Air Pollution Air, is the most essential element for all livingorganisms and yet, most humans play a big role on polluting this essentialresource. Air pollution may not be as dangerous in its direct outcome asnuclear or water pollution can be, but in the long term it will have antremendous effect on the environment and health of its organisms living in.Asthma, cancer, acid rain, and the disability to photosynthesize are only a fewcauses of air pollution.The atmospheric pollutants with the greatest effectonto the environment are the carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons,sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, dust particles, radioactive isotopes, and chlorofluorocarbons.
The major sources thatenable carbon monoxide to enter the atmosphere are the exhausts of cars, theburning of fossil fuels, and the oxidation of natural methane. Carbon dioxideis caused by the consumption of fossil fuels only and it causes the possiblegreenhouse effect which has global warming as an outcome.Hydrocarbons arecaused by the combustion of oil and petrol and it effects the environment withcarcinogen.
Carcinogen is a chemical agent that causes cancer. Sulphur dioxideis certainly one of the major atmospheric pollutants considered that it causesstinging eyes, lung damage, asthma, and acid rain. It is the result ofcoal-fired power stations.Nitrogen oxides that is produced by the exhaust ofcars, causes pneumonia and asphyxia. The outcome of the well known dustparticles is often underestimated.
It is caused by industrial chimneys, carexhaust, and volcanic eruptions and it effects the environment by toxic effectsand damage of the lungs. Radioactive isotopes which are caused by smallquantities from nuclear waste and nuclear accidents have an carcinogenic effect on theenvironment as well. The outcome of chlorfluorocarbons, which had been firstdiscovered in the 80s is that it destroys the ozone layer.Many of those majoratmospheric pollutants combined produce the dangerous and well known smoke andgas emission called smog.Smog or dust dome is most often formed when a layer of cool air istrapped beneath a layer of still warmer air. The mixture of benzopyrene acancer causing substance that is produced by the evaporation of petrol , thewaste of hydrocarbons, combined with nitrogen dioxide, oxygen, and sunlightproduce the photochemical smog which can be recognized as the yellow cloud overevery big city in the world.
Besides that optical effect it causes an increaseof ozone in the lower atmosphere and the health conditions of the particularorganism living in such an area. For example, it is estimated that WashingtonDC receives 10 less sunlight than at the begging of the century due to theshielding of atmospheric pollution.
The ozone enters the leaves of plantsturning them brown and makes it difficult for plant to photosynthesize. Inaddition to that, it causes skin cancer on humans.Most seriously though, itincreases the acidity of the rain which is mainly caused by the rise of sulphurdioxide and nitrogen oxides that get caught up by clouds.
All ready unpollutedrain is slightly acid due to dissolved carbon dioxide, but polluted rain may bevery acidic. The effect of acid rain on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems canbe very different. In Scandinavia, which receives a high proportion of its airpollution from Britain, once productive lakes are now completely devoid offish.In addition to its direct effect on water, acid rain allows metal ionssuch as aluminum, which is highly toxic to fish, to be leached from the soil . Acidrain reduces the growth of trees and disables plants to photosynthesize whichdestroys them in the long term. It also reduces the activity of nitrogen-fixingbacteria.
In the event of a nuclear accident or war, the main risks do lay onlypartly in the pollution of air and air as a carrier of the polluted particles.The main risks arise from inhalation of contaminant particles, fallout of radioactive isotopes on soil with subsequentincorporation into food, and contamination of water supplies.
The outcome ofall those pollutant factors are enormous. The smoke from car engines whichcontains lead, that causes brain damage in children, stinging eyes, damage ofthe lung, the death rate of 40.000 asthma patients every year, and thedestruction of whole forests includes only a few examples of the effects of airpollution.There are many ways to control and reduce air pollution and it isnot the lack of technology but the unwillingness of the humans to change theirattitudes and life styles.
It exists a wide range oftechnology for effective air pollution. Emissions of dust can and should becontrolled by filters which remove solid particles before gases are discharged.Low sulphure fuels could be used in order to reduce the sulphure emission fromcoal-fired power stations.For all other forms of waste that get releasedduring production into the air, technology provides a wide range of filterswhich are able to remove 80-95 of sulphur dioxide gas. The control of emissionfrom the most common pollutant, the car, improvements can be made. The use oflead free patrol and catalytic converters would reduce toxic emissions to afraction of their present level and prevent damage to the environment.
Ofcourse are the big companies the one which produce most waste and cause mostpollution, but in order to change and reduce the air pollution, everyone, eventhe smallest household, needs to change its attitudes and be more responsiblewith the limited sources the nature is providing.
If humans would be lessgreedy for money and willing to ensure a safe and clean environment for thechildren of tomorrow, vast improvements could be made that would be beneficialfor the whole world. AlexanderV. Myskin, gr. 301.