Additional Test (Part - 8) - UPSC MCQ

• Lead is highly toxic to plants and animals including man.

• A lead generally affects children more severely than adults. Lead poisoning causes a variety of symptoms.

• These include liver and kidney damage, reduction in haemoglobin formulation, mental retardation and abnormality infertility and pregnancy.

• DDT Toxic pesticides such as BHC, PCB, DDT etc., are not easily degraded and are long-lasting in the environment. Their concentration, therefore, goes on increasing in water and soil with successive applications.

• DDT was sprayed for many years on marshes to control mosquitoes. The DDT has bio-magnified from water to fish-eating birds and humans.

• DDT is known to depress the activity of estrogen, the female sex hormone and testosterone, a male sex hormone.

To determine which statements are incorrect, let's analyze each one:

1. Trans Fats are formed during the process of addition of hydrogen atoms to oils.

   • This statement is correct. Trans fats are indeed formed during the hydrogenation process, where hydrogen atoms are added to vegetable oils to make them more solid at room temperature.

2. Junk food high in trans fats, salt, and sugar gives no nutrition.

   • This statement is incorrect. While junk food high in trans fats, salt, and sugar is generally unhealthy and provides minimal nutritional value, it still contains calories and some nutrients. Therefore, it cannot be said that junk food gives "no nutrition" at all.

Given the analysis:

• Statement 1 is correct.
• Statement 2 is incorrect.

Therefore, the correct answer is:

2. 2 only

Blue baby syndrome:

• It is believed to be caused by high nitrate contamination in groundwater resulting in the decreased oxygen-carrying capacity of haemoglobin in babies leading to death.

• The groundwater is thought to be contaminated by leaching of nitrate generated from fertilizer used in agricultural lands and waste dumps.

• It may also be related to some pesticides (DDT, PCBs etc), which cause ecotoxicological problems in the food chains of living organisms, increasing BOD, which kills aquatic animals.

Sick Building Syndrome (SBS):

• Sick building syndrome (SBS) is a combination of ailments (a syndrome) associated with an individual’s place of work or residence.

• Most of the sick building syndrome is related to poor indoor air quality.

• Sick building causes are frequently pinned down to flaws in the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.

• Other causes have been attributed to contaminants produced by outgassing of some types of building materials, volatile organic compounds (VOC), molds, improper exhaust ventilation of ozone, light industrial chemicals used within, or lack of adequate fresh air intake air filtration.

• A flagship species is a species chosen to represent an environmental cause, such as an ecosystem in need of conservation.

• These species are chosen for their vulnerability, attractiveness or distinctiveness to engender support and acknowledgement from the public at large.

• Thus, the concept of a flagship species holds that, by giving publicity to a few key species, the support given to those species will successfully leverage conservation of entire ecosystems are all species contained therein.

• Example: Indian tiger, African elephant, giant panda of China, mountain gorilla of Central Africa, orangutan of Southeast Asia and the leatherback sea turtle.

• Keystone species is a species whose addition to or loss from an ecosystem leads to major changes in abundance or occurrence of at least one other species.

• Certain species in an ecosystem is considered more important in determining the presence of many other species in that ecosystem.

• All top predators (Tiger, Lion, Crocodile, Elephant) are considered as keystone species because it regulates all other animals’ population indirectly. Hence top predators are given much consideration in conservation.

Indicator species:

• Indicator species is a species whose presence indicates the presence of a set of other species and whose absence indicates the lack of that entire set of species.

• An indicator species is any biological species that defines a trait or characteristic of the environment.

• Many indicator species of the ocean systems are fish, invertebrates, periphyton, macrophytes and specific species of ocean birds (like the Atlantic Puffin). Amphibian indicates chemicals, global warming and air pollution. Lichens are indicators of air quality and are sensitive to sulfur dioxide.

• Umbrella species is a wide-ranging species whose requirements include those of many other species.

• The protection of umbrella species automatically extends protection to other species.

• These are species selected for making conservation-related decisions, typically because protecting these species indirectly protects the many other species that make up the ecological community of its habitat.

Yokkaichi asthma:

• The disease occurred in the city of Yokkaichi in Mie Prefecture, Japan between 1960 and 1972.

• The burning of petroleum and crude oil released large quantities of sulfur oxide that caused severe smog, resulting in severe cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic bronchitis, pulmonary emphysema, and bronchial asthma among the local inhabitants.