Pollution Of The Air During The United States

Every day, millions of Americans turn on the engines of their cars and drive to school or work. What these people do not realize is that the vehicles they operate greatly pollute the planet. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent website post, “Environmental Impacts from Automobiles”,

“Vehicle emissions contribute to the formation of smog. ‘Nitrogen Oxide’ and ‘volatile organic compounds’ in vehicle emissions can react to form ‘ground level ozone’; this is a secondary pollutant in the lower atmosphere, where its formation can be enhance by other pollutants , and its highly toxic at levels above 0.1 parts per million (p.p.m). A number of studies have shown that pollutant exposures near major roadways are greater than for other areas in cities. Other studies have linked increased exposure to an increased prevalence of a wide variety of illnesses including asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, pneumonia and heart disease. Nitrogen oxide can irritate airways,

Motor vehicles are a leading source of air pollution. Even though automobile and truck engines have become far cleaner in recent decades, the sheer

The number one reason why electric cars became popular is the ability to reduce the air pollution. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) almost 30% of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by transportation and most of them could be reduced by driving electric cars. The UK Department for Transport divides vehicle emissions in two categories: direct and life cycle. Direct emission are created by burning fuels while driving on the road. Petrol, diesel, and other alternative-fuel engines produce very high amounts of gases, that not only have impact on our health, but also on climate change. Gases like NO or CO2, that are known for causing many different respiratory illness. There is an estimate of 29,000 deaths a

The United States is the #1 trash-producing country in the world at 1,609 pounds per person per year.

Agriculture is the second most leading cause of pollution (jaiswal). With that much pollution one may wonder how it is happening. One may also wonder what america can do to fix agricultural pollution. America has put our land and farmers into some very questionable situations with questionable practices.

Cars consist of being the number one way of travel throughout the United States. We rely on them to transport us to work, activities and necessary destinations. With this constant use of vehicles, it has had a negative impact on the environment. Although cars were invented almost a century ago to make life easier with getting around, car pollution has been our number one source of air pollution and has significantly impacted our environment due to how accessible they are. Arising problems such as air pollution, global warming, and health issues of americans, we have to come to the understanding that our environment is at risk if the amount of car pollution continues to increase.

The second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States is related to transportation, the burning of oil to produce energy in a combustion motor. The combustion process inside of engines is what produces the carbon matter that is emitted into the air through the exhaust system on gas-powered vehicles. Gas-powered transportation is accountable for 24 percent of the global carbon emissions; this should not come as much of a surprise given the amount of urban sprawl that is being seen in the United States and across the globe. In the past decade, the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States government, and major car manufacturers have been working in conjunction to find ways to provide a “greener” form of transportation (EPA, 2011). This has included testing the use of hydropower, ethanol, natural gas, biodiesel, and electricity as a means of powering vehicles, which has led to the introduction of hybrid vehicles. Hybrid vehicles run on electricity and gasoline, the byproduct of oil that is generally used in the engine combustion process of vehicles (U.S. Department of

The U.S government has been actively involved in overseeing emission standards for years. This corresponds with the statement made by the U.S Department of transportation that, “Transportation is the largest end-use sector emitting CO2”, and also the statement released by the NRCAN in which, “Fuel usage & carbon dioxide emissions have grown steadily over the past two decades.” These factors are only to be associated with your average four door sedan and/or light truck. These do not include your 18 wheelers, heavy trucks, or the gas guzzling vans that emit more carbon dioxide into the air and are also on the road more today than ever have been before. Cars are readily and easily obtainable more so now than ever have been. This creates more fuel to be burned up in which produces more toxins to be constantly released into the atmosphere. In fact, according to Scientific American “cars relate as much as 30 gallons of GHG, while only driving 3 miles.” These miles can be correlated with something just as simple as your average work commute. According to the United States Census Bureau, “Nearly 600,000 full-time workers had "megacommutes" of at least 90 minutes and 50 miles.” Those workers alone would each be releasing up to 500 gallons of GHG. These can be considered some of the bigger factors that the greenhouse gasses have taken a toll on.

There are two main types of air pollution, particulate matter (PM) and ozone. Particulate matter is some tiny dust. For example, according to a beam of light at night there are countless dusts floating in the air. They are particle. Ozone is an invisible chemical gas in the air. When these gas touch with light will become smog. Factory and vehicles exhaust emissions have become the largest cause of PM and ozone pollution in the United States. If a plant wants to run, they need to burn fuel to provide power; however, a lot of particulate matter will float in the air when the factory burns fuel. When people drive cars can

With over 100 thousand trucks and other vehicles in service around the globe, it has more emission output than many average sized cities (UPS, 2017). A complete reduction in emissions would be equivalent to an entire city that stopped using combustion engines. The positive social impact would make UPS the benchmark of social economic environmental consciousness that every transportation provider would attempt to emulate. Furthermore, the entire planet would benefit from such an ecofriendly competition, which will lead to many other health benefits and provide lasting sustainability of our dwindling fossil fuel resources.

In areas where air pollution is often dangerously high, many suffer from respiratory illness. The “poor air quality increases respiratory ailments like asthma and bronchitis, heightens the risk of life threatening conditions like cancer and burdens our health care system with substantial medical costs” (Scientists). There has even been a “20% increase in ER and hospital admissions of patients with heart and lung diseases when particulate pollution peaks” (Roppolo). Since there are many contributors to increased illness from particulate matter, the government should impose a change. When such effects begin to burden the lives of many individuals, there has to be some course of action to resolve the issue. The government should require that all car companies begin manufacturing vehicles that are more fuel efficient, which would certainly limit the emissions by vehicles. If there are nearly “30,000 premature deaths each year” (Scientists) from vehicular pollutants, then there should be more “fuel-efficient technologies” (Lott). Though there are steps being taken, more progress needs to be

Pollutants that are given off through the emissions of automobiles are hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxides, and carbon dioxides. Hydrocarbons emitted by automobiles create smog. Smog can create health problems for people. These problems include lung and respiratory problems. Nitrogen oxides form acid rain that hurts plants, wildlife, and the paint on our cars. Carbon monoxide reduces the flow of oxygen in the bloodstream. Carbon dioxide is a "greenhouse gas" and is a primary factor contributing to global warming.

The amount of factories and industries has grown immensely through the previous years which has resulted in an expansion in the consumption of petroleum products. Innovation has begun to increase and has promoted the expansion of the production of cars. As stated by the Air Quality Research Center, “Air pollution is one of the most dangerous environmental problems, causing many adverse health effects and responsible for 50,000 deaths in the U.S. each year” (Air Pollution and Health – Air Quality Research Center.). The smog and

Truck transportation has been the backbone of freight movements in the United States and across the globe for decades. While utilizing trucks is an economical way to move freight for short hauls of less than a 1,000 miles, there are high environmental and infrastructure costs for utilizing this mode of transportation. According to Lowe, road transportation’s use of energy resources rose 103 per cent in the period since 1970 (2005). Additionally, Lowe points out that road transportation’s emission of green house gasses, “increased by 76% between 1971 and 1989” (Lowe, 2005, p. 112). Furthermore, road transportation is the largest polluter in the industry. It utilizes “over 80% of the total energy used in the transport sector and contributes over 75% of its total CO2 output (Lowe, 2005, p. 113). Finally, freight transportation by heavy vehicles causes pavement damage at significantly higher rates than passenger traffic (SSTI, 2011).