Air pollution is one of the dangerous kind of pollution which we suffer from! Here we have written an essay on air pollution and everything you need to know about it. Take a look and you might use it for your assignment or prepare speech. Let’s get started.
4.6 million people die each year due to air pollution.
~WHO
Above number is enough to make us worry about air pollution! So now the question is what is air pollution? How it is caused? What can we do to control it? And what are its consequences? All the answers to these questions are given in our essay.
Also check- Global warming essay / Swachh bharat abhiyan essay
What is air pollution?
In simpler words, when air is contaminated with harmful substances such as smoke, oxides of carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen and introduction of other harmful gases in the environment, that’s what known as air pollution. It’s not something that is suffered by just one or two countries, but almost all countries and big cities in the world are witnessing low air quality and air pollution.
It isn’t something which happened overnight but it was a slow process which keeps getting worse with each passing day due to may industrial activities as well as transportation. Let’s look into the causes of air pollution in brief.
Causes of air pollution:
There are a number of causes for air pollution, you will be aware of some of them already.
There are two types of pollutants which results in air pollution, these are primary pollutants and secondary pollutants. Primary pollutants are the ones that directly release into air while secondary pollutants are which make a reaction with primary in the air and make a harmful substance which results in lowering the air quality. Ozone and smog are examples of secondary pollutants while dust, volcanic eruptions, etc are example of primary pollutants.
Smoke and gases:- we all know the common cause of air pollution is smoke which release in air due to the burning of fossil files or from vehicles. Gases too make a good cause of air pollution which is released by some industrial work and factories. Automobiles and transportation cause 60% of human-made air pollution. That also includes the gases release from car exhaust nitrogen oxide. The smoke can also be caused by the burning of crop residue and wood by farmers.
Indoor air pollution:- transportation and vehicles are not the only causes of human-made air pollution but it can also be caused by your home appliances and indoor stuff too. Building material, new furniture, paints, and even carpet can cause indoor pollution which causes the indoor air harmful for us as well as lower air quality which refers to as indoor air pollution.
Deforestation:- we all know how it works, humans exhale co2 and inhale oxygen which is made up by trees. And trees do the opposite of it, they take up carbon in the atmosphere and release oxygen for us. But what happen we cut those trees? Less co2 will be taken up by the trees which would mean the extra co2 will remain in the atmosphere and pollute the air.
Volcanic eruptions:- when a volcano erupts it releases many harmful chemicals as well as gases in the atmosphere along with smoke and dust particles which remain in the air and cause the pollution.
Other than these mining also contribute to air pollution as many harmful particles released in the air and pollute it. Increasing construction activities is the reason of air pollution too.
The causes of air pollution too serious right, because these are the activities is daily done by us and they are only growing. Wonder what are the consequences of air pollution? Let’s take a look at that too.
Impacts of air pollution!
On human health: we know that air pollution has severe effects on human health. We all depend on air for respiration that’s means when we inhale, harmful air contaminate too enter in our body. Which will have drastic effects on the human body. Where lung problems and asthma is the common effect of air pollution on human health. Headache, dizziness, burning and irritated eyes, coughing, lung cancer and other lung diseases, sore throat and allergies are too caused by air pollution.
And we have already mentioned that every year around 4.6 people lose their lives due to air pollution.
Acid Rain: acid rain is also caused by high air pollution. When primary pollutants in the air mix with the water vapors or water drops in the atmosphere than they form the acidic substances. Which make the rain acidic. This acid rain can further damage the buildings(made of limestone and concrete) as well as harm the fisheries and aquatic environment. It can also irritate the skin of humans and animals.
Greenhouse effect:- we all have heard about of greenhouse effect but do you know at some level this one too is a result of air pollution! Due to the smoke and gases that are released by vehicles and the burning of fuels the greenhouse effect gets worse. And they just trap the heat in the earth’s environment and prevent them from escaping the atmosphere which results in rising of temperature and global warming! This cause climate change as well as some severe effects on the earth’s surface. Ozone depletion is also caused by air pollution at some level.
The effects of air pollution are pretty serious huh? But is it so impossible to control the air pollution that it keeps growing and growing? And if there is a way to control the air pollution, then what it is? Let’s take a look at some controlling measures which would help in reducing the air pollution!
How can we reduce or control the air pollution?
Although it seems pretty clear that we can’t fully stop the activities which are causing the air pollution but still there are some ways through which we can reduce and control the air pollution.
Use of public transportation: it’s clear from the above article that transportation is one the main reason for air pollution. So if people started using public transportation for their daily movements, it will surely reduce air pollution and improve air quality.
Another measurement would be using electric vehicles or CNG as fuel. Electric vehicles won’t produce any harmful smoke or gases while the emission of carbon would be way less in CNG vehicles.
Switching to renewable energy: electricity production requires the burning of fossil fuel which would ultimately increase the presence of gases in the atmosphere (both secondary as well as primary pollutants are released in the atmosphere through this process). While switching to renewable energy like solar energy would reduce the consumption of electricity which means less electricity production will require.
Limiting the industrial work: The government should also limit the industrial work or at least release some guidelines to purify the smoke producer in the industry before releasing it in the air.
Conclusion:
At last, air pollution is not something we can take for granted, after all, everyone has a right to breathe in fresh air. So government should do a better job at reducing air pollution and saving the environment and individuals should also do their best.
