The Effects of Air Pollution

The effects of air pollution are wide and aren’t far fetched. People, animals, plant life and even inert materials can and are affected by this demise. History tells that in October 1948, a stagnant fog heavy with pollution blanketed a small industrial town of Donora, Pennsylvania.The fog lasted for four days, and by the time it had cleared, six thousand of the town’s fourteen thousand people were sick and twenty had died. Four years later, a killer smog in London had caused an estimated four thousand deaths. In 1970, however, more than eight thousand people in Tokyo, Japan needed medical treatment for eye, nose, and throat irritations when heavy white smog containing sulfurous acid covered the city for five days.

The most serious and immediate menace of air pollution lies in its physical effects on human beings even though it is quite difficult to access the long term health effects of air pollution. Yet there’s no doubt that ailments such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis, bronchial asthma and other respiratory diseases are aggravated by regular exposure to present high levels of city or urban air pollution.
Also, air pollution abrade, corrode, tarnish; soil, erode, crack, weaken and discolor materials of many varieties. For example, steel corrodes two to four times faster in sulphuric laden air.

Air pollutants kill and injure plant life and cover. In times past, trees and shrubs in Tokyo, Japan were seen to die in the gardens of the Imperial Palace. In northern Bohemia, Central Europe, polluted air from the brown-coal belt caused blight in agricultural areas and heavily damaged forests.
In fact, the effects on vegetation are often a clue to the existence of air pollutants which are not noticeable in other forms.

Carbon IV Oxide, hydrocarbons, sulphuric compounds, metals, acids and ozone are serious threats to most vegetation. Plants which are exposed to these pollutants absorb them through their leaves. And these leaves develop holes; they become discolored or wilt, and eventually they may perish or die. This can also lead to the death of the entire plant.

Smoke and fumes from factories especially smelters have caused the death of entire forests. In the Los Angeles area, the death of many trees have been attributed to carbon emissions from motor vehicles or automobiles. Some other undesirable effects of pollution include the damage done to buildings and materials. Sulphuric pollution actually causes steel, zinc and building stone to corrode. Ozone damages rubber and textiles, and also discolors dyed materials.