Air+Pollution

= **Air Pollution By: Allison Billet** = **What is air pollution?** Air pollution is when different chemicals and air pollutants that can cause harm to living things come into the air. **Causes of air pollution** Some air pollutants are natural: -Dust from natural sources. -Volcanic activities produce sulfur, chlorine, and ash particulates. -Wildfires produce smoke and carbon dioxide. -Radon, which is a colorless, odorless, naturally occurring, radioactive noble gas, is formed from the decay of radium. Radium is a highly radioactive metallic element. The decay of radium within the earth’s crust can cause much harm to living things. - Methane emitted by the digestion of food of animals

Other air pollutants are man made: -Fumes from paint, hairspray, aerosol sprays, etc. -Smoke stacks of power plants -Mobile Sources, such as transportation vehicles, and the effect of sound - Waste deposition in landfills, which generate methane. - Military Sources, such as, nuclear weapons, toxic gases, germ warfare, and rocketry **Effects of air pollution** -Direct causes of air pollution are aggravated asthmas, bronchitis, emphysema, lung and heart disease, respiratory allergies - This can cause subtle biochemical and physiological changes to difficulty in breathing, coughing and aggravation of existing respiratory and cardiac conditions. -As a result, people may end up using more medication; there may be more emergency room visits, hospital admissions and even premature death -In fact, according to The World Health Organization, 2.4 million people die each year from direct causes of air pollution. **Solutions of air pollution** One thing we can do about air pollution is to prevent it before it occurs. This is called input control. For example, we can try to use less energy, by keeping lights off in a room when you are not in the room, watch less TV, etc. Also, we can reduce waste and move to non-polluting renewable forms of energy production. Then, there are cars that can decrease pollution by a major amount, such as hybrid cars. Output control is trying to fix the problem caused by air pollution. For example, we can clean up an area that has been damaged by pollution. Although input controls are usually more effective than output controls, every little bit will still help the environment.