Pollution

How it is used

You reduce, control, prevent or monitor pollution. It combines with the medium or the source: air pollution, water pollution, plastic pollution, industrial pollution. The person or company causing it is the polluter, the harmful substance is a pollutant and the verb is pollute.

Example sentences

1. Pollution from the industrial zone has been reaching the river for years.

2. The new filters cut pollution from the plant by more than half.

Common collocations

• air pollution
• reduce pollution
• pollution control
• plastic pollution
• source of pollution

Related terms

• air qualityHow clean or polluted the air is, measured by the levels of pollutants such as fine particles, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and sulfur dioxide.
• water pollutionContamination of rivers, lakes, seas or groundwater by substances such as sewage, industrial chemicals, fertilizers, oil or plastics that harm people and aquatic life.
• polluter pays principleThe idea that whoever causes pollution should pay the costs of preventing it, cleaning it up and repairing the damage, instead of the public paying.
• particulate matter (PM)Tiny solid or liquid particles in the air, such as dust, soot and smoke. The smallest ones, PM2.5, can travel deep into the lungs and even into the bloodstream.
• soil contaminationThe presence of harmful substances in soil, such as heavy metals, oil, solvents or pesticides, at levels that may threaten human health, groundwater or ecosystems.

More terms: Pollution and Environmental Quality

• wastewater treatment
• microplastics
• ozone layer
• smog
• acid rain
• eutrophication