Coal pollution mitigation Since air is mostly nitrogen, combustion of coal often leads to production of nitrogen oxides. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are primary causes of acid rain. For many years--before greenhouse gasses were widely understood to be a threat-- it was thought that these by-products were the only drawback to using coal. These by-products are still a problem, but they have been greatly diminished in most advanced countries due to clean air regulations. It is possible to remove most of the sulfur dioxide (SO), nitrogen oxides (NO), and particulate matter (PM) emissions from the coal-burning process. For example, various techniques are
Environmental health ethics unsafe food, eating in overlarge quantities, are well documented yet in all societies there is no legislation against over-consumption. Ethical properties of utilitarianism and social justice conflict with humanity's freedom of choice in the determining of access to healthy, safe food. Air, water, and solid waste pollution are environmental health issues which can adversely affect people, plants, and animals. From an ethical standpoint many things about pollutants can be studied, like questions of disposal, storage, recycling, and responsibility. A few examples of air pollutants include particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon oxides, chlorofluorocarbons, and heavy metals (e.g. mercury). Perhaps