America Air Pollution - Essay Example

America Air Pollution Air pollution involves the introduction of particulate matter, chemicals, or the biological material, which causes the discomfort and harm to the humans and the living organisms. In other cases, the onset of industrial revolution in America has experienced a dozen of trouble with the environmental issues like air population. Studies conducted in America shows that over sixty percent of Americans reside in regions where air population is at a level considered being unhealthy hence making the people to be sick.1 Air pollution has evolved into being a serious global problem. The main reason for air pollution involves the neglect and indifference of environment protection by human. The problem of air pollution has evolved from the early history. The leading origin of air pollution in history is the period of industrial revolution. In this period, the high-sulfur coal was largely used by the industrial production, leading massive release of smoke to the environment. In order to understand the problem of air population, this paper explores a study to be done to investigate the issue of air pollution in America. 2 Body The air pollution was in the first industrial revolution because of massive amounts high-sulfur coal usage in the production process. Great amounts of industrial production largely used high-sulfur coal hence producing abundant SO2 into the air. Air pollution specifically in the cities is not a new encounter. In the Middle Ages, using coal in the cities had escalated. The challenge of poor quality of urban air as early as in the sixteenth century depended on the use of coal.3 After the first industrial revolution, the air pollution problem formed and developed during the second industrial revolution as a form of “smoke”. Many industries were located in the cities and towns. The fumes from these industries and the coal from domestic heating in the home made the levels of air population in the urban region be high. In times of foggy situations, the level of pollution increased leading to the formation of urban smogs (a mixture of fog and smoke). This made the cities in America to be brought in a halt, interfering with the traffic and causing the rates of death to increase dramatically. The influence of pollution on vegetation and building was obvious. In the year 1960 to 1990 the congress of the United States enacted a number of clean air acts that were useful in strengthening the air pollution regulation.4 These initiatives were followed by many states in the United States. The clean Air act established some numerical concentration limits of the basic air pollutants thus giving the reporting and mechanisms of enforcement. In the year 1999 the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States had the standard pollution index replaced with the quality air index in order to incorporate the ozone standards. 5From the year 1970 to 2006, the influence of the enacted laws was farfetched and the citizens enjoyed the reductions in the emissions of the pollutants. 6 The accumulation of air pollution problem through history finally created severe influences to the society. There are a number of evidences to support the fact that air pollution is harmful to the human health, animals, vegetation damage, reduction of the yield of crops, material deterioration, climatic effects, reduction of visibility together with solar radiation. Air pollution interfered with the property, life enjoyment by contributing to the safety hazards. The effects of air pollution could be measurable or specific. The resulting damage to material, vegetation, and visibility reduction can easily be measured. However, the influences on the health and the many negative effects towards the comfort of humans cannot be estimated. , which can be difficult to be measured. 7 The effect of air pollution on the atmospheric pressure cannot be ignored. Air pollution influences the atmospheric properties by reducing the solar radiation, visibility, precipitation, formation of fog, temperature alteration, and the patterns of wind. The common influence of air pollution in the atmosphere involves the visibility reduction. This is one aspect that is unpleasing and results into safety hazards. In many cases, visibility can be reduced through absorption and scattering of light through the polluted air. The particles that are appropriate in the light scattering involve those having a comparable wavelength to that of the visible light.8 Air pollution has a severe influence on the urban climate. This is because of high fog formation and minimum solar radiation. The schemitted in fossil fuel combustion becomes oxidized in the atmosphere that is humid forming the small droplets of sulfuric acid in the form of fog. Minimum particles may act as nucleus of condensation for fog droplet formation. 9 To the material, air pollution leads to soiling in the form of chemical deterioration. The smoke and the particles leads to clothe and structure soiling. The alkaline and acidic substances corrode materials like the paints, masonry, and textile. Air pollution corrodes the building material. On the vegetations, ammonia, chlorine, and hydrogen chloride are extremely harmful to the vegetation. The pollutants gets into the plants via the stomata during the respiration hence destroy the chlorophyll. These pollutants can enter the body of humans via the system of respiration. Conclusion Air pollution is a historical problem that requires great attention of official authority. It is a condition through which the polluting constituents move in circular ions high in their normal level to give the detectable dangerous impact to the fauna, material, and flora. 10The components of air pollution are manmade and can be avoided. It is vital for us to Learn from the previous failure of controlling air pollution in order to produce effective solution of this issue. This paper highlighted the many causes of air pollution in America. The paper discussed the effects of air pollution in America, and suggests a possible way of managing air pollution in the environment. All the objectives of the study were, therefore, achieved Bibliography Barboza, Tony. "Air pollution deemed a carcinogen; A World Health Organization panel formally declares it a leading cause of cancer deaths.." Los Angeles Times, , sec. LATEXTRA; News Desk; Part AA; Pg. 2, October 21, 2013. http://ntserver1.wsulibs.wsu.edu:2052/hottopics/lnacademic/ (accessed February 7, 2014). 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