similar legislation either implementing or filling in locally important gaps in the national program. The national Clean Air Act and similar state legislative acts have led to the widespread use of atmospheric dispersion modeling in order to analyze the air quality impacts of proposed major actions.
Passage of the Clean Water Act amendments of 1977 required strict permitting for any contaminant discharge to navigable waters, and also required use of best management practices for a wide range of other water discharges including thermal pollution.
Passage of the Noise Control Act established mechanisms of setting emission standards for virtually every source of noise including motor vehicles, aircraft, certain types of HVAC equipment and major appliances. It also put local government on notice as to their responsibilities in land use planning to address noise mitigation. This noise regulation framework comprised a broad data base detailing the extent of noise health effects.
The state of California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has maintained an independent list of substances with product labeling requirements as part of Proposition 65 since 1986.
The U.S. has a maximum fine of US$25,000 for dumping toxic waste. However, many large manufacturers decline to dispute violations, as they can easily afford the fine.

Europe
Noticeable pollution in Bordeaux
Generally the European countries lagged significantly behind the United States in meaningful environmental regulation, including air quality standards, water quality standards, soil contamination cleanup, indoor air quality and noise regulations.Despite this, European pollution output is far lower than that of the USA. In the year 2000, UK Air Quality Regulations were established and they were further amended in 2002. There has also been British harmonization with EU regulations.
The EU is presently entertaining use of the (possibly carcinogenic) MTBE as a widespread gasoline additive, a chemical which has been in the process of phaseout in the U.S. for over a decade.

The United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, it took until the 1840s to bring onto the statute books legislation to control water pollution. It was extended to all rivers and coastal water by 1961. However, currently the clean up of historic contamination is controlled under a specific statutory scheme found in Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (Part IIA), as inserted by the Environment Act 1995, and other ‘rules’ found in regulations and statutory guidance. The Act came into force in England in April 2000.
Within the current regulatory framework, Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) is a regime for controlling pollution from certain industrial activities. The regime introduces the concept of Best Available Techniques ("BAT") to environmental regulations. Operators must use the BAT to control pollution from their industrial activities to prevent, and where that is not practicable, to reduce to acceptable levels, pollution to air, land and water from industrial activities. The Best Available Techniques also aim to balance the cost to the operator against benefits to the environment. The system of Pollution Prevention and Control is replacing that of Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) (which was established by the Environmental Protection Act 1990) and is taking effect between 2000 and 2007. The Pollution Prevention and Control regime implements the European Directive (EC/96/61) on integrated pollution prevention and control.

China
China's rapid industrialization has substantially increased pollution. China has some relevant regulations: the 1979 Environmental Protection Law, which was largely modelled on U.S. legislation. But the environment continues to deteriorate.Twelve years after the law, only one Chinese city was making an effort to clean up its water discharges.This indicates that China is about 30 years behind the U.S. schedule of environmental regulation and 10 to 20 years behind Europe.

International
The Kyoto Protocol is an amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC), an international treaty on global warming. It also reaffirms sections of the UNFCCC. Countries which ratify this protocol commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases, or engage in emissions trading if they maintain or increase emissions of these gases. A total of 141 countries have ratified the agreement. Notable exceptions include the United States and Australia, who have signed but not ratified the agreement. The stated reason for the United States not ratifying is the exemption of large emitters of greenhouse gases who are also developing countries, like China and India.