What is air pollution?

Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulates, biological matters, or other harmful materials into the earth’s atmosphere. This can cause several diseases in humans such as breathing difficulties like asthma, bronchitis etc, and also to other living organisms such as food crops, or the natural environment.

What is atmosphere?

The atmosphere is a complex natural gaseous system that is essential to support life on planet earth. Stratosphere ozone depletion due to air pollution has long been recognized as a threat to human health as well as to the Earth’s ecosystems.

How does air pollution occur?

Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is the main pollutant that is warming Earth. Though living things emit carbon dioxide when they breathe, carbon dioxide is widely considered to be a pollutant when associated with cars, planes, power plants, and other human activities that involve the burning of fossil fuels such as gasoline and natural gas. In the past 150 years, such activities have pumped enough carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to raise its levels higher than they have been for hundreds of thousands of years.

Other greenhouse gases include methane—which comes from such sources as swamps and gas emitted by livestock—and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were used in refrigerants and aerosol propellants until they were banned because of their deteriorating effect on Earth's ozone layer.

Another pollutant associated with climate change is sulfur dioxide, a component of smog. Sulfur dioxide and closely related chemicals are known primarily as a cause of acid rain. But they also reflect light when released in the atmosphere, which keeps sunlight out and causes Earth to cool. Volcanic eruptions can spew massive amounts of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, sometimes causing cooling that lasts for years. In fact, volcanoes used to be the main source of atmospheric sulfur dioxide; today people are.

Industrialized countries have worked to reduce levels of sulfur dioxide, smog, and smoke in order to improve people's health. But a result, not predicted until recently, is that the lower sulfur dioxide levels may actually make global warming worse. Just as sulfur dioxide from volcanoes can cool the planet by blocking sunlight, cutting the amount of the compound in the atmosphere lets more sunlight through, warming the Earth. This effect is exaggerated when elevated levels of other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere trap the additional heat.

Most people agree that to curb global warming, a variety of measures need to be taken. On a personal level, driving and flying less, recycling, and conservation reduces a person’s "carbon footprint"—the amount of carbon dioxide a person is responsible for putting into the atmosphere.

The different air pollutants are:

• Sulphur oxides

• Nitrogen oxides

• Carbon monoxide

• Volatile organic compounds

• Particulates

• Some persistent free radicals

• Toxic metals such as lead and mercury

• Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s)

• Ammonia

• Odors

• And radioactive pollutants

Why should you be concerned or even care about air pollution?

You could go days without food and hours without water, but you would last only a few minutes without air. On average, each of us breathes over 3,000 gallons of air each day. You must have air to live. However, did you know that breathing polluted air can make you sick?

Air pollution can damage trees, crops, other plants, lakes, and animals. In addition to damaging the natural environment, air pollution also damages buildings, monuments, and statues. It not only reduces how far you can see in national parks and cities, it even interferes with aviation.

Air pollution is a significant risk fact for multiple health conditions including respiratory infections, heart diseases, and lung cancer, according to WHO. The health effects caused by air pollution may include difficulty in breathing, wheezing, coughing, asthma etc.

Children aged less than five years old that live in developing countries are the most vulnerable population in terms of total death by both indoor and outdoor air pollution.

The World Health Organization states that 2.4 million people die each year from causes directly linked with air pollution.

What are the measures to be taken on your part?

The 10 tough measures used to curb China’s pollution can also be used anywhere else. These are,

• Reduce pollutant emissions

• Control high energy consumption

• Improve public transport and clean energy productions.

• Strengthen energy-saving on construction, land, power and water supply.

• Implement incentives

• Enforce certain laws and standards

• Code of conduct

“What do you learn from this seminar?”

You’ve now learnt about what is air pollution, the atmosphere, the causes of air pollution, how it occurs, the pollutants involved, why you should be concerned and the steps that can be taken to reduce air pollution from you part.

I hope that you have now got the grasp about the topic air pollution. I sure do hope you found it interesting!!!!!

Bibliography

• www.wikipedia.com

•http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/pollution-overview/

• http://www.epa.gov/air/caa/peg/concern.html

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