London, at present, which not only has an alarming level of nitrogen dioxide (NOx) in its air, but has also successfully breached the legal limits of NOx, just a month after the Mayor of London introduced an Emissions Surcharge in an attempt to combat the worsening situation of air pollution (Talk London, 2018). In fact, in 2012, the United Nations produced a report stating that nearly 7 million people suffered as casualties simply due to air pollution (WHO, 2018). According to Maria Neira, the World Health Organisation's public and environmental health chief, both indoor and outdoor air pollution are affecting developing and developed nations and is currently the largest environmental health issue (WHO, 2018). Air pollution can be described as the process of the air in the atmosphere when it undergoes biological, physical and photochemical changes, and due to this series of events, the air in the atmosphere becomes severely contaminated.There are several types of air pollutants hovering in the atmosphere such as particulate matter (PM), sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NOx) and ozone. Due to these harmful gases, dust, and smoke hovering in the atmosphere, living organisms are affected by respiratory, cardiac and several other health-damaging problems. This essay will assess air pollution, discuss ways to reduce or prevent this problem as well as evaluate how realistic these solutions are
Air pollution is caused by a tremendous number of reasons.They can be highlighted as the main and important causes which are the burning of fossil fuels, road traffic, hazardous air pollutants, and greenhouse gases. A few examples of fossil fuels are petroleum, natural gases and coal. It has been understood that fuel, which is derived from petroleum, is not very good in quality as it contains gasoline, a very toxic and highly inflammable liquid. A study carried out by a group of lecturers from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh found that secondary organic aerosol (SOA), a component of organic particles (OA), was highly formed when gasoline was combusted. Due to this occurrence, the concentration level of the oxides of nitrogen increased significantly (Sharma, 2015). Next, road vehicles and transport account for a consequential part in causing air pollution as they release a very high amount of chemical gases when in use (Environmentlaw.org.uk, 2018). The gases compromise alarming levels of carbon monoxide, carbon NOx and other health-damaging pollutants. In 2013, it was even reported that the amount of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides that was found in the air, half of it was fueled from from the gases that were released by vehicles (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2018). Due to this, serious pollution problems have surfaced such as smog and carbon monoxide gas. Inhalation of carbon monoxide does not only lead to an array of fatal pulmonary diseases, it can also cause immediate death if inhaled in large amounts. Michael Gove, the environm...
