Air pollution solutions

How many people are dying from unhealthy environments? The World Health Organization says 12.6 million people died due to environmental causes in 2012 Pollution has enormous human costs. Particulate matter in the air we breathe, organic pollutants and heavy metals in our food supply and drinking water — all of these pollutants cut short millions of lives every year. Those 12.6 million people represent almost a quarter of all deaths worldwide that year. The same report also found that two thirds of those killed by an unhealthy environment died of noncommunicable diseases like strokes, heart conditions, cancers, and chronic respiratory disease, mostly attributable to air pollution. The impact falls disproportionately on children and the poor, especially in less developed countries. Here's the percentage of all deaths that unhealthy environments cause in each country. Why are the impacts so disproportionate? Look at fossil fuels, an important source of pollution that constitutes about half of all trade volume worldwide. The most significant environmental burden of exploiting those resources is in the countries that extract them. That means that the human cost associated with that pollution remains out of sight of those whose consumption habits drove the extraction in the first place. Why is our environment so unhealthy? It’s our own doing Our industries, transport systems and power facilities churn out black carbon, methane, and other pollutants that penetrate deep into our l...

While air pollution is a serious problem, it is a problem that we can solve! In the United States and around the world, people are taking action to reduce emissions and improve air quality. The Clean Air Act: How Laws Can Help Clean Up the Air Creating policies and passing laws to restrict air pollution has been an important step toward improving air quality. In 1970, fueled by persistent visible smog in many U.S. cities and industrial areas and an increase in health problems caused by air pollution, the Since the Clean Air Act was passed: • The amounts of the six common pollutants in the atmosphere measured by the EPA (particulates, ozone, lead, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide) are declining. • The risks of premature death, low birth weight, and other health problems due to air pollution have decreased. • Vehicle emissions have decreased, despite increases in the number of miles driven each year, due to stricter emissions standards and increased efficiency in vehicle engines. • Emissions and toxic pollutants (such as mercury and benzenes) from factories and power plants have decreased, due to new technologies. • There is less acid rain, due to decreased power plant emissions. • The ozone hole continues to shrink as a result of banning the use of CFCs. • Pollution-caused haze in cities and wilderness areas has decreased. Source: EPA Most industrialized countries have laws and regulations about air quality. The United Kingdom first passed its Clean Air...

As the eastern U.S. and Canada reeled from What they might not realize is that the air many of them breathe isn’t healthy even when wildfire smoke isn’t filling the sky. In fact, the air that Air pollution is everywhere, in cities and in the countryside, visible and invisible. It kills an estimated 7 million to 10 million people a year, Because of its generally local and immediate impacts on human health, air pollution is often not talked about in the same sentence as climate change. Yet air pollution can be harmful for the planet, too. Nearly all actions to reduce climate change lead to improved air quality, and there are many ways to clean up air pollution that provide climate benefits. A toxic relationship When people talk about reducing climate change, they often focus on carbon dioxide emissions, and for good reason. Carbon dioxide, largely from burning fossil fuels, is the But there are other pollution sources that harm the climate, and reducing them can have a much faster impact on global warming in the short term. In addition, these pollutants have disastrous impacts on human health, food supplies and Methane, for example, is a Black carbon comes from burning wood, charcoal and crop residue, and is also in the soot from fossil fuel combustion in vehicles, especially diesel. It makes up a substantial portion of There are some types of aerosols that can lead to cooling, which means it takes time for the effect of carbon dioxide reductions to Solutions exist, and they...

Philadelphia experienced its worst air quality since 2008 this week, thanks to the smoke wafting down from Canada. Even more worrying: the measurement is part of a downward trend. We’d been doing so well. For the first time ever in 2018, Philadelphia experienced over 200 days The sources that impact air pollution in Southeastern Pennsylvania can vary significantly. They include wildfires exacerbated by climate change, like this week’s surprisingly disruptive haze. The region is also exposed to large amounts of air pollution from local industry, heating and cooling, and transportation, as well as the industrial and mobile pollution that migrates from the western half of the state. Then there’s the factor of the wind, which travels here from Southwest Pa. in the summer and from Northwest Pa. in the winter. When it reaches this region, it swirls and gets trapped as it blends with local air pollution. Air pollution is also impacted by heat. Philadelphia’s first days of 2023 with elevated ozone pollution directly corresponded to an But there are several initiatives in the works that can help ensure Philly’s progress over the past decades isn’t reversed. They come at the federal, state, and hyperlocal levels. Pennsylvania is poised to enter into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a cap-and-trade program intended to reduce carbon pollution from power plants while The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, meanwhile, is considering a new series of standards including 💌 ...