Oxides Research

Until the industrial revolution air pollution occurred only through natural causes and were of no great concern. However, industrial revolution which has made human power to dominate over the planet, has actually led man to dig his own grave. The western world has had as many as four industrial revolutions since 18th century also termed as “The Age of Smoke” (Kasa 2009). In the beginning the coal smoke was confined to a particular area but the concentrations of emissions increased as people began to migrate towards cities (Douglas et al. 2002). This led to continuous worsening of air quality and slow in decline public health conditions, but evidently, not enough to attract the attention of the lawmakers (Borja-aburto et al. 1996).

Smog is highly prevalent in the most contaminated area embodying sulfur dioxide pollutants - Pekin, IL. With this, the DangerInTheAir studies fully demonstrate defected areas emitting heavy sulfur dioxide pollutants as definite factors to prolonging asthma related health issues.

Smog and air pollution have been impacting the lives of Americans since the industrial age during the nineteenth century, when necessity to use coal was critical for manufacturing in city factories. The United States government had little to no progress in enacting laws to developing better ways to target the air pollution. Smog in urban cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati exceeded levels that proved to damage health of millions of people. For approximately sixty seven years local governments took it upon themselves to execute various laws to establish healthier living standards. From 1881 to 1947, five major cities in the United States proposed ideas to incentivize leaders to promote clean air to be a non negotiable aspect of everyday living.

Under the Clean Air Act, many of these air pollutants have been reduced, but there is still a threat to the quality of life in

To help minimize the risk of people living in the city getting sick, because small amounts of soot in the air can trigger heart attacks and contribute to lung cancer, diabetes, and other deadly illnesses, the EPA has started issuing more strict regulations that are forcing people to use cleaner fuel and engines in diesel trucks and buses, because the city can not regulate privately owned trucks so they have begun replacing old buses and trucks with new, cleaner buses. Under the EPA’s new rule, communities will have to meet a much more strict annual average for how much soot can be in the air. The new target will be about 20 percent tighter than the old one. About 66 counties - mostly in the East and California - would fail the test today. The EPA estimates that by 2020, these rules will improve air quality enough so the only places in the country that will violate the soot standard will be seven counting in Southern California. The EPA believes the soot limit will save much more than it costs. To implement this soot limit it would cost tens of millions of dollars. Industry officials warn that the new standard will get in the way of economic recovery in some areas. The United States already has made a lot of progress in cleaning up fine particles over the decades. Recent epidemiological studies show that is

The consequences of air pollution have been detrimental for the economy, and the continued degradation of air quality will further increase the negative impact of health. In today’s society, no one is aware of the cost of air pollution, however expert’s analysis concluded that the cost for air pollution may be far worse than previously estimated. “Since the early 2000s, emissions from sources

Los Angeles has been able to reduce ozone levels by more than one-third in the last 15 years, but still is not enough because there is still ozone gas generated by pollution from vehicles, power plants, factories, etc. (Barboza). This ozone can inflame the lungs and worsen any respiratory illness and it is especially dangerous to children. I believe that the pollution generated by cars has also increase lately due to the population increase and to companies like Uber and Lyft, which are great forms of transportations, but are not helping the environment because it means that more cars are being added to the

What are all the sources of the increasing concentrations of CO2 in the last century?

Through urbanization, the most common view is the establishment of factories. Most of these factories are located in heavy industrial areas of the cities. It is easy to hypotheses that air quality has become worse in Shanghai since it started urbanization in the 1980s. However, there is not a proportional

since 1970. 40 percent of sulfer dioxide in the air has been reduced, as well

“Vehicle emissions contribute to the formation of smog. ‘Nitrogen Oxide’ and ‘volatile organic compounds’ in vehicle emissions can react to form ‘ground level ozone’; this is a secondary pollutant in the lower atmosphere, where its formation can be enhance by other pollutants , and its highly toxic at levels above 0.1 parts per million (p.p.m). A number of studies have shown that pollutant exposures near major roadways are greater than for other areas in cities. Other studies have linked increased exposure to an increased prevalence of a wide variety of illnesses including asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, pneumonia and heart disease. Nitrogen oxide can irritate airways,

The amount of factories and industries has grown immensely through the previous years which has resulted in an expansion in the consumption of petroleum products. Innovation has begun to increase and has promoted the expansion of the production of cars. As stated by the Air Quality Research Center, “Air pollution is one of the most dangerous environmental problems, causing many adverse health effects and responsible for 50,000 deaths in the U.S. each year” (Air Pollution and Health – Air Quality Research Center.). The smog and

The sulfur dioxide was regarded as the acknowledged toxic gas, and is also one of main factors for acid rain. Due to its severe toxicity, the major pollution incidents have even happened in human beings’ history. During 1st December and 15th December 1930, the toxic gases including the sulfur dioxide caused great loss for Meuse Valley in Belgium. The toxic gases led to thousands of people in the industrial zone of Meuse Valley were catched with respiratory diseases, and “nearly 63 people were dead within a week”. ( Benery B, HoetPH, Nemmar A. 2001) Additionally, many livestocks also could not survived and died of the toxic gases. In the incident, the mixture of SO2 and SO3 were the main dioxide smog.

The population on Earth is expanding rapidly which goes hand in hand in the degradation of the environment at large measures. The human’s appetites for needs are disarranging the environments natural equilibrium. Our production industries are venting smoke and discharging chemicals that are polluting our water. The smoke that is emitted into the atmosphere holds unappealing gases such as carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide. The high

Hong Kong (HK) is one of the most crowded cities in the world, with almost the highest vehicle density. It has long been criticized for its bad air quality compared to its advanced economy. With the recently hazardous air pollution in China mainland, HK has been affected as well for its geographic neighborhood. The Air quality readings recently (PM2.5: 60µg/m³) have exceeded the loose local standard (50µg/m³), 3 times of WHO’s recommended standards (20µg/m³). The public appeals to the government to take actions to improve air quality.