You can take some simple and immediate actions such as stomping your feet before entering the house or school to remove the soil. Washing your hands before preparing and eating food will limit ingestion of lead. Running a damp mop on your baseboards, door frames, and windowsills will remove lead dust. You can learn more about this hazardous substance in the Lead section of the BEES website. Common activities that cause routine releases of hazardous chemicals from man-made sources include disinfecting surface water with the chemical chlorine, smoking cigarettes, and driving cars or trucks.
Some hazardous materials are more difficult to avoid, such as vapors from gasoline.
Many of these non-point source pollutants are regulated by government legislation. Laws or regulations are designed to reduce health risks. The government has specific agencies that cover different areas of the environment such as air, water, or ground. You may want to look at an example of water legislation at the federal level, for example, The Clean Water Act , a water law created by your state, and yet another at the local level for your county or municipality. An important concept in the study of environmental health, is called Risk Analysis.