What is Smog?

Smog is basically derived from the merging of two

words; smoke and fog. Smog is also used to describe
the type of fog which has smoke or soot in it. Smog
is a yellowish or blackish fog formed mainly by a
mixture of pollutants in the atmosphere which
consists of fine particles and ground level ozone.
Smog which occurs mainly because of air pollution,
can also be defined as a mixture of various gases
with dust and water vapor. Smog also refers to hazy
air that makes breathing difficult.

Air pollution causes smog

Smog originally described the specific combination of smoke and fog that discolored the air as a
result of coal burning during the Industrial Revolution, but smog no longer means simply smoke
and fog. Nowadays, the term smog refers to the complex combination of primary and secondary
pollutants that turn the air a brown or yellow color.
Although smog isnt isolated to urban areas, its more common around cities. One factor that
intensifies smog in urban areas is the occurrence of a thermal inversion or temperature inversion
in the atmosphere. Generally speaking, the temperature of the air becomes gradually cooler as
you move upward in the atmosphere; warm air near the surface moves upward, gradually
cooling.
In the case of a temperature inversion, however, atmospheric circulation and geographic factors
trap a layer of warm air between two layers of cooler air, inverting or flipping the usual pattern.
This figure illustrates what this effect looks like.

Temperature inversions are most common in valleys where cool mountain air sweeps down into
the valley at night, below the warm, polluted air surrounding the city. Los Angeles commonly
experiences temperature inversions that trap a smog layer with warm air above and cool air
below.
This inversion keeps the smog (and therefore the pollutants) close to the ground instead of
allowing it to disperse into the atmosphere. Cities that experience such trapped smog may issue
local air quality warnings so that people with asthma or other respiratory troubles know to stay
indoors.

How is it related to air pollution.

For us, Smog is related to air pollution because, base on our research smog is a kind of air
pollution, that originally named for the mixture of smoke and fog in the air.
1. In what way it is harmful to people or to the environment?
For us, Smog is harmful to people or environment because of the encountered problems in a
number of cities and continues to harm human health.
Ground-level ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide carbon monoxide are especially harmful for
senior citizens, children, and people with heart and lung conditions such as emphysema,
bronchitis, and asthma.
It can inflame breathing passages, decreasing the lungs' working capacity, and causing shortness
of breath, pain when inhaling deeply, wheezing, and coughing.
It can cause eye and nose irritation and it dries out the protective membranes of the nose and
throat and interferes with the body's ability to fight infection, increasing susceptibility to illness.
Hospital admissions and respiratory deaths often increase during periods when ozone levels are
high.

2. What can people do to prevent the problem it causes?

It can be reduced by implementing modifications in your lifestyle, decreasing the consumption of
fuels that are non-renewable and by replacing them with alternate sources of fuel which will
reduce toxic emissions from vehicles.
1. Keep your car well-serviced.
2. Purchase a new car. Newer cars create less smog. Or go hybrid and reduce your
emissions by a large amount. But make sure to dispose of an old car properly.
3. Re-imagine your car usage:

Use a car that runs on batteries.

Use a car that runs on air pressure.

Do something as simple as car pooling.

4. Reduce your consuming:

Buy less and when you do buy, buy locally.

Do not buy items produced in countries which have poor controls over air emissions, for
example, China. Request your local store to find alternatives from sustainable sources.

5. Make a community garden. Grow vegetables and fruit for local distribution. Keep the
garden organic.
6. Write to local politicians and business leaders. Ask them for information about what
they are doing to reduce smog levels in your community. If they do not reply or reply
with inadequate measures, consider lobbying for change.