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UPPCS Environment Gap Sheet: Pollution and Its Diseases.
UPPCS has asked 19 of these. 7 have not been asked yet. Lock the first list, then read the second: it holds what UPPCS has not used yet.
First, the concept
A pollutant is anything that harms living things when it is in the wrong place or in too large an amount. Some break down naturally (sewage); some do not (DDT, plastics, heavy metals).
Clean water has low BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand). Sewage raises BOD and uses up the oxygen fish need.
Many diseases are named after the place where they were first seen, and UPPCS pairs the disease with its metal or chemical.
✅ Already asked (19)
Diseases from metals and chemicals
- Minamata disease · Mercury; Japan
- Itai-itai disease · Cadmium; Japan; painful bones
- Blue baby syndrome · Nitrate in drinking water
- Fluorosis · Too much fluoride; teeth and bones
- Arsenicosis and black foot disease · Arsenic in groundwater; West Bengal and Bangladesh
- Lead poisoning · Old petrol and paints; harms children's brains
- Bhopal gas tragedy · 1984; methyl isocyanate (MIC)
- Silicosis and asbestosis · Lung diseases of miners and stone and asbestos workers
Air
- PM2.5 and PM10 · Fine particles that reach deep into the lungs
- Acid rain · Sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides; damages the Taj Mahal's marble
- Photochemical smog · Ozone and PAN made by sunlight acting on car exhaust
- Carbon monoxide · Binds haemoglobin far more strongly than oxygen
- Radon · A radioactive gas from rocks that collects indoors
Water
- BOD · Biochemical Oxygen Demand; high BOD means dirty water
- COD · Chemical Oxygen Demand; counts all oxidisable matter
- Eutrophication · Too many nutrients in a lake cause algal bloom and kill fish
Waste, noise and soil
- Fly ash · Ash from coal power plants; used to make bricks and cement
- Noise and the decibel · Noise is measured in decibels; above about 85 dB harms hearing
- Bioremediation · Using microbes or plants to clean polluted soil or water (oil-eating bacteria)
❌ Not asked yet (7)
Items marked 'asked in other exams' have come in UPSC or other state exams, not yet in UPPCS.
🔒 7 items not asked yet
Air: 2 · Water: 2 · Waste, noise and soil: 3
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⚠️ Minamata is mercury and Itai-itai is cadmium: do not swap them. Blue baby comes from nitrate, not from lead. High BOD means more pollution, not less.
'Asked' and 'not asked' are checked against every UPPCS question on this site. 'Not asked yet' does not mean it will surely come.