Cars... Are they killing us?

No one is safe, "Air Pollution" an article on Facts on Files News Services states that, more than 3,000 U.S deaths a year due to cancer can be blamed on air pollution and 61,000 Americans die of damaged lungs every year and other breathing problems caused by air pollution.According to a video titled "Air Quality 101: The Basics" "The health effects of air pollution range from subtle issues to more obvious impacts such as; difficulty breathing, coughing, aggravation of asthma and emphysema."

All humans should be blamed for the deaths of all the people, that have died of breathing and or heart problems that were caused by bad air. There are many reasons why humans are to be blamed such as; consuming products that were shipped from places all over the world. When things get shipped from different states or countries there is only one way to get them here and that is, to either have them driven here or flown on air planes. Trucks release a lot of harmful chemicals into the air that create air pollution. A solution to this is, instead of consuming products from other countries or states, buy things locally grown, this act seams small but in the long run will lead to a cleaner future were people don't have to worry about not being able to go outside due to the amount of pollution in the air. It's up to us to clean the air not only for ourselves but for future generations. No one should have to die due to things we can control, so why do we let it happen? In other words, let's take it into our own hands and stop air pollution any small thing you do can and will help in our future. Cars, industries and some businesses can also be blamed for the pollution. Some types if industries that contribute to pollution are, combustion, construction, mining, agriculture and warfare.

Cars are to be blamed more so then any others for the smog they create, because of the chemicals the cars release. The smog is created when chemicals such as, nitrogen oxide are released into the air and are then heated by the sun. The chemicals that are heated by the sun turn into gasses that are called oxidants. The main type of oxidant found in smog is ozone. This ozone pollution causes many health problems in children, adults, and the elderly. Some of the health problems that can occur because of air pollution are, respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, throat inflammation, chest pain, and congestion. Not all ozone is bad for us.

For example, the ozone that is up in the earth's atmosphere helps protect us from the sun's harmful rays. When the ozone gets to lower atmosphere levels it becomes harmful and causes effect the health drastically. The helpful ozone that is protecting us from the sun is called "stratospheric" and the harmful ozone is called "ground level," The ground level ozone is the one that causes smog. Smog is a lot more common in cities than in the country because NOx or nitrogen oxides are atmospheric pollutions. And VOCs or volatile organic compounds are atoms such as carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, chlorine that can be formed into gases easily. They can be found in large amounts in the exhaust of cars and in the smoke that industries and power plants release. The reason it's more common in the cities is because they are more highly populated then the rural areas. More people mean more cars which mean more chemicals released into our air which then creates smog.

We are not always to be blamed for air pollution. Smog can become worse on account of some natural factors. Some examples of these natural factors according to Facts on Files News Services are when wind is absent; it causes the smog to accumulate in the air for many days making the smog grow thicker and decreasing visibility. "Thermal Inversion" can also make smog worse. "Thermal Inversion" is when a layer of cool air is trapped under a layer of warm air; this makes it very difficult for the pollution to disperse. When a city is surrounded by mountains it will most likely have a lot of smog because the mountains trap the smog, that's why cities that are surrounded by mountains may experience worse pollution problems.

The effects of air pollution were not fully recognized until around the year 1948 when industrial soot killed four towns' people in Donora, Pennsylvania and made another 6,000 very ill; this was stated in an article titled Air Pollution. Soot is made up of dust and smoke that are known as particular matter. Industrial Plants and agriculture activities like plowing and burning fields may produce large amounts of the particular matter that make up soot. Many of the victims that were exposed to soot had contracted lung disease which was a consequence of breathing the highly polluted air. 600 people died in the years 1952 and 1953 in New York City because of the smog that had been worsen because of the natural factor of "Thermal Inversion"

During this time the lawmakers preferred to let the states and industries decide how they were to take care of the problem of pollution. In the 1950's and 60's a large amount of the industries did lower their emissions of chemicals and other harmful gases that they released into the atmosphere. In this year the ozone pollution level reached an all-time peak of 0.68 ppm in LA and the national health standard is 0.12 ppm. Their attempts to reduce their emissions were backfired by the popularity of the inventions of cars. The ownership of cars grew drastically between the years 1945 and 1965 which caused the amount of diesel that was released into the air to grow along with the growth of ownership of cars. The effects of releasing these harmful chemicals became very evident in new U.S cities such as Los Angeles; which helped with the growth of cars by building a large freeway through the metropolitan area. Since Los Angeles is very sunny and warm when people started using cars more and more it created a large layer of smog that's always in the air.

Based on an article on Facts on Files News Services, "In cities such as Los Angeles and New Mexico, air pollution is so dense at times that breathing outdoor air becomes dangerous and residents are advised to remain in their home".

In 1970, the Clean Air Act was passed. This act creates guidelines to help reduce our nation's air pollution it also provided federal aid for research and support for pollution control. The primary standards help protect against adverse health effects. And the secondary standards help protect against welfare effects such as; decreased visibility.

We may have invented cars that are smaller and pollute less such as the hybrid but if everyone has one, does that really mean we are polluting less? Every year 2.4 million people die because of air pollution. Like I previously mentioned cars are the main source of smog which causes air pollution. We all know that it's probably impossible to get people to stop using cars, because we need them to get everywhere. If we could all stop driving our cars when unnecessary this could help reduce how many chemicals are released into the air.

There are many solutions too decreasing how many chemicals are released into the air such as; driving less, carpooling, walking, or taking the bus. These are all easy things we can all do. You can try to pack as many things into one trip to the grocery store so that you don't have to be driving back and forth so much. If you know someone that is going the same place as you, then you can easily drive there together there is no reason to waste more gas then needed.If you walk to places more, than you are not polluting our air at. Lastly the bus can take you mostly anywhere and yes it may cost a small amount, but wouldn't you rather pay a small price then to pollute and maybe even destroy our planet?

I know that we need cars, that we use them every day most of the day. You don't have to completely stop driving your car just use it less.

Hybrid cars they were created to pollute less. By creating the hybrid cars it is helping the environment, but they are still cars that run on gasoline, they are cars that release harmful chemicals that pollute our air. These hybrid cars are just a small step to a greater cleaner future.