All this hocus-pocus concerning air pollution would be incomprehensible to an individual living in Montana. You observe things through different eyes, though, if the air becomes visible, and a deep breath makes you long for the country – a not atypical metropolitan scenario. Air pollution is rife around the world, and even regions that don’t create their own get it blown in from elsewhere.
Are you able to name all the things in the air that are damaging to people? Second-hand tobacco smoke, carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur dioxide, ozone, nitrates… and then there’s particulate matter. Particulate matter comes in numerous different forms, for example vehicle emissions, road dust, power generation, and many kinds of industrial pollution. They could be from volcano’s, mold, forest fires, pollen’s, and many other sources that make the air rather dirty. These particles are varied with regard to size, their origin and their composition, yet one of the worst is vehicle emissions. Roads crowded with vehicles are the reasons behind the deteriorating world-wide air pollution problem, and of course the biggest cities are the worst culprits.
You are unable to smell it, you will not see it, however, if the air is polluted you’ll find it present in large quantities – carbon monoxide. It is a result of cigarette smoke, and the combustion reaction in all gasoline run automobiles. In the most severe case you could very well die, but given that it lowers the level of oxygen it always damages the body. The respiratory tract could become infected through the ingestion of carbon monoxide, even if in only small quantities over many years. Typically the taking in of carbon monoxide is definitely the reason for much of the world’s ill health. The adverse consequences of air pollutants from cars and factories are borne out by many studies.
It is evident from the studies that from one city to another the pollutants found to be present and their effects are very different. Contaminants from traffic were found to be the cause of a greater mortality rate, in an eight year study involving five thousand adults. Individuals that live in close proximity to a busy road are more inclined to die from a cardiovascular disease, such as a heart attack. People staying in the most polluted cities in the US will have their life expectancy decreased by two to three years because of the pollution in the air. Professionals have arrived at the conclusion that dying from a cardiovascular event is more likely for people who have been subjected to very high levels of particle pollution, even if only over short terms.
In locations where the particle pollution is in higher concentrations, there are more admissions to hospitals for various cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. You will probably live a few years less if you have been living in an area having an elevated level of particle pollution. Unless situations change, these facts point to a rather unhealthy future for people in America. If the future is to be prevented from being worse than now, improved methods for regulating pollution from vehicles really needs to be found.
