3 ms·

Polluted is perfectly fine. adjective contaminated with harmful or poisonous substances. The quantity of the substance is harmful.

• TylerE 7y ago
  I would quibble with the use of "contaminated" for something that's always been there. In fact, the atmosphere had quite a lot of carbon dioxide a billion years before there was any significant quantity of oxygen.
  • fucking_tragedy 7y ago
    E. coli, staph and salmonella are everywhere and all over you, but we still call things that have them "contaminated".
    • brokenkebab 7y ago
      We don't, except in some narrow contexts, like "Large quantities of E.c. found in bottled water". Looking at pristine lake far in woods one wouldn't say "Look, such a contaminated water!" just because there are bacteria. We also don't say "My intestines is contaminated with E.Coli" in spite of the fact it's there too.
      • jimmaswell 7y ago
        But if there was too much bacteria it would be contaminated. It's about there being an inappropriately high amount of something.