Air Pollution Essay

Air pollution is the contamination of the air by noxious gases and small particles of
solid and liquid matter in amounts that can cause harm to living organisms. Sources
of air pollution include: transportation engines such as automobiles, power and heat
generation, industrial processes, and the burning of solid waste. The combustion of
gasoline and other fuels in automobiles, trucks, and jet airplanes produce the most
common pollutants, nitrogen oxides, gaseous hydrocarbons, and carbon monoxide,
as well as particles of matter like lead. In cities, air is may not only be polluted by
transportation but also by the burning of fossil fuels in industrial buildings and by
the incineration of garbage, these types of combustion pollute the air with large
amounts of sulfur oxides that cause damage to man made structures and kill plants.

Air pollution has affects the environment and the health of people in a negative
manor. Air pollution may also possibly harm urban populations in ways too subtle or
slow for us to recognize.

Air pollution is also causing the increasing damage to the ozone layer above
Antarctica, as well as contributing to the depletion of ozone in the planet’s
atmosphere. The depletion of ozone will cause the amount of ultraviolet radiation
that reaches the earth will increase, which will burn crops and plants and endanger
the lives of living organisms on the planet. This type of air pollution is caused mainly
by CFC’s, from refrigerators, air conditions and sprays.

Due to the serious dangers air pollutions cause to the health of people, governments
have recently implemented plans to reduce the amounts of pollution that enter the
atmosphere. Governments hope to decrease pollution by setting new emission
standards for new factories and extremely hazardous industrial pollutants. The
government in the United States is beginning to regulate the amount of pollutants a
plant is allowed to expel as well, as well as making sure they implement safety and
cleaning procedures that will reduce the amount of needless pollution produced. Also
steps are being taken to reduce pollution, ideally the use of fossil fuels would have to
be eliminated in order to achieve a complete stop to the production of air pollutants,
some countries have initiated studies into alternative sources of energy and different
types of transportation engines but these have yet to be implemented.