Environmental Sciences: Air Pollution

Introduction:

“Air pollution is contamination of the indoor or outdoor environment by any chemical, physical or biological agent that modifies the natural characteristics of the atmosphere.” (WHO, n.d.) While it is good that the world is consistently advancing towards a technological innovation, there are several consequences that the environment is paying for these improvements. The increase on industrial machineries and equipment including the increase of vehicles used by the public or private sectors has affect the living situation in the developing cities because of limited access to clean air. “In 2019, World Health Organization (WHO) has considered air pollution as “the greatest environmental risk to health”. Not being aware of this is even greater risk. This blog post shines light on urban sources of air pollution and most common pollutants.” (Airqoon, 2022)

Main Topic:

“Natural sources of urban air pollution include volcanic eruptions, thunders, dust from the earth’s surface and naturally occurring particulate matter. Nevertheless, major factors that contribute to urban air pollution are anthropogenic activities, including transportation, domestic use of fossil fuels, industrialization, power generation, combustion and agriculture and beauty products.” (Airqoon, 2022)

It is true that in the urban city where I am situated has poor oxygen and the air is greatly polluted because of many factors especially because the city’s economy is developing. According to Airqoon (n.d.), the urban air pollution sources are as follows:

Transportation – because the number of vehicles operating in the urban areas are increasing, they have not only contributed to the traffic situation in the area but also to the air population. The use of vehicles, especially those that uses diesels or older models produces a great number of carbon gas into the air.

Domestic use of fossil fuels – the use of fossil fuels in the area is still occurring and is greatly contributing to the increase of air pollution.

Industrialization – because urban areas are developing cities, many industrial buildings are installed. These industrial buildings inject carbon gas into the open air which greatly affects the oxygen level of the area’s air space.

Power generation – “With increased population, there is an increased energy demand. To fulfill that demand, fossil fuels are tremendously being used to generate energy as they are cheap and readily. The coal powered power plants are a major source of urban air pollution.” (Airqoon, 2022)

Combustion and agriculture – “Combustion of material is an activity that releases toxic gases in the atmosphere and contributes to urban air pollution. Combustion releases CO₂ and incomplete combustion releases CO. Both of these gases lead to urban air pollution. Agriculture activities also release other gases in the atmosphere such as NO₂ and Methane (CH₄).” (Airqoon, 2022)

Beauty Products – “A recent study suggests that the use of beauty products also contributes to urban air pollution. Most of the cosmetics and perfumes contain VOCs, which are released during their use and contribute to urban air pollution. With more population, the use of these beauty products is increasing and so the pollution.” (Airqoon, 2022)

Indeed, the aforementioned factors are noticeably existing in the area where I am currently living. As compared to the rural areas, urban area’s way of living is challenging because of the lack of access to clean air which results to poor health caused by air pollution. The number of diseases driven by air pollution like cancer of the lungs has increased for urban areas. The living situation in the rural areas is by far different because there were limited job opportunities other than agricultural jobs but their health is likely higher than those who are living in the urban cities because they have clean air and have easy access to natural food like vegetables, fish and meat.

Conclusion:

To conclude this assignment, I believed that in order to protect the people residing in the urban cities from harm caused by air pollution, the government must establish and implement a policy that governs the industrial entities to use environment – friendly equipment in their production instead of using carbon emission - this will greatly decrease the air population in the area. In addition, vehicle modernization must be implemented to reduce the effects of carbon emission from vehicles whether from public or private sector. There are various vehicles in the market that is operated by electricity which does not produce carbon. It is important to understand that owning a luxurious car has a corresponding responsibility to the environment and to the health of the general public; therefore, choosing the right car to buy is very important. I would like to end this assignment by saying, we can still minimize this air pollution situation by planting more trees and rebuilding the forestry and be more responsible with our decisions especially when it affects the environment.

References:

World Health Organization (n.d.). Air Pollution. https://www.who.int/health-topics/air-pollution#tab=tab_1

Airqoon, (2022). Urban Air Pollution: Sources and Pollutants. Airqoon.com. https://www.airqoon.com/urban-air-pollution-sources-and-pollutants.html#:~:text=Nevertheless%2C%20major%20factors%20that%20contribute,and%20agriculture%20and%20beauty%20products.