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 Something all humans share, from celebrities to the homeless, is air. Not so obvious is the quality of that air and how it affects our health. While we think of global warming as something taking place above our heads, it’s easy to forget that those heat-trapping and often chemical-laden gases affect our lungs before they reach the clouds.
Sources of Pollution
We come into contact with numerous sources of air pollution in our daily routines, such as fumes from traffic and construction equipment, cigarette smoke, and odors from rubbish and cleaning chemicals. Less obvious are industrial boilers, electrical equipment, bonfires and woodstoves, dry cleaners and gas stations. We also can’t rely on smell, as some forms of pollutants are odor free, or we might have blocked sinuses.
Health Problems
Our lungs filter the air we breathe, so they are bound to get clogged up when we breathe in something harmful. Possible health effects from air pollution are shortness of breath, chest pain, wheezing and coughing, lung cancer, premature death and the hospitalization of those susceptible to lung diseases like asthma, chronic bronchitis and emphysema.
Although people with lung diseases are obvious sufferers, the American Lung Association lists several other groups who are especially at risk from air pollution: young children and teens, outdoor workers, adults over 65, sufferers of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, those with low income, and ‘responders’ (i.e., folks who are more sensitive to air pollution than the average person). But even “average” people can’t prevent reactions from harmful particles entering their lungs.
Other Issues
Air pollution has gone beyond damaging the health of individuals; it now imperils the health of the planet, mainly in terms of global warming induced climate changes that will negatively impact billions of people over the next half century. In the shorter term, the serious consequences of global warming include reduced harvests for farmers. University of California researchers, for instance, estimate that were it not for the negative climate effects of air pollution, food production in India would have been 20-25% greater during some years of the 1990s.
Fighting Air Pollution
There are numerous ways of reducing and avoiding air pollution in your local area. For example, individuals and groups should take or campaign for the following steps:
- Insulate buildings
- Install ventilation fans in kitchens and bathrooms
- Convert woodstoves to natural gas
- Ban smoking indoors (dangerous particles remain airborne long after extinguishing the cigarette)
- Use hand-powered or electrical lawn equipment, rather than gas-powered
- Fill up your gas tank after dark (the sun causes rapid evaporation that turns some toxic liquids into air pollution)
- Plant trees to soak up pollution
- Don’t exercise near traffic
- Travel by foot, bike, public transport or carpool
- Improve pedestrian and bike routes
- Launch hybrid or alternatively powered buses, taxis and emergency-service vehicles
- Construct a light-rail or street-trolley network
Learning from Top US Cities
Air quality in the 50 most populated American cities was measured in the SustainLane 2008 US City Rankings on urban sustainability. Using the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) data on average Air Quality indexes and Clean Air Act Non-Attainment areas, SustainLane ranked the top three cities as Honolulu (Hawaii), Portland (Oregon) and New Orleans (Louisiana), and the bottom three as the California cities of Long Beach, Los Angeles and Fresno.
SustainLane found that the location of a city often determines how much pollution it receives and how it can cope with it. The island of Honolulu grabbed first place because its pollution is blown out to sea on the breeze, while Fresno finished last due to downwind pollution from Los Angeles and two nearby Interstates, 5 and 99. Fresno also suffers from a high concentration of agricultural operations and dairy farms.
Taking Action
But it would be foolish to sit back and blame location for air pollution: if it’s man-made, man can stop it. Portland started launching green initiatives in the 1970s, and has since enforced strict land-use policies, constructed green buildings and encouraged use of renewable energy. New Orleans, meanwhile, was forced to build from scratch after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and it chose to do this in a green way. Its new fleet of buses, for example, runs entirely on alternative fuels.
The three stages of lowering air pollution are to be aware of what we’re breathing in, detect the sources of pollution and provide solutions—in the form of avoidance and reduction. Through the American Lung Association, individuals can get involved in the fight against air pollution, as well as through local and national environmental organizations like the Sierra Club, Greenpeace and the National Resources Defense Council.
By taking action, not only will we be improving our own health and that of other creatures on this planet, but we’ll be fighting global warming that will otherwise harm generations to come.
Additional resources:
AIRNow’s Air Quality Index (AQI)
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