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Displaying 135 of about 339 resultsSoil erosion is defined as the accelerated removal of topsoil from the land surface through water, wind and tillage (FAO, 2020).
Nonpoint sources of pollution refer to pollution sources that are diffused and without a single point of origin or not introduced into a receiving freshwater or maritime environment from a specific outlet. The pollutants are generally carried off the land by storm-water run-off. The commonly used categories for nonpoint sources are agriculture, forestry…
Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral to which the public are often exposed via drinking-water. Depending on dose intake fluoride may have both beneficial effects (reducing the incidence of dental caries) or negative effects (causing tooth enamel and skeletal fluorosis following prolonged high exposure) (adapted from NCBI, 2020 and WHO, no date).
Benzene is a clear, colourless, highly flammable and volatile, liquid aromatic hydrocarbon (molecular formula C6H6) with a gasoline-like odour (WHO, 2019).
Hazardous pesticide contamination in soils often results from improper storage of (obsolete) agrochemicals, as a result of which pesticides are spilled in the surroundings of the storage site, where they seep into the soil or are dispersed by wind. In some cases, pesticide spillage has been ongoing for many years. Such spillage may cause serious soil or…
Insecticides are chemicals used to control insects by killing them (CDC, 2019).
There are a number of causal agents recognised for oyster diseases. Examples of major oyster diseases and their causal protozoan agents are: bonamiosis (Bonamia exitiosa, B. ostreae); marteiliosis (Marteilia refringens); perkinsosis (Perkinsus marinus, P. olseni). These oyster diseases are notifiable OIE-listed diseases and occur worldwide (OIE, 2019).
African swine fever is a devastating haemorrhagic viral disease of pigs, affecting domestic and wild pigs of all ages and both sexes (FAO, OiE, and EC, 2019).
West Nile virus disease is a fatal neurological disease caused by a virus transmitted through the bites of infected mosquitoes. The virus is a member of the flavivirus genus and belongs to the Japanese encephalitis antigenic complex of the family Flaviviridae (WHO, 2017).
Peste des petits ruminants is a highly contagious and devastating disease of goats and sheep. The causative agent, Peste des petits ruminants virus is a member of the genus Morbillivirus, Family Paramyxoviridae and Order Mononegavirales (adapted from FAO, 2020a; OiE, 2020).
A drought is a period of abnormally dry weather characterised by a prolonged deficiency of precipitation below a certain threshold over a large area and a period longer than a month (WMO, 2020).
A storm tides is the actual sea level as influenced by a weather disturbance. The storm tide consists of the normal astronomical tide plus the storm surge (WMO, 2017).
Rogue waves are extreme waves with overall or crest heights that are abnormally high relative to the background significant wave height (WMO, 2018).
Ocean acidification refers to a reduction in the pH of the ocean over an extended period, which is caused primarily by uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and can also be caused by other chemical additions or subtractions from the ocean (IPCC, 2011).
Sand haze is haze caused by the suspension in the atmosphere of small sand or dust particles, raised from the ground prior to the time of observation by a sandstorm or dust storm (WMO, 1992).