Air Pollution

There are many forms of public transportation such as: buses, trains, airplanes, trolleys, subways, and many more. Today these transits are not as widely used as they need to be in some areas, in my opinion. Of course they are the preferred method of travel inside urban areas; the American Public Transportation Association shows this data when they listed in 1999 the top thirty-five largest transit agencies. As seen, they are all major or larger metropolitan areas such as: New York, NY, Los Angeles, CA, and Chicago, IL (10/3, http://www.apta.com/stats/modesumm/35mbag.html). Rural areas need these wonderful services just as often too. People in these settings drive farther to reach their destinations so therefore they drive just as much as in major cities but have more driving time. So therefore air pollution needs to be taken care of everywhere, not just in metropolitan areas.

There are various types of air pollution contributors in California such as fire generated pollutants and vehicle traffic, which add particulate matter and carbon monoxide into the air we breathe. According to an article by Union of Concerned Scientists (Cars, trucks, and air pollution, 2014) particulate matter is made up of fine particles soot and metal that can pose serious threats to human health when deep in the lungs. Other pollutants emitted from vehicles are: nitrogen oxide which lowers the body’s defense system against respiratory infections such as pneumonia, carbon monoxide which blocks oxygen from reaching vital organs, sulfur dioxide which is emitted by both power plants and vehicles affect children and asthmatics, and hazardous air pollutants (toxics) which are chemicals that are linked to cancer, birth defects and other illnesses (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2014).

Agricultural practices can lead to significant air quality concerns through the emission of ammonia, nitrous oxide, methane, and other potentially dangerous gases.

There are two main types of air pollution, particulate matter (PM) and ozone. Particulate matter is some tiny dust. For example, according to a beam of light at night there are countless dusts floating in the air. They are particle. Ozone is an invisible chemical gas in the air. When these gas touch with light will become smog. Factory and vehicles exhaust emissions have become the largest cause of PM and ozone pollution in the United States. If a plant wants to run, they need to burn fuel to provide power; however, a lot of particulate matter will float in the air when the factory burns fuel. When people drive cars can

California’s Central Valley includes the cities of Fresno, Visalia, Bakersfield, Modesto, Stockton, Vacaville, and Yuba City. It covers approximately 20,000 square miles while being enclosed by mountains. (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2011) The Central Valley experiences hot summers with temperatures that reach 110 degrees and winters that get as cold as 30 degrees. Being that mountains fence the Valley, we are the central target for pollutants to travel to. (Berg, 2011) A decade ago, we were

The Central Valley consist of three major counties Modesto, Fresno and Bakersfield. Together these three counties produce a little over half of the nation’s produce. With a population of over 6.5 million people the Central Valley is also consider by Public Policy Institute of California the fastest growing region of California. With the ever growing population and growing need for more agriculture that leads to a larger air quality issue. This paper will discuss the sources, factors, roles, issues of the Central Valley’s air pollution as well as some possibilities of how the community can help.

There are different components that are contributing to the levels of air pollution in the San Joaquin Valley in California. Those components are the main reason for the air to be polluted and causing harm to the residents of the valley. The San Joaquin Valley is known very well for its agriculture. This according to an article called “Move Over, Los Angeles” By Marylin Berlin Snell talks about the main point of how serious the air quality has been and how it has been becoming worse than the city of Los Angeles. The southern part of the great central valley has now been covered in a brown murky layer of mist being at its worse air quality. The Valley has a “combination of pesticide spraying, heavy duty-diesel equipment, dust stirred up during

Air pollution is really bad for the environment. Some companies operating in Southern California are spending millions of dollars to help reduce air pollution. According to a report by the American Lung Association. “Los Angeles, Riverside and Long Beach still remain the worst place

Often while driving through the valley you may start to smell a particular difference in the air, and not in a good way. Perhaps you didn’t know that San Joaquin Valley is one of two districts in the county to be classified by Enviornmental Protection Agency (EPA) as “extreme nonattainment” ("The Air District’s Mission"), which means it is considered to have the worst air quality; worse than the National Ambient Air Quality Standards as defined in the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970 ("Google"). Also, San Joaquin County is one of the nine areas in the country to be designated as a “serious nonattainment” area for particulate matter ("The Air District’s Mission"). Although the air quality is not great here in the valley since

The San Joaquin Valley is home to over 3.5 million people who reside in the counties of Fresno, Kern, Merced, Stanislaus, Tulare, Kings, Madera, and San Joaquin. It is approximately 250 miles long, and is surrounded by three different mountain ranges, which gives it a narrow bowl-shape that collects and traps emissions in the surrounding counties. The air quality in the California Central Valley ranks among the worst in the country, which results from high levels of ozone (o3) and particulate matter (PM) that exceed state and federal air quality standards. There are many sources of pollution that contribute to the poor air quality of the Central Valley such as, agriculture operations, motor vehicles, industrial facilities, factories, and

The production of services and goods is the leading source of air pollution in the United States, according to the website, Cleaner and Greener, because of the en-ergy it takes for the production and delivery of those goods and services. In DFW however the leading cause of air pollution is

In recent years, California’s Central Valley has gone from being America’s breadbasket to a near-dystopian wasteland—a landscape beset with air pollution with strikingly diverse causes. Five of the ten most polluted American cities can be found in this region (Wheeler, Morris and Gordon). This is not surprising given the host of actual and potential causes of air pollution problem in the heart of California. Ground level ozone is a major type of pollution in the Valley that primarily causes summertime “smog,” produced through the photochemical or sunlight-induced reactions between volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) (San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District 3). The other type of pollution, particulate matter (PM), refers to small solid or liquid particles that form in the atmosphere through gases or photochemical reactions. While the causes of air pollution in the Central Valley are undoubtedly manifold, the region’s agricultural practices still count as the most substantial factors for this environmental problem; in any case, the Valley’s unique meteorological and topographical conditions exacerbate the level of air pollution.

In our central valley they have done research with kids of Fresno from their birth to teenage hood tracking their health and environmental exposures. Air pollution causes 1,300 premature deaths as well as asthma attacks. The climate change also affects the pollution. In our San Joaquin Valley, hot weather, and boarding mountains traps air pollution. California has study our San Joaquin Valley would reduce health cost by $416 by 2035. San Joaquin valley is the most productive agricultural region in the country. Heavy duty-diesel trucks constantly come in and out of the Valley. Therefore, that leads to 14 tons of the greenhouse gas Ozone daily. Animal feed spews a whopping 25 tons of Ozone to form. Pollution streams down from the Bay Area and the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the east trap even more air in our valley. The pollution creates a thick greyish-brown smog hanging over the

Have you ever wondered where majority of the air pollution comes from and how it’s caused since half of the population here in the San Joaquin Valley are affected due to the contamination of the air. Many people around the world question themselves of air pollution but don’t know where it comes from. It's noticeable for example pesticides, ozone levels rising, vehicle pollution, toxic waste burning, wildfires, and the list goes on. The San Joaquin Valley for many have been battling for better air quality but instead of getting better it seems to be getting worse. The air quality can contribute to dangerous health issues and environmental effects. We humans aren't the only ones who are suffering from these devastating chemicals being used on a daily basis. Humans in general, Environmental Protection Agency, or California have to find ways or solutions to limit the usage of any type of air pollution being spread all around the world. However, air pollution contributes to several health problems that can either be longer term effect or short term effect. Limiting the usage of ozone into the air will reduce the chance of new born children from suffering major effects that can later turn

Air pollution has many different categories and each is harmful in their own way. Almost every kind of air pollution is caused by these simple things, Energy use, fossil fuels, technology, and vehicles.