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causes of air pollution

3.0 AIR POLLUTION CAUSES

Air pollution is not just a “city problem”. Many air pollutants are dispersed over areas hundred of miles from their source where they affect many different ecosystems. These pollutants often remain toxic in the environment for a very long time where they continue to affect ponds, streams, fields, and forests. So, many causes of air pollution and that’s causes can separate to two parts are natural pollution and human activities. Forest fires, volcanic eruptions, wind erosion, pollen dispersal, evaporation of organic compounds, and natural radioactivity are all among the natural causes of air pollution.

3.1 Natural Pollution

Most air pollution is the result of energy consumption. Specifically, the burning of fossil fuels to produce electricity or to power transportation vehicles is the main cause this serious, but preventable, environmental hazard. Example for burning of fossil fuels is forest fires. Well, as you are probably aware, air pollution takes many different forms and arises from a variety of sources. In terms of overall range and extents of impacts. However, burning of fossil fuels is the largest source of air pollutants. These fuels cause smog, acid rain, soot and particulates increases, greenhouse gas emissions, and dispersal of some heavy metal contaminants. Burning of fossil fuels cause acid rain.

Volcanoes commonly displays a distinctive pattern of behavior. Some mild eruptions merely discharge steam and other gases, whereas other eruptions quietly extrude quantities of lava. Other than free oxygen, generated by photosynthesis, all atmospheric gases were derived from inside the earth and released by volcanic eruptions. The gaseous portion of magma varies from ~1 to 5% of the total weight. Water vapor constitutes 70-90%. The remaining gases include CO2, SO2, and trace amounts of of N, H, CO, S, Ar, Cl, and F. These subordinate gases can combine with hydrogen and water to produce numerous toxic compounds.

Wind erosion is a serious environmental problem attracting the attention of many across the globe. It is a common phenomenon occurring mostly in flat, bare areas; dry, sandy soils; or anywhere the soil is loose, dry, and finely granulated. Wind erosion damages land and natural vegetation by removing soil from one place and depositing it in another. It causes soil loss, dryness and deterioration of soil structure, nutrient and productivity losses, air pollution, and sediment transport and deposition.

Radiation is natural. It's in our food, in the air, water, and soil. It's even in our bodies. It comes from unstable atoms-tiny particles of matter. As these atoms break up, they produce invisible energy waves or particles. Our bodies absorb a small amount of this radiation every hour, every day, every week. A person living directly outside a nuclear power facility would receive approximately one additional milligram per year.

3.2 Human Activity

Burning of petroleum in car engines and other petrol runned vehicles releases Carbon monoxide and Carbon dioxide gasses. Carbon Monoxide causes health problems and prolonged exposure to it may result to death. This is so because it inhibits haemoglobin in red blood cells making it incapable of carrying oxygen. Carbon dioxide gas along with other green house gasses such as methane is responsible for greenhouse effect, a process which warms the earth making its climate bearable and capable of sustaining life. But increasing levels of carbon dioxide is believed to result into Global warming.

Photochemical smog is also appearing in regions of the tropics and subtropics where savanna grasses are periodically burned. Smog's unpleasant properties result from the irradiation by sunlight of hydrocarbons caused primarily by unburned gasoline emitted by automobiles and other combustion sources. The products of photochemical reactions includes organic particles, ozone, aldehydes, ketones, peroxyacetyl nitrate, organic acids, and other oxidants. Ozone is a gas created by nitrogen dioxide or nitric oxide when exposed to sunlight.

CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) have no natural source, but were entirely synthesized for such diverse uses as refrigerants, aerosol propellants and cleaning solvents. Their creation was in 1928 and since then concentrations of CFCs in the atmosphere have been rising. Due to the discovery that they are able to destroy stratospheric ozone, a global effort to halt their production was undertaken and was extremely successful. So much so that levels of the major CFCs are now remaining level or declining.

Electric power plants are the single largest industrial source of some of the worst air pollutants. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that more than 120 million Americans live in areas where the air is unhealthy. Yet the Bush administration's air pollution plan would gut existing health protections and do nothing to curb global warming.

causes of air pollution

Salam...
hi, to all my friends....
do you know what causes air pollution? one of them is smoke from factories and motor vehicles. Thats smoke bring out of carbon dioxide to air and give bad impact to our life. when over out carbon dioxide to air, human especially lack of oxygen.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the major pollutants in the atmosphere. Major sources of CO2 are fossil fuels burning and deforestation. CO2 is a good transmitter of sunlight, but partially restricts infrared radiation going back from the earth into space. This produces the so-called greenhouse effect that prevents a drastic cooling of the Earth during the night. Increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere reinforces this effect and is expected to result in a warming of the Earth's surface.
Other that causes is sulfur dioxide. Sulfur dioxide is produced by combustion of sulfur-containing fuels, such as coal and fuel oils. Also, in the process of producing sulfuric acid and in metallurgical process involving ores that contain sulfur. Sulfur oxides can injure man, plants and materials. At sufficiently high concentrations, sulfur dioxide irritates the upper respiratory tract of human beings because potential effect of sulfur dioxide is to make breathing more difficult by causing the finer air tubes of the lung to constrict.
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) also air pollution causes. CFCs are lowering the average concentration of ozone in the stratosphere. Spray cans, discarded or leaking refrigeration and air conditioning equipment, and the burning plastic foam products release the CFCs into the atmosphere. Depending on the type, CFCs stay in the atmosphere from 22 to 111 years. Chlorofluorocarbons move up to the stratosphere gradually over several decades. Under high energy ultra violet (UV) radiation, they break down and release chlorine atoms, which speed up the breakdown of ozone (O3) into oxygen gas (O2). Chlorofluorocarbons, also known as Freons, are greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Photochemical air pollution is commonly referred to as "smog".
Other thats is smog. Photochemical smog is also appearing in regions of the tropics and subtropics where savanna grasses are periodically burned. Smog's unpleasant properties result from the irradiation by sunlight of hydrocarbons caused primarily by unburned gasoline emitted by automobiles and other combustion sources. The products of photochemical reactions includes organic particles, ozone, aldehydes, ketones, peroxyacetyl nitrate, organic acids, and other oxidants. Ozone is a gas created by nitrogen dioxide or nitric oxide when exposed to sunlight. Ozone causes eye irritation, impaired lung function, and damage to trees and crops. Another form of smog is called industrial smog. This smog is created by burning coal and heavy oil that contain sulfur impurities in power plants, industrial plants, etc. The smog consists mostly of a mixture of sulfur dioxide and fog. Suspended droplets of sulfuric acid are formed from some of the sulfur dioxide, and a variety of suspended solid particles.