Almost-Polluted
Something that can be further polluted (as a lake, or stream, or stream of consciousness) must therefore not be completely polluted yet. The almost-good and almost-bad almost-thing is that there is almost-always room for more pollution, and higher concentrations of pollutants. Pollution is a negative if you're choking on it, and a positive if you can get paid to clean it up, or describe it, or regulate it, or film the people who pollute, clean, describe, or regulate. When we say something is "polluted" we usually mean that it is polluted to a degree that is above some threshold amount. What we almost-always mean by "polluted" is "almost-polluted."
Like the term "weeds," the term "pollution" is subjective. You can "pollute" my backyard with stuff that I consider to be valuable anytime.
Types/Categories:
1. Amount of pollution: The mass or volume of the pollution or contaminating substance. (The garbage dump is not yet full.)
2. Degree of pollution: The percentage or concentration level of the offending substance. (The lake still has some water in it.)
Examples:
Public health officials are particularly concerned about cleanliness, and they have certain words they like to use:
Clean: relatively free from dirt and pollution. (No reference to bacteria).
Spick and Span: extremely clean.
Sanitized: bacterial contamination reduced by 99.9% (three nines).
Disinfected: bacterial contamination reduced by 99.9999% bacteria-free (six nines).
We also consider air quality and use the measure "parts per million" (ppm).
It seems inevitable that there will always be pollution, so it's just how much of it we are willing to tolerate.
More Examples:
