Almost-Polluted
Something that can be further polluted (as a lake, or stream, or stream of consciousness).
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. The both almost-good and almost-bad almost-thing is that there is almost-always room for more pollution, and higher concentrations of pollutants. 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 dollar bills anytime.
Something may be physically befouled or contaminated, morally defiled or debased, or socially corrupted or dishonored. I chose not to base the categories below along those lines, but rather as I did.
Types/Categories
1. Amount of pollution: There is room for more pollution. (The garbage dump might not yet be polluted to the brim.)
2. Degree of pollution: There is room for a higher concentration of pollution. (The lake still has some water in it. The bad guy needs to live in a better environment.)
Examples
To sanitize and disinfect is to reduce bacteria concentrations on environmental surfaces to a level that is considered "safe" by public health officials.
Sanitized: A food contact surface is sanitized if bacterial contamination is reduced by 99.999% (five nines). A non-food contact surface is sanitized if bacterial contamination is reduced by 99.9% (three nines).
Disinfected: A disinfectant kills all bacteria on environmental surfaces, measured as 99.9999% bacteria-free (six nines).
We also consider air quality and use the measure "parts per million" (ppm). In other words, we are willing to live with almost-pollution (or, we almost have to, we have little choice).
More Examples
