Air Pollution: Causes and Effects
It keeps us alive but at the same time, it can also be harmful.
We breathe air everyday. Air provides us with oxygen that is essential for living. Nitrogen, water vapor, and inert gases comprise air along with oxygen. Emission of substances that contaminate air results to pollution.
Causes
Air pollution is both natural and human-based. Natural air pollution is caused by phenomenon such as volcanic eruption, wind erosion, decomposition and radioactive materials. Writing essay can only do as much in explaining each cause.
Volcanic eruptions send sulfur dioxide, tons of ash, and soot into the air which mixes with water vapor to form acid rain. Dirt particles can also be carried to the atmosphere during wind erosion. This happens in areas with less vegetation where soil cannot be held together.
Bacteria that feed on decaying organic matter like plants or animals produce methane and carbon dioxide, which are released into the atmosphere.
Earth's crust is composed is composed of a radioactive element called Uranium. Uranium turns into Radium once it decays afterward forming Radon. Radon is a gas that combines with air through evaporation.
Human activities or anthropogenic sources also cause air pollution. These activities mostly involve burning of fuel.
Stationary sources include factories and power plants. Mobile sources, on the other hand, are motor vehicles, aircraft, and water vessels.
There are still other human-based causes of air pollution. Landfills, where wastes get decomposed, generate methane. Use of aerosol sprays and the likes also contribute to air pollution.
Effects
Air pollution spreads easily as it travels into the atmosphere.
People get exposed to air pollution not just outdoors. Even in the comforts of our houses and workplaces, air pollution can also occur. This is known as indoor pollution.
Our respiratory and cardiovascular systems get affected by air pollution. The health risk air pollution poses depend on the type of chemical our bodies were exposed to, and the degree of exposure. It can either be short-term or long-term.
Examples of short-term effects are eye irritation, coughing, and sneezing. While long- term effects include heart disease, lung cancer, and damage to vital organs such as brain, liver, or kidneys. Air pollution can also worsen a person's medical condition.
Humans are not the only victims of air pollution. Environment also suffers. You may have read about this over again as air pollution effects is a common topic in writing essay. Acid rain can be fatal to trees and plants once it penetrates the soil and raises its acidity. Acid rain also causes damage to properties. It corrodes materials made of stone like statues and monuments.
Conclusion
Air pollution has long been a global problem. You can help increase awareness on how to protect air by writing essay . Take your part in lessening air pollution, and save lives.
Essay 2
Today the world has become highly industrialized and modernized, which makes human life much easier and more comfortable. In spite of the advantages, the development of industry does have a lot of disadvantages, especially air pollution. All over the world, air pollution is increasing at an alarming pace and at the same time, it has a serious effect on the earth and human health, so more and more people are concerned about it. As a result, measures are being taken to reduce this kind of pollution.
The first contribution to the atmospheric pollution is natural disaster, causing great damage to human life, including as volcanic eruption and forest fire. Firstly, during a volcanic eruption, lava, ash and various gases are expelled then hung in the air and spread the nearby areas, resulting in many problems such as respiratory diseases or lack of food. For example, the 1815 eruption of mount Tamora made agricultural crops fail and livestock die, leading to one of the worst famine of the 19th century. Furthermore, erupting volcanoes do not only pose many hazards in the immediate vicinity but they also are a thread to the aircraft where ash particles are melted by the high temperature. Secondly, forest fire are happening on a large scale, losing thousand hectares of trees.
Much more important than natural disaster, the major reason of air pollution is because of various human activities. First and foremost, many communities contribute a great proportion to the level of pollution in the air. All over the world, factories of oil industry and chemicals industry discharge industrial waste as well as pollutants into the air. For instance, carbon dioxide is the main factor which brings about the air pollution but unfortunately, the manufacturing process of most products would require the use of this chemical. To make the matter worse, an increasing number of industries and manufacturing units whose activities related to the burning of fuel has been established in recent years as a result of the development of technology. Therefore, there is an unavoidable growth in the amount of this chemical in the atmosphere. In the second place, another reason that effect the air is combustion engine exhaust. In fact, many means of transportation such as cars, motorbikes are partly responsible for air pollution by emitting great amount of fumes and gas. The more vehicles are in use, the more contaminated the air becomes.
Needless to say, air pollution takes many different forms and arises from a variety of sources. As its damage to human is growing, everyone now need to make an effort to reduce the pollution before it is too late.
It is time we paid attention to better the air quality we breath in two aspects. First, in society, in my opinion, there should be some policies to limit the amount of chemicals discharged into the air by the factories. In addition, the authorities should restrict the number of vehicles allowed to run in the city, especially in the rush hours when there is heavy traffic. Moreover, we need to raise our awareness of this problem. Everyone should be conscious of how serious the problem has become because the air is being polluted mostly by human irresponsible activities. All people can help to make the earth cleaner by planting trees, which will add oxygen to the atmosphere and provide shade in the summer. Furthermore, we need to conserve energy as well as recycle things. For instance, we should buy efficient appliances to use like energy saving bulbs that consume less electricity. The less energy we all use, the lower our demand is on our use of power, which means less pollution. Moreover, we should reduce the time we use our bikes or cars as they produce a great deal of harmful chemicals into the air. Instead of these vehicles, it may be better if we can walk or use the public transport, which not only save money but also reduce the production of emission.
In conclusion, although air pollution is resulted largely from the things that benefit people, we can all help in our little way. It may cause a little inconvenience but in the long run, if everyone unite to solve the problem, we can make a significant change to protect the environment as well as human health.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
There are several main causes of air pollution, the vast majority of them can be attributed to man.…
- 503 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Air pollution is the initiation of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or damages the natural environment into the atmosphere. Air pollution occurs when the air contains gases, fumes, dust, or other harmful agents. According to Morgan (2003), air pollution was not a problem until the 19th century and Industrial Revolution because pollution was readily diluted in the atmosphere (Morgan, Environmental Health, 2003, p. 247). Air pollution occurs in many forms but can generally be thought of as gaseous and particulate contaminants that are present in the earth 's atmosphere (Air Pollution - Its Nature, Sources, and Effects, 2013). Natural sources of air pollution include forest fires, dust storms, and volcanic eruptions (Morgan, Environmental Health, 2003, p. 249).…
- 1925 Words
- 8 Pages
Better Essays -
Lets start with “Air Pollution” which is created by both human and natural resources including but not limited to CO, SO2, most hydrocarbons, most particulates, CO2, NO, NO2, HNO2, HNO3, H2O2, SO3, H2SO4. Air pollution is a big atmospheric issue that continues to become a greater concern, especially when it comes to the health of living things including humans, animals and plants on our earth.…
- 1960 Words
- 8 Pages
Better Essays -
Air pollution affects everything from agriculture and ecosystems to human health, on a global scale. The five major air pollutants are ground-level ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide (Donnatelle, 2010). A majority of these pollutants are the result of human action. One example being coal power plants. These plants release greenhouse gas emissions and particle air pollution. The burning of the coal creates pollutant byproducts. Other forms of industrial pollution, exhaust fumes, burning wood, and several forms of indoor air pollutants result in air contamination. The combination of various air contaminates can be extremely toxic. The pollutants irritate the lungs and may even cause respiratory diseases and cancer in humans (Donnatelle, 2010).…
- 1424 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
Schematic drawing, causes and effects of air pollution: (1) greenhouse effect, (2) particulate contamination, (3) increased UV radiation, (4) acid rain, (5) increased ozone concentration, (6) increased levels of nitrogen oxides…
- 4716 Words
- 19 Pages
Powerful Essays -
2. Well what is air pollution? Air pollution occurs when gasses, dust particles, fumes, smoke or odours are introduced into the atmosphere in way that it makes it harmful to humans, animals and plants. This is because air becomes dirty, contaminated or unclean. Today I am going to talk only about two treacherous effects. One Acid Rain and ground level ozone.…
- 1205 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
Ex. Air pollution is caused by the following factors: exhaust gases from cars, uncontrolled factory releases, and burning of low quality coal for heating.…
- 2059 Words
- 9 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Air pollution is something that affects us every day whether we know it or not. The definition of air pollution occurs when the air contains gases, dust, fumes or odor 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. However; air pollution is something that can be prevented and is there are things that we as humans can do to better the environment.…
- 612 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
There are so many issues in today's society that one can simply over look the drastic need to help control air pollution in our daily lives. Pollution can be found everywhere- in our air, soil, water, sound and even the light. Although most air pollutants are from natural resources, a vast majority of environmental concerns are man-made.…
- 492 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Forest fires, volcanic eruptions, wind erosion, pollen dispersal, evaporation of organic compounds, and natural radioactivity are all among the natural causes of air pollution. But most pollution is the result of human activity, it's the operation of fossil fuel-burning power plants and automobiles that combust fuel. Beside this, cities with large numbers of automobiles or those that use great quantities of coal often suffer most severely from problems of air pollution.…
- 852 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
To better understand the causes of air pollution, the pollutants can be categorized into 3 separate types, natural, industrial and automotive.…
- 1545 Words
- 7 Pages
Powerful Essays -
* Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or damages the natural environment into the atmosphere…
- 1379 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
* Nuclear elements like uranium are found inside the earth’s surface, and when these elements decompose they release a noble gas known as Radon into the atmosphere.…
- 1290 Words
- 6 Pages
Good Essays -
Air lets our living planet breathe—it's the mixture of gases that fills the atmosphere, giving life to the plants and animals that make Earth such a vibrant place. Broadly speaking, air is almost entirely made up of two gases (78 percent nitrogen and 21 percent oxygen), with a few other gases (such as carbon dioxide and argon) present in absolutely minute quantities. We can breathe ordinary air all day long with no ill effects, so let's use that simple fact to define air pollution, something like this:…
- 6304 Words
- 17 Pages
Good Essays -
Air pollutants consist of gaseous pollutants, odours, and SPM, (suspended particulate matter) such as dust, fumes, mist, and smoke. The concentration of these in and near the urban areas causes severe pollution to the surroundings. The largest sources of human-created air pollution are energy generation, transportation, and industries that use a great deal of energy sources.…
- 754 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays