General concepts

to foul sth (up) (with / by sth): The oil spill has fouled at least four beaches. | Two oil-related accidents near Los Angeles have fouled the ocean and the skies there. | He lit a cigarette and started to foul up the air with stinging yellow smoke. | We're fouling the seas with chemicals and oil. | The seashore is fouled up with oil from the wrecked ship. | Entire coastal bays and lagoons along the coast have been fouled by oil spills and the runoff of toxic chemicals. | A village's entire beach and harbour can be fouled by a single rotting whale.

5. to defile [ transitive ] (formal) to make something dirty, foul, filthy or impure, especially by showing no respect; to pollute загрязнять; засорять; портить; пачкать; оскорблять, осквернять: It's a shame that such a beautiful area has been defiled by a rubbish dump.

6. to despoil [ transitive ] (literary) to make a place much less attractive by removing or damaging things

to despoil sth (by sth): The sandy beaches are being despoiled by an oil spill. | Regulated, socialized economies trample on human dignity, despoil the natural environment and depress economic performance. | People picking mushrooms are sometimes stopped by passers-by and ticked off for despoiling the countryside.

7. pollution [ uncountable ] (1) the process of making air, water, soil etc dangerously dirty and not suitable for people to use, or the state of being dangerously dirty загрязнение (окружающей среды): Most forms of pollution do not respect national boundaries. | Pollution is a major health hazard. | Pollution is threatening the marine life in the bay. | The report identified eight pollution hot spots.

environmental / air / atmospheric / water / river pollution | (the) pollution of the environment / air / atmosphere / water / river: The fine was for the company's pollution of the air near its plants.

pollution from sth: Pollution from cars is the main cause of global warming. | That means less gasoline consumption and less air pollution from trucks.

(2) substances that make air, water, soil etc dangerously dirty загрязнение, загрязненность: Equipment to monitor pollution and climate change will be installed in the park. | Pollution may destroy the 17^th century shrine. | Once you have cured the water pollution problem, you will have to take steps to avoid it happening again.

to cause / contribute to / generate / produce pollution: There have been accidents during transportation, which have caused serious pollution. | The report found that 95 percent of respondents were aware that cars contributed to environmental pollution. | Litter disfigures the countryside and contributes to pollution, but this is just the tip of the environmental iceberg. | As the number of people increases, more pollution is generated, more habitats are destroyed, and more natural resources are used up. | Not only do they consume more natural resources, they also produce more pollution.

to be exposed to / suffer from pollution: Studies have shown that not all individuals are equally exposed to pollution. | The region as a whole suffers from significant air pollution from ageing heavy industrial plants.

to fight / tackle // prevent // control / monitor pollution: The use of electric cars could be a key factor in fighting pollution. | The local authority have agreed to implement a series of new measures to fight the pollution. | The notice requires the region to tackle pollution in North Queensferry. | The new agency is responsible for controlling air pollution. | This continues, but at least now efforts are also being made to prevent further pollution and even repair some of the damage.

measures to tackle road congestion and environmental pollution.

to reduce / cut / decrease / limit // increase (the level of) pollution / pollution levels: The city is looking into ways to reduce air pollution.. | The change reflects the continuing failure by state and local governments to reduce pollution enough to meet federal health standards. | The convention, signed by the six states bordering the Black Sea, aims to reduce current pollution levels. | A federal law spells out the penalties for missing the deadline to cut air pollution. | She says that transporting goods by rail instead of road would cut air pollution dramatically. | This will increase rather than decrease pollution.

reduction / cut in pollution: California in 1990 enacted a plan requiring drastic cuts in air pollution from automobiles.

(to set / adopt // enforce // meet) pollution standards: The water authorities thus not only set and enforce pollution standards, they are major polluters themselves. | Crawford is one of the founders of the International Dark-Sky Association, which lobbies governments to adopt pollution standards. | But most policy takes a different approach, the imposition of pollution standards that regulate the maximum amount of allowed pollution.

environmental / air / atmospheric / water / marine pollution: Recycling also helps control environmental pollution by reducing the need for waste dumps. | The project has enabled farmers to reduce environmental pollution whilst raising crop yields. | Heavy industry was developed along the north coast, without any consideration of chemical, atmospheric and environmental pollution. | Coal and air pollution go together. | Atmospheric pollution continues to rise. | Sewage was the major cause of water pollution. | We are all familiar with news items concerning marine pollution due to oil spills.

chemical / industrial / nuclear / radioactive / toxic / noise / sound pollution: Because of chemical pollution of rivers, the cost of producing safe, palatable drinking water has risen dramatically. | Industrial pollution has killed much of the river's wildlife. | The general public are also in danger from industrial pollution. | There has been growing concern among Polynesians about radioactive pollution of the area. | Our survey revealed a noise pollution impact on the community that is not imagined.

source of pollution источник загрязнения: The chemicals have been identified as a source of pollution. | This waste is a potential source of pollution when it degrades, releasing undesirable chemicals into the soil and air. | The greatest sources of pollution are cars, power stations, the chemical industry and agriculture. | The major sources of pollution were oil spills, discharges from refineries and natural seepage from oil-bearing strata.

pollution levels / the level of pollution (rise[s] // fall[s]) уровень / степень загрязнения (увеличивается / уменьшается): Pollution levels are often dangerously high in large cities. | Pollution levels in the area shot up as soon as the factory started operating. | High levels of pollution from the Ilo refinery have been blamed on outdated equipment. | The level of pollution in the river was falling.

pollution control борьба с загрязнением; меры по охране окружающей среды; контроль уровня загрязнения: Central to the green bill is the introduction of integrated pollution control. | What pollution controls will the state authorities put in place? | Before they were defined, there were no ecological targets for pollution control, only political ones. | The factories were ordered to install pollution control equipment but failed to respond.

8. contamination [ uncountable ] загрязнение, загрязненность, засоренность; порча; заражение, инфекция, инфицированность: Contamination arises from leaking underground storage tanks, poorly designed industrial waste ponds, and seepage from the deep-well injection of hazardous wastes into underground geologic formations. | The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 scattered radioactive contamination over a large part of Europe. | The contamination of the sea around Capri may be just the beginning.

9. spoliation | despoliation | despoilment [ uncountable ] (formal) the violent or deliberate destruction of something ограбление, грабеж; расхищение; нанесение вреда / повреждения / порчи: the spoliation of the environment

10. (radioactive) fallout [ uncountable ] the dangerous radioactive dust which is left in the air after a nuclear explosion and which slowly falls to earth радиоактивные осадки: There can be little lasting protection against the effects of radioactive fallout. | They were exposed to radioactive fallout during nuclear weapons tests. | The study linked the increase directly to the radioactive fallout from Chernobyl. | It is the fallout of atmospheric tests which ended in 1974.

11. acid rain [ uncountable ] rain that contains large amounts of harmful acid which can damage the environment and is caused by chemicals in the air, for example from cars or factories кислотный дождь: Acid rain forms when gases produced by burning coal and oil are dissolved in the atmosphere. | Acid rain is not straightforwardly attributable to the burning of coal. | Acid rain is a serious global problem because few species are capable of surviving in the face of such acidic conditions. | Acid rain has made numerous lakes so acidic that they no longer support fish populations. | Acid rain is also thought to be responsible for the decline of many forest ecosystems worldwide. | Ever tighter regulations are being introduced to protect the environment from emissions contributing to the greenhouse effect or acid rain. | The government committed billions of pounds for a programme to reduce acid rain.

12. pollutant [ countable; uncountable ] a substance that makes air, water, soil etc dangerously dirty and not suitable for people to use загрязняющее вещество, загрязнение, загрязнитель; примесь; загрязняющий агент: All the effects of pollutants need to be considered for both short- and long-term exposure. | Many people are allergic to airborne pollutants such as pollen.

air / atmospheric / water / marine / environmental pollutants: More recent targets are cancer and other illnesses that may be caused by air and water pollutants. | Just as fuel consumption grows disproportionately as speeds rise, so does the emission of air pollutants. | A smoker in the house will increase the variety and quantity of air pollutants considerably.

chemical / industrial / nuclear / radioactive / toxic / noise / sound pollutants: The true effect on wild dolphin populations of prolonged exposure to chemical pollutants is hard to measure. | Many scientists blame the warming on industrial pollutants that trap infrared heat in the atmosphere rather than letting it escape into space. | The city's canals are used as a dumping ground for a range of toxic pollutants.

to generate / produce // discharge / release pollutants: Most cities generate a complex brew of pollutants. | Although low-sulfur coal produces fewer pollutants, it's more expensive to mine. | Point sources discharge pollutants at specific locations – from, for example, factories, sewage treatment plants, or oil tankers. | Sulphur dioxide is one of several pollutants that are released into the atmosphere by coal-fired power stations.

to reduce pollutants: New regulations will reduce hazardous air pollutants. | Cleaning up road dust is one of the cheapest ways to reduce the pollutant.

13. contaminant [ countable ] (formal) a substance that makes something dirty, polluted, or poisonous загрязняющее вещество, загрязнение, загрязнитель; примесь: Pollution arising from non-point sources accounts for a majority of the contaminants in streams and lakes. | Because of their stability, they are hard to dispose of and are persistent environmental contaminants. | We are exposed to an overwhelming number of chemical contaminants every day in our air, water and food.

14. polluter [ countable ] a person or organization that causes pollution источник загрязнения (окружающей среды): The defence and energy departments, impervious to markets, are among the country's biggest polluters. | The polluter should pay for the cost of the clean-up. | All others should be brought up to modern standards using the principle that the polluter pays. | Ideally, polluters would pay the true costs of the degradation they cause. | This stipulates that a polluter should pay for the repair of environmental damage.