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Visual pollution causes various types of damage that can stress and impair attention.

Unsplash image of Joe Yates

Visual pollution is the excess of visual elements created by man that are spread, generally, in big cities and that promote certain visual and spatial discomfort. This type of pollution can be caused by advertisements, advertisements, signs, poles, electrical wires, garbage, telephone towers, among others.

Visual pollution, which acts together with light pollution, is very present in large urban centers due to the huge amount of advertisements and their lack of harmony with the environment, exaggerating the attention of the inhabitants.

In addition to cosmetic damage, this type of pollution can be dangerous for drivers and others. A building made of glass can reflect sunlight, creating visual pollution that obstructs the view of those driving vehicles on the roads. Advertisements located near road networks can also distract drivers while driving, causing accidents.

Problems such as stress and visual discomfort are also related to visual pollution. A recent study by Texas A&M University, USA, demonstrated how visual pollution is related to these problems. After having carried out stressful situations, the people studied used two types of avenues: one towards the interior with few or no advertisements and the other full of advertisements and other elements that are causes< of visual pollution. Stress levels decreased rapidly in individuals who used the first type of avenue, while it remained high in those who used the second type.

Other negative damages caused by excessive advertising are encouraging consumption, which can lead to problems such as obesity, smoking, alcoholism and increased waste generation (either due to the advertisement itself or the disposal of products offered by the advertisement).

For the merchant, there is also damage. Excessive use of plates and billboards it makes people who are subjected to this constant discharge of information to ignore them, thus causing an opposite effect to what was initially intended.

Here in Brazil it is easy to see the impact of visual pollution during election times. In addition to the stress and annoyance generated by electoral propaganda, the environmental burden of distributing leaflets with the number of candidates (the famous “little saint”) is immense.

For each ton of paper produced, approximately 20 trees and 100,000 liters of water are consumed. "In the municipal elections of 2012, it was necessary to cut down approximately 600 thousand trees and consume three billion liters of water in the country to produce this material", says the study by Karina Marcos Bedran, master in environmental law and sustainable development Another problem related to these pamphlets is their destination, generating a large amount of garbage, clogging manholes and potentially causing flooding.

To inhibit or control this type of pollution, one possibility is to create laws regulating the use of advertisements, which are the main causes of this type of damage. In São Paulo and in some other cities, regulations were implemented, which organize the city's landscape and aim to balance the elements that make up the urban landscape, restricting outdoor advertising such as billboards, banners, posters and totems.