Take a deep breath - Air pollution

Linda Murčová

The Greenhouse effect is not the only kind of air pollution that Earth has got to deal with. What are the others and what in fact air pollution is you may ask? Keep reading.

The air we breathe is polluted by gases that are being released in two ways. The first one is natural - some toxic and harmful gases are produced by volcanoes, wildfires and allergens. But most air pollution is caused by humans. What a surprise, huh? The gases come most often from agriculture, industry and used energy. The first type of air pollution, as we mentioned previously, is the greenhouse effect. You already know about it. Now we will focus on the second type - smog.

The biggest problem that smog causes is lower level of visibility, which is dangerous in transport. It also has a big effect on people's health. You may know that in countries such as China or Japan people are used to wearing masks all year long, because that's how they protect themselves against the gases in the air, since this area in Asia is the most polluted in the world. Smog can be divided into two categories: sulfurous and photochemical. The first one is made from chemical compounds called sulfur oxides, which appears for example when burning coal. The photochemical smog, also called the ground level ozone, is a result of interactions among nitrogen oxides, sun reflection and volatile organic compounds. Nitrogen oxides come usually from vehicles or factory emissions. When the smog is in the air, it becomes harder to breathe and you'll tear.

The third kind of air pollution is caused by toxic pollutants, Those are for example mercury, lead, dioxins or benzine. They are being spread during coal, waste or gasoline combustion. High levels of toxic pollutants in the atmosphere give rise to diseases such as cancer, birth defects or reproductive problems.

Even though air pollution is a big problem, we can stop it by lowering the amount of released gases in the air by lowering the use of coal and other fossil fuels. There are many better ways to create energy than those ones, for example sun panels or water power stations.