Editing Pollution

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== Pollution ==
There’s no shortage of tools to deal with (or even embrace) pollution. Wearing anti-pollution gear, like face masks and gas masks, reduces your colonists’ exposure to pollutants. Transplanting artificial detoxifier organs makes your colonists immune to pollution’s toxic effects. There’s even pollution-related genetic modifications.

Order colonists to manually clean up polluted terrain and they’ll package it back into toxic wastepacks. However, the safer option is to use automated pollution pumps to keep vulnerable colonists away from the pollution.

== Pollution Mitigation ==
There are several ways to deal with wastepacks.
Freezing : Frozen wastepacks won’t dissolve, but they take up a lot of space.
Export : Use caravans or transport pods to dump your wastepacks on the world map. For extra fun, you can even leave them as a gift in your enemies’ bases. People may not love you doing this.
[[Polux trees]] : Heavily polluted maps will eventually sprout special polux trees. These trees slowly purify polluted terrain around them. Their delicate root network prevents them from being replanted.
[[Atomizer]]s : High-tech wastepack atomizers let you completely neutralize the threat of toxic wastepacks. The process is somewhat slow - and quite expensive.
Ignorance : Polluting the land does have some benefits. Polluted terrain can grow new crops, like the fast-growing toxipotato. (Just don’t eat it raw.) Pollution can also attract new animal variants, like toxalopes and waste rats.

== Pollution and insects ==

Giant insects love pollution. Originally engineered as anti-mechanoid bioweapons, these insects are stimulated by the toxic fumes of polluted terrain, making them faster and deadlier.

When conditions are inhospitable, insects form stasis cocoons and burrow underground. These cocoons keep insects safe from fire, extreme temperatures, and other threats for decades. Many planets are littered with these cocoons, lying just below the surface. The scent of a dissolving wastepack can trigger the cocoons to resurface in a dormant state, until they’re disturbed… causing a mass eruption of insects.

Cocoon infestations are threatening, but have their uses. They can be intentionally triggered to farm insect meat or be set up defensively in strategic locations. (Stop raiders in their tracks with a horde of angry insects!) You can also avoid cocoons altogether with strict wastepack management.

== Tox gas ==

Tox gas is a deadly chemical irritant. It burns the lungs and eyes, causing temporary shortness of breath and reduced sight. Chronic exposure to tox gas results in toxic buildup, and eventually death. It can be created by burning toxic [[wastepacks]], or weaponized with a new research project. Tox gas weapons include [[tox grenades]], [[toxbomb launchers]], [[tox mortar shell]]s, [[tox IED]]s, and wearable [[tox packs]].

Tox gas adds a lot of interesting combat tactics. Tox gas clouds can greatly diminish the effectiveness of ranged attackers. After all, it’s hard to shoot a gun if you can’t see or breathe. Additionally, attackers that are exposed to tox gas for long enough will eventually be downed from toxic buildup. You’ll also need to learn how to defend against tox gas (it’s the signature weapon of one of the wasters) Wear [[gas masks]] or be smart about your colonists’ movement to negate the effects of tox gas.

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