Air pollution consists of chemicals or particles within the air which will harm the health of humans, animals, and plants. It also damages buildings. Pollutants in the air take many forms. They can be solid-liquid and gaseous states.
How does it occur?
There are many sources of air pollution. And pollution enters the Earth’s atmosphere in many different ways. People make most of the pollution, taking the shape of emissions from factories, cars, planes, or aerosol cans. Second-hand cigarette smoke also considered air pollution. These man-made sources of pollution caused by human activity called anthropogenic sources.
Some types of air pollution, like ashes from volcanic activities, dust, and smoke from wildfires, occur naturally called natural sources.
Emissions from many different sources are concentrated are large cities where air pollution is common. Sometimes, mountains or tall buildings prevent pollution from spreading out.
This air pollution often appears like a cloud called smoke and fog.
Large cities in poor and developing nations tend to possess more pollution than cities in developed nations.
How does air pollution affect humans?
Short-term effects like illnesses like pneumonia or bronchitis. And also they include discomforts like irritation in the throat, eyes, nose, and skin. Air pollution also can cause headaches, nausea, and dizziness.
Factories, garbage, or sewer systems that make bad smells are considered pollution, too. These odors are less serious but still unpleasant.
The long-term effects of pollution can last for many years or for an entire lifespan.
They can even lead to a person’s death. Long-term health effects from pollution include heart condition, carcinoma, and respiratory diseases like emphysema. Air pollution also can cause long-term damage to people’s nerves, brain, kidneys, liver, and other organs.
People react differently to different types of pollution.
Very young children and older people, whose immune systems are weaker, are found often more sensitive to pollution. Diseases and conditions such as asthma, heart disease, and lung disease can be made even worse by exposure to air pollution. The length of exposure and amount and sort of pollutants also are factors.
How air pollution affects the environment?
Living things like human beings, plants, animals, entire ecosystems can suffer effects from air pollution. Haze, like smoke and fog, is a different type of air pollution that obscures all colours and shapes. This type of hazy air pollution can also even muffle the sounds.
Air pollution particles eventually fall back to Earth. And the most important thing is that air pollution can directly contaminate the surface of water bodies of water and the soil. This can kill crops or reduce their yield. It can kill young trees and other plants.
Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide particles in the air can create acid rain when they mix with water and oxygen in atmosphere. These air pollutants come mostly from coal-fired power plants and automobiles.
When the acidic rain waterfalls down to the Earth, it damages all the plants and trees by changing the composition of soil and degrades the quality of water in the rivers, lakes, ponds, and streams also it damages crops and can cause and monuments and buildings to decay.
Like human beings, animals also suffer health effects due to direct exposure to polluted air. Birth defects, diseases, and lower reproductive rates have all been attributed to pollution.
Pollution due to global warming
Global warming is an environmental problem and phenomenon caused by natural and man-made pollution. It is rising air temperature and ocean temperatures around the world.
Greenhouse gases trap heat within the Earth’s atmosphere. (Usually, more of Earth’s heat escapes into space.)
A greenhouse gas i.e carbon dioxide has the biggest effect on global warming. Due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, gasoline, and natural gas in the atmosphere carbon dioxide is emitted. Humans are using fossil fuels to provide energy to cars and planes, heat homes, and run factories.
By doing these types of things pollutes the air.
Other greenhouse gases emitted by natural and artificial sources also include methane, laughing gas, and fluorinated gases. Methane gas is the biggest emission from coal and agricultural processes.
Industry emits fluorinated gases, like hydrofluorocarbons, CFCs are restricted by law in many places because they damage the ozone layer.
How air pollution can be reduced?
Anybody can take steps to reduce air pollution. Many people around the world can make everyday simple changes in their lives to reduce pollution. Taking public transportation instead of driving a car, riding a cycle instead of traveling in carbon dioxide emitting vehicles are a couple of ways to reduce air pollution.
Reduction of the ozone layer
The ozone layer around the earth in the stratosphere protects all the living things on earth by filtering harmful ultraviolet radiation (UV rays) from the sun. When chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other ozone degrading chemicals emit, they mix with the atmosphere and harm the ozone layer. Then the chlorine and the bromine start chemical reactions and destroy the ozone layer. This destruction occurs at a very rapid rate than ozone is created through natural processes. Hence reducing the ozonosphere.
Toxic gases and pollutants in the atmosphere
Hazardous air pollutants also called air toxics, include primary pollutants and secondary pollutants. Primary pollutants include carbon monoxide, sulfur oxide, nitrogen oxide, etc. Secondary pollutants include acid rain, HC, NO2, NOx, etc
Examples of air toxics include benzene, found in gasoline; perchloroethylene, emitted from some cleaning facilities. Other samples of air toxics include dioxin, asbestos, and metals like cadmium, mercury, chromium, and lead compounds.
Conclusion
Nowadays the level of air pollution is increasing due to most human activity. So we must take action to reduce it and save our environment. Air pollution also causes adverse effects on human health. And it also happens due to particulate matter i.e particle pollution.
Originally published at https://www.essaylia.com.
