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Sulfer Dioxide
- •colorless gas with a strong odor
- -Coal emissions from electricity generation and industry
- -Can form acid precipitation
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Nitrogen Dioxide
highly reactive, foul smelling reddish brown gas
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Nitrogen Oxides
- -nitrogen and oxygen react at high temperatures
- -Vehicle engine and industrial combustion, electrical utilities
- -Contributes to smog and acid precipitation
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Tropheric Ozone
- •a colorless gas with a strong odor
- -A secondary pollutant
- -Results from interactions of sunlight, heat, nitrogen oxides, and volatile carbons
- -A major component of smog
- -Poses a health risk as a result of its instability
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Particulate Matter
solid or liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere
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Lead
particulate pollutant added to gas and used in industrial metal smelting
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Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)
carbon-containing chemicals used emitted by vehicle engines and industrial processes
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Scrubbers
technologies that chemically convert or physically remove pollutants before they leave the smokestacks
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Toxic Air Pollutants
substances known to cause cancer; reproductive defects; or neurological, development, immune system, or respiratory problems
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Smog
unhealthy mixtures of air pollutants over urban areas
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Industrial (gray) smog
- industries burn coal or oil
- -Occurs in cooler, hilly areas
- -Government regulations in developed countries reduced smog
- -Coal-burning industrializing countries face significant health risks
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•ozone in the lower stratosphere
-12 ppm concentrations effectively block incoming damaging ultraviolet radiation
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Ozone Holes
ozone levels over Antarctica had declined by 40-60%
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Montreal Protocal
180 nations agreed to cut CFC production in half
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Acidic Deposition
the deposition of acid, or acid-forming pollutants, from the atmosphere onto Earth’s surface
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the wet or dry deposition on land of pollutants
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Effects from acid deposition
- •Nutrients are leached from topsoil
- •Soil chemistry is changed
- •Metal ions (aluminum, zinc, etc.) are converted into soluble forms that pollute water
- •Widespread tree mortality
- •Affects surface water and kills fish
- •Damages agricultural crops
- •Erodes stone buildings, corrodes cars, erases writing on tombstones
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Indoor Air Polution in developing countries
- •Stems from burning
- -Wood, charcoal, dung, crop wastes
- -Little to no ventilation
- •Fuel burning pollution causes an estimated 1.6 million deaths per year
- -Soot and carbon monoxide
- -Causes pneumonia, bronchitis, allergies, cataracts, asthma, heart disease, cancer and death
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Tobacco and Radon
- •The most dangerous indoor pollutants in the developed world
- •Secondhand smoke from cigarettes is especially dangerous
- -Containing over 4000 dangerous chemicals
- -Causes eye, nose, and throat irritation
- -Smoking has declined in developed nations
- •Radon causes 20,000 deaths a year in the U.S.
- -A radioactive gas resulting from natural decay of rock; soil; or water, which can seep into buildings
- -Most homes are now radon resistant
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Sick building Sydrom
a sickness produced by indoor pollution with general and nonspecific symptoms
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