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Air Pollution

Decent Essays

There are various types of air pollution contributors in California such as fire generated pollutants and vehicle traffic, which add particulate matter and carbon monoxide into the air we breathe. According to an article by Union of Concerned Scientists (Cars, trucks, and air pollution, 2014) particulate matter is made up of fine particles soot and metal that can pose serious threats to human health when deep in the lungs. Other pollutants emitted from vehicles are: nitrogen oxide which lowers the body’s defense system against respiratory infections such as pneumonia, carbon monoxide which blocks oxygen from reaching vital organs, sulfur dioxide which is emitted by both power plants and vehicles affect children and asthmatics, and hazardous air pollutants (toxics) which are chemicals that are linked to cancer, birth defects and other illnesses (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2014).

Blount, R et al. (2017) conduct a study in which they enroll 32,875 active tuberculosis patients in California during the years 2000-2012 to understand how air pollution affects the patients with tuberculosis. They obtained the females’ and males’ patient data from the California Tuberculosis Registry and calculated traffic in a 100 to 400-meter radius around the patients’ residential addresses. The researchers conclude traffic volumes and densities around the residencies of patients with tuberculosis are associated with increased mortality. This study is statistically significant in having a

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