The Problem Of Air Pollution

Improved air quality wasn’t a subject of national concern until the mid 1900s. After decades of coal burning, unregulated gas emissions from cars and the excessive burning of fossil fuels, people started noticing bad air quality as a hazard to their lives. Over several decades, after seeing the costly effects air pollution was having on the environment and people’s health, interest groups like the Friends of The Earth club and the influences of Theodore Roosevelt and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring finally came together to persuade the government to enforce legislation that would reduce air pollution. Because of these efforts, the policies of the Clean Air Act of 1963 and the Motor Vehicle Pollution Control Act of 1965, that aimed to control air pollution and raise air quality standards, helped create the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on December 2, 1970. Since then, the EPA has passed more air quality improvement acts, and amendments to previous acts passed, to increase restrictions on air pollutants, with their main policy concern being the Clean Air Act. Improved air quality acts imposed by the EPA have been successful in cleaning the United States’ air quality by reducing ground-level ozone pollution and reducing emissions, allowing for a decrease in pollution related deaths/illnesses and a better standard of living. The EPA, through regulations and the Clean Air Act, has delivered it’s promise to improve air quality in the United States.

Air and air pollution is a mixture of solid particles and gases in the air. Air and air pollution can cause from car emission, chemical, dust, air planes, and pollen. What cause the air to be bad pollution is factories machines and energy that everyone is using. Air can be fresh and bad air depend on the work that we do. The solution that cause and effect the air to be bad is that the gases of the car, planes, chemical gases, and factories makes the air to be bad because the person that is doing it might did something wrong. Some air can different and smell different. It could be poison or cause

Air pollution is the result of many human activities- burning fossil fuels, agriculture and industry all contribute to polluting the air we breathe. Human actions are damaging the Earth’s atmosphere; but pollution not only harms the environment, it also damages our health. According to the World Health Organization, 1.2 million deaths each year are caused by air pollution. Because of the risks associated with air pollution, we should all be aware of the pollutants and polluters in our communities.

Air pollution is a problem in the United States. However, many committed programs such as the Environmental Protective Services (EPA) and the Clean Air Act are working to make the environment healthier and improve air quality. A report in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology concluded the planting green plants and tree improve the nitrogen and particulate matter at street level which is harmful to the population's health. Nitrogen oxide(NO2) reduced by 40% and particulate matter (PM) by 60% (www.acs.org, 2012). The atmosphere and lakes have been used as a cesspool to cause; it is vital in the continuous of finding the safe renewable energy that will impact the health of the people and benefit the plantet. The government

According to WHO, more than 80% of people living in Urban areas that monitor air pollution are exposed to air quality levels that exceed the World Health Organization (Who) limits. Air pollution continues to be an important public health concern. A number of air pollutants, coming out of a variety of industrial process the health of California residents.The problems of air pollution problem What causes pollution? What can we do to prevent it, and get rid of it? Is it fair to the children of the future to have to suffer the consequences that pollution causes? Why not take care of the problem now? Being informed on the latest update, causes and preventions of air pollution is detrimental to your life.

The purpose of this paper is to find the correlation between air pollution and society’s responsibility to promote a cleaner safer environment for its citizens. My research question is: How can society help keep the air we breathe safe? There are so many chemicals and other vapors that are emitted into the air that it becomes a chore for people with respiratory problems, i.e., asthma, to breathe without some assistance and in some cases of older individuals, carry an oxygen tank daily. Can some of these health issues be prevented if we managed our air pollution better?

“To taste the morning air! The deliciously crisp and sweet air for which I long” (O'Sheridan, 2011). Have you tasted the salty air of the sea or the cold, crisp air of the Colorado Rockies? According to recent studies scientists have found that the human lung can “taste” bitter substances in the air. (Connor, 2010) So how about the layered bitter, astringent, smoky taste of Shanghai? In January of 2013, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing reported that a toxic cloud the size of the Greenland covered parts of China causing the levels of a particulate air pollution that seeps into the lung, vein, and heart tissue, to surge above 850 micrograms per cubic meter. According to the UN, 20 micrograms per cubic meter is considered to be the highest safe level. (Meyer, 2017)

One of the most concerning issues that has affected the entire world is air pollution, but we do not seemed to see it as a serious problem to take care off until now. Scientist from the World Health Organization released information on their research that was taken place in 2012. About 7 million lives around the world was claimed by air pollution and more than one third were from fast developing countries from India to Japan, but China was the most concentrated area of air pollution. China has a goal to urbanize very quickly that the cities do not think about planning on proper waste dumping and helping the environment. The mast movement of urbanization will affect the farmers greatly because they rely on the environment to be clean and using the sun to help grown their crops. The World Bank study offered advice to China that building dense cities will be more efficient so the people in China could avoid larger risk of pollution from long commutes traveling and high energy consumption. China did listen to the advice but they still want to reach their goal. China wants about 60 percent of the population to be living in cities by 2020, as of right now they are at 54 percent of their goal. The World Bank and World Health Organization said the greatest threats to human health are burning noxious fuels from coal, wood, and animal waste. (Jacobs and Johnson, 2014) China’s largest reason for air pollution is the use of coal, because two-thirds of the country uses it for energy.

Air pollution has been an ongoing issue for decades. With a vast amount of causes, such as: burning fossil fuel, manufacturing, and wildfires; it is hard to completely eliminate air pollution, but something can be done to lessen the severity of air pollution. Long exposure to poor air quality leaves the human respiratory system at risk.

It is estimated that 6.5 million people die from air pollution every year. When gases, smoke, or dust particles enter our atmosphere in ways that become harmful to plants, animals, and humans it is called air pollution. Now, some air pollutions occur naturally for example during forests fires or volcanic eruptions, but the air pollution caused by human activities has become more prevalent and serious. The burning of fossil fuels, from coal-fired power plants and vehicles, causes smog and acid rain which includes particulate matter such as carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide that are released into the air.Air pollution has also become a global issue that has been taken more seriously every year. In the United Nation’s 2015 plan for Sustainable Development, air quality was mentioned three times. Most notably was this following indicator: “ Mortality rate attributed to household and ambient air pollution”. Ambient air pollution is just another way of saying outdoor air pollution that is usually caused by what I mentioned earlier—fossil fuel burning and vehicle emissions. Many of these deaths were a result of strokes, cardiovascular diseases, and lung cancer. The small particles of pollutant are called PM 2.5 which can harm the lungs if it is ingested to potentially cause these deaths along with asthma. Many countries are dealing with air pollution, but two countries of note are the United States of America and China. Although, both the United States and China are suffering from air pollution, there are clear differences in how it affects these nations and their desire to address these problems.

Gary Moore states in his book Living with the Earth that one of the first recorded air pollution events in the United States happened in 1948 in Donora, Pennsylvania. Pollutants from steel manufacturing in the area caused an inversion, the phenomenon whereby cool air is trapped underneath warmer air above and air pollutants are trapped. Seventy people died and over six thousand people suffered from symptoms such as nausea, headaches, and irritation to the eyes, nose and throat. Deaths due to air pollution have also occurred in Los Angeles and New York (410). In addition to a threat to humans, air pollution can also be a major risk to nature.

Most people have felt or took in the air pollutants coming from a car but little did they know what the consequences that smell or the soot may present. Many times people breathe in the air pollutants that come from the cars we drive, but how many times do people actually stop and think of what it might be doing to ourselves and the world around us and perhaps how we could possibly fix it? The black smoke, and sometimes invisible pollutants, are causing harm all over the earth without people realizing it. Car pollution can cause disruption to human 's health, the environment, and the cities in just a matter of time and in many different ways.

Air pollution is a serious problem in our society that damages many things such as crops, trees, plants, and natural resources. Air pollution can be indoor or outdoors, when people smoke or vehicles exhaust pollutes the air. It is an additional harmful substance that damages environment, human health, and quality of life. The state of Minnesota has taken this into consideration and decided to protect its residence and visitor’s well-being and health.

Many countries in world have started facing poor air quality issues due to excessive use of coal for electricity generation. In addition to this, air pollution generated by fossil fuel vehicles is also adding to the troubles. Premature deaths and serious health issues are on rise due to highly polluted air.

The air pollution is the main issue which is debated among the environmentalists over a decades and recent years. As the technology keep on progressing and emerging, it carries along undesirable effects apart from its broad application and use. One of the main contributors is said to be the emission of harmful gases produced by vehicle exhaust lines. The number of vehicles miles travels per year continues to increase as a result of higher demand and needs. Consequently, an increase in the number led to the increase of the content of pollutants in air. The need to control engine emissions was recognized as early as 1909. Due to the more strict rules and emission standards, automotive manufacturers begun to develop a treatment device for exhaust gases known as catalytic converter for their vehicle models, pollution generated from mobile sources such as automobiles contributes major air quality problems in rural as well as urban and industrialized areas in both developed and developing countries. About 50 million cars are produced every year and over 700 million cars are used worldwide. Vehicle population is projected to grow close to 1300 million by the year 2030.Most vehicular transportation relies on combustion of gasoline, diesel and jet fuels with large amount of emission of carbon monoxide (CO), unburned hydrocarbons (HC), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulates matter (PM) are especially concern. [2]