A human breaths an avenge of 20,160times a day, including when they sleep. Every time the take a breath of air they take in all the chemicals being let in the air by automobiles, burning plants, and factories smoke. Hence, when humans polluting the air, they are not just harming our environmental but they are also harming our bodies. The World Health Organization estimates that 4.6 million people die each year from causes directly caused by air pollution. Moreover, air pollution also harms our atmospheres and can cause several illnesses. Knowing the facts on air pollution is important to be aware of the harm ones is putting themselves in there everyday life. Air pollution is hard to see, so knowing the harms one can help humans see the importance of reduce air pollution and help or environment.
Air pollution harms the four parts of our atmospheres: the thermosphere; which is the closes to the sun and the hottest, mesosphere; which is the cooler than the thermosphere and there is not much air,stratosphere; where the ozone is located to protect humans form the sun, lastly, comes the troposphere which is where the humans air is and were we breath our air which is formed by 21 percent of oxygen, 78 percent nitrogen, and 80 percent of atmospheric. This is important to know because when Nitrogen Oxides, Volatile Organic Compounds and the sun combine the cause ozone in the troposphere which isn't good because it causes lung disease, inflammation, asthma, and lung damage. Air pollution can also reach the stratosphere and harm our ozone, and make the sun's rays stronger on the earth, making the human body need more protection over the sun's ray. Early in the morning there is some ozone in the troposphere because there is more chemicals being released by cars and other human smoke, in addition the sun is starting to come up. Late in the morning there is more ozone because the chemicals increase and the sun is higher in the sky. Mid-afternoon, when the sun is at its highest there is more ozone because the earth is at its hottest producing ozone faster. Then when the sun starts going down the earth cools and the ozone start breaking apart.
In the every day life people don't really know the things they are breathing in while they are playing outside or heading to work or school. The air is filled with: ozone, particle pollution,carbon monodic, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and lead that can harm our body. This chemicals in the air can cause: asthma, lung damage, deconstructionism, kidney function, cardiovascular, and emphysema. So, it is important to be aware of the chemicals one is breathing and let into our environment.
This past week we have been learning about air and its air pollutants. I learned that air is a resource that is recreated through natural cycle such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, water, and nutrients. Although air is being constantly being replenished by these sources since the 1940s the air was being tampered. This was the time period where American were moving into the large cities because the economy was growing and more jobs in factories and automobiles were being created. These types of jobs created a concentration in smoke, dust, and fumes which caused a lot of the health problems. After seeing the fatalities and how many people were being harmed by these factors the United States decided to take the initiative to improve the air quality and by 1963 the clean air act set standards. The Environmental Protection Agency set standards where directed to about 6 air pollutants: Carbon Monoxide, lead, sulfur dioxides, ozone, particulate matter, and nitrogen dioxides. Ozone EPA standards is 0.075 ppm, Particle pollution is 2.5 and 10ppm, Carbon Monoxide is 9ppm, Nitrogen Dioxide 100 ppb and 53ppb, Sulfur dioxide is 75 ppb for 1 hour and 0.5 ppb for 3 hours, and lastly lead at 8 hours should be 9ppb, 1 hour 25 ppb and 0.15ppb in 3 months. One of the things that I mostly found interesting was that before the cities was expanding the air was natural and nothing was being done to keep the air in good quality because there wasn’t no factories or business on automobiles. One of the things that I have a question is how is the air tested for these factors? How do you know when it goes over the standards that the Environmental Protection Agency created? This changed the my thoughts on our quality because I know that I’m not one of those people who thought about how is our air being treated so that people can survive, or how can I personally improve the air quality but know that I have learned about the different aspects on air and how important it is for us human and our environment I think more about how I can improve it. What are the things that people can reduce to enhance our air quality?
Air pollution in New York City is a significant environmental threat which contributes to an estimated 6% of annual deaths. There are many various forms of air pollution that can negatively affect the health and quality of life of New Yorkers. The effects of air pollutants upon the city are different depending upon the type of pollutant and its source. Improving our city’s air quality is a difficult task because there are many types of air pollutants that can come from millions of sources, inside and outside city boundaries. Emissions from transportation, primarily cars, buses, and trucks, contribute a significant amount of pollution to our air on a daily basis. Every year motor vehicles contribute approximately 11% of the local PM2.5 and 28% of the nitrogen oxide emissions. The City has been actively finding ways to reduce emissions from motor vehicles including passing and enforcing rules to use cleaner fuels across the city and to reduce unnecessary emissions like idling which is just leaving the car on or bus or trucks. Sulfur dioxide is a gas emitted from fossil fuel combustion at power plants and other industrial facilities. Sulfur or SO2 is a significant air pollutant and can cause acid rain and is associated with increased respiratory illnesses. Sulfur is also something that can cause acid rain and it is very dangerous for plants and animals that already live in poor quality environments.
While watching the video today, I learned that our president Barack Obama is trying to create car that would use less energy since car has a lot of pollution. I also learned Air pollution harms the four parts of our atmospheres: the thermosphere; which is the closes to the sun and the hottest, mesosphere; which is the cooler than the thermosphere and there is not much air, stratosphere; where the ozone is located to protect humans form the sun, lastly, comes the troposphere which is where the humans air is and were we breath our air which is formed by 21 percent of oxygen, 78 percent nitrogen, and 80 percent of atmospheric. Finally if the sun is closer and hotter is mean that the ozone is with more pollutant.
Pollutants in air were introduced for as long as mankind has discovered fire. From then on more pollutants were introduced to human life from technological achievements and new advancements which made life easier: cars, machines, factories. It wasn’t until the industrial era when the booming economy of the post war era introduced jobs in manufacturing. From the post war era, pollutants in air began manifesting through smoke, dust, and exhaust fumes. As a result air quality was so bad that weather-related smog continued for days and weeks causing a number of deaths. Over the years, our air quality has taken a turn for the better. Since air is a vital source for all beings, such an element so essential to us should be taken care of. Fortunately, air is a renewable resource which is replenished through ecological cycles such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and nutrient. Efforts to improve air quality had been established throughout time. In the 1300s the first act of formal regulation was made by King Edward II which prohibited coal being burnt in London. Although the effort wasn’t drastic it was a good start because it showed that there are steps that could be made to revitalize air quality. In the 1940s initial efforts to improve air quality by state and local governments were introduced. By 1955, congress passed the first air pollution act. In 1963 actual reductions in air emissions were brought into attention; standards were made for stationary sources like power plants and steel mills. In 1970 national air quality standards for six “criteria” pollutants: carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur, dioxides, particulate matter, and nitrogen dioxide. It was important that we jot down these attempts because we can see that such progress can make a major effect on air quality. Overall as we kept these enforcements in mind, I realized that such regulations can be made to increase air quality even more. As we think about the affects of air pollutants, it is important to keep in mind that things could be done to limit such catastrophes. Air pollution as a result can lead to many health effects such as premature mortality, and hospital admissions for asthma. This is an outcome of inhaling polluted air which disrupts parts of the internal organs.
Air pollution has impacted many people in different cities in the United States. One of the big contributors of air pollution in more than 27 eastern states are power plants. They been known to release soot and smog smokestacks that can harm people and the ozone layer. The EPA created the Cross – State Air Pollution Rule, this rule will start to initiate the protection of the publics health. This rule will begging to take effect in 2014, it will require power plants to reduce their sulfur dioxide emissions by 73 percent and their nitrogen oxides by 54 percent. During this week I’ve learned that air pollution can become very dangerous if left unchecked. It can cause lung cancer and asthma, children and the elderly are the people that are mostly affected by air pollution. People also believe that these strict regulations can reduce the amount of jobs that are available to the people. Air pollution also affects high poverty areas more than low poverty areas. This shows that people with high poverty don’t have a choice of where to live so they have to deal with it. This has changed my way of thinking because I need to help the people around me realize the dangers of polluted air. I can also try to convince the people around me to invest in hybrid cars.
This week in Environmental Science class, we started the basic of the AIR unit. We discused air quality through readings and worksheets.
Pollutants have always been in the air. There has been either pollutant from natural disasters like volcanoes. When humans discovered fire, a pollutant in the air has increased aside from natural pollutants. During the Industrial Era, pollutants have increased due to the creation and usage of new innovations such as cars, factories, machinery and the usage of coal. Over the years, scientists have discovered the effects human activity has on the air quality. The bad air quality causes smog that causes a number of death and mostly impacts people with asthma. In 1300. The first act of formal regulation occurred in England because people in England began to notice the effects coal has on their air quality. They eliminated the usage of coal. In the 1940’s many Americans began to migrate which caused many areas to experience an increase in smoke, dust, and exhaust fumes. There were also efforts to try improving air quality in state and local governments.1955-1963; the congress passed the first air pollution act however, actual reductions in air emissions until the Clean Air Act of 1693. In 1970, a major change was included in the Clean Air Act of 1970 which set an increase in standards. The EPA then set national air quality standards for six pollutants: carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur dioxides, ozone, particulate matter and, nitrogen dioxide. These events have helped improve air quality over time.
This Week I had a clear understanding of why people tend to suffer from asthma or die from lung cancer. Nobody ever says that a person dies because of the area’s air quality. It is important to know if you live in a neighborhood with clean air because that can have a major impact on your health, and everyone around you. Air quality can lead to health issues like lung cancer and/or death. When we were studying Washington Heights air quality, we as a class noticed that the air quality was worse, and improved less for low income neighborhoods. I wonder why? How can we, as a community change the air quality effectively? It is important to stay aware of the air around you. It is also important to do your part and be Eco-Friendly. Increase in pollutant causes a higher chance of putting yourself and your peers at risk.
We usually don’t pay much mind to the air we breathe in everyday. Air is 99.9% nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor and gases. Air can be affected by human activities that can harm the environment and increase pollutants in the air. Not only does air pollution exist outside in our environment, but it is also found in our homes, and other buildings. There are two specific types of pollution: ozone and particulate matter.
Ozone is the main component of smog, which is not emitted by pollution sources. This pollution is formed when high temperatures and sunlight set off chemical reactions involving hydrocarbons such as gasoline, vapors, and nitrogen dioxide from cars. Ozone reaches it’s highest point, in the morning since many individuals start their cars to go to work. The sunlight then hits the gases that are in the air, which cause ozone pollution. In the late afternoon, ones the sunlight decreases, the ozone level will decrease rapidly as well. Ozone pollution has the least effect on human health, compared to particulate matter. Ozone causes inflammation of the respiratory system. Some long-term affects can be damage to lung tissues. Before there were laws being passed many people died, due to poor air. The groups of individuals whom have the greatest sensitivity to poor air quality problems are children, the elderly, and people with asthma and other respiratory diseases.
Particulate matter or particle, are things that are floating in the air. Some that can be seen, and others that can’t. These particles come in different shapes or sizes, and can be solid or liquid droplets. There are two major groups of particulate matter: particulate matter 10 (PM10) and particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5). PM10 are coarse particles that are smoke, dirt, and dust from factories, farms or road. They are made by crushing and grinding rocks and soil then are blown by the wind. PM2.5 are fine particles that are toxic organic compounds and heavy matters. They are made when driving cars, burning plants, and smelting. Both types of particles affect the human health. The least harmful would be particulate matter 10. This is due to the reason that our bodies can stop those particles from going into our lungs, for example our nose hairs. The most harmful would be particulate matter 2.5. These particles are much more harmful to our human body, because they are very small. Therefore, they can penetrate more deeply into the lung and can even cause death.
In conclusion, this changed the way I thought about air. Now I actually think about it more then what I used to. For example, yesterday morning I was walking to school and noticed the smoke that was coming out of the terminal, I thought to myself if the people living around there knew how harmful it can be to their health. This is a situation we can find resolutions to, so why not make a difference? So far I am trying my best to tell others to not use vehicles to go to short distances. Why not run, bike or walk which is a better alternative to reduce air pollutants and enjoy nature the way that we should be enjoying it. Let’s make a change!
This week we have been learning about air pollution and types of way it affects us. We have learned that air pollution have become the dangerous thing in air quantity because it have causes asthma and lung cancer. These things are caused because of the new invations that have been created like cars, buses. machines, etc... We went over the four atmosphere that causes air pollution which are thermosphere, mesosphere, stratosphere and troposhere. We learned about the two types of pollution which are particular matter and ozone. The particular matter are things that can't and can be visible in our body. Like PM2.5 are small particles that damage our body the most and can't be found easily and PM10 are bigger particles that aren't that damaging to us.
Our air pollution trimester has been so far informative. I am learning about the rules and regulations about how much emissions we can release into the air. We also learned about how are ozone layer which protects us from UV Rays and keeps our environment stable. UV (Ultra Violet) Rays are from the sun and it can effect us in different ways. The ozone layer protects us because it breaks down the UV rays into smaller particles since a lot of it can negatively effect us. The ozone layer has been a major subject over the past couple of years because it is depleting due to climate change and CO2 emissions from factories and other company's manufacturing products. Many lawmakers in the United States have tried to regulate the current situation.
Last week, we were given two types of air pollutant tests (ozone and particulate matter 2.5) and we had to place them in certain areas near the school and home in order to check if the air that we are exposed to everyday at school is polluted. My groups and I chose to put the ozone test in the 4th floor outside of a window and we decided that I put the particulate matter 2.5 test behind my television.
This week, as a class, we gathered the data from both tests. The outcome for my groups ozone test was 0 and the particulate matter 2.5 test had some dust on it. Overall, the entire class’s ozone tests were below 2 which showed that the ozone levels around our school are not so terrible that it can really harm us. For the most part, the dust that was collected in the particulate matter 2.5 test was not a lot. Only two groups collected a lot of dust. This week we also looked at how the ozone and particulate matter 2.5 affected people’s health in our community, Washington Heights and in New York City in general and we did some comparing and contrasting. For particulate matter 2.5, the age group that was mostly affected was people that were greater than 65 years old and Washington Heights had higher levels of particulate matter 2.5 than New York City as a whole. For ozone levels, Washington Heights had lower levels of ozone affecting the health of people.
This week we learned about air pollutants. One air pollutant we learned about was ozone. Ozone is colorless gas, found in smog and formed by car exhaust, industries emissions, chemical solvents and gasoline vapors. The ozone gets worst with the Sun’s rays. It’s not as strong in the early morning, late afternoon, night time but in the midafternoon around noon and 1pm when the Sun it’s at the highest. Ozone has impact on the health of individuals and the environment. Breathing ozone can affect the airway irritation, coughing, you can have pain when breathing, wheezing, inflammation, aggravation of asthma, pneumonia, bronchitis, lung damage, damage to crops and vegetation. This relates to my community because the ozone levels of health effects of premature mortality (death), hospital admissions for asthma (under 18), hospital admission for asthma (over 18) and emergency department visits for asthma (over 18) are lower than New York City average except for emergency department visits for asthma (under 18) in which Washington Heights Range was higher. Emergency department visits for asthma (under 18) ranges between 93 and 135.2 while N.Y.C. average is 91. It helped realize why my asthma may act up and that some individuals die because of this.
This week in Environmental Science class we have switched gears completely and transferred into our second unit which is based on air. So far we have looked into things such as air quality and other significant information through the lens of reading, informative articles, and some videos. Our world has a lot to do with air as we know the basics as us humans can't live without air. But what we don't know are the specific details in our air for example how in our air pollutants have always existed. While everyone likes to blame humans something I learned already that most people may have not known is that pollutants in our air is not only caused by humans it is also brought upon by natural things such as volcanoes and other natural disasters. I've also learned how humans contribute to the pollution which is known all over but no one really knows why. It is because over the years people have developed new ways of doing things such as transporting and making goods. Coal is a major way that we pollute the air as we use gases and coal to make things like cars and machinery in factories we gradually polluted the air and affected its quality. This is a negative things for us because although yes we can make things way easier with these new innovations we are affecting the quality as we cause more and more people to be prone to asthma. Asthma is brought upon us when we affect the air quality and create smog which if inhaled can harm us in negative ways such as this. Efforts to try and improve air quality in state and local governments were attempted. In 1955 congress passed the first air pollution act. This was read in an article during class that said that the government tried to limit the emission let out by companies. A decrease in air emission was not reached though until the Clean Air Act of 1693 in which change was actually seen. After seeing the improvement government sought to amend the air situation even more with a new system or laws in 1970 I believe to see more increase and stricter standards for air quality. The pollutants are measure in six specific pollutants. These pollutants consist of carbon monoxide, particulate matter, sulfur dioxides, lead, ozone,and, nitrogen dioxide. Making the pollutants more specific it became easier to identify the problems and also to see the improvement or to see if the situation is worsening. In conclusion this week I have learned various things such as what our air is like how vital of a source it is, what it affects, how it is affected and how we identify when its polluted, with many other things. I've also learned why asthma is more common in certain places compared to others. As we get really in depth with this unit some questions I hope get answered are such as the following how can everyone individually do a part to better the air quality? What is the state with the worst air quality ? and How can government get involved to amend the current air situation in places with poverty?
This week in Environmental Science we have been learning about air pollution. One important thing we learned about was 6 different types of pollutants. These 6 pollutants are nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, zone, particle pollution, and carbon monoxide.Nitrogen dioxide(NO2) is a gas that comes from emissions form cars, trucks, buses, power plants and off road equipment. Some health effects this pollutant has is airway inflammation, asthma problems, and respiratory diseases like bronchitis. Some environmental diseases it has is that it is part of smog, which is a layer of smoke and fog in the air. Carbon monoxide(CO) is a gas that comes from the combustion process. Some health effects carbon monoxide has is that it reduces the amount of oxygen delivered to the body's organ and very high levels of carbon monoxide can lead to death. Ozone(O3) is a gas that comes from car exhaust and industrial emissions. This pollutant can irritate human's airway and cause coughing, wheezing, inflammation and asthma. This also damages trees and other plants. Particle pollution(PM) comes from construction sites, unpaved roads, fields, and fires and also particles from power plants and industries. Some health effects is that the particles may get into our bloodstream and lungs. This could also reduce visibility and make lakes acidic in our environment. Lead is another air pollutant that comes from paint, dust and exhaust emissions. Lead can accumulate in soil and cause loss of biodiversity. The final air pollutant is sulfur dioxide which comes from oxides of sulfur, and fossil fuel combustion at power plants. This pollutant can cause breathing problems, and respiratory diseases. Some environmental effects include acidic rain which causes acidified waterways and soil.
I never knew there was so many air pollutants. Before I thought that air pollution was just smoke but now I know that there is a variety of criteria pollutants that affect our air differently. Also, it was suprising to see all the health and environmental effects air pollutants pose for our society. The only way to prevent these health and enviornmental effects caused by air pollutants is to be greener and regulate the amount of air pollutants like the clean air act attempts to do. It is also interesting to note that these air pollutants mostly affect hig poverty communities which makes sense because these communities are probably in bad conditions and their environment is probably a very low priority.
I have learned a lot so far about air, air pollution and air pollutants. We first started off by learning the characteristics of the atmosphere. The Thermosphere that is approximately 80 KM in altitude, the higher the altitude, the warmer it gets. And it is right between space. The Mesosphere, extends from 50 to 80 KM and its temperatures decline as the altitude rises. It is also cooler in the summer than in the winter. The Stratosphere where the temperature stays constant. As altitude increases the temperature decreases. It is also located in the Ozone layer. Lastly, the Troposphere that is closest to earth, is 78% nitrogen and 21 % oxygen.
We also learned about air pollution and it causation. One was Ozone. Ozone is a pollutant and and unhealthy colorless gas called smog. Formed in high temperatures over 80 degrees. The sun is the main source to this because it acts like the sun's life. Low Ozone in the morning, high in the midday, low at night. When we breathe Ozone it can affect our health negatively. It can cause asthma, lung disease, lung damage, and inflammation.
Another pollutant was called PM known as particulate matter. They are thing floating around the air. The smaller they are the more dangerous. Particulate matter may be the air pollutant that most commonly affects peoples health. The big ones measure between 2.5 and 10 micrometers and the small ones 2.5.
This all relates to our neighborhood because this are the leading high death rates. Affecting mostly elders. We need to take action. By walking more, driving less cars and taking public transportation that are eco friendly.
How is the air we breathe effecting our health? These past few weeks we have been focus on the quality of the air, and what does it mean to have air pollution. Various areas in New York City have different levels of air pollution, most low income and poor neighborhood have the most amount of air pollution. This means that are more at risk to get sick from the contaminants in the air.
They are many different types of pollutants in the air, they all come in various forms and impact different things in our environment. One of these pollutants is Ozone, it comes in a gas form caused but motor vehicle exhaust, gasoline vapor, industrial emissions, excessive sunlight and chemical solrents. If there is too much ozone in the air it can cause humans permanent lung damage, inflammation, aggregation of asthma and increased susceptibility. Another pollutant is particle pollution/ particulate matter, it can be in two forms a solid and a liquid this pollutant is created in construction sites, unpaired roads and smoke stacks and different chemicals. PM can cause various several health problems such as premature deaths in people with heart or lung disease, lowers lung function, aggravated asthma and irregular heart beats. Moreover another air pollutant is Carbon Monoxide this gas come in a liquid form and is created through combustion process and exhaust from cars. Carbon Monoxide reduces oxygen delivered to body’s organs, myocardial ischemica and chest pains. Nitrogen Dioxide is another gas pollutant, it is formulated through emissions from cars, trucks, buses, power plants and off road equipment. Nitrogen can cause air way inflammation, empysema and bronchitis. Sulfur Dioxide is a gas pollutant that is formed through fossil fuel combustion at power plants and by burning of high sulfur. This can cause asthma symptoms and emphysema. A final major air pollution causing pollutant is Lead, it comes in a solid caused by fuels in motor cars lead shelters, ore and paint. Lead can cause very horrid damages to the human body such as permanent effects to the nervous system and neurological effects, kidney functions cardiovascular system and the immune system.
We can not eliminate all these pollutants permanently but we can reduce them, by first being more aware of them and then by taking actions that will reduce these pollutants in the air. Maybe we can advocate for more green infrastructure in low income community in other to reduce asthma, lung and heart failure as well as other sever problems that polluted air is causing us.
This week the most important thing I learned was the Air pollution of Washington Heights and NYC. Two of the main air pollutants are ozone and particulate matter 2.5, both of these pollutants have health effects on my community which are premature mortality (death), hospital admissions for respiratory conditions, hospital admissions for cardiovascular conditions, emergency department visits for asthma (under 18) , and the emergency department visits for asthma (over 18). Something I noticed was that Washington Heights has higher levels in comparison to New York City when it comes to Particulate matter 2.5 such as; hospital admissions for respiratory conditions, hospital admissions for cardiovascular conditions and emergency department visits for asthma. On the other hand Washington Heights has lower ratings in comparison to New York City when it comes to ozone related health effects. Something that caught my attention was the fact that most of the people who were affected where of high poverty and also of ages 65 and older. This has a greater impact on me because since I spend most of my time in the community of Washing Heights and most of my friends have asthma. It makes me wonder if living in a city that’s highly populated affects my chances of being hospitalized.
In Environmental Science we have been studying the air quality. I learned that there are 6 majors pollutants for which the EPA has regulations for. These pollutants are ozone (O3), particle pollution (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and lead (Pb). All pollutants are extremely harmful to an individuals health and the well being of the environment, however I believe carbon monoxide to be the biggest threat even though it has greatly improved over time. CO is a gas that can be easily found in the ambient air and mobile sources. CO is odorless and not visible, so you can inhale it without conscious. This can lead to the deduction of oxygen delivery to the body’s organs and cause death.
We tested for two of the pollutants, O3 and PM. Turns out that the temperature has to be in the 90‘s for maximum ozone concentration. This would be around mid-afternoon when the sun’s radiation is at its highest causing a chemical reaction with other chemicals in the air to form O3. We also found out that fine particles who are PM2.5 or smaller are very toxic compare to coarse particles who are PM10. The smaller particles are more hazardous because we can’t see them. This makes me think how bad or good NYC air quality is since it’s a city with many factories that contribute to bad air quality. Is relieving to know that there are federal approach towards having healthy, breathable air because the impacts of poor air quality can be deadly and dreadful for babies, elderlies, and future generations.
In the beginning I thought nothing of my air, the only thing I had known about air is that we needed it to breathe and without it, it would be certain death. Leaving the water unit I began this one with a sense of foreboding, the reason being was that during the water unit we had seen some stuff that had left me worrying a lot about many things. I could only have imagined what this one had in store for us. As my suspicions were later on proved right in that we first began learning about the things that were going on with the planet and then what were humans doing to the air to cause several carcinogens to account for the deaths from not being able to have good air quality.
There are many things in the air. Ozone, it comes in a gas form caused but motor vehicle exhaust, gasoline vapor, industrial emissions, excessive sunlight and chemical solvents. If there is too much ozone in the air it can cause humans permanent lung damage, inflammation, and aggregation of asthma. Another was that because of power plants there was a lot of harmful sulfur dioxide. Sulfur Dioxide is a gas pollutant that is formed through fossil fuel combustion at power plants and by burning of high sulfur. This can cause asthma symptoms and emphysema and nitrogen dioxide. Nitrogen Dioxide is another gas pollutant; it comes through emissions from cars, trucks, buses, power plants and off road equipment. Nitrogen can cause air way inflammation, emphysema and bronchitis. Both of these things were then later contained because of Scrubbers which are these “screens” in where they wouldn’t let so much of the air escape and start destroying the air above them. Because of many complaints from the citizens living around those areas government made the power plant companies put on their scrubbers so that the air wouldn’t get infected with all these things.
We cannot get rid of power plant because they provide the thing that we need, which is energy but we can make them put a halt to this obsessive behavior of polluting everything in sight. Whether that be the air or even the water. It has so stop at some point in time before it becomes too late.
In environmental science I've learned various things so far about air. We've learned about particle pollution, the ozone layer and other pollutants which afeect the air we breath. For example: the ozone is a type of pollutant its a gas, it has improved 28%, its produced by motor vehicle exhaust, industrial emissions, gasoline etc. The ozone can impact health in various ways, it can cause wheezing, permnent lung damage, inflamation and aggravation ofasthma. Particulate matter also serves as a type of pollutant. It can be a liquid as well as solid. It has improves by 27%, it cn be produced by construction sites,unpaved roads, smoke stacks etc. Particulate pollution can affect health as well.It can cause adecrease in lung function, irregular heart beats, aggravated asthma, and premature death in people with heart or lung disease.
In class we've also learned abouteventsthats have taken places throught time in order to better air quality. In 1300 King Edward the second statedno coal couldbe burnedin London. This was important because London was known for having terrible air quality, banning coal from being burned is a first step to helping the air quality clear up. In the 1940's manypeople migrated, meaning more jobs were created meaning more air pollution was produced. However national state made efforts to improve air aquality, eventhough they werent followed until 1955. Scince 1970 clean air acts have been introduced. The clean air act of 1970 set increasingly demanding standards. This was important because now people were getting more serious and realizing how serious having clean air was, having that said actions began to be taken in order to better tge air quality. Scince 1970 air pollutantshave decreased.
Learning what I have learned so far about air and it's quality has made me think about and wonder various things. For example, now I think about every breth I take and how they can contain trillions of PM 2.5 particles which are so small it makes them getting into the body much easier. My learnings have also made me wonder if its possible for the air quality to ever ge to be 100% clean. If so, how can we as individuals make that happen?
During this week in environmental I learned a lot about air and air pollution and how it affects our body. Humans breathe throughout the whole day. Humans pollute the air and they do realize that this is going to have a negative impact on them. There is a lot of chemicals that human takes in such chemicals from cars, factories,smoking, power plants. According to the World Health Organization about 4.6 million people die from air pollution which to me is a big amount and something needs to be done do that this number can decreased. Air pollution also harms our atmosphere.
There 4 pats in our atmosphere. The first one is the thermosphere; which is the closes to the sun and the hottest, The second one is the mesosphere; which is the cooler than the thermosphere and when its summer the temperature tends to be cold and when its winter the temperature is very hot. The third one is stratosphere; where the ozone is located to protect humans form the sun. The last one is the troposphere which is where the humans air is and were we breath our air which is formed by 21 percent of oxygen, 78 percent nitrogen, and 80 percent of atmospheric. Air pollution harms these 4 things in a way. This is important because if there is a lot of sun then people will get sick with all types of diseases.
I found all this information that I learned important because before this week I didn't know any of these information and when I Learned these information I felt that something needed to be done so that less people will die from air pollution. People should realize the air they're breathing and they should stop doing bad things like smoking. I think life will be better if there's less air pollution.
This week we have learned many things about air, but what we have mainly been focusing on and has caught my interest would be our air quality. Who knew that there could be so many factors that contribute to our air quality? That’s something in which I have found quite interesting 6 pollutants contribute to air pollution. I learned how bad conditions were before, and `air pollution that itself is not harmful but; we as humans are making it hard for mother nature to keep up with all the pollution we are contributing to the atmosphere. By the late 1940s Americans started moving into these large cities, and as a result air quality was worsening, but hey, no wonder air quality was in such horrid conditions, because automobiles were almost becoming necessary during these times in cities like Donora, Pennsylvania, London, and England. It took deaths in order to do something about air pollution! These deaths resulted in the extremely necessary resolution Clean Air act of 1970. But what factors make pollution you may ask?
Some pollutants are Nitrogen Dioxide, Sulfur dioxide, Carbon monoxide, Ozone, Particle pollution, and Carbon monoxide. Before class I didn't really think that these pollutants were such a big deal until I found out some of the health impacts it actually causes. Ozone, for example is a gas that comes from car exhaust, industrial emissions, Gasoline vapors, and chemical solvents. How does that impact us? I asked myself. I was shocked to see that this pollutant can actually cause permanent lung damage. The pollutant that I was most concerned about and is the most harmful in my opinion was particle pollution. Particle pollution can ultimately cause decreased lung function, aggravated asthma, irregular heart beat, non fatal heart attacks, and premature deaths!
Yes it is true that some pollutants have improved such as lead by a percentage of 89 percent!, mainly because our cars do not use lead anymore; but I believe that we should work harder for those pollutants that have improved with such low numbers such as Ozone, that has only improved by 28% and particle pollution, that has only improved with 27%. I think this is a very important matter because so many people are dying of air pollution, and air is something that we so desperately need such as water and food, so why are we not protecting it?
Throughout this week in class i have learned a lot about air pollutions and its effects on the environment and people. I along with my classmates have watched videos, read articles, and have also conducted a experiment. i also learned about whats called ozone,Ozone is colorless gas, found in smog and formed by car exhaust, industries emissions, chemical solvents and gasoline vapors. this is extremely hazard to the air we breath and can cause serious health problems such as struggling to breathe. sun rays throughout the day makes the ozone more harmful to the environment. This harmful thing can also cause lung disease and heart problems for a indiviual. i have also learned about the changes in which power planst have had to make to change the way in which they burn coal because those harmful chemicals flow through the air. The clean air act has also been made stricter as time goes by due to this harm being caused to our air. I feel that the clean air act is a great act because its reducing the harm being done to the environment.
What i have learned about Air Pollution is that its all around us, even if we aren't aware of it, it is affecting us as i type. Air pollution comes from many different sources of pollution, the coal we burn in the furnace to heat our homes, the cars we drive,even the public transportation we use. Air pollution mostly consists of sulfur and Carbon Dioxide (CO) which is highly toxic if in large concentrated groups. We all have this thing that pollutes the air called Smog, Smog is a mixture of Ozone and Fog, when smog is in the air, we are not aware of it but its there, smog can create acidic rain that lowers the PH levels of the ponds and the lake which can kill the fishes and creatures around it. Ozone has 3 oxygen atoms unlike the air we breath.
Air is a necessity for us a human beings we need oxygen we need water. But what can you live with out? We asked are selfs that question today in class. The EPA is in charge of creating rules and regulations to keep the environment clean. But they are facing a very big problem. I realized that they are in charge of creating rules but they also have to agree with people demand. In this process they create laws that have certain lop holes and don’t really work. And example to this would be the Clean Water Act. Pollution really affects are living conditions but have really improved.
In Environmental Science this week we learned about air pollutants. The way it is polluted and the ways to try to improve of air quality. The air has been polluted since humans were on this earth. It is said that since cave-dwellers learned to harness fire air pollution has been occurring. Of course at that time they didn't know that these pollutants would have a great impact on the earth and their bodies. Two pollutants we talked about the most this week were Ozone and particulate matter. Ozone is formed in the air itself high temperatures such as 80 degrees and sunlight set of chemical reactions called ozone precursors. You might have heard of Ozone by the barrier that protects us from sun rays but that ozone is made of 2 O's (O2) but the pollutant ozone is made of three O's (O3). Ozone patterns throughout the day changes, there are higher levels of ozone on different times of the day. Early in the morning is when ozone (O3) gets started when we do everday activities such as plugging in the toaster and driving your car. In the late morning after the commute has gone down the emmisions that were added into the pollution begins to form into ozone, at this time the sun is out so itheating up the emission to convert it into ozone. At mid-afternoon the sun hits it peak and the temperature is high, the sun radiation will cause a chemical reaction to form ozone. In late-afternoon the sunlight decreases and so do the ozone levels, by early evening the ground level ozone is destroyed. Another pollutant is Particulate matter these are the things that float in the air (You can see some of them when the sun is out it looks like dust). Particulate matter is is the pollutant that affect peoples health. Particles can come in many different shapes and sizes and can be either solid or liquid. Particles are differentiated into two groups such as PM10 and PM2.5. PM10 are the bigger particles and they are less harmful to peoples health. PM2.5 is harmfull because they are small and can get into respiratory system and even your blood stream. Some examples of PM2.5 are toxic compounds and heavy metals they are made by driving cars, burning plants and smelting or processing metal. Some examples of PM10 are smoke,dirt, dust, mold,spores and pollen and they are made by crushing and grinding rocks and soil. In class we looked at an article and then filled out a graphic organizer on pollutants. We learned that there are many pollutants and that each either have the same or different affect on a persons body some effects are asthma, affect on nervous system, kidney function and reproductive and development system. Fortunately, air conditions have improved, Carbon Monoxide has improved by 82% and Lead by 89%. So even though we have cleaned our air entirely little by little we are being successful.
The past Week in class, we been learning about Air, How is it good and bad in our everyday life, During class we been learning about the ability of how air is a good source in our life, Air pollution is one major reason we should be concerned about because it causes our health to be weak and even causes death, for example, in a article i read, it says that air pollution could be caused by the products that are being use like chemicals, each chemical that we breath it kills us slowly. Another reading i did was in today lesson in which it was about Cleaning the Air at the Expense of waterways, in which Mason Town, PA, which people were complaining about the yellow smoke that was pouring from the tall chimneys & how this was causing respiratory diseases and acid rain, this show how that people our society should follow the new law, Clean Water Act, so our air could be more cleaner and less affected health.
This week in environment science we learn about pollutants. Every human in this world contribute to air pollution in many ways. One way human contribute to air pollution is by breathing since what they are throwing in out is waste and carbon dioxide. Also power plants,burning of coals,smoke from factories and the burn of gasoline when cars are running. This shows that human should start doing different things to make air quality better and government should make more regulation to stop this problems.
This week in class we learn about a pollutant called Ozone that is a pollutant found during the unpleasant and unhealthy air condition called smog. Ozone it caused by itself during high temperatures over (80F). Ozone in the morning is high a lot of activities is been made since people are going to their jobs and traffic is causing to be at it highest because a lot of cars are burning gas and all the bad smoke is going to the layer that would caused acid rain. Ozone is at it lowest in the night because their is no sunlight and the temperature is not high and less activities are happening because people are out of their jobs.
there are four parts in our atmosphere. The first part is the thermosphere that is the most distant from earth and is very hot. The second layer is the Mesophere that is very cold and temperature decline within the mesophere attitude raises. The third layer is the stratosphere that contains nearly 90 percent of the atmosphere ozone and forming kinetic energy. The four layer is the troposphere that is the closest layer to us and where most weather occur.
Natural disasters have always been a factor that impacted our air quality. During the industrial era, our air quality worsened due to industrial businesses and automobile fuel. As the years passed our air quality has improve due to stricter regulations and efforts by the local government. The clean Air act set increasingly demanding standards to improve our air quality. EPA also set standards for the six air pollutions: carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur dioxides, ozone, particulate matter, and nitrogen dioxides. Carbon monoxide is a colorless gas that’s mainly from emission; it is harmful to our health and can lead to death. Lead is a solid that is from transportation fuel and damage the kidney and weakens the body. Sulfur dioxide is a gas created from the burning of fuel and can affect breathing leading to asthma. Ozone and nitrogen dioxide are also gases that are caused by emission from cars, industries and gasoline vapors. Like sulfur it impacts a person breathing and can cause damages to the lungs. Particle pollution is a mixture of solid and liquids; it also affects the lungs and heart and can cause premature death.
Learning about these pollutions was very interesting because I saw how most of sources for these pollutions are fuels and emission which are higher in urban areas. I realized that although we have higher standards to improve our air since the 1940s, we can still improve our air quality by being more eco friendly and using hybrid cars since most of the pollutions are from cars. Learning that many of these pollutions affects people older than 65, who live in low income areas also helped me realized those areas are generally more polluted because there is not enough environmental friendly sources in those neighborhoods. Pollutions such as ozone and particulate matter cause more affect to a person breathing and are more likely to cause asthma. With this, we need to take action and create an eco friendly environment by using more green sources and less auto transportation.
Throughout this week in Environmental class we've been starting with our new subject which is "air." However, we've been focusing on learning about 6 major pollutants, and Air pollution. The 6 major pollutants that we learned about were Ozone(O3), Particle pollution(PM), Carbon Monoxide(CO), Nitrogen Dioxide(NO2), Sulfur Dioxide(SO2), and Lead(Pb). Ozone(O3) was the one pollutant we learned about more. Ozone(O3) is a gas occurring pollutant which is caused by industrial facilities, motor vehicle exhaust, and gasoline vapors. It can cause conflicts like lung disease, breathing pains and many more environmental affects around the society being affected. It is most common to find Ozone throughout populated cities that have unhealthy air conditions called smog. This pollutant is formed in the air itself and the sunlight set off chemical reactions when it gets up to (80 degrees Fahrenheit). As a class we started to look into the Air pollution throughout Washington Heights to see how healthy our air conditions were. We learned that there has been plenty of Clean air regulations that have improved the air quality in NYC. Two major pollutants affecting NYC are Ozone(O3) and Particulate matter(PM 2.5). Emissions from fuel combustion have caused the concentration of these pollutants to increase. This concerns me because knowing that I'm from NYC I want to make sure that this problem could be fixed before the air qualities drastically worsen. This could effect a lot of people with lung and heart diseases if it gets any worst and knowing that it's my city that is being affected it concerns me a lot. Particulate matter is differentiated into two groups known as Coarse particles (PM 10) and Fine particles (PM 2.5). Coarse particle (PM 10) is much bigger than Fine Particles and it's basically smoke, dirt and dust occurred by crushing and grinding of rocks and soil. Coarse particle (PM 10) occurs more natural than Fine particles (PM 2.5) and tend to be less harmful to health conditions. Fine particle (PM 2.5) is basically toxic organic compounds and heavy metals which are made by driving vehicles, burning plants and purifying metals. Learning about air pollution and all these pollutants that have been occurring throughout cities have really made me think of regulations that the EPA can make for power plants who dump their wastes to the air and to rivers polluting the air and the water. This matter could only get worst and we need to act upon it as fast as we can for the future of our society.
This week in our enviromental class we learned about air and air polltuion. We learned about the air that we breath which is made of nitrogen and oxygen. Biotic factors and Animals need air ass well , thats why people cannot be littering ,burning coal, and mistreating water and cutting down trees because trees provides us the air that we breath. There's alot of pollutants and chemicals that coauses air polltion . They are very risky and dangerous because it affects our health in many ways . For exmaple Ozone and Partical matter . Particle matter are particles that come in diffents shape and sizes, and the smallest one are the most dangerous one the 2.5 ones . It could couse asthma and get into your lungs and couse lungs diseases. Ozone produces smog which could couse inflamation and couse problems to your respitatory system . Some other pollutants are couse by factories,vehicles ,autombiles and much more.
After I learned this it made me think that people do not really care about our nature and themselves. They dont realize that our harmful activities are affecting us and nature. Air quality and water quality should really improve by the help of us . For example not littering, or using so much chemicals because those chemiclas goes to the air and couses air polltuion and affects our health. We need to set our mind to action and begin to stop doing harmful activities and protect our nature; Without nature we would not be living normally. .
This week in Environmental Science we learned about air pollutants. What most people don’t know is that pollutants in our air are not only caused by humans, but nature as well. Volcanoes, tornadoes, earthquakes and other natural disasters play a huge role in the quality of our air. Air pollution occurs when the air contains gases, dust, fumes or odor in harmful amounts. Some health effects of air pollutant consist of airway inflammation, asthma problems, and respiratory diseases like bronchitis. Ozone is an example of a toxic air pollutant that is a concern for people's health when outdoor temperatures are high. Ozone is the principal component of the mixture of air pollutants known as "smog" that is produced from the action of sunlight on air contaminants from automobile exhausts and other sources. Smog is intensified by smoke or other atmospheric pollutants. Ozone levels are most likely to be elevated after noon through early evening on hot, sunny days. Particle pollution is another example of air pollution in our environment. Particle pollution refers to a mix of very tiny solid and liquid particles that are in the air we breathe. Particles between 2.5 microns and 10 microns in diameter and are called PM10 through PM2.5. Because of their size, you can’t see the individual particles. You can only see the haze that forms when millions of particles blur the spread of sunlight. You may not be able to tell when you’re breathing particle pollution, yet it is so dangerous it can shorten your life. Pollution also needs to be considered inside our homes, offices, and schools. I was shocked to find out that we aren’t entirely safe from harmful pollutants even inside our homes. Some of these pollutants can be created by indoor activities such as smoking and cooking. In the United States, we spend about 80-90% of our time inside buildings, and so our exposure to harmful indoor pollutants can be serious. It is therefore important to consider both indoor and outdoor air pollution. Air pollution should be taken seriously and steps should be taken to prevent any outbreaks of anymore harmful effects on the living creatures who live off of air.
In Environmental Science this week we learned about air. We learned about particle pollution as well as the ozone and how it affects our breathing. The ozone is a specific type of pollutant that is of gas, the ozone has improved for about 28%. Ozone is made by vehicle exhaustions and gasoline. Ozone impacts our health because it can cause lung damage, asthma and inflammation. Something else we learned about is particulate matter which is another pollutant. This matter can be either solid or liquid and is made mainly on construction sites and roads; it has improved though by 27%. Like ozone particulate matter can also affect health. Some health risks are irregular heart beasts and asthma as well.
Furthermore, in Environmental science class we also learned about events in history that have helped the air quality. The mission of improving air quality started in 1300 with King Edward II. King Edward II made a law that made it illegal to burn coal in London. This new law that King Edward created was important because the city of London was known to have air that was not of good quality. This was a step into the right direction. Then the migration of people began in 1940 which created vast amount of job opportunities but with that came more air pollution to the city of London. Knowing about the continuum pattern of pollution an effort was taken to create more laws although they began to really be enforced and followed after in 1955. It wasn’t until 1970 where people started taking air pollution serious because that is when air pollution began decreasing.
Before this week’s class I didn’t really think much about the air we breathe and need to survive. But now it has really got me thinking that it is important and something should be done about it. It was shocking to find out that there is a lot of particulate matter in Washington Heights. It makes you think about every breath you take and if there really is truly any such thing as air that is not polluted at all? Makes me think if there’s more we can do to try and improve air pollution even more? We can possibly endorse more green infrastructure to improve air overall.
During this week in Environmental Science we have been learning about air pollutants. The major air pollutant we have been learning about the most is Ozone which is caused by industrial facilities like motor vehicle exhaust and gasoline vapors. These air pollutants can cause major problems to the public health such as lung diasease and breathing problems. One article that we read in class and I thought was really interesting was "Cleansing the Air at the Expense of Waterways". This article is basically about how Alleghemy Energy decided to install scrubbers to clean the plant's air emissions. The only problem with this is that now tens of thousands of gallons of waste water containing chemicals from to scrubbing process into the Monongahela River in Pitsburgh, Pennsylvania, which provides drinking water to 350,000 people. I found this really interesting because what the EPA thought would help out air pollution is now contaminating our drinking water. "Now instead of breathing pollution, we are drinking it".
This week in Environmental Science air unit we have been talking about air pollution. There are 6 majors air pollutants. These pollutants are ozone, particle pollution, carbon monoxide, Nitrogen Dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and lead. A dangerous air pollutant is ozone. This is because it is formed in the air itself, when the tempertures is high over 80 Fahrenheit and the sunlight sets off chemical reactions involving (gasoline vapor, and nitrogen dioxide) a highly reactive chemical oxygen, which we all need to survive. This happens by mid-afternoon. Ozone is a colorless gas. It is typically found in car exhaust, gasoline vapors, chemical solvents, and industrial emissions. Some impacts ozone has on the environment and on the health of people is it irritates airways, it make it difficult to exercise, causes lung damage (breathing), damages crops and vegetation...etc.
In conclusion this effects my neighborhood because I live in a big city where there are a lot of people living in the same area. I live in an area where the government helps a lot of the people financially. This is important because typically its poor people who suffer air pollution the most. I live around many factories, railroads, and construction. This makes poor people die prematuraly. Also ozone makes people under and over 18 have to go to the hospital because of asthma problems. People can die, because of asthma problems. This is why I think it's a good idea that the EPA orders power plants to clean-up the interstate emissions. The cross-state air pollution protects people public health. This is especially, important to my neighborhood washington heights, in NY. This act sets law of amount of air pollution a state could let out into the air going of to the sky/another state.
This week we have been discussing the importance of air quality. The reality of how pollution in the air is slowly affecting humanity through the cause of premature deaths or life long damages to vital organs. One way that the air is polluted is through the release of gas from power plants the emission carries all these toxins and the only way that they have figured to solve this is through building scrubbers that clean the gas before is released out. The only problem then is all the toxins that are left are disposed in bodies of waters we use which can increase the risk of contamination . There should clearly be laws more stricter and fines higher to prevent future problems since we are currently facing global warming. Thats enough in my opinion or else what's next?
This week, we have been learning about air pollution. We have been focusing specifically on ozone and particulate matter. In fact, we tested for ozone pollutants in our neighborhood. We had ozone testing strips and were told to put it around our school where it can easily get air for a few hours and then we would later come back and if there was a color change in the strip, depending on the color, there was ozone. For the majority of us, the ozone level was 1, which means there wasn't ozone in the air. On the other hand, this wasn't the case when we read about air pollution in Washington Heights and New York City. We actually found out that when it comes to ozone, Washington Heights' ranges are lower than New York City's range when it came to premature death, hospital admissions for asthma (under and over 18), and emergency department visits for asthma (over 18). On the other hand, when it came to emergency department for asthma (under 18) our range was a lot higher. From statistics, we also saw that the people who were affected the most were people who were 65 and older, or people in high poverty levels.
This week in science we are learning about air pollution. We have focused more on particulate matter and ozone, and how these pollutants is affecting us. We have read several readings that relate to this topic, and we have also looked at statistics that tell us the number of people hospitalized because of this issue. The classes tested this out by placing a strip outside of school. Depending on the color of the strip they would determine weather or not there was ozone in the air. Looking at the statistics we saw that high poverty places were the ones to suffer the most because of ozone and particulate matter. There is an organization named the EPA which is trying to help this situation. They are making new rules which is to reduce the amount of soot and smog air. In order for this to happen they have few requirements. There are of course some people that go against it but then there are others we are noticing that this is now becoming a problem and we need to get this fixed. I believe that the EPA should work hard to make this new rule happen because there are many people out there who suffer from asthma and many other things, and this smoke in the air isnt making it any better for them.
This week in Environmental Science we learned about the air we breathe. Due to all the new things I learned I must say I am now more interested in air. Before I did not really think about it, but now its very important to me. The air all humans breathe is made out of nitrogen. We also focused on ozone and how ozone is very effective on a humans body and how dangerous it is. Breathing clean fresh air is safe. Ozone can be related to hydrofracking because hydrofracking has to do with gas that causes cancer and it runs through water, that we might shower with or we might drink at a daily basis. While ozone can also have hazardous chemicals like carcinogen. This shows that people should be more aware of what they drink, and going green and allowing yourself to have a plant near you might be the best solution. From my perspective I believe that if more plants are around, the air might be more refreshing to breathe. The scariest part of it all might be that one day our air might be so polluted that we wont even notice and everyone would be diagnosed with some sort of disease.
Air is in the entire world many of us don’t pay much mind to it because its automatic to use it every day and every moment. The fact is that the thing we use the most and probably the thing we need the most we are polluting it and have been for a long time. One thing that pollutes our air is ozone and the problem with ozone is that it can cause many health problems. Some of those problems are inflammation of the repertory system, damage to lung tissue. The people who are affected the most by ozone are children, elderly and anybody with asthma and any respiratory diseases. This was one of the main contributors to why many people died in the past due to poor air quality and is also one of the reasons why laws were put to regulate air quality. Ozone is the main component in smog which is made up of smoke and fog the dangers about that is that many people can die from ingesting the smog. The way that ozone composes itself is by the amount of sunlight and any vapors that are emitted from cars such as gasoline and nitrogen oxide. Ozone reaches its highest during the morning and sometimes after when the sun reaches its apex since that when there’s the most activity going on. Most of the people are moving in cars as well as the sun is shining the most creating high levels of ozone. One advantage that we have is that ozone can’t be created during the night because it requires the sun. Particulate matter are particles that float in the air some are harmful and some are just there some are visible and some aren’t. Particulate matter falls in to two categories particulate matter 10 which are the bigger particles and particulate matter 2.5 which are the smaller ones. Besides there size differences there are others such as the way there created and how much they can harm the human body. Particulate matter 2.5 is created by the amount of pollution that is created by the waste of cars and burning organic matter. Particulate matter 10 is created by smoke, dirt and dust from factories, farms or roads. These are less harmful than the smaller ones because they can be stopped by our bodies because there are larger. Particulate matter 2.5 is more harmful because they can go deeper into your body because of their size. The fact is that they both can really affect your health in a bad way. The main thing that particulate matter effects is your respiratory system mainly your lungs. In conclusion this week we learned a lot about our air quality and the two main contributing factors to it pollution which are ozone and particulate matter. They can in danger our health and as we have seen in the past it has lead to a lot of people dying and causing lots of medical problem for some people. I also learned that there is a lot being done to reduce these factors of air pollutants and I hope it continues because this will affect all of us no one can’t be excluded from being affected because we all breath.
For some people they take air for granted and don't notice how much it means to us, but it is very important to know the kind of air you breathing in. In the last few weeks we've been learning about how the quality of air and air pollutants affects people's health. By the late 1940s, many Americans began migrating to large cities because the post war era created jobs in manufacturing and made automobile ownership a reality for average families. However, these factors led to many areas experiencing a concentration of atmospheric smoke that causes health problems. This problem did not draw international attention until 1948-1952 when 4000 people died. With air pollutants, Ozone has a major impact on the health of individuals and the community. Ozone is colorless gas, found in smog and formed by car exhaust which causes irritation, coughing and pain breathing.
I learned that since 1970, air quality has change over time because the air is much cleaner than it was before. It decreases by 49 percent. However, there were always air pollution until more people started to move into the cities which worsened the quality of the air. There are six main types of air pollutants that can affect the health of the people and problem to the environment, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, Ozone, particle pollution and carbon monoxide. Some believe that lead is the most dangerous because it is a type of solid that is formed by motovehicle cars and trucks, which affects the nervous system, nervous system, and immune system in the human body.
This is related to me and my family because before I only knew that air pollution causes global warming, but there are a lot of problems that air pollution can led to, so we need to be aware about where we living and how it can affect our health.
This week we learned about air pollutants and their part in air pollution. Air pollutants are what cause damage to the air quality. It can lead to many health issues such as heart disease.
We learned that the six air pollutants that mostly cause air pollution are nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, carbon monoxide, particle pollution and ozone. These six factors are key components to air pollution. In class we looked over ozone and particulate matter. We gathered information between New York City's average of the two pollutants and compared it to the neighborhood of Washington Heights. We found out that Washington Heights ozone levels overall are lower than New York City, while for particular matter it showed that New York City mostly overall had lower levels than Washington Heights.
This makes me wonder how New York City would stand in comparison between major cities across the country. It also makes wonder how does our city compare to other foreign countries around the world. I would like to know the methods other locations use to lower their levels of air pollution.
This week on environmental science, we focused on air and air pollution. First we talked about the composition of earth’s atmosphere. Thermosphere is the most furthest and highest from Earth’s surface. The thermosphere also has the warmest temperature. There is not too much oxygen in the thermosphere. The mesosphere is the next furthest from Earth’s surface. It is much colder, in the summer the temperature gets colder. The stratosphere is next; this atmosphere contains nearly 90 percent. Ozone creates more at its warmest time in the day. Also ozone creates when most people are outdoors. Human’s actions causes for ozone to create more. The troposphere is the layer closest to Earth’s surface. This is the layer where most weather occurs. Temperature and water vapor content decrease rapidly as altitude increases within the troposphere. In this layer there is 78% of nitrogen, 21 % of oxygen and 1% of other. Air pollution has been a problem in the world for a while. In 1300, this was the first act of formal regulation on air that King Edward II created. The regulation was to ban burning coal. This was a first step on making our air quality better. Particulate Matter (PM) is common in NYC. Sometimes it can be harmful and sometimes it may not be harmful. There are two categories in PM, particulate matter 2.5 which is the smallest and most harmful because it’s easier to get in deep into your lung and particulate matter 10 is created by actions like smoking. Particular Matter can be improved though. - Genesis Colon
During the past week I have learned a lot about air pollution. Air pollution is caused by chemicals released into the air. Gases are released into the air from sources such as factories, chimneys and vehicles. Some chemicals in the air that can affect a person is ozone and carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide if breathed in displaces oxygen in the blood, which results in the death of cells and damage to major organs. One effect ozone has on a human is that it can effect cells and cause tumors in people. The EPA which is an organization that is against factories releasing gases into the air, due to the effects it can have on people and the enviroment. One proposed law from the EPA was the Clean Air Transport Rule , which was basically taking steps to make sure that the gases release by factories was cleaned before released.
This week in Environmental Science we focused on air pollution. We learned about the 6 pollutants that contribute to air pollution. The 6 pollutants are sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide,lead, particle pollution and ozone. We looked for the basics of all 6 pollutants but looked futher in to partrticulate matter and ozone. Paticulate matter is differentiated into 2 categories. We have particulate matter 10 and particulate matter 2.5. Particulate matter 10 is harmful but not as harmful as particulate matter 2.5. Particulate matter 2.5 is the smaller version of 10 and is more harmful because since it is smaller it can travel into your airways and possible end up in your lungs cause damage because it can get into the smaller places in your organs. We also focused on ozone. Ozone is a colorless gas that is usally found in car exhaust and other similar emissions. This is dangerous because it made up of the air we breathe. This can cause huge health risks because our blood cells are more attracted to the ozone and can instead of carry oxygen all over our body, carry the ozone which will lead to serious health conditons. The air pollution should be improved to prevent thousands of deaths that happen because of air pollution. Also, if the air pollution is improved then sluggers would not be needed in factories. This is important because when sluggers are used to take out pollutants from the smoke released in chimmneys, water is used which is then released into our waterways even though it is still waste water. Efforts are being taken inorder to prevent this from happening and i believe we should take part in it.
This week we have been leaving about air pollution. We learned that air pollution has always existed from natural causes such as volcanoes and forest fires but after humans developed the skills to make fire air pollution has increased. Humans first started to realize that air pollution was becoming a major problem in incidents of health problem, in cities like Donora, Pennsylvania in 1948, and London, England in 1952 where 4,000 people died in 4 days from weather related smog. After realizing the affects of air pollutions governments have made laws like the clean Air Act of 1990 to try to improve the air quality.
Air pollution has been a threat to the health of urban populations overall and specifically New York City residents. The EPA uses 6 major air pollutants Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Sulfur Dioxide (SO2), Lead (Pb), Ozone (O3), Particle Matter (pm), and Carbon Monoxide (CO) to determine the air quality. In our class we have learned that the levels of these pollutants have been decreasing such as sulfur dioxide which is cased by fossil fuel combustion has improved by 83% and Ozone has improved by 28%.This pollutants have many harmful effects including premature death, decreased lung function, and respiratory diseases.
Learning about this has made me think about the value of air and how we should work on improving it to prevent people from dying and getting sick. I think we should use more bikes in our city to reduce the number of cars to reduce the emissions they give off. Learning about the incidents of people dying from air pollution has made me wonder what would happen to New York City if air quality gets bad again having millions of people and air pollution can cause thousands of deaths and sick people.
Throughout this week, we have read numerous articles on the concept of air. In most these articles, we studied how the quality of air has changed and what caused our air to be in its current state. In order to understand the concept of air, we also studied the different layers of the Earth’s atmosphere. After, we ourselves tested the air quality in our neighborhood using strips that measured ozone levels and collected dust in order to measure the amount of particulate matter. Particulate matter is the particles found in the air such as dust and other solids. It is important to be aware of the amount of particulate matter in our air due to the fact that particulate matter causes diseases such as heart attacks and respiratory damage. We also specifically looked at statistics concerning Washington Heights and the amount of particulate matter that affects different areas and age groups of our community.
During this week I learned that power plants are the main sources that contribute to air pollution. In an attempt to reduce the amount of harmful toxins being released into the air, power plants created a machine that sprays water onto the smoke that is released from wastes in order to trap the pollutants before it is released into the air. When I read about this, I figured that it was a good way to keep our air clean and contribute to a greener environment, however, keeping our air clean came with the price of water pollution. The water that was used to capture the emissions was contaminated with toxins and some of it would leak out into our water. This made me realize that even though we find a solution to fix one issue, another issue may arise to counter our success.
It is very important that we as a community take into consideration the risks of air pollution. Because of air pollution, at least 13,000 to 34,000 people die from respiratory diseases annually. We must think of a new way to address the concern of toxic emissions being released into the air, without risking the quality of another one of our important resources such as water.
This week in environmental science I learned that air pollution takes a huge toll on our health. Also, air pollution levels are different in regions of New York. For instance, the air pollution in Washington Heights is different than the air pollution in Mid-town Manhattan. The reason for this is because activity in Mid-town Manhattan is higher; there are more cars in the streets than it is uptown. In addition to this, cars give off emission containing nitrogen oxide and sulfur, the emission from the cars mixed with sunlight creates ozone, acid rain and smog. The people most affected by air pollution are those diagnosed with asthma, the elderly, and those going through high poverty. In the household of these people the air is filled air pollutants like particulate matter. Particulate matter is the particles that are visible in the air that can be easily inhaled therefore being embedded in your lungs and the smaller the particle the deeper it gets.
This week in Environmental Science we mainly focused on air pollution. We learned about pollutants that contribute to air pollution. Pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, Sulfur dioxide, lead, particle pollution and Ozone have great impact on air pollution. We also looked into particulate matter and learned that a particulate matter at 10 is much more harmful than a particulate matter that is in 2.5. 10 being the smallest it’s more dangerous than 2.5 because the smaller the particulate matter are the easier for it for it to manage its way into smaller organisms such as Lung tissue. That is why there are people with lung cancer, disease, and lung problems because that person has breathed in particles that are at a 10 particulate matter and damage smaller tissue since it’s so easy for the matter to get his way around smaller organism. Particulate matter at 10 can cause harmful things to the human body because people actually don’t know when they are breathing in matter at 10 because we are not able to determine whether were breathing it or not. So it makes us “vulnerable” because we have no notice what so ever and when we do notice it’s too late with widespread disease. Since I am from the Bronx I am more likely to endure lung dis functioning’s because The Bronx is the most polluted borough. Hunts Point is located in the Bronx and 12,000 trucks go in and out the Bronx daily which contaminates the air much more because of fuel exhaust.
This week during Environmental Science we focused on air and air pollution, Air is a renewable source it never runs out and it is something humans take for granted During the Industrialization time especially during the 1940s, more factories were being built, people migrated to cities, more urban areas creating more pollution. Many places like Donora, Pennsylvania and London England were being affected and four thousand people died within four days. The society realized that it was time to take action. There is a Clean Air act that sets air quality standards for six pollutants such as Carbon Monoxide, Lead, Sulfur Dioxide, Ozone, Particulate Matter, and Nitrogen Dioxide this benefited our environment because the Act made the pollutants decrease over time, the act also became more stricter. Soot particles and smog create health problems, lung dieases and asthma which can primarily affect younger kids and the elderly, the Soot particles caused high rates of asthma symptoms, the asthma syptoms (wheezing) are found in areas such as the South Bronx because of high traffic, according to "Asthma Linked to Soot From Diesel Trucks in Bronx". Some of the pollutants cause bronchitis, affects the nervous system, the kidney function etc. We read articles that involve Ozone and Particulate Matter. Ozone is a pollutant that is formed in the air and created when smog is present. Ozone reaches its highest during the morning because that is when the human activities occur the most, when drive to work, take the bus, which causes to pollute the air. However by the later afternoon we know that the Ozone decreases because there is barely any sunlight. Another pollutant we read about was the particulate matter, which is another pollutant that can't be seen. and is the most harmful because particles come in different shapes an sizes. PM 2.5 includeds the smaller particles and PM 10 is when the bigger particles appear. PM 10 are less severe, the reason why the bigger particles are called PM 10 is because the particles are sized up to 10 micrometers, it comes from factories, roads, smoke, and dirt and it when it is being blown by the wind. Smaller particles are called PM 2.5 because it is thinner than human hair and the particles size up to 2.5, they are found in heavy metals and toxic compounds when we are driving automobiles. In conclusion I realized that Air pollution has affected thousands of people, and many of them don't realize how important out Air quality is and I believe there should be more things being done to places such as the bronx, since many kids are being affected and there is an increase of health problems.
A week in Environmental Science we focused in learning about air pollutants. The one major air pollutant we set a goal to learning about the most is Ozone which is caused by industrial facilities such as motor vehicle exhaust and gasoline vapors. Air pollutants can cause lethal problems to the public health such as lung diseases and breathing problems. An article that was read out loud in class that was really interesting was "Cleansing the Air at the Expense of Waterways". This article is basically about how Allegheny Energy decided to install scrubbers to clean the plant's air emissions. The only problem with this is that now tens of thousands of gallons of waste water containing chemicals from to scrubbing process into the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which provides drinking water to 350,000 people. I found this really interesting because what the EPA thought would help out air pollution is now contaminating our drinking water. "Now instead of breathing pollution, we are drinking it". This lesson in air pollution helped me care for my air quality because I before didn’t realize that the air wasn’t healthy and the solving to that soulution will solve a list of things that also damaged enviorments.
A human breaths an avenge of 20,160times a day, including when they sleep. Every time the take a breath of air they take in all the chemicals being let in the air by automobiles, burning plants, and factories smoke. Hence, when humans polluting the air, they are not just harming our environmental but they are also harming our bodies. The World Health Organization estimates that 4.6 million people die each year from causes directly caused by air pollution. Moreover, air pollution also harms our atmospheres and can cause several illnesses. Knowing the facts on air pollution is important to be aware of the harm ones is putting themselves in there everyday life. Air pollution is hard to see, so knowing the harms one can help humans see the importance of reduce air pollution and help or environment.
ReplyDeleteAir pollution harms the four parts of our atmospheres: the thermosphere; which is the closes to the sun and the hottest, mesosphere; which is the cooler than the thermosphere and there is not much air,stratosphere; where the ozone is located to protect humans form the sun, lastly, comes the troposphere which is where the humans air is and were we breath our air which is formed by 21 percent of oxygen, 78 percent nitrogen, and 80 percent of atmospheric. This is important to know because when Nitrogen Oxides, Volatile Organic Compounds and the sun combine the cause ozone in the troposphere which isn't good because it causes lung disease, inflammation, asthma, and lung damage. Air pollution can also reach the stratosphere and harm our ozone, and make the sun's rays stronger on the earth, making the human body need more protection over the sun's ray. Early in the morning there is some ozone in the troposphere because there is more chemicals being released by cars and other human smoke, in addition the sun is starting to come up. Late in the morning there is more ozone because the chemicals increase and the sun is higher in the sky. Mid-afternoon, when the sun is at its highest there is more ozone because the earth is at its hottest producing ozone faster. Then when the sun starts going down the earth cools and the ozone start breaking apart.
In the every day life people don't really know the things they are breathing in while they are playing outside or heading to work or school. The air is filled with: ozone, particle pollution,carbon monodic, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and lead that can harm our body. This chemicals in the air can cause: asthma, lung damage, deconstructionism, kidney function, cardiovascular, and emphysema. So, it is important to be aware of the chemicals one is breathing and let into our environment.
This past week we have been learning about air and its air pollutants. I learned that air is a resource that is recreated through natural cycle such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, water, and nutrients. Although air is being constantly being replenished by these sources since the 1940s the air was being tampered. This was the time period where American were moving into the large cities because the economy was growing and more jobs in factories and automobiles were being created. These types of jobs created a concentration in smoke, dust, and fumes which caused a lot of the health problems. After seeing the fatalities and how many people were being harmed by these factors the United States decided to take the initiative to improve the air quality and by 1963 the clean air act set standards. The Environmental Protection Agency set standards where directed to about 6 air pollutants: Carbon Monoxide, lead, sulfur dioxides, ozone, particulate matter, and nitrogen dioxides. Ozone EPA standards is 0.075 ppm, Particle pollution is 2.5 and 10ppm, Carbon Monoxide is 9ppm, Nitrogen Dioxide 100 ppb and 53ppb, Sulfur dioxide is 75 ppb for 1 hour and 0.5 ppb for 3 hours, and lastly lead at 8 hours should be 9ppb, 1 hour 25 ppb and 0.15ppb in 3 months.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that I mostly found interesting was that before the cities was expanding the air was natural and nothing was being done to keep the air in good quality because there wasn’t no factories or business on automobiles. One of the things that I have a question is how is the air tested for these factors? How do you know when it goes over the standards that the Environmental Protection Agency created?
This changed the my thoughts on our quality because I know that I’m not one of those people who thought about how is our air being treated so that people can survive, or how can I personally improve the air quality but know that I have learned about the different aspects on air and how important it is for us human and our environment I think more about how I can improve it. What are the things that people can reduce to enhance our air quality?
Air pollution in New York City is a significant environmental threat which contributes to an estimated 6% of annual deaths. There are many various forms of air pollution that can negatively affect the health and quality of life of New Yorkers. The effects of air pollutants upon the city are different depending upon the type of pollutant and its source. Improving our city’s air quality is a difficult task because there are many types of air pollutants that can come from millions of sources, inside and outside city boundaries. Emissions from transportation, primarily cars, buses, and trucks, contribute a significant amount of pollution to our air on a daily basis. Every year motor vehicles contribute approximately 11% of the local PM2.5 and 28% of the nitrogen oxide emissions. The City has been actively finding ways to reduce emissions from motor vehicles including passing and enforcing rules to use cleaner fuels across the city and to reduce unnecessary emissions like idling which is just leaving the car on or bus or trucks. Sulfur dioxide is a gas emitted from fossil fuel combustion at power plants and other industrial facilities. Sulfur or SO2 is a significant air pollutant and can cause acid rain and is associated with increased respiratory illnesses. Sulfur is also something that can cause acid rain and it is very dangerous for plants and animals that already live in poor quality environments.
ReplyDelete-David Perez
While watching the video today, I learned that our president Barack Obama is trying to create car that would use less energy since car has a lot of pollution. I also learned Air pollution harms the four parts of our atmospheres: the thermosphere; which is the closes to the sun and the hottest, mesosphere; which is the cooler than the thermosphere and there is not much air, stratosphere; where the ozone is located to protect humans form the sun, lastly, comes the troposphere which is where the humans air is and were we breath our air which is formed by 21 percent of oxygen, 78 percent nitrogen, and 80 percent of atmospheric. Finally if the sun is closer and hotter is mean that the ozone is with more pollutant.
ReplyDeletePollutants in air were introduced for as long as mankind has discovered fire. From then on more pollutants were introduced to human life from technological achievements and new advancements which made life easier: cars, machines, factories. It wasn’t until the industrial era when the booming economy of the post war era introduced jobs in manufacturing. From the post war era, pollutants in air began manifesting through smoke, dust, and exhaust fumes. As a result air quality was so bad that weather-related smog continued for days and weeks causing a number of deaths. Over the years, our air quality has taken a turn for the better. Since air is a vital source for all beings, such an element so essential to us should be taken care of. Fortunately, air is a renewable resource which is replenished through ecological cycles such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and nutrient.
ReplyDeleteEfforts to improve air quality had been established throughout time. In the 1300s the first act of formal regulation was made by King Edward II which prohibited coal being burnt in London. Although the effort wasn’t drastic it was a good start because it showed that there are steps that could be made to revitalize air quality. In the 1940s initial efforts to improve air quality by state and local governments were introduced. By 1955, congress passed the first air pollution act. In 1963 actual reductions in air emissions were brought into attention; standards were made for stationary sources like power plants and steel mills. In 1970 national air quality standards for six “criteria” pollutants: carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur, dioxides, particulate matter, and nitrogen dioxide. It was important that we jot down these attempts because we can see that such progress can make a major effect on air quality.
Overall as we kept these enforcements in mind, I realized that such regulations can be made to increase air quality even more. As we think about the affects of air pollutants, it is important to keep in mind that things could be done to limit such catastrophes. Air pollution as a result can lead to many health effects such as premature mortality, and hospital admissions for asthma. This is an outcome of inhaling polluted air which disrupts parts of the internal organs.
Meloryn
Air pollution has impacted many people in different cities in the United States. One of the big contributors of air pollution in more than 27 eastern states are power plants. They been known to release soot and smog smokestacks that can harm people and the ozone layer. The EPA created the Cross – State Air Pollution Rule, this rule will start to initiate the protection of the publics health. This rule will begging to take effect in 2014, it will require power plants to reduce their sulfur dioxide emissions by 73 percent and their nitrogen oxides by 54 percent.
ReplyDeleteDuring this week I’ve learned that air pollution can become very dangerous if left unchecked. It can cause lung cancer and asthma, children and the elderly are the people that are mostly affected by air pollution. People also believe that these strict regulations can reduce the amount of jobs that are available to the people. Air pollution also affects high poverty areas more than low poverty areas. This shows that people with high poverty don’t have a choice of where to live so they have to deal with it.
This has changed my way of thinking because I need to help the people around me realize the dangers of polluted air. I can also try to convince the people around me to invest in hybrid cars.
This week in Environmental Science class, we started the basic of the AIR unit. We discused air quality through readings and worksheets.
ReplyDeletePollutants have always been in the air. There has been either pollutant from natural disasters like volcanoes. When humans discovered fire, a pollutant in the air has increased aside from natural pollutants. During the Industrial Era, pollutants have increased due to the creation and usage of new innovations such as cars, factories, machinery and the usage of coal. Over the years, scientists have discovered the effects human activity has on the air quality. The bad air quality causes smog that causes a number of death and mostly impacts people with asthma. In 1300. The first act of formal regulation occurred in England because people in England began to notice the effects coal has on their air quality. They eliminated the usage of coal. In the 1940’s many Americans began to migrate which caused many areas to experience an increase in smoke, dust, and exhaust fumes. There were also efforts to try improving air quality in state and local governments.1955-1963; the congress passed the first air pollution act however, actual reductions in air emissions until the Clean Air Act of 1693. In 1970, a major change was included in the Clean Air Act of 1970 which set an increase in standards. The EPA then set national air quality standards for six pollutants: carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur dioxides, ozone, particulate matter and, nitrogen dioxide. These events have helped improve air quality over time.
This Week I had a clear understanding of why people tend to suffer from asthma or die from lung cancer. Nobody ever says that a person dies because of the area’s air quality. It is important to know if you live in a neighborhood with clean air because that can have a major impact on your health, and everyone around you. Air quality can lead to health issues like lung cancer and/or death. When we were studying Washington Heights air quality, we as a class noticed that the air quality was worse, and improved less for low income neighborhoods. I wonder why? How can we, as a community change the air quality effectively? It is important to stay aware of the air around you. It is also important to do your part and be Eco-Friendly. Increase in pollutant causes a higher chance of putting yourself and your peers at risk.
Krystal Acevedo
We usually don’t pay much mind to the air we breathe in everyday. Air is 99.9% nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor and gases. Air can be affected by human activities that can harm the environment and increase pollutants in the air. Not only does air pollution exist outside in our environment, but it is also found in our homes, and other buildings. There are two specific types of pollution: ozone and particulate matter.
ReplyDeleteOzone is the main component of smog, which is not emitted by pollution sources. This pollution is formed when high temperatures and sunlight set off chemical reactions involving hydrocarbons such as gasoline, vapors, and nitrogen dioxide from cars. Ozone reaches it’s highest point, in the morning since many individuals start their cars to go to work. The sunlight then hits the gases that are in the air, which cause ozone pollution. In the late afternoon, ones the sunlight decreases, the ozone level will decrease rapidly as well. Ozone pollution has the least effect on human health, compared to particulate matter. Ozone causes inflammation of the respiratory system. Some long-term affects can be damage to lung tissues. Before there were laws being passed many people died, due to poor air. The groups of individuals whom have the greatest sensitivity to poor air quality problems are children, the elderly, and people with asthma and other respiratory diseases.
Particulate matter or particle, are things that are floating in the air. Some that can be seen, and others that can’t. These particles come in different shapes or sizes, and can be solid or liquid droplets. There are two major groups of particulate matter: particulate matter 10 (PM10) and particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5). PM10 are coarse particles that are smoke, dirt, and dust from factories, farms or road. They are made by crushing and grinding rocks and soil then are blown by the wind. PM2.5 are fine particles that are toxic organic compounds and heavy matters. They are made when driving cars, burning plants, and smelting. Both types of particles affect the human health. The least harmful would be particulate matter 10. This is due to the reason that our bodies can stop those particles from going into our lungs, for example our nose hairs. The most harmful would be particulate matter 2.5. These particles are much more harmful to our human body, because they are very small. Therefore, they can penetrate more deeply into the lung and can even cause death.
In conclusion, this changed the way I thought about air. Now I actually think about it more then what I used to. For example, yesterday morning I was walking to school and noticed the smoke that was coming out of the terminal, I thought to myself if the people living around there knew how harmful it can be to their health. This is a situation we can find resolutions to, so why not make a difference? So far I am trying my best to tell others to not use vehicles to go to short distances. Why not run, bike or walk which is a better alternative to reduce air pollutants and enjoy nature the way that we should be enjoying it. Let’s make a change!
-Estefania Garcia, 12B
This week we have been learning about air pollution and types of way it affects us. We have learned that air pollution have become the dangerous thing in air quantity because it have causes asthma and lung cancer. These things are caused because of the new invations that have been created like cars, buses. machines, etc... We went over the four atmosphere that causes air pollution which are thermosphere, mesosphere, stratosphere and troposhere.
ReplyDeleteWe learned about the two types of pollution which are particular matter and ozone. The particular matter are things that can't and can be visible in our body. Like PM2.5 are small particles that damage our body the most and can't be found easily and PM10 are bigger particles that aren't that damaging to us.
Our air pollution trimester has been so far informative. I am learning about the rules and regulations about how much emissions we can release into the air. We also learned about how are ozone layer which protects us from UV Rays and keeps our environment stable. UV (Ultra Violet) Rays are from the sun and it can effect us in different ways. The ozone layer protects us because it breaks down the UV rays into smaller particles since a lot of it can negatively effect us. The ozone layer has been a major subject over the past couple of years because it is depleting due to climate change and CO2 emissions from factories and other company's manufacturing products. Many lawmakers in the United States have tried to regulate the current situation.
ReplyDeleteLast week, we were given two types of air pollutant tests (ozone and particulate matter 2.5) and we had to place them in certain areas near the school and home in order to check if the air that we are exposed to everyday at school is polluted. My groups and I chose to put the ozone test in the 4th floor outside of a window and we decided that I put the particulate matter 2.5 test behind my television.
ReplyDeleteThis week, as a class, we gathered the data from both tests. The outcome for my groups ozone test was 0 and the particulate matter 2.5 test had some dust on it. Overall, the entire class’s ozone tests were below 2 which showed that the ozone levels around our school are not so terrible that it can really harm us. For the most part, the dust that was collected in the particulate matter 2.5 test was not a lot. Only two groups collected a lot of dust. This week we also looked at how the ozone and particulate matter 2.5 affected people’s health in our community, Washington Heights and in New York City in general and we did some comparing and contrasting. For particulate matter 2.5, the age group that was mostly affected was people that were greater than 65 years old and Washington Heights had higher levels of particulate matter 2.5 than New York City as a whole. For ozone levels, Washington Heights had lower levels of ozone affecting the health of people.
This week we learned about air pollutants. One air pollutant we learned about was ozone. Ozone is colorless gas, found in smog and formed by car exhaust, industries emissions, chemical solvents and gasoline vapors. The ozone gets worst with the Sun’s rays. It’s not as strong in the early morning, late afternoon, night time but in the midafternoon around noon and 1pm when the Sun it’s at the highest. Ozone has impact on the health of individuals and the environment. Breathing ozone can affect the airway irritation, coughing, you can have pain when breathing, wheezing, inflammation, aggravation of asthma, pneumonia, bronchitis, lung damage, damage to crops and vegetation. This relates to my community because the ozone levels of health effects of premature mortality (death), hospital admissions for asthma (under 18), hospital admission for asthma (over 18) and emergency department visits for asthma (over 18) are lower than New York City average except for emergency department visits for asthma (under 18) in which Washington Heights Range was higher. Emergency department visits for asthma (under 18) ranges between 93 and 135.2 while N.Y.C. average is 91. It helped realize why my asthma may act up and that some individuals die because of this.
ReplyDeleteThis week in Environmental Science class we have switched gears completely and transferred into our second unit which is based on air. So far we have looked into things such as air quality and other significant information through the lens of reading, informative articles, and some videos. Our world has a lot to do with air as we know the basics as us humans can't live without air. But what we don't know are the specific details in our air for example how in our air pollutants have always existed. While everyone likes to blame humans something I learned already that most people may have not known is that pollutants in our air is not only caused by humans it is also brought upon by natural things such as volcanoes and other natural disasters. I've also learned how humans contribute to the pollution which is known all over but no one really knows why. It is because over the years people have developed new ways of doing things such as transporting and making goods. Coal is a major way that we pollute the air as we use gases and coal to make things like cars and machinery in factories we gradually polluted the air and affected its quality. This is a negative things for us because although yes we can make things way easier with these new innovations we are affecting the quality as we cause more and more people to be prone to asthma. Asthma is brought upon us when we affect the air quality and create smog which if inhaled can harm us in negative ways such as this. Efforts to try and improve air quality in state and local governments were attempted. In 1955 congress passed the first air pollution act. This was read in an article during class that said that the government tried to limit the emission let out by companies. A decrease in air emission was not reached though until the Clean Air Act of 1693 in which change was actually seen. After seeing the improvement government sought to amend the air situation even more with a new system or laws in 1970 I believe to see more increase and stricter standards for air quality. The pollutants are measure in six specific pollutants. These pollutants consist of carbon monoxide, particulate matter, sulfur dioxides, lead, ozone,and, nitrogen dioxide. Making the pollutants more specific it became easier to identify the problems and also to see the improvement or to see if the situation is worsening. In conclusion this week I have learned various things such as what our air is like how vital of a source it is, what it affects, how it is affected and how we identify when its polluted, with many other things. I've also learned why asthma is more common in certain places compared to others. As we get really in depth with this unit some questions I hope get answered are such as the following how can everyone individually do a part to better the air quality? What is the state with the worst air quality ? and How can government get involved to amend the current air situation in places with poverty?
ReplyDeleteAndy Alvarez
This week in Environmental Science we have been learning about air pollution. One important thing we learned about was 6 different types of pollutants. These 6 pollutants are nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, zone, particle pollution, and carbon monoxide.Nitrogen dioxide(NO2) is a gas that comes from emissions form cars, trucks, buses, power plants and off road equipment. Some health effects this pollutant has is airway inflammation, asthma problems, and respiratory diseases like bronchitis. Some environmental diseases it has is that it is part of smog, which is a layer of smoke and fog in the air. Carbon monoxide(CO) is a gas that comes from the combustion process. Some health effects carbon monoxide has is that it reduces the amount of oxygen delivered to the body's organ and very high levels of carbon monoxide can lead to death. Ozone(O3) is a gas that comes from car exhaust and industrial emissions. This pollutant can irritate human's airway and cause coughing, wheezing, inflammation and asthma. This also damages trees and other plants. Particle pollution(PM) comes from construction sites, unpaved roads, fields, and fires and also particles from power plants and industries. Some health effects is that the particles may get into our bloodstream and lungs. This could also reduce visibility and make lakes acidic in our environment. Lead is another air pollutant that comes from paint, dust and exhaust emissions. Lead can accumulate in soil and cause loss of biodiversity. The final air pollutant is sulfur dioxide which comes from oxides of sulfur, and fossil fuel combustion at power plants. This pollutant can cause breathing problems, and respiratory diseases. Some environmental effects include acidic rain which causes acidified waterways and soil.
ReplyDeleteI never knew there was so many air pollutants. Before I thought that air pollution was just smoke but now I know that there is a variety of criteria pollutants that affect our air differently. Also, it was suprising to see all the health and environmental effects air pollutants pose for our society. The only way to prevent these health and enviornmental effects caused by air pollutants is to be greener and regulate the amount of air pollutants like the clean air act attempts to do. It is also interesting to note that these air pollutants mostly affect hig poverty communities which makes sense because these communities are probably in bad conditions and their environment is probably a very low priority.
VANESSA ROSARIO
I have learned a lot so far about air, air pollution and air pollutants. We first started off by learning the characteristics of the atmosphere. The Thermosphere that is approximately 80 KM in altitude, the higher the altitude, the warmer it gets. And it is right between space. The Mesosphere, extends from 50 to 80 KM and its temperatures decline as the altitude rises. It is also cooler in the summer than in the winter. The Stratosphere where the temperature stays constant. As altitude increases the temperature decreases. It is also located in the Ozone layer. Lastly, the Troposphere that is closest to earth, is 78% nitrogen and 21 % oxygen.
ReplyDeleteWe also learned about air pollution and it causation. One was Ozone. Ozone is a pollutant and and unhealthy colorless gas called smog. Formed in high temperatures over 80 degrees. The sun is the main source to this because it acts like the sun's life. Low Ozone in the morning, high in the midday, low at night. When we breathe Ozone it can affect our health negatively. It can cause asthma, lung disease, lung damage, and inflammation.
Another pollutant was called PM known as particulate matter. They are thing floating around the air. The smaller they are the more dangerous. Particulate matter may be the air pollutant that most commonly affects peoples health. The big ones measure between 2.5 and 10 micrometers and the small ones 2.5.
This all relates to our neighborhood because this are the leading high death rates. Affecting mostly elders. We need to take action. By walking more, driving less cars and taking public transportation that are eco friendly.
How is the air we breathe effecting our health? These past few weeks we have been focus on the quality of the air, and what does it mean to have air pollution. Various areas in New York City have different levels of air pollution, most low income and poor neighborhood have the most amount of air pollution. This means that are more at risk to get sick from the contaminants in the air.
ReplyDeleteThey are many different types of pollutants in the air, they all come in various forms and impact different things in our environment. One of these pollutants is Ozone, it comes in a gas form caused but motor vehicle exhaust, gasoline vapor, industrial emissions, excessive sunlight and chemical solrents. If there is too much ozone in the air it can cause humans permanent lung damage, inflammation, aggregation of asthma and increased susceptibility. Another pollutant is particle pollution/ particulate matter, it can be in two forms a solid and a liquid this pollutant is created in construction sites, unpaired roads and smoke stacks and different chemicals. PM can cause various several health problems such as premature deaths in people with heart or lung disease, lowers lung function, aggravated asthma and irregular heart beats. Moreover another air pollutant is Carbon Monoxide this gas come in a liquid form and is created through combustion process and exhaust from cars. Carbon Monoxide reduces oxygen delivered to body’s organs, myocardial ischemica and chest pains. Nitrogen Dioxide is another gas pollutant, it is formulated through emissions from cars, trucks, buses, power plants and off road equipment. Nitrogen can cause air way inflammation, empysema and bronchitis. Sulfur Dioxide is a gas pollutant that is formed through fossil fuel combustion at power plants and by burning of high sulfur. This can cause asthma symptoms and emphysema. A final major air pollution causing pollutant is Lead, it comes in a solid caused by fuels in motor cars lead shelters, ore and paint. Lead can cause very horrid damages to the human body such as permanent effects to the nervous system and neurological effects, kidney functions cardiovascular system and the immune system.
We can not eliminate all these pollutants permanently but we can reduce them, by first being more aware of them and then by taking actions that will reduce these pollutants in the air. Maybe we can advocate for more green infrastructure in low income community in other to reduce asthma, lung and heart failure as well as other sever problems that polluted air is causing us.
This week the most important thing I learned was the Air pollution of Washington Heights and NYC. Two of the main air pollutants are ozone and particulate matter 2.5, both of these pollutants have health effects on my community which are premature mortality (death), hospital admissions for respiratory conditions, hospital admissions for cardiovascular conditions, emergency department visits for asthma (under 18) , and the emergency department visits for asthma (over 18). Something I noticed was that Washington Heights has higher levels in comparison to New York City when it comes to Particulate matter 2.5 such as; hospital admissions for respiratory conditions, hospital admissions for cardiovascular conditions and emergency department visits for asthma. On the other hand Washington Heights has lower ratings in comparison to New York City when it comes to ozone related health effects. Something that caught my attention was the fact that most of the people who were affected where of high poverty and also of ages 65 and older. This has a greater impact on me because since I spend most of my time in the community of Washing Heights and most of my friends have asthma. It makes me wonder if living in a city that’s highly populated affects my chances of being hospitalized.
ReplyDeleteWalter Suazo
In Environmental Science we have been studying the air quality. I learned that there are 6 majors pollutants for which the EPA has regulations for. These pollutants are ozone (O3), particle pollution (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and lead (Pb). All pollutants are extremely harmful to an individuals health and the well being of the environment, however I believe carbon monoxide to be the biggest threat even though it has greatly improved over time. CO is a gas that can be easily found in the ambient air and mobile sources. CO is odorless and not visible, so you can inhale it without conscious. This can lead to the deduction of oxygen delivery to the body’s organs and cause death.
ReplyDeleteWe tested for two of the pollutants, O3 and PM. Turns out that the temperature has to be in the 90‘s for maximum ozone concentration. This would be around mid-afternoon when the sun’s radiation is at its highest causing a chemical reaction with other chemicals in the air to form O3. We also found out that fine particles who are PM2.5 or smaller are very toxic compare to coarse particles who are PM10. The smaller particles are more hazardous because we can’t see them. This makes me think how bad or good NYC air quality is since it’s a city with many factories that contribute to bad air quality. Is relieving to know that there are federal approach towards having healthy, breathable air because the impacts of poor air quality can be deadly and dreadful for babies, elderlies, and future generations.
In the beginning I thought nothing of my air, the only thing I had known about air is that we needed it to breathe and without it, it would be certain death. Leaving the water unit I began this one with a sense of foreboding, the reason being was that during the water unit we had seen some stuff that had left me worrying a lot about many things. I could only have imagined what this one had in store for us. As my suspicions were later on proved right in that we first began learning about the things that were going on with the planet and then what were humans doing to the air to cause several carcinogens to account for the deaths from not being able to have good air quality.
ReplyDeleteThere are many things in the air. Ozone, it comes in a gas form caused but motor vehicle exhaust, gasoline vapor, industrial emissions, excessive sunlight and chemical solvents. If there is too much ozone in the air it can cause humans permanent lung damage, inflammation, and aggregation of asthma. Another was that because of power plants there was a lot of harmful sulfur dioxide. Sulfur Dioxide is a gas pollutant that is formed through fossil fuel combustion at power plants and by burning of high sulfur. This can cause asthma symptoms and emphysema and nitrogen dioxide. Nitrogen Dioxide is another gas pollutant; it comes through emissions from cars, trucks, buses, power plants and off road equipment. Nitrogen can cause air way inflammation, emphysema and bronchitis. Both of these things were then later contained because of Scrubbers which are these “screens” in where they wouldn’t let so much of the air escape and start destroying the air above them. Because of many complaints from the citizens living around those areas government made the power plant companies put on their scrubbers so that the air wouldn’t get infected with all these things.
We cannot get rid of power plant because they provide the thing that we need, which is energy but we can make them put a halt to this obsessive behavior of polluting everything in sight. Whether that be the air or even the water. It has so stop at some point in time before it becomes too late.
In environmental science I've learned various things so far about air. We've learned about particle pollution, the ozone layer and other pollutants which afeect the air we breath. For example: the ozone is a type of pollutant its a gas, it has improved 28%, its produced by motor vehicle exhaust, industrial emissions, gasoline etc. The ozone can impact health in various ways, it can cause wheezing, permnent lung damage, inflamation and aggravation ofasthma. Particulate matter also serves as a type of pollutant. It can be a liquid as well as solid. It has improves by 27%, it cn be produced by construction sites,unpaved roads, smoke stacks etc. Particulate pollution can affect health as well.It can cause adecrease in lung function, irregular heart beats, aggravated asthma, and premature death in people with heart or lung disease.
ReplyDeleteIn class we've also learned abouteventsthats have taken places throught time in order to better air quality. In 1300 King Edward the second statedno coal couldbe burnedin London. This was important because London was known for having terrible air quality, banning coal from being burned is a first step to helping the air quality clear up. In the 1940's manypeople migrated, meaning more jobs were created meaning more air pollution was produced. However national state made efforts to improve air aquality, eventhough they werent followed until 1955. Scince 1970 clean air acts have been introduced. The clean air act of 1970 set increasingly demanding standards. This was important because now people were getting more serious and realizing how serious having clean air was, having that said actions began to be taken in order to better tge air quality. Scince 1970 air pollutantshave decreased.
Learning what I have learned so far about air and it's quality has made me think about and wonder various things. For example, now I think about every breth I take and how they can contain trillions of PM 2.5 particles which are so small it makes them getting into the body much easier. My learnings have also made me wonder if its possible for the air quality to ever ge to be 100% clean. If so, how can we as individuals make that happen?
-Lisnanlly Guaba
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ReplyDeleteDuring this week in environmental I learned a lot about air and air pollution and how it affects our body. Humans breathe throughout the whole day. Humans pollute the air and they do realize that this is going to have a negative impact on them. There is a lot of chemicals that human takes in such chemicals from cars, factories,smoking, power plants. According to the World Health Organization about 4.6 million people die from air pollution which to me is a big amount and something needs to be done do that this number can decreased. Air pollution also harms our atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteThere 4 pats in our atmosphere. The first one is the thermosphere; which is the closes to the sun and the hottest, The second one is the mesosphere; which is the cooler than the thermosphere and when its summer the temperature tends to be cold and when its winter the temperature is very hot. The third one is stratosphere; where the ozone is located to protect humans form the sun. The last one is the troposphere which is where the humans air is and were we breath our air which is formed by 21 percent of oxygen, 78 percent nitrogen, and 80 percent of atmospheric. Air pollution harms these 4 things in a way. This is important because if there is a lot of sun then people will get sick with all types of diseases.
I found all this information that I learned important because before this week I didn't know any of these information and when I Learned these information I felt that something needed to be done so that less people will die from air pollution. People should realize the air they're breathing and they should stop doing bad things like smoking. I think life will be better if there's less air pollution.
This week we have learned many things about air, but what we have mainly been focusing on and has caught my interest would be our air quality. Who knew that there could be so many factors that contribute to our air quality? That’s something in which I have found quite interesting 6 pollutants contribute to air pollution. I learned how bad conditions were before, and `air pollution that itself is not harmful but; we as humans are making it hard for mother nature to keep up with all the pollution we are contributing to the atmosphere. By the late 1940s Americans started moving into these large cities, and as a result air quality was worsening, but hey, no wonder air quality was in such horrid conditions, because automobiles were almost becoming necessary during these times in cities like Donora, Pennsylvania, London, and England. It took deaths in order to do something about air pollution! These deaths resulted in the extremely necessary resolution Clean Air act of 1970. But what factors make pollution you may ask?
ReplyDeleteSome pollutants are Nitrogen Dioxide, Sulfur dioxide, Carbon monoxide, Ozone, Particle pollution, and Carbon monoxide. Before class I didn't really think that these pollutants were such a big deal until I found out some of the health impacts it actually causes. Ozone, for example is a gas that comes from car exhaust, industrial emissions, Gasoline vapors, and chemical solvents. How does that impact us? I asked myself. I was shocked to see that this pollutant can actually cause permanent lung damage. The pollutant that I was most concerned about and is the most harmful in my opinion was particle pollution. Particle pollution can ultimately cause decreased lung function, aggravated asthma, irregular heart beat, non fatal heart attacks, and premature deaths!
Yes it is true that some pollutants have improved such as lead by a percentage of 89 percent!, mainly because our cars do not use lead anymore; but I believe that we should work harder for those pollutants that have improved with such low numbers such as Ozone, that has only improved by 28% and particle pollution, that has only improved with 27%. I think this is a very important matter because so many people are dying of air pollution, and air is something that we so desperately need such as water and food, so why are we not protecting it?
DELORYN QUEZADA
Throughout this week in class i have learned a lot about air pollutions and its effects on the environment and people. I along with my classmates have watched videos, read articles, and have also conducted a experiment. i also learned about whats called ozone,Ozone is colorless gas, found in smog and formed by car exhaust, industries emissions, chemical solvents and gasoline vapors. this is extremely hazard to the air we breath and can cause serious health problems such as struggling to breathe. sun rays throughout the day makes the ozone more harmful to the environment. This harmful thing can also cause lung disease and heart problems for a indiviual. i have also learned about the changes in which power planst have had to make to change the way in which they burn coal because those harmful chemicals flow through the air. The clean air act has also been made stricter as time goes by due to this harm being caused to our air. I feel that the clean air act is a great act because its reducing the harm being done to the environment.
ReplyDeleteWhat i have learned about Air Pollution is that its all around us, even if we aren't aware of it, it is affecting us as i type. Air pollution comes from many different sources of pollution, the coal we burn in the furnace to heat our homes, the cars we drive,even the public transportation we use. Air pollution mostly consists of sulfur and Carbon Dioxide (CO) which is highly toxic if in large concentrated groups. We all have this thing that pollutes the air called Smog, Smog is a mixture of Ozone and Fog, when smog is in the air, we are not aware of it but its there, smog can create acidic rain that lowers the PH levels of the ponds and the lake which can kill the fishes and creatures around it. Ozone has 3 oxygen atoms unlike the air we breath.
ReplyDeleteAir is a necessity for us a human beings we need oxygen we need water. But what can you live with out? We asked are selfs that question today in class. The EPA is in charge of creating rules and regulations to keep the environment clean. But they are facing a very big problem. I realized that they are in charge of creating rules but they also have to agree with people demand. In this process they create laws that have certain lop holes and don’t really work. And example to this would be the Clean Water Act.
ReplyDeletePollution really affects are living conditions but have really improved.
In Environmental Science this week we learned about air pollutants. The way it is polluted and the ways to try to improve of air quality.
ReplyDeleteThe air has been polluted since humans were on this earth. It is said that since cave-dwellers learned to harness fire air pollution has been occurring. Of course at that time they didn't know that these pollutants would have a great impact on the earth and their bodies.
Two pollutants we talked about the most this week were Ozone and particulate matter. Ozone is formed in the air itself high temperatures such as 80 degrees and sunlight set of chemical reactions called ozone precursors. You might have heard of Ozone by the barrier that protects us from sun rays but that ozone is made of 2 O's (O2) but the pollutant ozone is made of three O's (O3). Ozone patterns throughout the day changes, there are higher levels of ozone on different times of the day. Early in the morning is when ozone (O3) gets started when we do everday activities such as plugging in the toaster and driving your car. In the late morning after the commute has gone down the emmisions that were added into the pollution begins to form into ozone, at this time the sun is out so itheating up the emission to convert it into ozone. At mid-afternoon the sun hits it peak and the temperature is high, the sun radiation will cause a chemical reaction to form ozone. In late-afternoon the sunlight decreases and so do the ozone levels, by early evening the ground level ozone is destroyed.
Another pollutant is Particulate matter these are the things that float in the air (You can see some of them when the sun is out it looks like dust). Particulate matter is is the pollutant that affect peoples health. Particles can come in many different shapes and sizes and can be either solid or liquid. Particles are differentiated into two groups such as PM10 and PM2.5. PM10 are the bigger particles and they are less harmful to peoples health. PM2.5 is harmfull because they are small and can get into respiratory system and even your blood stream. Some examples of PM2.5 are toxic compounds and heavy metals they are made by driving cars, burning plants and smelting or processing metal. Some examples of PM10 are smoke,dirt, dust, mold,spores and pollen and they are made by crushing and grinding rocks and soil.
In class we looked at an article and then filled out a graphic organizer on pollutants. We learned that there are many pollutants and that each either have the same or different affect on a persons body some effects are asthma, affect on nervous system, kidney function and reproductive and development system. Fortunately, air conditions have improved, Carbon Monoxide has improved by 82% and Lead by 89%. So even though we have cleaned our air entirely little by little we are being successful.
The past Week in class, we been learning about Air, How is it good and bad in our everyday life, During class we been learning about the ability of how air is a good source in our life, Air pollution is one major reason we should be concerned about because it causes our health to be weak and even causes death, for example, in a article i read, it says that air pollution could be caused by the products that are being use like chemicals, each chemical that we breath it kills us slowly. Another reading i did was in today lesson in which it was about Cleaning the Air at the Expense of waterways, in which Mason Town, PA, which people were complaining about the yellow smoke that was pouring from the tall chimneys & how this was causing respiratory diseases and acid rain, this show how that people our society should follow the new law, Clean Water Act, so our air could be more cleaner and less affected health.
ReplyDeleteThis week in environment science we learn about pollutants. Every human in this world contribute to air pollution in many ways. One way human contribute to air pollution is by breathing since what they are throwing in out is waste and carbon dioxide. Also power plants,burning of coals,smoke from factories and the burn of gasoline when cars are running. This shows that human should start doing different things to make air quality better and government should make more regulation to stop this problems.
ReplyDeleteThis week in class we learn about a pollutant called Ozone that is a pollutant found during the unpleasant and unhealthy air condition called smog. Ozone it caused by itself during high temperatures over (80F). Ozone in the morning is high a lot of activities is been made since people are going to their jobs and traffic is causing to be at it highest because a lot of cars are burning gas and all the bad smoke is going to the layer that would caused acid rain. Ozone is at it lowest in the night because their is no sunlight and the temperature is not high and less activities are happening because people are out of their jobs.
there are four parts in our atmosphere. The first part is the thermosphere that is the most distant from earth and is very hot. The second layer is the Mesophere that is very cold and temperature decline within the mesophere attitude raises. The third layer is the stratosphere that contains nearly 90 percent of the atmosphere ozone and forming kinetic energy. The four layer is the troposphere that is the closest layer to us and where most weather occur.
Natural disasters have always been a factor that impacted our air quality. During the industrial era, our air quality worsened due to industrial businesses and automobile fuel. As the years passed our air quality has improve due to stricter regulations and efforts by the local government. The clean Air act set increasingly demanding standards to improve our air quality. EPA also set standards for the six air pollutions: carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur dioxides, ozone, particulate matter, and nitrogen dioxides. Carbon monoxide is a colorless gas that’s mainly from emission; it is harmful to our health and can lead to death. Lead is a solid that is from transportation fuel and damage the kidney and weakens the body. Sulfur dioxide is a gas created from the burning of fuel and can affect breathing leading to asthma. Ozone and nitrogen dioxide are also gases that are caused by emission from cars, industries and gasoline vapors. Like sulfur it impacts a person breathing and can cause damages to the lungs. Particle pollution is a mixture of solid and liquids; it also affects the lungs and heart and can cause premature death.
ReplyDeleteLearning about these pollutions was very interesting because I saw how most of sources for these pollutions are fuels and emission which are higher in urban areas. I realized that although we have higher standards to improve our air since the 1940s, we can still improve our air quality by being more eco friendly and using hybrid cars since most of the pollutions are from cars. Learning that many of these pollutions affects people older than 65, who live in low income areas also helped me realized those areas are generally more polluted because there is not enough environmental friendly sources in those neighborhoods. Pollutions such as ozone and particulate matter cause more affect to a person breathing and are more likely to cause asthma. With this, we need to take action and create an eco friendly environment by using more green sources and less auto transportation.
Amrika Sieunarine
Throughout this week in Environmental class we've been starting with our new subject which is "air." However, we've been focusing on learning about 6 major pollutants, and Air pollution.
ReplyDeleteThe 6 major pollutants that we learned about were Ozone(O3), Particle pollution(PM), Carbon Monoxide(CO), Nitrogen Dioxide(NO2), Sulfur Dioxide(SO2), and Lead(Pb). Ozone(O3) was the one pollutant we learned about more. Ozone(O3) is a gas occurring pollutant which is caused by industrial facilities, motor vehicle exhaust, and gasoline vapors. It can cause conflicts like lung disease, breathing pains and many more environmental affects around the society being affected. It is most common to find Ozone throughout populated cities that have unhealthy air conditions called smog. This pollutant is formed in the air itself and the sunlight set off chemical reactions when it gets up to (80 degrees Fahrenheit).
As a class we started to look into the Air pollution throughout Washington Heights to see how healthy our air conditions were. We learned that there has been plenty of Clean air regulations that have improved the air quality in NYC. Two major pollutants affecting NYC are Ozone(O3) and Particulate matter(PM 2.5). Emissions from fuel combustion have caused the concentration of these pollutants to increase. This concerns me because knowing that I'm from NYC I want to make sure that this problem could be fixed before the air qualities drastically worsen. This could effect a lot of people with lung and heart diseases if it gets any worst and knowing that it's my city that is being affected it concerns me a lot. Particulate matter is differentiated into two groups known as Coarse particles (PM 10) and Fine particles (PM 2.5). Coarse particle (PM 10) is much bigger than Fine Particles and it's basically smoke, dirt and dust occurred by crushing and grinding of rocks and soil. Coarse particle (PM 10) occurs more natural than Fine particles (PM 2.5) and tend to be less harmful to health conditions. Fine particle (PM 2.5) is basically toxic organic compounds and heavy metals which are made by driving vehicles, burning plants and purifying metals.
Learning about air pollution and all these pollutants that have been occurring throughout cities have really made me think of regulations that the EPA can make for power plants who dump their wastes to the air and to rivers polluting the air and the water. This matter could only get worst and we need to act upon it as fast as we can for the future of our society.
This week in our enviromental class we learned about air and air polltuion. We learned about the air that we breath which is made of nitrogen and oxygen. Biotic factors and Animals need air ass well , thats why people cannot be littering ,burning coal, and mistreating water and cutting down trees because trees provides us the air that we breath. There's alot of pollutants and chemicals that coauses air polltion . They are very risky and dangerous because it affects our health in many ways . For exmaple Ozone and Partical matter . Particle matter are particles that come in diffents shape and sizes, and the smallest one are the most dangerous one the 2.5 ones . It could couse asthma and get into your lungs and couse lungs diseases. Ozone produces smog which could couse inflamation and couse problems to your respitatory system . Some other pollutants are couse by factories,vehicles ,autombiles and much more.
ReplyDeleteAfter I learned this it made me think that people do not really care about our nature and themselves. They dont realize that our harmful activities are affecting us and nature. Air quality and water quality should really improve by the help of us . For example not littering, or using so much chemicals because those chemiclas goes to the air and couses air polltuion and affects our health. We need to set our mind to action and begin to stop doing harmful activities and protect our nature; Without nature we would not be living normally. .
This week in Environmental Science we learned about air pollutants. What most people don’t know is that pollutants in our air are not only caused by humans, but nature as well. Volcanoes, tornadoes, earthquakes and other natural disasters play a huge role in the quality of our air. Air pollution occurs when the air contains gases, dust, fumes or odor in harmful amounts. Some health effects of air pollutant consist of airway inflammation, asthma problems, and respiratory diseases like bronchitis.
ReplyDeleteOzone is an example of a toxic air pollutant that is a concern for people's health when outdoor temperatures are high. Ozone is the principal component of the mixture of air pollutants known as "smog" that is produced from the action of sunlight on air contaminants from automobile exhausts and other sources. Smog is intensified by smoke or other atmospheric pollutants. Ozone levels are most likely to be elevated after noon through early evening on hot, sunny days.
Particle pollution is another example of air pollution in our environment. Particle pollution refers to a mix of very tiny solid and liquid particles that are in the air we breathe. Particles between 2.5 microns and 10 microns in diameter and are called PM10 through PM2.5. Because of their size, you can’t see the individual particles. You can only see the haze that forms when millions of particles blur the spread of sunlight. You may not be able to tell when you’re breathing particle pollution, yet it is so dangerous it can shorten your life.
Pollution also needs to be considered inside our homes, offices, and schools. I was shocked to find out that we aren’t entirely safe from harmful pollutants even inside our homes. Some of these pollutants can be created by indoor activities such as smoking and cooking. In the United States, we spend about 80-90% of our time inside buildings, and so our exposure to harmful indoor pollutants can be serious. It is therefore important to consider both indoor and outdoor air pollution. Air pollution should be taken seriously and steps should be taken to prevent any outbreaks of anymore harmful effects on the living creatures who live off of air.
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ReplyDeleteIn Environmental Science this week we learned about air. We learned about particle pollution as well as the ozone and how it affects our breathing. The ozone is a specific type of pollutant that is of gas, the ozone has improved for about 28%. Ozone is made by vehicle exhaustions and gasoline. Ozone impacts our health because it can cause lung damage, asthma and inflammation. Something else we learned about is particulate matter which is another pollutant. This matter can be either solid or liquid and is made mainly on construction sites and roads; it has improved though by 27%. Like ozone particulate matter can also affect health. Some health risks are irregular heart beasts and asthma as well.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, in Environmental science class we also learned about events in history that have helped the air quality. The mission of improving air quality started in 1300 with King Edward II. King Edward II made a law that made it illegal to burn coal in London. This new law that King Edward created was important because the city of London was known to have air that was not of good quality. This was a step into the right direction. Then the migration of people began in 1940 which created vast amount of job opportunities but with that came more air pollution to the city of London. Knowing about the continuum pattern of pollution an effort was taken to create more laws although they began to really be enforced and followed after in 1955. It wasn’t until 1970 where people started taking air pollution serious because that is when air pollution began decreasing.
Before this week’s class I didn’t really think much about the air we breathe and need to survive. But now it has really got me thinking that it is important and something should be done about it. It was shocking to find out that there is a lot of particulate matter in Washington Heights. It makes you think about every breath you take and if there really is truly any such thing as air that is not polluted at all? Makes me think if there’s more we can do to try and improve air pollution even more? We can possibly endorse more green infrastructure to improve air overall.
During this week in Environmental Science we have been learning about air pollutants. The major air pollutant we have been learning about the most is Ozone which is caused by industrial facilities like motor vehicle exhaust and gasoline vapors. These air pollutants can cause major problems to the public health such as lung diasease and breathing problems. One article that we read in class and I thought was really interesting was "Cleansing the Air at the Expense of Waterways". This article is basically about how Alleghemy Energy decided to install scrubbers to clean the plant's air emissions. The only problem with this is that now tens of thousands of gallons of waste water containing chemicals from to scrubbing process into the Monongahela River in Pitsburgh, Pennsylvania, which provides drinking water to 350,000 people. I found this really interesting because what the EPA thought would help out air pollution is now contaminating our drinking water. "Now instead of breathing pollution, we are drinking it".
ReplyDeleteThis week in Environmental Science air unit we have been talking about air pollution. There are 6 majors air pollutants. These pollutants are ozone, particle pollution, carbon monoxide, Nitrogen Dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and lead. A dangerous air pollutant is ozone. This is because it is formed in the air itself, when the tempertures is high over 80 Fahrenheit and the sunlight sets off chemical reactions involving (gasoline vapor, and nitrogen dioxide) a highly reactive chemical oxygen, which we all need to survive. This happens by mid-afternoon. Ozone is a colorless gas. It is typically found in car exhaust, gasoline vapors, chemical solvents, and industrial emissions. Some impacts ozone has on the environment and on the health of people is it irritates airways, it make it difficult to exercise, causes lung damage (breathing), damages crops and vegetation...etc.
ReplyDeleteIn conclusion this effects my neighborhood because I live in a big city where there are a lot of people living in the same area. I live in an area where the government helps a lot of the people financially. This is important because typically its poor people who suffer air pollution the most. I live around many factories, railroads, and construction. This makes poor people die prematuraly. Also ozone makes people under and over 18 have to go to the hospital because of asthma problems. People can die, because of asthma problems. This is why I think it's a good idea that the EPA orders power plants to clean-up the interstate emissions. The cross-state air pollution protects people public health. This is especially, important to my neighborhood washington heights, in NY. This act sets law of amount of air pollution a state could let out into the air going of to the sky/another state.
This week we have been discussing the importance of air quality. The reality of how pollution in the air is slowly affecting humanity through the cause of premature deaths or life long damages to vital organs. One way that the air is polluted is through the release of gas from power plants the emission carries all these toxins and the only way that they have figured to solve this is through building scrubbers that clean the gas before is released out. The only problem then is all the toxins that are left are disposed in bodies of waters we use which can increase the risk of contamination . There should clearly be laws more stricter and fines higher to prevent future problems since we are currently facing global warming. Thats enough in my opinion or else what's next?
ReplyDeleteThis week, we have been learning about air pollution. We have been focusing specifically on ozone and particulate matter. In fact, we tested for ozone pollutants in our neighborhood. We had ozone testing strips and were told to put it around our school where it can easily get air for a few hours and then we would later come back and if there was a color change in the strip, depending on the color, there was ozone. For the majority of us, the ozone level was 1, which means there wasn't ozone in the air. On the other hand, this wasn't the case when we read about air pollution in Washington Heights and New York City. We actually found out that when it comes to ozone, Washington Heights' ranges are lower than New York City's range when it came to premature death, hospital admissions for asthma (under and over 18), and emergency department visits for asthma (over 18). On the other hand, when it came to emergency department for asthma (under 18) our range was a lot higher. From statistics, we also saw that the people who were affected the most were people who were 65 and older, or people in high poverty levels.
ReplyDelete-Danya Gutierrez
This week in science we are learning about air pollution. We have focused more on particulate matter and ozone, and how these pollutants is affecting us. We have read several readings that relate to this topic, and we have also looked at statistics that tell us the number of people hospitalized because of this issue. The classes tested this out by placing a strip outside of school. Depending on the color of the strip they would determine weather or not there was ozone in the air. Looking at the statistics we saw that high poverty places were the ones to suffer the most because of ozone and particulate matter. There is an organization named the EPA which is trying to help this situation. They are making new rules which is to reduce the amount of soot and smog air. In order for this to happen they have few requirements. There are of course some people that go against it but then there are others we are noticing that this is now becoming a problem and we need to get this fixed. I believe that the EPA should work hard to make this new rule happen because there are many people out there who suffer from asthma and many other things, and this smoke in the air isnt making it any better for them.
ReplyDeleteJASMINE GERMOSEN
This week in Environmental Science we learned about the air we breathe. Due to all the new things I learned I must say I am now more interested in air. Before I did not really think about it, but now its very important to me. The air all humans breathe is made out of nitrogen. We also focused on ozone and how ozone is very effective on a humans body and how dangerous it is. Breathing clean fresh air is safe. Ozone can be related to hydrofracking because hydrofracking has to do with gas that causes cancer and it runs through water, that we might shower with or we might drink at a daily basis. While ozone can also have hazardous chemicals like carcinogen. This shows that people should be more aware of what they drink, and going green and allowing yourself to have a plant near you might be the best solution. From my perspective I believe that if more plants are around, the air might be more refreshing to breathe. The scariest part of it all might be that one day our air might be so polluted that we wont even notice and everyone would be diagnosed with some sort of disease.
ReplyDeleteAir is in the entire world many of us don’t pay much mind to it because its automatic to use it every day and every moment. The fact is that the thing we use the most and probably the thing we need the most we are polluting it and have been for a long time.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that pollutes our air is ozone and the problem with ozone is that it can cause many health problems. Some of those problems are inflammation of the repertory system, damage to lung tissue. The people who are affected the most by ozone are children, elderly and anybody with asthma and any respiratory diseases. This was one of the main contributors to why many people died in the past due to poor air quality and is also one of the reasons why laws were put to regulate air quality. Ozone is the main component in smog which is made up of smoke and fog the dangers about that is that many people can die from ingesting the smog. The way that ozone composes itself is by the amount of sunlight and any vapors that are emitted from cars such as gasoline and nitrogen oxide. Ozone reaches its highest during the morning and sometimes after when the sun reaches its apex since that when there’s the most activity going on. Most of the people are moving in cars as well as the sun is shining the most creating high levels of ozone. One advantage that we have is that ozone can’t be created during the night because it requires the sun.
Particulate matter are particles that float in the air some are harmful and some are just there some are visible and some aren’t. Particulate matter falls in to two categories particulate matter 10 which are the bigger particles and particulate matter 2.5 which are the smaller ones. Besides there size differences there are others such as the way there created and how much they can harm the human body. Particulate matter 2.5 is created by the amount of pollution that is created by the waste of cars and burning organic matter. Particulate matter 10 is created by smoke, dirt and dust from factories, farms or roads. These are less harmful than the smaller ones because they can be stopped by our bodies because there are larger. Particulate matter 2.5 is more harmful because they can go deeper into your body because of their size. The fact is that they both can really affect your health in a bad way. The main thing that particulate matter effects is your respiratory system mainly your lungs.
In conclusion this week we learned a lot about our air quality and the two main contributing factors to it pollution which are ozone and particulate matter. They can in danger our health and as we have seen in the past it has lead to a lot of people dying and causing lots of medical problem for some people. I also learned that there is a lot being done to reduce these factors of air pollutants and I hope it continues because this will affect all of us no one can’t be excluded from being affected because we all breath.
For some people they take air for granted and don't notice how much it means to us, but it is very important to know the kind of air you breathing in. In the last few weeks we've been learning about how the quality of air and air pollutants affects people's health. By the late 1940s, many Americans began migrating to large cities because the post war era created jobs in manufacturing and made automobile ownership a reality for average families. However, these factors led to many areas experiencing a concentration of atmospheric smoke that causes health problems. This problem did not draw international attention until 1948-1952 when 4000 people died. With air pollutants, Ozone has a major impact on the health of individuals and the community. Ozone is colorless gas, found in smog and formed by car exhaust which causes irritation, coughing and pain breathing.
ReplyDeleteI learned that since 1970, air quality has change over time because the air is much cleaner than it was before. It decreases by 49 percent. However, there were always air pollution until more people started to move into the cities which worsened the quality of the air. There are six main types of air pollutants that can affect the health of the people and problem to the environment, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, Ozone, particle pollution and carbon monoxide. Some believe that lead is the most dangerous because it is a type of solid that is formed by motovehicle cars and trucks, which affects the nervous system, nervous system, and immune system in the human body.
This is related to me and my family because before I only knew that air pollution causes global warming, but there are a lot of problems that air pollution can led to, so we need to be aware about where we living and how it can affect our health.
This week we learned about air pollutants and their part in air pollution. Air pollutants are what cause damage to the air quality. It can lead to many health issues such as heart disease.
ReplyDeleteWe learned that the six air pollutants that mostly cause air pollution are nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, carbon monoxide, particle pollution and ozone. These six factors are key components to air pollution. In class we looked over ozone and particulate matter. We gathered information between New York City's average of the two pollutants and compared it to the neighborhood of Washington Heights. We found out that Washington Heights ozone levels overall are lower than New York City, while for particular matter it showed that New York City mostly overall had lower levels than Washington Heights.
This makes me wonder how New York City would stand in comparison between major cities across the country. It also makes wonder how does our city compare to other foreign countries around the world. I would like to know the methods other locations use to lower their levels of air pollution.
This week on environmental science, we focused on air and air pollution. First we talked about the composition of earth’s atmosphere. Thermosphere is the most furthest and highest from Earth’s surface. The thermosphere also has the warmest temperature. There is not too much oxygen in the thermosphere. The mesosphere is the next furthest from Earth’s surface. It is much colder, in the summer the temperature gets colder. The stratosphere is next; this atmosphere contains nearly 90 percent. Ozone creates more at its warmest time in the day. Also ozone creates when most people are outdoors. Human’s actions causes for ozone to create more. The troposphere is the layer closest to Earth’s surface. This is the layer where most weather occurs. Temperature and water vapor content decrease rapidly as altitude increases within the troposphere. In this layer there is 78% of nitrogen, 21 % of oxygen and 1% of other. Air pollution has been a problem in the world for a while. In 1300, this was the first act of formal regulation on air that King Edward II created. The regulation was to ban burning coal. This was a first step on making our air quality better.
ReplyDeleteParticulate Matter (PM) is common in NYC. Sometimes it can be harmful and sometimes it may not be harmful. There are two categories in PM, particulate matter 2.5 which is the smallest and most harmful because it’s easier to get in deep into your lung and particulate matter 10 is created by actions like smoking. Particular Matter can be improved though.
- Genesis Colon
During the past week I have learned a lot about air pollution. Air pollution is caused by chemicals released into the air. Gases are released into the air from sources such as factories, chimneys and vehicles. Some chemicals in the air that can affect a person is ozone and carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide if breathed in displaces oxygen in the blood, which results in the death of cells and damage to major organs. One effect ozone has on a human is that it can effect cells and cause tumors in people. The EPA which is an organization that is against factories releasing gases into the air, due to the effects it can have on people and the enviroment. One proposed law from the EPA was the Clean Air Transport Rule , which was basically taking steps to make sure that the gases release by factories was cleaned before released.
ReplyDeleteThis week in Environmental Science we focused on air pollution. We learned about the 6 pollutants that contribute to air pollution. The 6 pollutants are sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide,lead, particle pollution and ozone. We looked for the basics of all 6 pollutants but looked futher in to partrticulate matter and ozone. Paticulate matter is differentiated into 2 categories. We have particulate matter 10 and particulate matter 2.5. Particulate matter 10 is harmful but not as harmful as particulate matter 2.5. Particulate matter 2.5 is the smaller version of 10 and is more harmful because since it is smaller it can travel into your airways and possible end up in your lungs cause damage because it can get into the smaller places in your organs. We also focused on ozone. Ozone is a colorless gas that is usally found in car exhaust and other similar emissions. This is dangerous because it made up of the air we breathe. This can cause huge health risks because our blood cells are more attracted to the ozone and can instead of carry oxygen all over our body, carry the ozone which will lead to serious health conditons.
ReplyDeleteThe air pollution should be improved to prevent thousands of deaths that happen because of air pollution. Also, if the air pollution is improved then sluggers would not be needed in factories. This is important because when sluggers are used to take out pollutants from the smoke released in chimmneys, water is used which is then released into our waterways even though it is still waste water. Efforts are being taken inorder to prevent this from happening and i believe we should take part in it.
This week we have been leaving about air pollution. We learned that air pollution has always existed from natural causes such as volcanoes and forest fires but after humans developed the skills to make fire air pollution has increased. Humans first started to realize that air pollution was becoming a major problem in incidents of health problem, in cities like Donora, Pennsylvania in 1948, and London, England in 1952 where 4,000 people died in 4 days from weather related smog. After realizing the affects of air pollutions governments have made laws like the clean Air Act of 1990 to try to improve the air quality.
ReplyDeleteAir pollution has been a threat to the health of urban populations overall and specifically New York City residents. The EPA uses 6 major air pollutants Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Sulfur Dioxide (SO2), Lead (Pb), Ozone (O3), Particle Matter (pm), and Carbon Monoxide (CO) to determine the air quality. In our class we have learned that the levels of these pollutants have been decreasing such as sulfur dioxide which is cased by fossil fuel combustion has improved by 83% and Ozone has improved by 28%.This pollutants have many harmful effects including premature death, decreased lung function, and respiratory diseases.
Learning about this has made me think about the value of air and how we should work on improving it to prevent people from dying and getting sick. I think we should use more bikes in our city to reduce the number of cars to reduce the emissions they give off. Learning about the incidents of people dying from air pollution has made me wonder what would happen to New York City if air quality gets bad again having millions of people and air pollution can cause thousands of deaths and sick people.
Throughout this week, we have read numerous articles on the concept of air. In most these articles, we studied how the quality of air has changed and what caused our air to be in its current state. In order to understand the concept of air, we also studied the different layers of the Earth’s atmosphere. After, we ourselves tested the air quality in our neighborhood using strips that measured ozone levels and collected dust in order to measure the amount of particulate matter. Particulate matter is the particles found in the air such as dust and other solids. It is important to be aware of the amount of particulate matter in our air due to the fact that particulate matter causes diseases such as heart attacks and respiratory damage. We also specifically looked at statistics concerning Washington Heights and the amount of particulate matter that affects different areas and age groups of our community.
ReplyDeleteDuring this week I learned that power plants are the main sources that contribute to air pollution. In an attempt to reduce the amount of harmful toxins being released into the air, power plants created a machine that sprays water onto the smoke that is released from wastes in order to trap the pollutants before it is released into the air. When I read about this, I figured that it was a good way to keep our air clean and contribute to a greener environment, however, keeping our air clean came with the price of water pollution. The water that was used to capture the emissions was contaminated with toxins and some of it would leak out into our water. This made me realize that even though we find a solution to fix one issue, another issue may arise to counter our success.
It is very important that we as a community take into consideration the risks of air pollution. Because of air pollution, at least 13,000 to 34,000 people die from respiratory diseases annually. We must think of a new way to address the concern of toxic emissions being released into the air, without risking the quality of another one of our important resources such as water.
This week in environmental science I learned that air pollution takes a huge toll on our health. Also, air pollution levels are different in regions of New York. For instance, the air pollution in Washington Heights is different than the air pollution in Mid-town Manhattan. The reason for this is because activity in Mid-town Manhattan is higher; there are more cars in the streets than it is uptown. In addition to this, cars give off emission containing nitrogen oxide and sulfur, the emission from the cars mixed with sunlight creates ozone, acid rain and smog.
ReplyDeleteThe people most affected by air pollution are those diagnosed with asthma, the elderly, and those going through high poverty. In the household of these people the air is filled air pollutants like particulate matter. Particulate matter is the particles that are visible in the air that can be easily inhaled therefore being embedded in your lungs and the smaller the particle the deeper it gets.
This week in Environmental Science we mainly focused on air pollution. We learned about pollutants that contribute to air pollution. Pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, Sulfur dioxide, lead, particle pollution and Ozone have great impact on air pollution. We also looked into particulate matter and learned that a particulate matter at 10 is much more harmful than a particulate matter that is in 2.5. 10 being the smallest it’s more dangerous than 2.5 because the smaller the particulate matter are the easier for it for it to manage its way into smaller organisms such as Lung tissue. That is why there are people with lung cancer, disease, and lung problems because that person has breathed in particles that are at a 10 particulate matter and damage smaller tissue since it’s so easy for the matter to get his way around smaller organism. Particulate matter at 10 can cause harmful things to the human body because people actually don’t know when they are breathing in matter at 10 because we are not able to determine whether were breathing it or not. So it makes us “vulnerable” because we have no notice what so ever and when we do notice it’s too late with widespread disease. Since I am from the Bronx I am more likely to endure lung dis functioning’s because The Bronx is the most polluted borough. Hunts Point is located in the Bronx and 12,000 trucks go in and out the Bronx daily which contaminates the air much more because of fuel exhaust.
ReplyDeleteThis week during Environmental Science we focused on air and air pollution, Air is a renewable source it never runs out and it is something humans take for granted During the Industrialization time especially during the 1940s, more factories were being built, people migrated to cities, more urban areas creating more pollution. Many places like Donora, Pennsylvania and London England were being affected and four thousand people died within four days. The society realized that it was time to take action. There is a Clean Air act that sets air quality standards for six pollutants such as Carbon Monoxide, Lead, Sulfur Dioxide, Ozone, Particulate Matter, and Nitrogen Dioxide this benefited our environment because the Act made the pollutants decrease over time, the act also became more stricter. Soot particles and smog create health problems, lung dieases and asthma which can primarily affect younger kids and the elderly, the Soot particles caused high rates of asthma symptoms, the asthma syptoms (wheezing) are found in areas such as the South Bronx because of high traffic, according to "Asthma Linked to Soot From Diesel Trucks in Bronx". Some of the pollutants cause bronchitis, affects the nervous system, the kidney function etc. We read articles that involve Ozone and Particulate Matter. Ozone is a pollutant that is formed in the air and created when smog is present. Ozone reaches its highest during the morning because that is when the human activities occur the most, when drive to work, take the bus, which causes to pollute the air. However by the later afternoon we know that the Ozone decreases because there is barely any sunlight. Another pollutant we read about was the particulate matter, which is another pollutant that can't be seen. and is the most harmful because particles come in different shapes an sizes. PM 2.5 includeds the smaller particles and PM 10 is when the bigger particles appear. PM 10 are less severe, the reason why the bigger particles are called PM 10 is because the particles are sized up to 10 micrometers, it comes from factories, roads, smoke, and dirt and it when it is being blown by the wind. Smaller particles are called PM 2.5 because it is thinner than human hair and the particles size up to 2.5, they are found in heavy metals and toxic compounds when we are driving automobiles. In conclusion I realized that Air pollution has affected thousands of people, and many of them don't realize how important out Air quality is and I believe there should be more things being done to places such as the bronx, since many kids are being affected and there is an increase of health problems.
ReplyDelete- Alissette A.
A week in Environmental Science we focused in learning about air pollutants. The one major air pollutant we set a goal to learning about the most is Ozone which is caused by industrial facilities such as motor vehicle exhaust and gasoline vapors. Air pollutants can cause lethal problems to the public health such as lung diseases and breathing problems. An article that was read out loud in class that was really interesting was "Cleansing the Air at the Expense of Waterways". This article is basically about how Allegheny Energy decided to install scrubbers to clean the plant's air emissions. The only problem with this is that now tens of thousands of gallons of waste water containing chemicals from to scrubbing process into the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which provides drinking water to 350,000 people. I found this really interesting because what the EPA thought would help out air pollution is now contaminating our drinking water. "Now instead of breathing pollution, we are drinking it". This lesson in air pollution helped me care for my air quality because I before didn’t realize that the air wasn’t healthy and the solving to that soulution will solve a list of things that also damaged enviorments.
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