Vertebrates eliminate waste through excretion, which involves the urinary, respiratory, integumentary, and digestive systems. Plants use simple diffusion to remove waste gases. Malfunctioning excretory organs can lead to serious illness or death. Defecation is not considered waste removal, but rather the removal of indigestible food.
Vertebrates can accumulate large amounts of waste in their tissues, organs and blood. To prevent harmful substances from remaining in the body, waste elimination is achieved through a process known as excretion. During this process, waste matter is discharged through urine, sweat, and other means.
Excretion occurs with the help of four body systems. In the urinary system, the kidneys work to rid the body of water and toxins. They also remove electrolytes and nitrogenous compounds. By clearing the body of carbon dioxide waste through breathing, the lungs form the respiratory lever of the excretory system.
Like the kidneys, the skin helps the body excrete nitrogen, water, and electrolytes from the integumentary system. The sweat expelled from the skin contains waste products such as lactic acid and urea. Another purpose of skin sweat excretion is to maintain body temperature and homeostasis. The digestive system also plays an important role in the excretory process. The intestine is responsible for eliminating bile pigmentation, heavy metal salts and other digestive wastes.
Waste exists in many forms. Dead skin cells and sweat are the most common wastes excreted from the skin. Both liquid and solid wastes leave the body through digestion in the form of urine and feces. Carbon dioxide and other gases expelled from the lungs are in gas form. The lungs also excrete mucus through mucociliary excretion.
The excretion process is vital to the health and well-being of humans and other creatures. The wastes found in the body are poisonous and without proper detection can easily lead to death. The excretory system finds these wastes and disposes of them, allowing the body to remain healthy and functional.
In plants, wastes do not accumulate as heavily as in mammals and other vertebrates. The method of excretion used by plants is usually the simple diffusion of waste gases into the environment around the organism. Like humans, vertebrates excrete waste products through the skin, lungs, and urethra with the help of the kidneys and lungs.
Waste removal processes from the body may malfunction or cease if the excretory organs fail. Medicines and organ replacement can sometimes fix these malfunctions. Lengthy manual treatments, such as dialysis, can sometimes fill in when an organ, such as the kidney, is permanently failing. If not properly replaced or treated, excretory insufficiency can lead to serious illness and death.
Many people refer to defecation as excretion. Using the term in this way, however, is incorrect. Although stool itself contains waste and its release is part of the excretion process, defecation itself is not considered waste removal. Instead, it mainly refers to the removal of indigestible food.
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