What are the harmful effects of chemicals?

Aug 26, 2022, 16:45 IST

Harmful effects:

1. NO₂ is a lung irritant that can lead to an acute respiratory disease in children. It is toxic to living tissues also.

2. The irritant red haze in the traffic and congested places is due to oxides of nitrogen.

3. Higher concentrations of NO₂ damage the leaves of plants and retard the rate of photosynthesis.

4. NO₂ is also harmful to various textile fibres and metals.

For More Chemistry Doubts visit main page of Entrancei. 

5. Nitric oxide alone does not have any adverse effect on humans at concentrations that occur in the atmosphere. Though NO has about 1500 times greater affinity than CO for haemoglobin but it is unable to enter the blood stream from the atmosphere. But its presence in large amount may result in the increase of NO₂ by oxidation and thus become harmful.

6. Acid rain containing HNO₃ causes the of the soil to decrease to 4 or 5 and thus reduces the fertility of the soil.

7. The nitric oxide coming out from supersonic gets directly enters the stratosphere and combine with ozone resulting in the decomposition of O₃ to O₂ thus decreasing O₃ density

NO + O₃ ® NO₂ + O₂,

NO₂ + O₃ ® NO + 2O₂.

8. The most serious hazard of NO and NO₂ is in the formation of an unpleasant mixture of gases and particulates that make up photochemical smog.

To control the pollution due to NO and NO₂, catalytic converters are used in automobile exhaust which convert the oxides of nitrogen to free N₂ or to a small amount of NH₃.

The flue gases coming from power plants or industrial units and containing NO₂ and SO₂ are freed from these gases by scrubbing them with H₂SO₄. As oxides of nitrogen and oxides of sulphur are acidic oxides, scrubbing can also be done with alkaline solution such as Ca(OH)₂ and Mg(OH)₂.

What are the harmful effects of chemicals? pdf