Humans have been producing increasing amounts of pollution as time has progressed. Throughout the history, air pollution has been a problem.
Air pollution includes all contaminants found in the atmosphere that are responsible for major health problems. Every time we breathe, we inhale about 20,000 liters of air where we are risk of inhaling dangerous chemicals that can be either in the form of gases or particles.
The sources of air pollution are both natural and human based which can be found both indoors and outdoors. Pollutants that are trapped inside the buildings caused indoor pollution and are long lasting.
Air pollutants can be nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxides and organic compounds that evaporate and had entered the atmosphere.
Among its natural causes are fires, volcanic eruption, wind erosion, pollen dispersal, evaporation of organic compounds and natural radioactivity. But most of its biggest causes are the operating power plants that burns fossil fuels and automobiles that combust fuels.
The pollution has widely spread throughout the world. Every year, the health of countless people as well as the natural ecosystems are ruined and endangered by air pollution.
People who are exposed to so many dangerous pollutants suffered from bronchitis, lung cancer and heart diseases. Pollutants such as ozone, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide kill plants and trees by destroying their leaves and kill animals especially fish in highly polluted rivers.
Because of these alarming and disastrous effects, the governments, scientists and environmentalists use or test a variety of methods that aimed to reduce air pollution.
There are two main types of pollution control as initiated such as input and output control.
Input control involves preventing a problem before it occurs and has five major methods. People may try to restrict pollution growth by using less energy, improve energy efficiency, reduce waste and move them to non- polluting renewable form of energy production. Automobile- produced pollution can be decreased too with highly beneficial results.
Output control seeks to fix the problem caused by air pollution. This is more expensive and less desirable to tax payers and polluting industries.
Current air pollution control efforts are not highly effective especially in developing countries and even in nations where pollution is strictly regulated.
If people will continue to complain about the expense to be used in putting remedy to the chaos they had made themselves, nothing good will happen. Instead, this problem on air pollution will put the whole world in danger.
source: http://library.thinkquest.org/26026/Environmental_Problems/environmental_problems.html
