Effects on Air pollution on the Environment

What is air pollution?

Air pollution is a familiar health threat to the environment. When a brown haze falls over a city, exhaust billows across a busy highway or a plume rises from a smokestack, we know what we're looking at. Some air pollution is not seen, but it alerts you to its odorous scent.

Air pollution is seen mostly as a threat to the health of the respiratory system. As air pollution studies progressed over the next several decades, public health issues grew to include cardiovascular disease; diabetes mellitus; obesity; and diseases of the reproductive, neurological, and immune systems.

Exposure to air pollution is associated with oxidative stress and inflammation in human cells, which may become the basis for cancer and chronic diseases.

The primary sources of human-made air pollution are vehicle emissions, fuel oil and natural gas for heating homes, by-products of manufacturing and power generation, particularly coal-fired power plants, and fumes from chemical processing.

Nature releases into the air dangerous pollutants, such as wildfire smoke, mostly caused by humans; ash and volcanic eruption gases; and gases, such as methane, released by the decomposition of organic matter in soils.

In this article, we list the main negative effects caused by air pollution worldwide:

1. Global warming. One of the most troubling effects for scientists and environmentalists is possibly global warming. Global warming is a direct product of the high emission of CO2 and methane into the atmosphere created by the greenhouse effect. Most of these emissions are generated by the sector, so social responsibility and action by companies and factories will resolve this.

2. Climate Change. Another result of global warming is climate change. There is a disruption in the normal climatic cycles as the temperature of the earth rises, accelerating the changes in these cycles in an apparent way.

3. Acid Rain. It is very toxic to emit gases from factories, power plants, boilers, heating, and transportation. These gases include the release of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels. As these compounds collect in the atmosphere and react with water, they form dilute nitric and sulfuric acid solutions, and both the environment and the surfaces suffer as they become rainy.

4. Impact of Smog. It occurs when the cities and fields have a kind of dark fog concentrated over them. The fog is a contaminant load and can be of two kinds: sulfurous smog and photochemical smog, both toxic and detrimental to health. Industrial and urban action is a result of all forms of smog. Sulfurous smog, however, has its origins largely in the use of coal in many manufacturing processes.

5. Lands Deterioration. Acid rain, climate change, and smog are all hurting the surface of the Earth. Contaminated water and gases enter the ground, altering soil composition. That has a direct effect on farming, changing crop cycles, and the composition of the food we all eat.

6. Animal Species Extinction. Many animal species, whose existence depends on the oceans and rivers, are endangered as the ice masses of the poles melt and sea levels rise. Currents change, ocean temperatures change and migratory cycles change, and in conditions unfamiliar to them, many species are forced to seek food. Deforestation and the low quality of the soil also mean the extinction of habitats.

7. Respiratory health problems. Breathing conditions and allergies ranging from coughs to asthma, cancer, or emphysema may be caused by contaminants. The lungs and other organs that make up the respiratory system are directly affected by inhaling toxic agents.

8. Deterioration of building materials. Air contaminants often deteriorate and alter the structure of construction materials, so over time, many buildings and structures are damaged, deteriorated, or demolished at an accelerated rate.

9. Chemical Sensitivity. Sensitivity to Chemicals. Intolerances and reactions to certain agents in the environment and other external agents that may move through due to the holes in the ozone layer grow in humans. This is because the chlorofluorocarbons that change the thickness of the ozone layer are extremely concentrated. Aerosols, industrial refrigerants, solvents, and oxygen are used to release chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

10. Skin Damage. Many of the chemical intolerances affect the skin of individuals directly. One of the worst injuries, though, is skin cancer. In certain cases, this condition arises from the direct incidence of ultraviolet rays of light on the skin. For such rays, the ozone layer serves as a filter. If the ozone layer is thinner, the filter's effectiveness decreases, allowing the passage of rays that are very dangerous to humans. 

If their triggers are not quickly acted upon, all those important effects will increase. Most of them are the consequence of industrial activity that is very heavy, polluting, and unregulated.

The responsibility for handling, treating, and monitoring the toxins they release into the environment rests with businesses around the world. Our health and the prevention of environmental degradation depend on their response.