{"term":{"id":"14928","title":"pollutant","longtitle":"IUPAC Gold Book - pollutant","doi":"10.1351\/goldbook.14928","code":"14928","status":"current","definitions":[{"id":1,"text":"Any undesirable solid, liquid, or gaseous matter occurring, as a result of human activities, in a solid, liquid, or gaseous environmental medium and causing adverse effects.","notes":{"1":"\"Undesirability\", like toxicity, is concentration-dependent, low concentrations of most substances being tolerable or even essential in many cases.","2":"A primary pollutant is one emitted into the atmosphere, water, sediments, or soil from an identifiable source.","3":"A secondary pollutant is a pollutant formed by chemical reaction in the atmosphere, water, sediments, or soil.","4":"Pollutant should be distinguished from contaminant; the latter implies presence above background due to human activities; the former implies that the substance also is causing adverse effects."},"links":[{"term":"contaminant","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/\/terms\/view\/14549"},{"term":"soil","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/\/terms\/view\/15036"}],"sources":["PAC, 2009, 81, 829. 'Glossary of terms used in ecotoxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2009)' on page 928 (https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1351\/PAC-REC-08-07-09)"]}],"altoutputs":{"html":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/14928\/html","xml":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/14928\/xml","plain":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/14928\/plain"},"citation":"Citation: 'pollutant' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351\/goldbook.14928","license":"The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/) for individual terms.","collection":"If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .","disclaimer":"The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.","accessed":"2026-06-13T22:54:37+00:00"}}