Rite Aid Guide to Health: Anti-Aging by Donald Vaughn

Author:Donald Vaughn [Vaughn, Donald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781605505947
Publisher: Adams Media
Published: 2002-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Air Pollution

Air pollution isn’t something that’s limited to big cities or industrial regions; it can also afflict small towns and rural communities. Nor is air pollution strictly an “outdoor event.” Some of the worst air pollution, from a health and longevity perspective, can be found in our homes and places of work.

It used to be that towns viewed air pollution as the price of growth and success. Smoke-spewing factories meant jobs, and jobs meant prosperity. So what if you had a nagging, hacking cough? At least everyone was working.

Of course, the situation is quite different today. Air pollution is viewed as a major health hazard and something not to be tolerated. The Environmental Protection Agency and other government bodies have come down hard on industries previously known as major polluters in an attempt to cleanse public air and ensure the safety and health of all Americans. Particularly effective was the Clean Air Act of 1970 and its amendments, which forced industries to reduce their use of soft coal and heavy oil and required factories to place special filters on smoke stacks to reduce the amount of airborne pollutants they spilled into the air.

But despite these efforts, air pollution in various forms continues in this and other countries and still poses a variety of health risks to various populations—health risks that can result in premature aging as well as reduced longevity. Indeed, air pollution is still considered one of the world’s most important environmental issues, and rightly so.

Air Pollution Sources

Air pollution comes from a wide variety of sources. Interestingly, nature itself is a contributor; volcanoes and forest fires pour a huge amount of ash, particles, and dangerous gases into the atmosphere all over the world. But in the big picture, nature has nothing on man when it comes to polluting the air. It’s no exaggeration to say we’re our own worst enemy.

The combustion of fossil fuels is the biggest culprit, say environmental researchers. Cars pour a huge amount of pollution into the atmosphere every day, particularly in countries where lead fuel is still in use. Power plants and industrial factories also release a lot of gases and particles, despite federal clean-air efforts. Even if a factory is able to reduce pollution emission by 90 percent, which is good, some pollution still makes it into the air we breathe.

According to ongoing air quality analysis, the worst primary air pollutants are carbon oxides such as the carbon monoxide released by cars, trucks, and buses; sulfur oxides; nitrogen oxides; volatile organic compounds such as hydrocarbons, carbon tetrachloride, and chloro-

fluorocarbons; and particulate matter such as ash.

Secondary pollutants are formed when primary pollutants react with various chemicals in the atmosphere. The most troublesome include ozone, photochemical oxidants, and particulates in either solid or gas form, such as sulfuric acid and nitric acid. It’s these compounds that scientists refer to when discussing “acid rain,” a form of air pollution known to devastate forest areas.

Despite government efforts to reduce air emissions, the amount of dangerous substances released into the atmosphere by homes, cars, factories, and power plants every year is staggering.

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