Intro:
Air pollution is an issue that happens globally and affects people of all ages, which makes educating ourselves on the subject important. We will be talking about several aspects of air pollution, including its emissions, the health effects, environmental impacts and regulations and possible solutions.
Emissions section (what composes and how it spreads):
In order to try and fix the issue of air pollution, one must know what composes it and how it spreads. That way, they can know what is at the root of the problem and come up with solutions from there. When thinking of what creates air pollution, an obvious option is industrial and manufacturing facilities. But, even everyday activities such as driving our cars around and heating food in our houses produces it. These pollution creating activities contribute to pollution hot spots and create pollution gradients in our environment (David Briggs, 2003). Once the pollution is occurred, it can create particulate matter (PM), which when exposed to high levels has been correlated with higher cardiovascular and respiratory diseases (Shuvashish Kundu and Elizabeth Stone, 2014). PM is made when coal, gasoline, diesel and fuel are burned. It can also be created when chemical reactions of nitrogen oxides and organic compounds that happen in the environment. Lastly, vegetation and livestock can be a source (Sierra Vargas, Martha Patricia and Luis M Teran, 2012). When looking specifically at Eastern Iowa, there is a large population of farmers that handle livestock, so this cause is important to take note of.
Target populations affected by air pollution section:
The topic of air pollution is not only an environmental issue, but also is a detrimental factor in health issues of individuals dispersed worldwide and demands acknowledgment. However, not all individuals are aware of the seriousness of this problem because it takes prolonged exposure to air pollutants before serious health issues begin to rise to the surface. Besides the occasional fog or smoke that can be lingering in the air, most pollutants dangerous to our health are microscopic to the human eye.
Although there is no sole group that is safe from air pollution exposure, there are a few groups of individuals that are at a greater risk of suffering from worsened health issues caused by pollution. Those that are at higher risk of chronic health issues influenced by exposure to air pollution are “people who are active outdoors… [and] people with disease (e.g. diabetes mellitus, malnutrition)” (Sierra Vargas, Martha Patricia and Luis M Teran, 2012). Also impacted by prolonged exposure is the health of individuals with preexisting asthma, cardiovascular disease and other chronic respiratory diseases. Air pollutants are a critical issue tied with worsening the symptoms for individual’s living with health issues such as asthma, allergies, and chronic respiratory diseases because “[the] airways are a point of entry for pollutants, which in turn may cause lung disease” (Sierra Vargas, Martha Patricia and Luis M Teran, 2012). Since air pollutant particles are extremely minuscule in size, they can cover a greater surface area within the lungs and therefore be more toxic to the entire respiratory system. Young children and adults, especially women, with allergies are harmed by air pollution more than healthy individuals because the current increase in air pollution is directly proportional to the amount of pollen production; increase in pollen production will “in turn [impact] negatively on the prevalence and severity of allergic asthma” (Sierra Vargas, Martha Patricia and Luis M Teran, 2012).
Not only has air pollution negatively impacted the health of several groups of people, it has also lead to premature death. As noted by the World Health Organization, out of approximately 3 million premature, worldwide death, “Some 88% of those premature deaths [had] occurred in low- and middle-income countries” (World Health Organization, 2016). It is also important to note that in a study done comparing air particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations in eastern Iowa rural and urban regions, those living in rural areas were most likely to not experience as much pollution exposure because “rural locations generally exhibited lower PM2.5 concentrations (8.4–10.4 μg m−3) compared to the urban sites” (Shuvashish Kundu and Elizabeth. A. Stone, 2014). Individuals living within urban areas similar to Iowa City are exposed to higher air pollution concentrations because of the increased emission of pollutants through vehicles, biomass burning and industrial centers. Specifically, habitants of Des Moines which is known to be an industrialized city in Iowa, are going to experience worse effects of air pollution because the air quality is tainted with high particle concentration.