Research Essay on Impact of Air pollution on Human Society

Essay by thekrunalUniversity, Bachelor'sA-, September 2009

download word file, 8 pages 5.0

Air pollution occurs when the air contains gases, dust, fumes or odour in harmful amounts. That is, amounts which could be harmful to the health or comfort of humans and animals or which could cause damage to plants and materials. The substances that cause air pollution are called pollutants (Jeremy, 2002). Pollutants that are pumped into our atmosphere and directly pollute the air are called primary pollutants. Primary pollutant examples include carbon monoxide from car exhausts and sulphur dioxide from the combustion of coal. Air pollutants mainly occur as a result of gaseous discharges from industry and motor vehicles. There are also natural sources such as wind-blown dust and smoke from fires. Some forms of air pollution create global problems, such as upper atmosphere ozone depletion and global warming. These problems are very complex, and require international cooperative efforts to find solutions. Air pollution is a broad term applied to any chemical, physical, or biological agent that modifies the natural characteristics of the atmosphere (Youngner and Nudge, 169-170).

Examples include particulate matter and ground-level ozone. Air pollutants fall into four main categories: criteria air contaminants, persistent organic pollutants, heavy metals and toxics. Individual pollutants differ from one another in their chemical composition, reactions with other chemicals, sources, persistence, ability to travel through the atmosphere, and impacts.

The first use of coal as a combustion source in the 14th century is the main relation between air pollution and respiratory disease (Ayres, Evans and Buehler 1 - 40). This air pollution was later engulfed in the whole communities of industrial nations of Europe and North America that resulted in serious illness and death between those individuals that were suffering from cardiopulmonary disease. These kind of situations also occurred in the Meuse Valley of Belgium in 1930 as well as in Donora, Pennsylvania...