VISUAL POLLUTION

Causes/Contributors/Pollutants:
CAUSES

Visual delight or fatal distraction Among the various forms of visual pollution,
uncontrolled creation of hoardings and signs is the worst. Today, a proliferation of
hoardings threatens to turn our landscapes and communities into a continuous outdoor
commercial and to further separate us from our scenic heritage.
Home theatre: A home pollution - Visual pollution is present not only outside your house
but also inside. There is a huge difference in watching a movie in a theater to the same
movie in television. In a theater we are watching the reflected image from a screen,
whereas in television we are directly seeing the bright TV screen. In a theater it is like
seeing the moon (reflected sunlight) whereas in television, it is to see the sun directly
with our naked eyes. Certain colours also create visual pollution. It is pleasant to sit in a
room painted white or in pastel colours, but not in a room painted red.
Dazzled to death - Light pollution is another form of visual pollution. Light pollution is the
result of poorly designed, improperly installed, and overly bright outdoor lighting. Some
of the components of light pollution are urban sky glow, light trespass, visual clutter,
glare and energy waste.
Anything that interferes with the pretty scenes and other defacement may become a
cause of visual pollution. It may consist of garbage (solid waste) thrown in different
places, cables or wires running in the urban areas in quite an unorganized way
old dilapidated buildings
dumped construction materials
administrative negligence
excessive advertisement
vandalism
telephone and utility poles, electricity wires

Ill effects: human and environment

HUMAN

Doctors explains emotions that result from a negative visual influence as an increase in
the secretion of adrenaline, which raises the acidity of the stomach and rapid the heart
rate, and thus speed irritability.
Stress levels declined quickly - Stressed drivers experienced higher blood pressure,
heart rate and respiration, and increased eye movements and facial muscle activity.
negative mental and physical effects - Sign overload causes negative mental and
physical effects
Watching television and working at computers may affect our eyes due to the radiation.
eye fatigue
This is compounded with indispensible apprehension of general health hazards of
different dimensions including diseases and problems like asthma, cause infection to
animals hovering around it
health problems caused by magnetic-field around cables
distraction
decreases in opinion diversity
loss of identity
traffic congestion
loss of sense of hygiene and aesthetics,
feeling of civility
Children closely associated with visual pollution from childhood are generally bereft of
subtle aesthetics and they get used to this unsightly surroundings, even lose their
natural desire to correct it
The World Health Organization determined that people who have a bad view out their
window are 40% more likely to fall prey to depression.