Internet Search For Pollutants
Set three pages aside in your notebook. Title these as ‘Water Pollutants’, ‘’Human Health’, and
‘Air Pollutants’.
Begin at the number you are assigned by the teacher.
Record answers quickly in your notebook on the correct page. Make a guess or skip it if you can’t find the answer.
Complete as much as you can. When you finish number 11, go to number 1 and continue from there.
If you are stuck, check that you have typed in the website correctly, ask a friend to check also. If it still doesn’t work, skip that website and move to the next one.
1) Website: www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/waterpollution.htm
Write your answers under the heading Water Pollutants.
Scroll to: Causes of Pollution
First Paragraph
What two nutrients do sewage and fertilizers contain?
These nutrients do what?
This causes what 3 things?
These three things cause harm to what two things?
Second Paragraph
Dirt and soil may cloud water - name some potential causes of excess dirt in the water.
What happens when these sediments enter various bodies of water?
What are pathogens?
Where might they come from?
Scroll to: Additional Forms of Water Pollution
Name 3 other forms, and tell where they are likely to come from.
2) Website: www.ec.gc.ca
Write your answers under the heading Water Pollutants.
Click on:
Click on:
Click on:
English
Water (left side bar)
Water Pollution (left side bar)
Click on: Freshwater: Water Pollution (under Find Out About…)
Click on: Toxic Chemicals: The legacy of a chemical society.

First Paragraph
How many known chemicals are there? How many are used commercially?
Last Paragraph
Name chemicals that are harmful to life - even in small amounts. Tell where each one comes from.
Circle the ones that are agricultural.
Click on: Water Pollution (on the left hand margin)
Click on: Acid Rain and the Aquatic Environment
Check out the diagram describing Acid Rain.
Click on:
Click on:
Back (Arrow on the top menu bar)
How We Contaminate Groundwater
Make a list of the point sources and non-point sources that contaminate our groundwater
(Paragraph 2)
Paragraph 6 lists some of the contaminants that can come from sewage tanks. Write them down.
Why are contamination problems increasing in Canada? (Paragraph 8) List the compounds that contaminate wells in rural Canada.
Once an aquifer is contaminated - how long can contaminants stay in it (residence time)?
(Paragraph 9)
3) Website: www.epa.vic.gov.au/students/water/pollutants.asp
Write your answers under the heading Water Pollutants.
Scan through the list under ‘Where it comes from?’
Write down activities that produce water pollution that you may be responsible for one day.
Notice that increased water temperature can be a pollutant.
4) Website: www.ec.gc.ca
Write your answers under the heading Air Pollutants.
Click on:
Click on:
Click on:
Click on:
Click on:
English
Topics (at the top)
Air (left side bar)
Air Pollution (left side bar)
Clean Air: Pollutants (under Find Out About…)
Click on: Smog (under Criteria Air Contaminants)
List the two major components of SMOG (paragraph 1) and the bad things that these components can do (paragraph 2).
5) Website: www.niehs.nih.gov/external/faq/indoor.htm

Write your answers under the heading Air Pollutants.
Which of the pollutants listed here have you used or encountered?
6) Website: www.cdc.gov/asthma/children.htm
Write your answers under the heading Human Health.
First Paragraph
By what percent did asthma increase in children from 1980 to 1996?
Second Paragraph
Record the things that trigger asthma in children (last sentence in the paragraph).
Click on: Air Pollution and Respiratory Health (under Quick Links in the right side bar)
Asthma is linked in the first paragraph (under About the Program) to indoor and outdoor air pollution. What kind of illness is it called?
7) Website: www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/pesticide.htm
Write your answers under the heading Human Health.
Click on: What is a Pesticide?
Which of this list do you come into contact with?
Website: www.nrdc.org/health/effects/qendoc.asp
Note: Endocrine disruption means this chemical will affect hormones. Hormones are chemicals in animals (including humans) that control growth and development and reproduction. Children grow and develop more than adults – so we don’t want to affect their hormones. And reproduction means anything related to puberty, infertility, and sexuality.
Click on: 3. What are some likely routes of exposure to endocrine disruptors?
What is the first listed source of endocrine disruptors?
Scroll down to number 4.
How do we know that endocrine disruptors are dangerous? (Just the first sentence.)
Read the answers to questions 5, 7, and 8.
List a few things from number 9 that you will do to limit your exposure to pesticides.
8) Website: www.nrdc.org/health/home/fchems.asp
Write your answers under the heading Human Health.
List the 5 common household contaminents.

9) Website: www.ec.gc.ca/mercury
Write your answers under the heading Human Health.
Click on: English
Click on: Basic Facts (left side bar)
Scroll down to the picture.
Notice the organisms in the picture that have the biggest red dots. What part of the food chain do they belong to?
Scroll down to the second paragraph under the picture. What are we concerned about because of this bioaccumulation?
Scroll to: Sources of Mercury
Read the first sentence.
By how much has the amount of mercury increased in the environment since industrialization?
Read the last sentence. Where do humans use mercury?
Click on: Environment and Health (in sidebar)
What can mercury do to humans? (last paragraph)
Click on: What Can I Do? (in sidebar)
List the things you can do to make a difference in the mercury issue.
Include a list of the things that contain mercury that you might use.
10) Website: www.ec.gc.ca/toxics/en
Write your answers under the heading Human Health.
Click on: Substances (left side bar)
Look at this long list of toxic substances that Canada is dealing with!!!
Scroll down and click on Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs)
PBDEs are imported into Canada to be added to what common items? (first paragraph, second sentence)
About halfway through that paragraph, you can see that PBDE levels are rising in Canada.
Click on: Sources (left side bar)
What two items in this list do you probably encounter frequently?
Click on: Wood Preservation Sector
Wood that you use to build with around your house is often treated with chemicals to preserve it. How many wood treating plants are operational in Canada as of 2000?
Notice the list of chemicals used in wood treatment!
11) Website: www.epa.gov/msw/hhw-list.htm
Write your answers under the heading Human Health.
Read the lists and pick out one from each that you use. Record them.