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Air Pollution

Decent Essays

Growing Diseases Related to Air Pollution-Vivian Qiu

On October 27, 1948, in Donora, Pennsylvania, an area where a daily fog of zinc and steel plants is normal, an abnormally sooty haze came into the town. This resulted in a third of the population falling ill and 20 people dead, a following 50 in later months. The US government after this tragedy, tighten the restrictions on industries that release pollution in the air. The emissions of six common air pollutants have dropped 70 percent since the 1970 passage of the Clean Air Act. Though there is progress in regulating air pollution, there are still people that are being affected and researchers have found that much more than just the lungs are at risk. The polluted air could be associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, and dementia. When we think of air pollution and its effects, we don’t that it’s a problem because it’s just ‘dirty air’, but have been many studies that indicate that ‘dirty air’ effects many of your bodily functions if exposed. Air pollution is made up of largely of power plants, automobiles and other producers of fuel burning. The mixture of the polluted air is composed mostly of carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter. Particulate molecules are a main concern because these tiny breathable microscopic droplets can penetrate the lungs affecting the body internally. A study of this was made in April 2017 published by ACS Nano, where 14 healthy

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