Air Pollution | What Causes Air Pollution?

 Air Pollution | What Causes Air Pollution?

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Air Pollution

What Causes Air Pollution? What is Air Pollution ? Air pollution is the contamination of the environment with substances that are harmful to humans, plants and animals. Air pollution is caused due to the presence of pollutants in the air. Some harmful pollutants are (i) Carbon monoxide (ii) Sulphur dioxide (iii) Oxides of Nitrogen (iv) Suspended particulate matter (SPM) (v) Chlorofluorocarbons (vi) Lead What causes Air pollution ? Some of the reasons for air pollution are: (i) Burning Fossil Fuels Sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide emitted from the combustion of fossil fuels like coal, petroleum and other factory combustibles is one the major cause of air pollution. Fumes emitting from vehicles like trucks, jeeps, cars, trains, airplanes cause immense amount of pollution. Cars and heavy vehicles used in transportation burn lots of fossil fuels like petrol and diesel to work. Emissions from automobile engines contain poisonous gases and dangerous gases such as carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, hydrocarbons and particulates. They cause great harm to people who breathe them. (ii) Industrial Waste Long chimneys erected high into the air at manufacturing industries release large amount of smoke and fumes containing carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, organic compounds, and chemicals into the air This happens almost everywhere, where people live. Petroleum refineries also release lots of hydrocarbons into the air which causes respiratory problems. Acid Rain: Harmful gases like nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides are released into the atmosphere during the burning of fossil fuels. When it rains, the water droplets combines with these air pollutants, becomes acidic and then falls on the ground in the form of acid rain. Acid rain can cause great damage to human, animals and crops. (iii) Indoor Air Pollution: Indoor pollutants include perfumes, insecticide, and cleaning chemicals. Household cleaning products, insecticides, paints emit toxic chemicals in the air and cause air pollution. However you must have noticed that once you paint the walls or wooden cupboard of your house, it creates some sort of smell which makes it literally impossible for you to breathe. It causes irritation in eyes and also causes dizziness and fatigue. (iv) Thermal Power Plants Renewable energy sources such as solar panels and wind turbines are helping us generate a bigger proportion of our power every year, but the overwhelming majority of electricity is still produced by burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas in power plants. Power plants produce lar of ge amount of air pollutants like sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulates (v) Agricultural Activities: Ammonia is a very common product used in agricultural activities and is one of the most hazardous gases in the atmosphere. Use of insecticides, pesticides and fertilizers by farmers in agricultural activities results in emission of harmful chemicals into the air and also causes water