公害

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 公害(こうがい) refers to environmental harm affecting people's living conditions or health.
• Basic usage: It is used for problems such as factory smoke and for a community's efforts to reduce and overcome the damage.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• Focus compared with 汚染
  • 汚染 focuses on air, water, or other things being contaminated, while 公害 also concerns harm to people and their living environment.
• Problems beyond smoke
  • Issues such as noise, which are not readily described as substances contaminating something, also occur in discussions of 公害.
  • The word should therefore not always be narrowed to air pollution alone.