Most of us could survive for weeks without food and a few days without water, yet we spend hours debating over organic or conventionally grown, filtered or unfiltered.

These simple switches can help safeguard your health and home sanctuary and improve your local environment.

Pollution occurs when chemicals and other foreign substances leech into the ground, air and water. These pollutants contain toxins that adversely impact ecosystems and the living creatures within them.

Pollution comes in many forms, and one form of pollution can often increase other forms, such as when rain washes solid waste off the surface of the ground and into water.

Soil pollution occurs when soil contains chemicals that are toxic or otherwise dangerous for humans and other living things. The chemicals may be foreign to the area, or they may be naturally occurring materials that pollute the soil by being present in dangerously high amounts.

Soil pollution, or soil contamination, is the accumulation of man-made toxic substances in soil that has a negative effect of plant and animal life. Common pollutants include herbicides and pesticides; litter and waste.

The planet faces a variety of troubling issues that stem from man-made contamination. Many of these lead to environmental problems that are causing long-term damage to the earth’s ecosystem.