As you walk through the building may appear to be one of the healthiest things a person can do. However, this may not always be the case. The World Health Organization estimates that about 3 million people die worldwide each year as a result of breathing polluted air. In the United States, air pollution is responsible for approximately 70 000 deaths each year. By comparison, vehicle-related accidents kill about 40,000 people. Even sitting at home in your own living room can be a hazard to your health. Many homes, offices and other buildings are poorly ventilated. Breathing air in these buildings can expose a person to a variety of harmful substances, such as radon and carbon monoxide in second-hand smoke. According to the American Lung Association estimates, this radon trapped inside buildings is responsible for 15, 000 to 21,000 lung cancer deaths in the United States each year.
Textile in Lowell, Massachusetts
Air pollution is a problem for human societies for hundreds of years. As early as the 14th century, the air pollution was so bad in England that King Edward I banned the use of coal to make fires, declaring, 'anyone should be convicted of the coal combustion must suffer the loss of his head. ' The problem has become much worse with the rise of the industrial revolution at the beginning of the 19th century. The coal combustion has become the primary means of the operation of factories, railway engines and heating homes and offices. This practice produces huge amounts of waste products, such as soot and ash, which has filled the sky for most of the urban areas in clouds of smoke. People continue to complain about the inconvenience of polluted air, but governments generally accepted the problem as an unfortunate side effect of increasing prosperity. Industrial development has Meissnerianis through the 19th and 20th centuries. The air pollution has become a plus serious and widespread problem. In the 1950s, land that had once been black - as the sky over the Arctic - also began to be polluted.
Coal-fired fireplace
The term air pollution refers to the presence of substances in the "atmosphere at a level that can affect the health and survival of human beings, the other animals and plants." The most common substances in polluted air are carbon monoxide, dioxide (NOx), sulphur dioxide Oxides, ozone, particles, organic compounds volatile (VOC) and lead. By far, the largest source of these pollutants is the combustion of fossil fuels: coal, oil and natural gas. Each pollutant has specific harmful effects organizations that vary depending on the amount of pollutants and the time is exposed to the pollutant live. Carbon monoxide in small doses over a short period can each of the headaches, nausea and disorientation; at higher doses, it can cause loss of consciousness and death. Prolonged exposure to dioxide oxides or sulfur dioxide can produce bronchitis, pneumonia, emphysema and other respiratory disorders. VOC and ozone also act as irritants to the lungs and can cause respiratory ailments as well as to make the lungs more sensitive to other irritants. Particulate matter consists of tiny particles of unburned carbon and other solids that lodge in the lungs, causing a variety of respiratory problems. Lead is a toxic substance that can each disorder diverse physical and mental health, including reproductive and digestive and mental retardation.
Polluted Northern England mining town
Air pollutants can also produce other injurious effects. Smog - a form of air pollution produced when sunlight acts on pollutants pour former one smog - is responsible for reduced visibility, which can result in car accidents or by air. Dioxide oxides and sulphur dioxide can attack plants, destroying the leaves, flowers and fruits. Most air pollutants also have effects on health as those on humans, domestic animals. Mercury in the air dissolves into the water, where it is ingested by animals and aquatic plants and becomes an integral part of the food chain.
The oldest act in the United States on air pollution was the Air Pollution Control Act of 1955, allocation of 5 million $ for the United States to conduct research on air pollution. This act was followed by a series of Clean Air acts and changes in the 1960s, only none were very effective in reducing air pollution. The main piece of legislation concerned with air pollution was the Clean Air Act of 1970. The Act established National Ambient Air Quality Standards and new source performance standards which form the basis of the air pollution-reduction programmes still today. He also created standards for automotive emissions. The 1970 Act was amended and revised several times, especially in 1977 and 1990.
The sign of George Bush Clean Air Act Amendments
Fight against pollution of the air in the United States have proved to be a real success. The Environmental Protection Agency reported in 2005 that the total emissions of the six principal air pollutants - nitrogen dioxide, ozone, sulphur dioxide, particulate matter, carbon monoxide and lead - had fallen by 54% between 1970 and 2004. The situation in the world was not as promising. Then the developed nations were finally getting the problems of air pollution under control, developing countries began only to realize the magnitude of the challenge, they face. China is perhaps the example more solo. At the beginning of the 21st century, 16 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world are in China. As the nation continues to burn coal at a voracious pace to drive its booming economy, air pollution is certain to become a problem even more serious for the giant, it is like many of savings growing around the world.
Other References
Epsom, Mr. Derek Pollution: A global problem. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1992. Kidd, J.S. and Renee A. Kidd. Tunes the in: the problem of Air Pollution. New York: Facts on File, 1998; Turco, Richard P. Earth under siege: the pollution of the air with global change. New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 2002.
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