PRS3702: The Management Of An Environmental Pollutant

The Management of an Environmental Pollutant
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The Management of an Environmental Pollutant
Fertilizers and pesticides are some of the most common pollutants that affect human beings, animals, and the environment. Although these chemicals have been responsible for the expansion of food production, studies have shown that intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides has resulted in mass pollution (Carvalho, 2017, p.48). Pollution can be defined as the emission of contaminants that damages or causes harm to living things and the environment (Juntti, 2018, p.4). Environmental pollution occurs when the environment is unable to process effectively the contaminants and neutralize them without resulting in functional and structural damage (Bright, 2012). Agricultural pollution originates from agrochemicals that are used in farming, while their pathway includes waterways that end up harming their receptors, who include humans being, the environment, and other living organisms. This paper critically analyzes the management of pesticides and fertilizers and the legislative and environmental policies to manage these pollutants in the context of environmental management systems.
Management of an Environmental Pollutant
Agricultural pollution entails the emission of wastes resulting from the fertilizers and pesticides that farmers use in their farming processes, which eventually harm the natural environment. Studies have shown that agrochemical residuals that remain in the soil act as the main contaminants, which affect the foods, which human beings consume and affect other livings. Contaminants from agricultural industries, also worsen other environmental issues which are related to agricultural activities, and they include landfill disposals, emission of used water that is untreated, air pollution as a result of pesticides, and the toxic wastes that are buried underground (Lake, 2017). The pathways of these pollutants can either be water sources, wastes deposited in landfills, and the toxic materials that are deposited underground. Extensive use of fertilizers and pesticides usually result to degeneration of the environment since the living organisms that are utilized in the growth of crops are unable to function effectively. Receptors of theagrochemical wastes are human beings, the environment, and other living organisms and the reasons why they are affected is that the environment does not properly recycle these wastes. Studies have also shown that some of the fertilizers and pesticides such as DDT cannot be recycled since they contain toxic contaminants.
Studies have shown that human beings have a huge impact on the nitrogen cycle since the extensive use of fertilizers tends to raise the amount of nitrogen that is biologically available in the atmosphere (Lundy, 2017, p.28). In the ecosystem, the main natural cycles include water, carbon, phosphorus, and nitrogen (see Appendix B). Therefore, any agricultural activity that tends to affect the stability of the earth in terms of diversity, efficiency, and adaptability of ecosystems. Therefore, increased use of fertilizers has more than doubled the nitrogen fixation across the world and this has negative impact on algal blooms, eutro...