AIR POLLUTION

 

BLOWIN'IN THE WIND "Almost twenty years after Clean Air Act passed, tens of millions of Americans still breathe dirty air. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, over 76 million people live in areas where the [clean air] standard is exceeded."                                                        

‑Breathing Easier,The World Resources Institute                                    

 

WHAT IS IT?                                        

"Ozone, the primary component of smog, is a gas formed when nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbons combine in sunlight. In the atmosphere,  ozone occurs naturally as a thin layer that protects us from the sun's ultraviolet rays. But when it's formed at ground level, it's deadly."    ‑The Clean Air Project                                            

WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?

"Cars, trucks, and buses one of the chief sources of hydrocarbons and 8.5 million tons of nitrogen oxides were [spewed] into the air by motor vehicles Utilities, oil, and chemical plants, are also a large part of the problem, accounting for approximately half the hydrocarbon emis­sions and half the nitrogen oxide emissions in the U.S." ‑Breathing Easier, The World Resources Institute    

 

SMOGALERT

"Lung damage from ozone polluted air is a risk faced by roughly 3 out of 5 Americans.

‑Exhausting Our Future, The Public Interest Research Groups.

 

"Most people don't realize that smog harms other forms of life as well as people.  Ozone smog is responsible for extensive damage to pines in California and in the eastern United States It's also to blame for crop losses in many agricultural states." ‑The Clean Air Project

 

Americans buy (and throw away) 500 million disposable cigarette lighters every year.