Air Pollution

All air breathing animals and plants get oxygen from air. Plants depend on air for carbon dioxide to prepare their food. So air pollution is harmful for all organisms living on the Earth. In air pollution we will discuss how air gets polluted, it’s harmful effect on our body and society and steps to take control measures on it.

How does air gets polluted?

Air gets polluted in different ways. Some of the following points are:

(i) Smoke, produced from burning of domestic fuels, contains carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.

(ii) Fume, released by automobiles, contains harmful hydrocarbon compounds.

(iii)  Smokes, coming out from the chimneys of factories, contain carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, etc.

(iv) From cement and asbestos factories fine dust particles are spread.

(v) Suspended dust particles generated from different industries related to marble, stone, coal and cotton also spoil the environment.

(vi) Radioactive materials get mixed in the air from nuclear reactors by accidental leakage or from atomic explosions.

How does air pollution affect us?

Some of the following facts that affects us from air pollution:

(i) Dust particles cause allergy and respiratory distress.

(ii) Smoke and fog mixing together develop smog, which results in lung diseases.

(iii) Carbon monoxide is highly toxic to blood. Excess of carbon monoxide in air may lead to death.

(iv) Sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide in air result in acid rain, which destroys plants and reduces soil fertility.

(v) Radioactive materials in air lead to birth with physical deformity and different types of cancers.

How should we control measures of air pollution?

Some of the following measures will help us to control air pollution:

(i) Industrial factories should be built away from the residential areas.

(ii) Every private vehicle owner should avail public transport at least on one working day in a week.

(iii) Factories have to install special devices to remove harmful gases and particles from fumes before releasing as exhaust in air.

(iv) Catalytic converter to be fitted in the automobiles to restrict the harmful gases to come out through their exhaust-pipes.

 (v) Asbestos roofing sheets must be replaced by galvanized iron or aluminum sheets.

 (vi) Nuclear tests must be banned on global basis.

Fifth Grade

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