Pollution
noun, の adjective
Public damage is something that affects everyone, the whole public. What is in the air and gets into everything no matter where you are? How about pollution?
This is a jukugo word, which usually means on'yomi readings from the kanji. If you know the readings of your kanji you'll know how to read this as well.
私は歩きタバコは公害だと思っています。
I believe smoking while walking is pollution.
日本では1950~1960年代にかけて、公害が大きな社会問題になりました。
In Japan, pollution became a huge societal problem between 1950 and 1960.
「カドミウム」は、四大公害病のひとつ「イタイイタイ病」を引き起こす原因となったことで知られています。
"Cadmium" is known to have caused one of the four major pollution-related diseases called "Itai-Itai disease."