Air Pollution

1. Air Pollution • Can cause serious health problems • especially for very young, very old, those with heart or lung problems • adds to the effects of existing diseases: emphysema, heart disease, lung cancer • estimate Americans pay billions/year to treat respiratory diseases caused by air pollution

2. Short-Term Effects of Air Pollution on Health • Reversible if exposure to air pollution decreases. • Include headache; nausea; irritation to the eyes, nose and throat; coughing; tightness in the chest; upperrespiratory infections, such as bronchitis and pneumonia. • Can make asthma and emphysema worse

3. Long-Term Health Effects of Air Pollution • Include emphysema, lung cancer, and heart disease • May worsen medical conditions suffered by older people and may damage the lungs of children.

4. Indoor Air Pollution • Air inside a home or building is sometimes worse than outside. • Sick-buildingsyndrome:set of symptoms that may affect workers in modern, airtight office buildings. • most common in hot places where buildings are tightly sealed to keep out the heat • Plastics and other industrial chemicals are major sources of pollution. • found in carpets, building materials, paints, and furniture, particularly when new

5. Ventilation, or mixing outdoor air with indoor air necessary for good air quality • renovation and painting- ventilation should be increased.

6. Radon Gas • Colorless, tasteless, odorless, and radioactive • Occurs naturally in the Earth’s crust, can seep through cracks and holes in foundations into homes, offices, and schools • Inhale contaminated dust, radioactivity destroys genetic material in cells, lead to cancer • second-leading cause of lung cancer in US

7. Asbestos • Six silicate minerals that form bundles of minute fibers that are heat resistant, flexible, and durable • primarily used as an insulator, fire retardant, building material • use of most asbestos products banned in the early 1970s • can cut and scar the lungs: disease asbestosis • difficulty breathing, may eventually die of heart failure

8. Noise Pollution • Noise: a sound of any kind • Pollutant when too loud, or unecessay • Health problems: loss of hearing, high blood pressure, and stress, loss of sleep • may lead decreased productivity at work and in the classroom.

9. Decibel: unit (dB ) used to measure loudness • The quietest sound that a human ear can hear is at 0 dB • Each increase in 10 times higher than previous level • 120 dB is at the threshold of pain. • permanent deafness can result from continuous exposure to sounds over 120 dB.

10. Light Pollution • Not a direct hazard to human health • inefficient lighting in urban areas is diminishing our view of the night sky • urban sky often much brighter than the natural sky • Environmental concern: energy wasted when a light is directed upward and lost to space • Causes: billboards, poor-quality street lights, lighting of building exteriors • Solutions: shielding light so it is directed downward, time controls, energy-efficient low-pressure sodium sources