Unit 4 Environmental Science has two areas of study:

(1) Pollution and (2) Environmental Management Systems.

Area of study (1) includes the following:

> What is pollution? (Air, water and soil)
> Sources and sinks
> Diffuse and point sources
> Mobile and fugitive emissions
> Transport mechanisms including persistence, mobility and bioaccumulation.
> pollutants-bioaccumulation (information sheet)
> Environmental human health, health of the environment and environmental hazards.
> Exposure, dosage, chronic and acute toxicity, allergies, specificity and synergistic reactions
> Endocrine disruptors
> Mercury and Sulphur dioxide will be the two main pollutants studied by all students.
Worksheet attached pollutant-worksheet

MERCURY

National Pollutants Inventory Fact Sheet on Mercury

Fact sheet from VAEE on Mercury here: mercury-fact-sheet

SULPHUR DIOXIDE

National Pollutants Inventory Fact Sheet on Sulphur Dioxide.

Fact sheet from VAEE about Sulphur Dioxide here: sulphur-fact-sheet
> We will conduct our case study on flouride, as it has been a major issue in the local media in recent times.
Check out this interesting article about how pollution has caused ‘reverse evolution’ in Lake Washington.
The Environmental Protection Authority and the CSIRO have great resources for this unit of work.

FLUORIDE

National Pollutants Inventory Fact Sheet on Fluoride Compounds

World Health Organisation on Fluoride in drinking water

World Health Organisation – poster about fluoride and arsenic in drinking water worldwide

Environmental Protection Agency (US) – Drinking Water Contaminants (including fluoride)

Victorian Government Health Information – Fluoride in the Air Environment

More from the Victorian Government Health Information about Fluoridation.

Better Health Channel – Fluoride and tooth decay

BIOREMEDIATION

Using bacteria, fungi or plants to clean up pollution has been around for hundreds of years, but genetic engineering and new research is creating new options for reducing environmental damage caused by toxic substances.

Soil and Water Remediation using Bioreactors (small video for a quick introduction)

You Tube video (Bioremediation with Fungi - neutralising petroleum-based hydrocarbons using mushroom mycelium)

A 30 minute video available to download – Bioremediation: A Primer (165 MB)

Bioremediation – a definition from Wikipedia

Transcript from Radio National’s Earthbeat program Bioremediation – Using Plants to clean up toxic sites.

AIR POLLUTION VIDEOS

Global Dimming – http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2058273530743771382