Pollution in the air surrounds everyone, no matter how far and wide you may be. One of the main causes of air pollution is road traffic and the burning of fossil fuels, releasing gases like nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide. These are extremely harmful gases linking to the likes of asthma and heart disease, with some cases even being the cause of premature deaths. It’s an issue that shouldn’t be overlooked, with humans being one of the main causes of air pollution. We aim to look into detail about how exactly air pollution affects our bodies and health so we can be more informed about the issue, and how to make changes that will help the environment and how industrial ventilation systems can change dangerous pollution.
Effects of Air Pollution
When driving cars or burning fossil fuels, we release several chemicals in the air which are breathed in constantly on a daily basis. In doing so, it’s constantly affecting our health in several ways. Here we outline exactly what the effects of air pollution are:
- The chemicals being breathed in can cause many respiratory diseases
- The function of our lungs can decrease when exposed to chemically affected air for a long period of time
- There’s a high risk of adopting cancer if individuals are exposed to polluted areas. The reason for this is because of the substance called “carcinogen”, which is found in air pollutants
- As air pollution affects the respiratory system in the body, this can cause individuals to commonly gasp and cough repetitively, especially for those who live in the city.
- Global Warming is one of the major effects of air pollution. It’s slowly making the earth’s surface become warmer because of gases like carbon dioxide. This is causing a rise in natural disasters like rising sea levels from melting ice caps, increase in wildfires, storms and hurricanes, and others. These natural disasters are dangerous for our lives and not just our health.
- There’s also a link between polluted air being one of the main causes of heart disease.
- The natural food chain is becoming increasingly vulnerable to contaminated air. The chemicals that consist in air pollution are able to settle on plants. These are sources of water and food for animals and animals are then a source of food for us, so the diseases can travel easily through the food chain.
We’re constantly taking advantage of the resources around us without thinking of the effects of each one of our actions. Over time these actions have caused damage to the natural environment we live in, and it’s affecting us on a daily basis. We can help to improve it though. Anything from riding a bike to work rather than travelling by car, or implementing a ventilation system at your workplace are all little steps going a long way to building better conditions for our future.