Effects of Air Pollution

Effects of Air Pollution

1) Air Pollution and Human Health

People have no choice but to breathe the air around them regardless of its quality. Breath in Polluted air cause health risks

Irritation to one’s eyes, throat, and lungs.

Wheezing, coughing, burning eyes, chest tightness, headaches,

Difficulty breathing is all commonly reported when air quality is poor.

Increased doctor visits, hospitalization, and school absences also frequently occur at such times.

Air pollution also cause cancer

2) Air Pollution and Atmospheric Visibility

Air pollution that reduces visibility is often called haze or smog.

The term smog originally meant a mixture of smoke and fog in the air, but today it refers to any mixture of air pollutants that can be seen.

Smog reduces the amount of the Sun’s energy reaching the Earth’s surface. In some cities, this reduction has been as high as 35 percent on particularly smoggy days.

3) Air Pollution Affects Plants, Animals, and Environments

Air pollution does not only damage the air; it also damages environments on Earth’s surface and their inhabitants.

Plants and animals are harmed by air pollution. Sometimes it is the pollutants themselves that cause damage.

When an air pollutant, such as sulfuric acid combines with the water droplets that make up clouds, the water droplets become acidic. When those droplets fall to the ground as rain or snow, the acidity of the water can have damaging effects on the environment.

When acid rain falls over an area, it can kill trees and harm animals, fish, and other wildlife.

Acid rain destroys the leaves of plants.

When acid rain infiltrates into soils, it changes the chemistry of the soil.

Air pollutants called chlorofluorocarbons (or CFCs) destroy ozone molecules in the stratosphere. This has left places in the layer where the ozone is thin. These areas of thin ozone are called ozone holes. Due to which ultraviolet rays reach to earth and cause skin cancer

Troposphere ozone harms living things
Ozone molecules in the troposphere damage lung tissues of animals and prevent plant respiration by blocking the openings in leaves, called stomata,.

Global warming harms living things
Air pollutants cause global warming

Global warming is changing climate globally and is causing significant changes to various regions of the world. For example:

Polar ice melt and permafrost melt are causing changes in the habitat and resources for plants and animals living in polar ecosystems.

Ocean warming, rising sea levels, increasing runoff, and coral diseases are causing change in shallow marine ecosystems such as coral reefs.

Le to global warming also cause lesser rain fall that limit the water resources for plants and animals.

4) Air Pollution and Water

Air pollution also affect the quality of water that harmful for human, plants, animal and also the aquatic life

The major air pollutants that affect the quality of water are

I. Nitrogen compounds

II. Sulfur Dioxide and Nitrogen Oxides

III. Mercury