Air Pollutants

Air is the Earth's atmosphere. It is the

clear gas in which living things live
and breathe. It has an indefinite
shape and volume. It has
no color or smell. It
has mass and weight. It is a matter as
it has mass and weight. Air
creates atmosphere pressure.
 What is air pollutants?
• A substance in the air that can cause
harm to humans and the environment
is known as an air pollutant. Pollutants
can be in the form of solid particles,
liquid droplets, or gases. In addition,
they may be natural or man-made.
Six major air pollutants

• Carbon monoxide (CO)

• Ozone (O3)
• Nitrogen dioxide (NO2)
• Sulfur oxides (SOx)
Carbon dioxide (CO2 )
•
Lead (Pb)
•
Major sources of pollutants
 14.3.2: describe
sources and explain
effects of air
pollutants;
There are two types of pollutants:

Primary pollutants
Secondary pollutants
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Primary pollutants:

Primary pollutants are those gases or particles that

are
result of the process can be called primary
 Primary Miscellan
p,ollutants eous
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What Where They

CARBON MONOXIDE (CO)
 Nitrogen Dioxide
•reddish, brown gas

•produced when nitric oxide combines

with
oxygen in the atmosphere
•present in car exhaust and power plants
•affects lungs and causes wheezing;
increases chance of respiratory infection
NITROGEN DIOXIDE (N02)
SULPHUR DIOXIDE (S02)
GREEN HOUSE GASES
 Carbon Dioxide
•Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is the main
pollutant that is warming Earth. Though living
things emit carbon dioxide when they breathe, carbon
dioxide is widely considered to be a pollutant when
associated with cars, planes, power plants, and other
human activities that involve the burning of fossil
fuels such as gasoline and natural gas. In the past 150
years, such activities have pumped enough carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere to raise its levels higher
than they have been for hundreds of thousands of
years.
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
PARTICULATE MATTER
Secondary pollutants:

When pollutants in the air mix up in a

chemical reaction, they form an even more
dangerous chemical. Photochemical smog
is an example of this, and is a secondary
pollutant. Secondary pollutants are the
ones that are caused by the inter mingling
and reactions of primary pollutants.
Smog created by the interactions of several
primary pollutants is known to be as
secondary pollutant.
GROUND LEVEL OZONE
 SMOG
POLLUTANT Smog is caused when car
SOURCES EFFECTS
emissions and industrial

SMOG.
pollution interact with
Smog affects plant life and
Smog sunlight. Smog is often
the health of animals and
caused by heavy traffic, high
humans. It is harmful to
is temperatures, sunshine and
humans, animals, plants and
calm winds. These are few of
another common the nature as a whole. Smog
the factors behind increasing
secondary pollutant. lead to bronchial
level of air pollution in
Smog is a yellowish or diseases.Heavy smog
atmosphere. During the winter
blackish fog formed results in a low production
months when the wind
mainly by a mixture of of the crucial natural
speeds are low, it helps the
pollutants in the element vitamin D leading to
smoke and fog to become
atmosphere which cases of rickets among
stagnate at a place forming
consists of fine people. Smog can be
smog and increasing
particles and ground responsible for any ailment
pollution levels near the
level ozone. Smog from minor pains to deadly
ground closer to where
which occurs mainly pulmonary diseases such as
people are respiring. It
because of air lung cancer. Smog is well
hampers visibility and
pollution, can also be known for causing irritation
disturbs the environment. The
defined as a mixture of in the eye. It may also result
atmospheric pollutants or
various gases with in inflammation in the
gases that form smog are
dust and water vapor. tissues of lungs; giving rise
released in the air when fuels
Smog also refers to to pain in the chest. Other
are burnt. When sunlight and
hazy air that makes issues or illnesses such as
its heat react with these gases
breathing difficult. cold and pneumonia are
and fine particles in the
SMOG
FORMATION OF SMOG
EFFECTS OF SMOG
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[scldiflcation} effects
..
Deposition tlmOepheric
action

[acid rain,
snow, fog)

Deposition
(wet and dry)
volcanoe Qghtning
and otheii (nltrogett'Oxfdes)
area sources
(:wlfurdioxide,
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Any visible or invisible particle or gas found in the air that is
not part of the original, normal composition.

Air pollution occurs when gases, dust particles, fumes (or

smoke) or odor are introduced into the atmosphere in a way
that makes it harmful to humans, animals and plant. This is
because the air becomes dirty (contaminated or unclean).
.

"'
Causes Of Air
•
Pollutio n
What causes air pollution?
Air pollution can result from both human and natural actions.
Natural events that pollute the air include forest fires,
volcanic eruptions, wind erosion, pollen dispersal, evaporation
of organic compounds and natural radioactivity. Pollution
from natural occurrences are not very often.
Human activities that result in air pollution include:

1. Emissions from industries and

manufacturing activities
INDUSTRIAL EMISSION
2. Burning Fossil Fuels
After the industrial age, transportation has become
a key part of our lives. Cars and heavy duty trucks,
trains, shipping vessels and airplanes all burn lots
of fossil fuels to work. Emissions from automobile
engines contain both primary and secondary
pollutants. This is a major cause of pollution, and
one that is very difficult to manage. This is because
humans rely heavily on vehicles and engines for
transporting people, good and services.

Fumes from car exhaust contain dangerous gases

such as carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen,
hydrocarbons and particulates. On their own, they
cause great harm to people who breath them.
Additionally, they react with environmental gases
to create further toxic gases.
BURNING FOSSIL FUELS
 3.Agricultural activities:
Ammonia is a very common by product
from agriculture related activities and is
one of the most hazardous gases in the
atmosphere. Use of insecticides, pesticides
and fertilizers in agricultural activities has
grown quite a lot. They emit harmful
chemicals into the air and can also cause
water pollution.
AGRICULTURALACTIVITIES
 4. Mining operations:

Mining is a process where in minerals

below the earth are extracted using large
equipments. During the process dust and
chemicals are released in the air causing
massive air pollution. This is one of the
reason which is responsible for the
deteriorating health conditions of workers
and nearby residents.
MINING OPERATIONS
 5. Indoor air pollution:
Household cleaning products, painting supplies emit
toxic chemicals in the air and cause air pollution. Have
you ever noticed that once you paint walls of your house,
it creates some sort of smell which makes it literally
impossible for you to breathe?
Suspended particulate matter popular by its acronym
SPM, is another cause of pollution. Referring to the
particles afloat in the air, SPM is usually caused by dust,
combustion etc.
Cooking and heating with solid fuels on open fires or
traditional stoves results in high levels of indoor air
pollution. Indoor smoke contains a range of health-
damaging pollutants, such as small particles and carbon
monoxide.
According to Global Health Risks: Mortality and burden
INDOOR POLLUTION
Acidification: Chemical reaction
involving air pollutants can create acidic compounds
which can cause harm to vegetation and buildings.
Sometimes, when an air pollutant, such as sulfuric
acid combines with the water droplets that make up
clouds, the water droplets become acidic, forming acid
rain. When acid rain falls over an area, it can kill trees
and harm animals, fish, and other wildlife.
Acid rain destroys the leaves of plants.
When acid rain infiltrates into soils, it changes the
chemistry of the soil making it unfit for many living
things that rely on soil as a habitat or for nutrition.
Acid rain also changes the chemistry of the lakes and
streams that the rainwater flows into, harming fish
and other aquatic life.
ACID RAIN
ACID RAIN
Eutrophication:

Rain can carry and deposit the Nitrogen in some

pollutants on rivers and soils. This will adversely

 5.Effect on Wildlife: •

• Just like humans, animals also

face some devastating effects
of
air pollution. Toxic chemicals •
present in the air can force
wildlife species to move to new
place and change their habitat.
The toxic pollutants deposit
over
the surface the water and
of
also affect seacan
animals.
WILD LIFE AFFECTED BY POLLUTION
 6. Depletion of Ozone
layer:
Ozone exists in earth’s stratosphere and is responsible
for protecting humans from harmful ultraviolet (UV)
rays. Earth’s ozone layer is depleting due to the
presence of chlorofluorocarbons, hydro
chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere. As ozone layer
will go thin, it will emit harmful rays back on earth
and can cause skin and eye related problems. UV rays
also have the capability to affect crops.
CFCs CAUSE OZONE DEPLETION
AIR POLLUTION AFFECTING HUMAN
 GREEN HOUSE EFFECT In
the result of air pollution number of green
house gases are increase rapidly. The
man-made (or anthropogenic) component
of the greenhouse effect is caused by
man’s activities that emit greenhouse gases
to the atmosphere.
The most important of these is the burning
of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels contain carbon,
and when they are burnt this carbon
combines with oxygen in the atmosphere
to form carbon dioxide.
GREEN HOUSE EFFECT CAUSE
GLOBAL WARMING
 WHAT IS GLOBAL WARMING

Global warming is an occurrence which results to the rise in the

average temperature of the earth's atmosphere.

Due to extreme pollution from factories and automobiles in the

earth's atmosphere, greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and nitrous
oxide form a thick layer in the upper atmosphere and traps the sun's
rays from being reflected back to outer space.
EFFECT OF PARTICULATE MATTER ON HUMAN HEALTH
Many people would like to believe that waste

disappears

when it is burnt. In fact the burnt waste is

Controlling Air
Pollution.
Government (or community) level prevention

Governments throughout the world have already taken

action against air pollution by introducing green

energy.