Word: toxicants
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...sulfur and nitrogen compounds. But most experts believe that the current problem is directly traceable to the burning of fossil fuels by power plants, factories and smelting operations and, to a lesser extent, auto emissions. When tall smokestacks vent their fumes, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and traces of such toxic metals as mercury and cadmium mix with water vapor in the atmosphere. Chemical reactions follow that form dilute solutions of nitric and sulfuric acids-acid rain...
...link acidity with a specific smokestack. But there is little doubt about the damaging effects of acid rain. Absorbed into the soil, it breaks down minerals containing calcium, potassium and aluminum, robbing plants of nutrients. Eventually the acid enters nearby bodies of water, often with a deadly burden of toxic metals that can stunt or kill aquatic Life...
...Massachusetts became so acidic that it dissolved water conduits and fixtures, producing unhealthy levels of lead in drinking water. Cost since that time for neutralizing chemicals: $1 million annually. In Maine, where the measured acidity of rainfall has increased 40 times in the past 80 years, high levels of toxic mercury, lead and aluminum in acidified streams have killed or deformed salmon embryos. The problem is spreading to other parts of the country. Damage from acid rain has been reported in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Florida and California...
...tiny minority of Viet Nam veterans were exposed to Agent Orange. Yet the Veterans Administration's handling of the issue has ranged from indifferent to slipshod, and serves for the veterans as a vivid example of Government callousness. Dioxin, the toxic ingredient in Agent Orange, has been linked with skin diseases, birth defects and cancer. Yet, according to reports last month by both the General Accounting Office and the Office of Technology Assessment, the VA has been inexcusably reluctant to study the effects of Agent Orange and has provided only cursory, inadequate medical exams...
NASA is now conducting an experiment to see if photographs can help to trace from space the spread of toxic pollutants in San Francisco...