15. Prepare and present a talk on soil pollution. Additional texts for home reading toxic shocker

Spitsbergen has a dirty secret. The last stop before the North Pole, and Europe’s most northerly outpost, has become the continent’s long-range cesspool, courtesy of a quirk in the planet’s atmospheric circulation system. Some scientists fear that, eventually, the majority of some of the most lethal man-made chemicals – most of which are now banned in Europe – could end up in places like Spitsbergen, 1,000 kilometers inside the Arctic Circle. Fish in the lakes of Spitsbergen contain six times more mercury than fish in the Scottish highlands – and more than 20 times more than those in Spain. The further north one goes, the more contaminated the fish is.

There is nothing natural about this contamination. The metals come north from the mainland of Europe, and perhaps beyond. And it is not just metals. Poisonous pesticides and industrial chemicals, many banned in Europe for 20 years or more, are turning up in increasing concentrations in Spitsbergen. Every winter, pollution from European cities and metal smelters forms a smog that spreads north to the Arctic. Some pollutants are deposited on the snow and ice. Each spring, as ice melts, these poisons flush into the sea, entering the food chain. They are eaten by fish and by birds, seals and polar bears that eat the fish.

There is a global process that is systematically transferring these chemicals from warmer to colder areas. That’s why, for instance, trout in remote lakes in the Yukon contained levels of the pesticide toxaphene that were 10 times higher than Canadian food safety health limits. High levels of DDT, a crop pesticide, dioxins, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls, man-made chemicals once widely used in the electronics industry) and mercury are also found in the fish. Toxaphene has been banned in Canada for over a decade, but it is widely used in tropical Asia and Latin America. It should be noted that most chemicals evaporate readily – especially in hot climates – and can remain in the air, perhaps for several years, till that air gets cold enough for them to condense out. It is as if the entire planet’s atmosphere is operating a giant distillation experiment, evaporating chemicals from the tropics and transferring them north. The cold air of the Arctic acts as a cleansing system for the rest of the Earth at the cost of chronic pollution in the region once thought to be pristine. Once the poisons reach Arctic waters, they concentrate further as biological processes take over. They reach their highest concentrations in animals at the top of the food chain and humans.

Noise pollution

• Does WHO consider noise pollution a big problem?

• Certainly. Nowadays noise is becoming a major pollutant. Of all forms of pollution, the most aggressive is the constant noise in the street, in the factory and even inside a building.

• What definition do the specialists give to the term of Noise Pollution?

• They say: “Although omnipresent, noise is a rather subjective phenomenon producing an auditory sensation considered to be annoying”.

• Do they consider it to be simply a source of annoyance? Don’t they think a constant exposure to noise is a potential cause of injury to one’s health?

• You see, in short, we are chronically subjected to noise which usually varies between 35 and 60 decibels with occasional peaks of 90 to 100. But weather such a noise is harmful to health, no scientist has yet taken the responsibility of giving a definite or clear answer to it.

• But in what way do the specialists consider its effect harmful?

• Well, a series of investigations in the USA and Europe gave evidence that noise was a significant factor in certain affections. There doesn’t appear to be any real syndrome due to noise, though it may be possible to speak of a so-called “sonic” pathology.