![]() ![]() ![]() incomplete ripening of fruits) due to reduced solar irradiation are mentioned as economic costs related to air pollution. Among others, dust, impaired visibility, air traffic distortions, odor, decreased agricultural yield, and degraded quality of products (e.g. In fact, economic costs are far beyond the medical problems related to pollution. All of them lead either to deterioration of well-being, or vast economic costs. Higher morbidity embraces also other cardiovascular and respiratory problems, but also kidney, intestinal, nervous (including depression, dementia and Alzheimer disease) disorders, allergy, and inflammation through the generation of reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress. The most ubiquitous death causes include stroke, heart disease, genotoxic effects such as leukaemia, lymphomas, lung cancer, and respiratory diseases such as asthma. Globally, air pollution accounts for 7 million premature deaths every year, 91% of which is caused by particulate matter. After tobacco smoking, air pollution is the second most common form of noncommunicable diseases. In fact, air pollution is regarded as the main environmental risk for human health and is a rising concern. Īll the previously mentioned contaminants form mixtures that pose danger to human health. Cl, F and Br ions released from HCs and halons catalyze thousands of reactions with O 3 in the stratosphere, accelerating the greenhouse effect. They ‘enrich’ the air of metals, metalloids, hydrocarbons (HCs), including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), halons containing Br, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and others. Other sources of air pollution include power plants, waste (especially combusted waste), as well as household heating, cooking and lighting. Their presence is connected with industrial combustion, automobile transport, as well as the accelerated development of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. With the switch from coal to oil combustion, the concentration of black smoke has dropped, but new contaminants have been added to the atmosphere. ![]() The Great Acceleration, as it is called, is also a period of unprecedented rise of consumption, overusing natural resources and over-producing harmful byproducts. Moreover, CO 2, CH 4, N 2O, and vapor present in the air, have been observed to be responsible for the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer, which results in the greenhouse effect and global warming, which is one of the greatest ecological concerns of the contemporary world.įurther rapid increases in air pollution and greenhouse effects have been noted since the 1950s, brought about by the explosive population growth, technological development, and prolonged life expectancy. ![]() Alongside the development of agriculture, increased methane (CH 4) contents has been observed. PM react with water to form new particles with different properties and lead to periodic smog, which has been well-documented in London in 1952, which led to increased mortality from pneumonia and bronchitis. This resulted in emissions of black smoke, i.e., a composition of carbonaceous particles as major components of the airborne particulate matter (PM), carbon dioxide (CO 2), sulfur dioxide (SO 2), nitrogen oxides (NO x), and water vapor. Its beginning is usually related to the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when energy-consuming processes, like mechanization or reactive nitrogen syntheses, have started, which brought about intensive fossil fuel mining and coal combustion, accompanied by increasing population and urbanization. Intensification of these changes and their impact on nature and humans has led to Paul Crutzen to name the present epoch “Anthropocene”. Human activity plays a central role distort many of Earth’s regular functions. ![]()
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