Effects of water pollution on human health || water pollution is dangerous to human health

  Effects of Water Pollution on Human Health:-

Notable effects of water pollution include those involved in human health. The effects of the main water pollutants are as follows:

i) Nitrates (the salts of nitric acid) in drinking water can cause disease in infants that sometimes results in death.

ii) Cadmium in sludge-derived fertilizer can be absorbed by crops; if inserted in sufficient amounts, the metal can cause an acute diarrhoeal disorder and liver and kidney damage.

iii) The water contaminated with heavy metals can cause serious heavy problems. Mercury compounds in waste Water are converted by bacterial action into extremely toxic methyl mercury, which can cause numbness of limbs, lips and tongue, deafness, blurring of vision and mental derangement.

iv) The water polluted with sewage usually contains pathogens like virus, bacteria, parasitic protozoa and worms. The sewage-contaminated water, therefore, is a source of water borne diseases like jaundice, cholera, typhoid, amoebiasis, etc.

v) Excess fluoride in drinking water causes teeth deformity, hardening of bones, as also stiff and painful joints (skeletal fluorosis).

vi) Over-exploitation of groundwater may lead to reaching of arsenic from soil and rock sources and contaminate groundwater.

Continuous exposure to arsenic causes 'black foot, disease". It also causes diarrhea, peripheral neuritis, hyperkerotosis, as also lung and skin cancer.

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