Now that you have completed this study session, you can assess how well you have achieved its Learning Outcomes by answering the following questions.

Define the words biodegradation, bioaccumulation and biomagnification, and explain the difference between them.

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Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus are useful to farmers who apply them to fields to help increase growth of their crops. Write a paragraph that explains how these same nutrients cause pollution when they are washed off into rivers and lakes. Your answer must include the following words: algal bloom; deoxygenation; eutrophic; fish; organic matter.

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Give three examples of air pollutants, three examples of sources of air pollution and three possible effects of air pollution on human health.

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  1. Complete all the gaps in the table below.
    Water pollutant Exposure route Human health effect
    Vibrio cholerae bacteria
    schistosomiasis/bilharzia
    organic mercury ingestion
    ascariasis
  2. Which of the diseases in your completed table are transmitted by faecal-oral transmission?

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A junior manager in a manufacturing company is asked to write a report to the Chief Executive with recommendations for reducing the environmental impact of their factory. Rewrite this extract from the report using terms from the list provided to fill the gaps:

cleaner production; pollution prevention; precautionary principle; polluter pays principle; recycling; reduce; reuse; waste hierarchy; waste minimisation.

Our company has a duty to reduce pollution from the wastes produced in our factory. We should adopt policies of ………………, which avoid pollution in the first place. I recommend that we follow the ……………… and do not assume that our wastes will not cause any environmental damage. We should adopt ……………… processes to ensure we reduce our impact on the environment.

For management of the solid wastes produced in our factory we should follow the ……………… This means we should first ……………… the amount of waste produced and identify opportunities for ……………… and ……………… If we successfully adopt these ……………… procedures we will reduce potential pollution from our company. Although some costs may be incurred, this could save money in the long run because under the ……………… we may be liable for costs of any environmental damage that we cause.

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