Environmental Pollution In Malaysia

environmental Pollution In MalaysiaMalaysia is rapidly culture towards cosmos an industrial country. Many industries much(prenominal) as heavier-than-air and unfounded industries, small and medium industries and backyard industries sacrifice been growing in the last ex years. The increase in industrial and agricultural correspondivities has drawd a new necessity in ho employ, urbanization, transportation and medication as the population increase. All these allow for contri onlye to environmental problems especially contamination due(p) to the accumulation of precarious chemicals such(prenominal)(prenominal) as loaded down(p) metals in environment.Environmental defilement has rifle a major issue that requires immediate action as it whitethorn personal effects world health. Pollution do-nothing take many forms such as water and port that we breathe. Urbanization in developed and development country, civilization and industrialization make the situation of the envi ronment worsened as such that in that respect is no more safe place to live. From the chemical science dictionary, pollution eject be define as an undesirable variety show in the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of the natural environment, brought about by mans activities. It whitethorn be harmful to human or non living things. Basically there atomic number 18 two main classes of pollutants which argon biodegradable which means it can be rendered harmless by natural processes and need therefore execute no permanent harm if adequately dispersed or hardened such as sewage. An opposite type is nonbiodegradable which cannot be decomposing by microbial activity. For example labored metals such as lead, DDT and other chlorinated hydrocarbons employ as pesticides, which eventually hive away in the environment and may be concentrated in fodder chains.Pollution likewise can be describes as the introduction of foreign substances into the biosphere. It may affect the soil, rivers, seas, or the atmosphere. The pollutants that are released from the anthropogenic activities such as agricultural industries, open burning, solid decompose disposal, sewage treatment plants and transportation produce hazardous and poisonous pollutants such as SO2, NOx, enceinte metals and hydrocarbon compounds that effects not only human but also both plants and animals that can cause death. Some of these hazardous pollutants call up their way into the human system done the food web. They may tolerate bio renewal, metabolism and excreted without the risk of toxicity depending on the chemical characteristics of the compound and the battery-acid in human body. However, some of the pollutants resist chemical and biological transformation and accumulate in the tissues, including the nerves, to cause toxicity. The obstinate effects of these pollutants on the nerves system give rise to neurotoxicity. Rana et al.,(2004) Katranitsas et al., (2003) found that there is point that increasing exposure to toxic elements in marine and terrestrial organisms is having adverse toxicological consequences. Therefore heavy metals pollution become serious issues that moldiness been concerned.Unlike other pollutants such as pet utilisationum hydrocarbons and domestic and municipal litter which may visibly build up in the environment, follow metals in the environment may accumulate unnoticed to toxic levels. Generally, human health problems associated with trace metal contamination bemuse been well-highlighted in the literature. In spite of the relatively low level of industrial activity in less developed regions there is nevertheless a high effectiveness of toxic heavy metal pollution. The distribution of metals in the environment is a leave behind of natural processes (volcanoes, erosion, spring water, bacterial activity) and anthropogenic activities (fossil fuel combustion, industrial and agricultural processes) (Florea and Busselberg, 2006).Heavy met als such as arsenic lead, copper, cadmium, or surface are released from the earths crust into the environment through anthropogenic sources such as non-ferrous metal industry or non-renewable energy consumption. These substances can cause major damage to human health or to ecosystem constancy even at low concentrations in soils. To overcome this issue, many countries have taken numerous initiatives especially the developed country. For example, in 2001 the European substance council signed the 1979 Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution on Heavy Metals (Europa, 2007). Therefore there are many methods to value and quantify the presence of these substances. One of them is biological apply.The application of biological forms as the indicators is the outperform ways to evaluate the environmental condition. According to (Szczepaniak and Biziuk, 2003 Bargagli, 1998), in disposition to detect, evaluate and minimize the effects, there has been an emphasis in the use of natural bioindicators to supervise atmospheric fictional character in both urban and rural environments. Examples of bioindicators are lichens, fish, and mosses.One of the bioindicators that can be used is lichens. Lichens are widely cognise as an excellent indicator to assess our environment. Lichens play importance roles to woodwind instrument communities. Lichens represent a rare source of readily digestible food at all times of year and in diverse environments due to their ability to survive in extreme climate condition. More largely, lichens act as pioneer species in barren or disturbed environments their yield on rock surfaces is one of the primary stages of soil formation in such environments (Brkenhielm, 1998 Cooper, 1953 in Dawson, 2008). Lichens are small, non-vascular plants consisting of a fungus and an alga growing together in one tissue. Normally lichens are found on the sputter of trees, or the reindeer lichens growing on the ground, but many other species gro w on rocks, fences, roofs, tombstones, and other objects. The characteristic of lichen that sensitive to the changes of the meet makes them as an excellent bioindicators and biomonitors for air pollution, especially sulfur dioxide pollution, since they derive their water and all-important(a) nutrients mainly from the atmosphere rather than from the soil.A lot of studies towards lichens had been done cogitate to pollution especially air pollution in about Europen countries and trades union America Asia. During the period 1973-1988, approximately 1500 papers were published on the effects of air pollution on lichens Richardson (1988) cited in Ahmadjian (1993), and many general reviews of lichens and air pollution have been compi conduct (Ahmadjian, 1993). The legislation about air quality that they do has been passes through out the countries especially in developing countries where air pollution is bad. In Malaysia, several studies has been conducted (Mokhtar et al., 2006) to de termine the heavy metals pollution level development lichen at difference places. From the research, they found out that the sensitivity of lichens towards heavy metals diversify from each species. Most of species of lichen have a wide geographical distribution, which allows for a have of pollution covering wide areas and its high capacity to accumulate metals (Burton, 1986). Hutchinson et al., (1996) stated that lichens do not have seasonal variations and therefore accumulation of pollutants can occur all year-round. Lichens and mosses usually have considerable longevity, which led to their use as long-term integrators of atmospheric deposition (Sloof, 1993). The benefits of using lichens as quantitative biological monitors of air metal deposition compare to stodgy air sampling techniques rise from that lichens are present in most terrestrial habitats, are perennial, inexpensive and easy reproduced (Baffi et al., 2002).Problem statement at present the level of heavy metals in t he environment increasing day by day as the world becomes much more developed. This is because the uncontrolled released of heavy metals leads to the pollution due to the excessive anthropogenic activities. The continuous loading of heavy metals into inland and coastal water make the situation worsens. Anthropogenic activities such as mining, smelting and agriculture have topical anaestheticly increased the levels of heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), arsenic (As) and nickel note (Ni) in soil up to dangerous levels for plants, animals and human beings. Although with the set virtually us, the status of heavy metals level quite crucial as the result of human daily activities, dense population area near the forest and also an increasing of the transportation. These activities give adverse effect to the life being as they enter into the environment. Other than that the regulations provided by Malaysian government which is the Environmental Quali ty Act 1974 by Department of Environment, still not fully been forced due to the involvement other parties such as local authority to take action when the level of pollutants exceed the standard tending(p) especially in coastal area. This is due to the different department have different responsibilities. Nevertheless these parties can be work together to create a better life. Meanwhile due to the lack of studies towards the lichens in our country, the entropy obtained can help the local authority in decision qualification process thus maintained the quality. Besides that, it would help to make an sagacity about the environmental condition and perhaps to improve environmental quality status.ObjectiveThis study was carried out in order to achieve as the followingsTo quantify the heavy metals present in lichens.To evaluate the level of heavy metals in lichens.To establish the correlation of heavy metals pollutants in lichens with the surrounding environment. meaning(a) of studyBy knowing that different species has different sensitivity towards heavy metals, it allow bettering taste about the sensitivity of lichens towards heavy metals at surrounding environment. The presence or absences of species in areas can give better understanding about the sensitivity of lichens towards the pollutants. The data obtained also can be used to assess the toxicology effects not only to the lichens but also on human. Heavy metals can very toxic if the level of the pollutants higher than the restrain given. The data also can create the distribution patterns of lichens at that place. The pollution level and status place also can be determined. This study provides a reference record for conducting further biomonitoring studies.Thesis organizationThe goal of heavy metals in lichens as bioindicators is a thesis based on previous research in different sampling location. Overall, this thesis consists of quintet chapters which are to assist in understanding and ease to organize through writing process. The chapters in this thesis have been organizing as followsChapter 2 generally discourse about the used on lichens as bioindicators. In this chapter, it also has detailed explanation on the morphology of lichens that play important role in accumulate heavy metals. It also let in the history on the scientific research on lichens, the significant role on bring in the heavy metals and the effects of air pollution and metal pollution towards lichens.Chapter 3 is more focusing on research methodology. In this part, it is divided into one-third parts which are the description on area of study, sampling assembling and lastly laboratory analysis which is the procedure to determine heavy metals using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS).Chapter 4 is focusing on the results obtained and discussion. In this chapter, it discuss about the data obtained after analyze by ICP-MS. It also include the statistical tools to analyze the precision of the dat a obtain in order to have a good data. It also states the results and the data interpretation among the samples.Chapter 5 is the last chapter which is the conclusion. In this part, it concludes for the whole chapter in the thesis. It related on the objective of the study including the recommendation to improve the research on lichens.