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Definition: air pollution from Processing Water, Wastewater, Residuals, and Excreta for Health and Environmental Protection: An Encyclopedic Dictionary

The presence of contaminant or pollutant substances in the air that do not disperse properly, that interfere with human health and welfare, or that produce other harmful environmental effects. Rainfall sometimes returns to land and water the substances causing air pollution. See acid rain.


air pollution

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
contamination of the air by noxious gases and minute particles of solid and liquid matter (particulates) in concentrations that endanger health. The major sources of air pollution are transportation engines, power and heat generation, industrial processes, and the burning of solid waste . The combustion of gasoline and other hydrocarbon fuels in automobiles , trucks, and jet airplanes produces several primary pollutants: nitrogen oxides, gaseous hydrocarbons, and carbon monoxide, as well as large quantities of particulates, chiefly lead. In the presence of sunlight, nitrogen oxides combine with hydrocarbons to form a secondary class of pollutants, the photochemical oxidants, among them ozone and the eye-stinging peroxyacetylnitrate (PAN). Nitrogen oxides also react with oxygen in the air to form nitrogen dioxide, a foul-smelling brown gas. In urban areas like Los Angeles where transportation is the main cause of air pollution, nitrogen dioxide tints the air, blending with other…
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1. Historical Air Pollution Episodes 2. Types of Studies Used to Evaluate Health Impacts 3. Key Pollutants and Health Outcomes 4. Health Effects of Indoor Air Pollution 5. Conclusions Glossary cohort study An epidemiological study in which a group of individuals is enrolled and tracked over time to…
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Full text Article Why California gets to write its own auto emissions standards: 5 questions answered (May 2018)

From The Conversation: An Independent Source of Analysis from Academic Researchers
Why California gets to write its own auto emissions standards: 5 questions answered
Editor’s note: On April 2, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt announced that the Trump administration plans to revise tailpipe emissions standards negotiated by the Obama administration for motor vehicles built between 2022 and 2025, saying the standards were set “too high.” …
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Full text Article Air Pollution: Urban, Industrial, and Transborder

From Worldmark Global Health and Medicine Issues
© Levent Konuk/Shutterstock.com.
A doctor helps a...
Air pollution is the contamination of air with substances known as pollutants that are harmful to the health of humans, animals, or plants, or which damage property. Air pollutants are either gases, liquids, or solids, and they come from a variety of sources, including industrial processes, …
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Full text Article air pollution

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Contamination of the atmosphere caused by the discharge, accidental or deliberate, of a wide range of toxic airborne substances. Often the amount of the released substance is relatively high in a certain locality, so the harmful effects become more noticeable. The cost of preventing any discharge of…
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Full text Article Is air pollution making you sick? 4 questions answered (May 2018)

From The Conversation: An Independent Source of Analysis from Academic Researchers
Is air pollution making you sick? 4 questions answered
Not a day seems to go by without a story of an “airpocalypse,” usually somewhere in a developing nation. It’s hard not to empathize with the people in the smoggy images of New Delhi or Ulaanbataar or Kathmandu, often wearing masks , walking to school or work though soupy cloudiness. Last year, a…
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Air Pollution
Although California has made dramatic progress in reducing air pollution, a majority of the population continues to breathe air that poses significant health risks. Ozone and small particles are the most widespread air pollutants in California. Others include carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, and…
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Pollution in many Chinese cities, such as...
Air pollution is the contamination of Earth's atmosphere at levels high enough to harm humans, other organisms, or other materials. The major air pollutants are particulate matter, ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and lead. Primary air pollutants, including carbon monoxide, …
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We are daily poisoning the air we breathe. Many automobile exhausts emit tetra‐ethyl lead, which is added to petrol to prevent engine‐knock. Tetra‐ethyl lead concentrates in air and dust. This is especially harmful in cities, and a study in Turin, north‐west Italy, showed that 30 percent of the lead…
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Full text Article Air Pollution

From Gale Encyclopedia of Public Health
Exhaust fumes from a car. (© iStockimages.com...
Air pollution is a general term that covers a broad range of contaminants in the atmosphere. Pollution can occur from natural causes or from human activities. Discussions about the effects of air pollution have focused mainly on human health, but attention is being directed to environmental quality…
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Full text Article air pollution

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
contamination of the air by noxious gases and minute particles of solid and liquid matter (particulates) in concentrations that endanger health. The major sources of air pollution are transportation engines, power and heat generation, industrial processes, and the burning of solid waste . The…
| 1,403 words
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