What are pollutants?

Pollutants are bad stuff that mess up things we use every day.

Imagine you're playing in a sandbox, and suddenly someone throws muddy water into it. That muddy water is like a pollutant, it makes the clean sand dirty, and it’s harder to play nicely.

A pollutant can be anything that doesn’t belong where it is, like smelly trash in your lunchbox or loud noise during nap time.

• If you put chocolate sauce in a soup, the soup isn't what you expect anymore, it’s kind of like having pollutants in the air or water.
• A pollutant can be something you see, smell, or even feel, like smoke from a fire that makes your eyes sting.

Pollutants are like uninvited guests at a party. They might not be bad all the time, but when there are too many of them, they make it hard for everything to work well, just like how too much chocolate sauce can ruin your soup!