3. AIR POLLUTION

4. AIR POLLUTION
Air pollution occurs when harmful substances including particulates and biological molecules are introduced into Earth's atmosphere.
It may cause diseases, allergies or death of organisms such as animals and food crops, and may damage the natural or built environment.
Human activity and natural processes can both generate air pollution.

5. URBAN POLLUTION

6. PARK POLLUTION

8. Air pollutants are broken down into two categories:
Primary Pollutants
Secondary Pollutants

9. Primary Pollutants Anthropogenic: Natural:
Primary Pollutants are airborne particles that are emitted directly from identifiable sources. These tiny structures are known collectively as Particulate matter (PM). Once suspended in either air or water, the mixture of the two becomes known as an Aerosol.
Anthropogenic:
Combustion Processes
Chemical Processes
Nuclear or Atomic Processes
Roasting, Heating and Refining Processes
Mining, Quarrying and Farming Processes
Natural:
Volcanoes
Breaking Seas
Pollens and Terpenes
Fire
Blowing Dust
Bacteria and Viruses

10. Secondary Pollutants
Secondary Pollutants are not emitted directly into the air, but form in the atmosphere from reactions taking place between primary pollutants.
SMOG (Smoke + Fog)
VOG (Volcanic + Smog)
Ground Level Ozone

11. How are these pollutants spread?
Wind
Wind causes bodies of polluted air to spread out across the Earth.
When winds are high, these bodies are spread out over larger areas, leading to a lower concentration of pollutants.
When winds are low, these bodies sit and stagnate over a smaller area leading to localized pockets of more concentrated pollution.
Polluters (industrial, municipal or individual) can legally obtain a permit to pollute based on the mistaken old rule that “dilution is the solution to pollution.”

12. Ozone

13. OZONE: I thought it was a good thing?
It is! In the upper atmosphere, called the stratosphere, ozone naturally occurs and forms a protective layer that shields the Earth from some of the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) light.
Ground-level ozone, on the other hand, is harmful. It can cause serious health problems and damage forests and crops.
Ground-level ozone affects the respiratory system, aggravating asthma and causing lung inflammation.

14. Acid Rain
Acid rain, or acid deposition, is a broad term that includes any form of precipitation with acidic components, such as sulfuric or nitric acid that fall to the ground from the atmosphere in wet or dry forms. This can include rain, snow, fog, hail or even dust that is acidic.

15. What Causes Acid Rain?
Acid rain results when sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOX) are emitted into the atmosphere and transported by wind and air currents. The SO2 and NOX react with water, oxygen and other chemicals to form sulfuric and nitric acids. These then mix with water and other materials before falling to the ground.
While a small portion of the SO2 and NOX that cause acid rain is from natural sources such as volcanoes, most of it comes from the burning of fossil fuels.

17. A virtual tree-graveyard of Norway spruce trees in Poland bears the scars of acid rain.

18. CLEAN AIR ACT (1970, 1990)
reducing outdoor, or ambient, concentrations of air pollutants that cause smog, haze, acid rain, and other problems
reducing emissions of toxic air pollutants that are known to, or are suspected of, causing cancer or other serious health effects
phasing out production and use of chemicals that destroy stratospheric ozone.

19. HOW CAN WE TELL IF ITS WORKING?
Monitoring air quality is the best way to tell if the air is getting cleaner, because the monitors accurately report how much of a pollutant is in the air.
The "Air Quality Index" (AQI) is a "public-friendly" way of using actual monitoring data to help us assess how clean our air is.

20. What is “Air Quality”?
The term “Air Quality” can have many different definitions:
“A measure of the condition of air relative to the requirements of one or more biotic species and or to any human need or purpose.”
“A measurement of pollutants in the air.”
“A description of the healthiness of the air.”
Descriptions of Air Quality can be both
quantitative and qualitative.
Air Quality is a term that is constantly changing over time.
All of the various definitions seek to link and describe the relationship between various concentrations of pollutants in the air with the health of human beings.
All of these definitions share a common element – they all relate the air to the health of human beings