Research Paper about Air Pollution

Source of Air Pollution

There are many components to air pollution, and these components come from many sources. There are many different types of air pollutants, for example Li et al. defines air pollutants as “total suspended particulates (TSP), inhalable particulate matter (PM10), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), SO2 [Sulfur Dioxide] and NOx [Nitrogen Oxide]” (2016) and the clean air act defines air pollutants as carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen oxides, ground-level ozone, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter (Upperman, 2021). There are many different elements and compounds that are defined as air pollutants, and some have greater effects than others. Different types of pollutants can have vastly differing effects and different levels of severity. These pollutants can come from a variety of sources, some are anthropogenic  and some are natural. An example of a natural source would be ash from a volcano or a wildfire. While an example of an anthropogenic pollution would be the “industrialization and urbanization” which has resulted in increasing air pollution (Li et al., 2016) and this is becoming a threat to the well-being of people across the world.

Effects of Air Pollution

Air pollution has a large effect on the health of humans across the globe. As Mickley (2007) states, “[s]mog starts with the emissions of gases like nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and sulfur dioxide, and of particles like organic carbon and soot” (p. 3). Smog is a mixture of pollutants that forms from both natural and anthropogenic means and this smog has a variety of effects. An example of deadly smog is in December 1952 when a cold air mass sat over London for five days and this cold air mass trapped various pollutants from coal-fired stoves and factories, leading to an estimated 12,000 premature deaths (Mickley, 2007, p. 6). Many different pollutants have been found to affect mortality rate of an area. As Li et al (2016) states:

Employing a survival analysis and the data from a 14- to 16-year mortality follow-up of 8111 adults in the six cities in the U.S., Dockery et al. (1993) estimated the associations between particulate air pollution and daily mortality rates. Their results confirmed that the mortality rate was associated with the level of air pollution. Using data from 1994 to 1995 in Hong Kong, Wong et al. (1999) determined that adverse health effects were evident at the current ambient concentrations of air pollutants. Samet et al. (2000) recognized an association between daily changes in the concentration of ambient particulate matter and the daily number of deaths (mortality) in the United States. Wong et al. (2002) used Poisson regression to estimate the associations between daily admissions and the levels of PM10 and SO2 in Hong Kong and London. The results confirmed that air pollution caused detrimental short-term health effects.

The different elements and compounds that make up air pollutants have various effects on human health, but they all have one common factor. All the different pollutants of air pollution have the effect of decreasing the lifespan of many different people across the world. It is important to understand the scale of air pollutant effects as well, it is estimated that 1.1 million deaths in India are a result of air pollution (Anilkumar et al., 2021, p. 4). Air pollution is a huge issue resulting in lots of deaths throughout the world.