Lead Air Pollutants example essay topic

Air Pollution has crept into every aspect of our lives and has grown at alarming rate. From garbage, factories, vehicles and others that can destroy many precious lives. we don't have to look far to find the culprits because we humans are the ones polluting our world. There are many reasons why children get sick. At home, the garbage we improperly dispose off emits a foul smell and contributes a fair share of air pollutants. On our streets, thousands of smoke belching vehicles continuously discharge a large percentage of air pollutants. Around urban areas and in countryside, factories, power plants and manufacturing plants emit large columns of dark smoke containing elements that poisons the air.

These things are very harmful and death threatening. If we continue doing these, there will be no world for us to live in. Unless we are vigilant about our environment, we will soon find ourselves suffocating for lack of clean, fresh air. What can we do as individuals to protect ourselves?

One way is to put our garbage in covered trash receptacles. Another is to minimize our waste by segregating and recycling. Still another is to plant trees for a sure supply of oxygen. Trees take in the carbon dioxide that poisons usa. They give off oxygen that we need for breathing.

We must learn how to preserve our environment to make everybody happy and healthy. With a little help from us, we can save our own selves. We should thank God for giving us a beautiful and clean environment. Lead is one of the most harmful, but yet most unexpected air pollutants in the world today. For many years Lead has been known as a poisonous substance, nevertheless still to be ignored by some.

Lead does a large amount of damage to the human body. And the bad thing about it is that if I had to name some of the most harmful air pollutants in the world I probably wouldn't have even mentioned lead. Lead is very harmful to the human body. High levels of exposure to Lead can damage the blood, brain, nerves, kidneys, reproductive organs, and even the immune system. While on the other hand lower levels which are more commonly associated with current exposures can result into impaired mental functioning and development in children and raising blood pressure in middle-aged men. What makes lead even more dangerous is that it accumulates in the body so bad that even small doses can be harmful to the body.

Some of the remaining sources of lead pollutant includes lead smelters, incineration of lead batteries, and burning lead-contaminated waste oil. However, the most common sources of current lead exposure are indoors from old lead-containing paint and soil. Many actions are being taken in effort of reducing lead air pollutants, but there still can be even more things done to help reduce this problem that is affecting the people in the world that we live in. And it all starts with everyone looking at themselves first. One plus is that due to major reductions and now the elimination of lead in the world's gasoline, there has been a significant decrease in public exposure to lead in outdoor air. Then the sky turned red, toxins over head, everybodies dead, everybodies dead.

(GutterMouth; Nitro Records; 1995) In 1948, the industrial town of Donor a, Pennsylvania suffered 28 deaths because of the thick smog. Air pollution is an ecological problem having to do with toxins in the air. There are a few things the human race has done to try to prevent air pollution from taking such a serious toll. Two of these are the Clean Air Acts and the increased use of solar power over coal power. By creating electric cars, the pollution caused by gasoline powered cars will be lessened. If the pollution is not stopped, it will cause life on earth as we know it to cease.

Air pollution causes a number of health and ecological problems. It causes health problems like cancer, emphysema, and asthma. It also causes the depletion of the ozone layer which results in global warming and melting of the ice caps. Up until the industrial era, the air was fairly clean. The use of smokestacks and the burning of fuels put many pollutants in the air during this period of time. The increased use of fossil fuels today also builds on this.

There have been many attempts at stopping air pollution. The Clean Air Acts were effective for a little while. They made using some polluting substances illegal. This did not work because people simply did not listen. Solar Energy is another attempted solution. This type of energy is good because it is an alternative energy source to coal and other polluting fossil fuels.

The problem with solar energy is that it is extremely expensive, but it has been used extensively throughout the world. One of the more effective ways of eliminating air pollution is the making of electric cars. The use of these electric cars would completely reduce the amount of pollution in the air caused by gasoline powered cars. These cars are run on batteries instead of gasoline or other fuel. Though the use of solar cars seems more realistic, it would also be very expensive and unreliable. The difference primarily between solar and electrical power is the fact that solar cars would be much more expensive to make.

The possibilities of making a cost efficient electric car are much more realistic than making a cost efficient solar car. By making the ecologically safe and inexpensive electric car, the pollution caused by gasoline powered cars would go down. Without making these changes, the globe will continue to heat up at an annual rate of. 2 degrees a year which will result in the melting of the ice caps. If this were to happen, the water would rise 200 feet, flooding most of the earth.

The Earth's ecosystem is a little bit like a web. It is very fragile and depends on all of its strands to maintain staleness. If the air is polluted it disrupts this web creating a total imbalance. This "total imbalance" would also occur if the water was polluted. In effect, when one part falls they all do. Believe me, "total imbalance" is not cool.

Air Pollution and its effects Pollution is one of the most worrying problems of our time. This problem surfaced during the industrial revolution. The great industrial revolution brought about many positive changes to the world; better transportation, cheaper products, and a better life. However, with it's riches came the price, pollution. At the beginning of the industrial revolution, no one paid any attention to the problem of pollution. As the science, progressed people started to realize this problem.

Air pollution arises from many sources. The burning of gasoline in automobiles produces harmful gases and incineration of products. From various factories come millions of particles that are carried off in the air. Chemical plants produce gaseous by-products that are toxic when their concentration is high enough. As parts of the world become more industrialized, air pollution has generally increased and new health hazards have developed. Air pollution can result from causes that we can not control.

For example, forest fires, dust storms, and volcanoes. Acid rain is one of the products of air pollution. Acid rain is created when raindrops combine with the polluted air. Acid rain causes erosion of buildings, destruction of crops, and other assets. Air pollution also causes global warming... According to some predictions, significant alterations in climate patterns could become apparent in a few years.

Estimates of global average temperatures have projected an increase of as much as 9 o F before the year 2100. There are two kinds of sources of air pollution indoor and outdoor air pollution. The indoor air polluters include many products, from cleansers to furnishings, which release harmful organic compounds into the air you breathe. The EPA has measured levels of organic compounds in both rural and suburban homes that range from two to five times the levels of outside air.

Another indoor pollutant is called mold, a microscopic organism, can grow at any surface; it grows at any place where humidity is above 70 percent. These molds create spores that can go inside a human body and cause many complications. According to the American Lung Association, mold triggers allergic reactions, including asthma. A study by the Mayo Clinic states that mold is the cause of nearly all chronic sinus infections. It can lead to serious complications, including breathing difficulties, memory and hearing loss, and bleeding of the lungs.

As serious as the indoor pollutants are, they are minimal compared to the outdoor pollution. This pollution includes from factories to volcanoes. Gases are released in the air because of the fissile fuel burned by the factories ships, automobiles, ships, and trains. Every industry process exhibits its own patterns of air pollution. Petroleum refineries are responsible for extensive hydrocarbon and particulate pollution. Iron refineries and steel mills, metal smelter, pulp and paper mills, chemical plants, cement and asphalt plants, all discharge vast amount of various particulates.

Uninsulated high-voltage power lines ionize the adjacent air, forming ozone and other hazardous pollutants. Some of the gases include carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide carbon dioxide. Carbon Monoxide comes from cars, trucks, gas furnaces and stoves, and some industrial processes. Carbon Monoxide is also a toxin in cigarettes. Carbon Monoxide combines with hemoglobin in the red blood cells, so body cells and tissues cannot get the oxygen they need. Carbon Monoxide attacks the immune system, especially affecting anyone with heart disease, anemia, and lung diseases.

Even at low concentrations, CO affects mental function, vision, and alertness. Nitrogen Oxide is another pollutant that has been nicknamed a jet-age pollutant because it is only apparent in highly advanced countries. Sources of this are fuel plant, cars, and trucks. At lower concentrations, nitrogen oxides are a light brown gas. In high concentrations, they are major sources of haze and smog. They also combine with other compounds to help form ozone.

Nitrogen Oxides cause eye and lung irritation, and lowers the resistance to respiratory illness, such as chest colds, bronchitis, and influenza. Air pollution by sulfur oxides is a major environmental problem. It is estimated that 30-40 million tons of sulfur dioxide are emitted into the atmosphere by the United States each year. This compound itself is harmful to plant and animal life, as well as to many building materials. Another problem of great concern is acid rain. Both sulfur oxides dissolve in atmospheric water droplets to form acidic solutions that can be very damaging when distributed in the form of rain.

It is thought that sulfuric acid is the major cause of the acidity in acid rain, which is not only damaging forests in the Northern Hemisphere but also causing fish, to die off in many northern lakes as well. Acid rain is also corrosive to metals, limestone, and other materials. The possible solutions to this problem are expensive because of the difficulty of removing sulfur from coal and oil before they are burned. Carbon dioxide is not as lethal as carbon monoxide, sulfur oxide, or nitrogen oxide, however Carbon dioxide (CO 2) is one of the major pollutants in the atmosphere. Major sources of carbon dioxide are fossil fuels burning and deforestation. Industrial countries account for 65% of carbon dioxide emissions with the United States and Soviet Union responsible for 50%.

Less developed countries, with 80% of the world's people, are responsible for 35% of carbon dioxide emissions, but they may contribute 50% by 2020. Carbon dioxide emissions are increasing by 4% a year. In 1975, 18 thousand million tons of carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere, but the atmosphere showed an increase of only 8 billion tons. The ocean waters contain about sixty times more carbon dioxide than the atmosphere. If the oceans can no longer absorb this much carbon dioxide, then more carbon dioxide will remain into the atmosphere. As water warms, its ability to absorb carbon dioxide is reduced.

Air pollution affects all spheres of the earth, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and the sphere of life, the biosphere. When pollutants are released in the air, they contaminate the atmosphere with the deadly gases like Carbon monoxide, Carbon dioxide, Nitrogen dioxide, Sulfur dioxide, and so on. When these gases come back down to earth the fell into the water, since 70 percent of earth is covered with water, when these hazardous gases fell in the water they contaminate the hydrosphere. In addition, these gases drop on the land and pollute it. Consequently, all of these polluted spheres lead to the pollution biosphere, so every sphere is contaminated by pollution. Air pollution effects land, buildings, and human health.

Air pollution erodes land and buildings, India had 2 billion dollar loss in productivity because of soil erosion because of acid rain land becomes unfit to produce good crop. Soil erosion has consequences that are more serious; Ethiopia loses not 2 billion dollars but 2 billion tons of soil every year. This is much more serious, losing $2 billion is conceivable, but it is hard to understand 2 billion tons of soil eroded away every year. It is one of the consequences of the air pollution and acid rain. In addition, many building around the world are mostly made of a rock called limestone, limestone reacts with acids.

Consequently, the buildings will start to erode because of acid rain. Effects on humans, air pollution causes many respiratory diseases. It is the leading cause of asthma, an estimated 24.7 million Americans have been diagnosed with asthma, according to the American Lung Association; the disease costs the nation $12.7 billion yearly. From 1980 to 1994, asthma cases increased by 75 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Theses are startling statistics but they should not be, because from 1980 to 2002, there have been more factories, more forest fires, and countless automobiles. All of which have been contributing to the air pollution.

In addition, to the current air pollution the pollution from before 1980 era is still in the air, the environment can not absorb any more gases. The governments of the world's nations are taking measures to solve this problem. Many countries have passed Clean Air Act, which have reduced the air pollution. However, these laws are not enough to protect the environment. The citizens of these countries have to take steps to help solve this problem. For example, getting the car tuned more frequently so it will create less smoke.

For factories, owners, to use resources that produce fewer pollutants, for example instead of using coal, use natural gas, because it produces less pollution. In conclusion, imagine a scenario, a Red Cross truck pulls into a small community and starts handing out bottled water to people in dire need of pure safe water to drink. It is hard to imagine this kind of event water very important for our life. However, if the air pollution problem continues there might come a day when we have to breath out of an oxygen tank. If the problems continuous like this, that day might not be a thing of the distant future. All I can do is do my part to save the environment and hope for a solution to this problem..