Does dillution solve pollution?

Question

I'm doing Science homework and the question reads:

Does dillution solve the problem of pollution? Support your answer.


Can some one please help me??

I am really desperate!!!!!!!

PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 1

I think the answer has to be no because the pollutants in our oceans could hardly be more diluted and yet they cause big problems. Firstly the fish that consume the pollutants concentrate them in their bodies and can send the pollution back to us on our dinner plates. I also read that our oceans are full of tiny particles of plastic that do not biodegrade and so harm marine wildlife. As a former chemist in industry it bothers me that we don't use our knowledge enough to clean up the mess we create or prevent it in the first place. It's possible to create a vast range of consumer products that biodegrade and do not harm the environment. Companies like http://www.ecover.com have a good range but more could be done if there was greater consumer demand for eco-friendly products and greater government restrictions on pollution levels.

Answer 2

It depends on your point of view.

When all my dishes are dirty (polluted?) I wash them. Washing is mainly dilution of the pollution. The washings go to the sewer and the treatment plant. The pollutants are removed from the water, and become usable sludge. Certainly dilution was an important part of the process.

If I wash my car in the driveway, the pollutants go into the storm sewer, and directly to the bay. Even though diluted, the oil and greases are harmful to the bay. No big deal if only I do this, but if many others do, it can be a problem.

If a biodegradable chemical is discharged into a river, and is harmful to marine life, it can kill. If it is diluted sufficiently, it will not harm marine life. With time it degrades into safe stuff.

Maybe you can use this information to develop an opinion on your own.

Answer 3

"... just as we have assumed that our vast atmosphere could absorb, dilute, and detoxify whatever we dumped into the air, we have treated our seemingly boundless waters as if they had an unlimited capacity to wash away anything that we throw into them, be it tons of untreated sewage, solid garbage, or barrels full of toxic industrial wastes. For many years, this worked ... or at least seemed to work. The waters are so vast, so deep, and flowed so quickly that they did in fact detoxify just about anything that we could throw into them. The "dilution solution to pollution" appeared to be a good one. So we dumped into the rivers, into the drains, and into the oceans, and because it all appeared to wash away, we thought that was the end of it."

so basically, i think that would have worked if we only dumped sparingly, and it would have all diluted. but we overdid it, so i think we put more than nature could've handled. so if not man-made pollution, than i'd have to say yes. but with man-made pollution, no. it depends on what the question's talking about.