Air pollution is the largest environmentally-related global health risk of our time.
What is the menace rooted in?
What are the health impacts?
What steps should be followed to face the constant threat?
The fact that air pollution jeopardizes the lives of a large number of children, adolescents and adults across the globe is glaringly evident. The grave danger could be attributed not only to burning fossil fuels but also to exhaust emissions of factories and industries. This essay will also discuss both detrimental effects and efficient ways to counter the serious threat.
Focusing on contributing factors, a great deal of air pollution comes from energy consumption and production. To put it simply, burning fossil fuels like coal and other factory combustibles releases an array of greenhouse gases and hazardous chemicals into the air, the most lethal of which are sulfur and carbon dioxide. Moreover, pollutants released from vehicles including planes, dilapidated cars and smog-inducing gas-guzzlers that have long outlived their usefulness produce immense amount of toxic fumes, resulting in the death of estimated 4.2 million people per annum according to World Health Organization data issued in 2016.
Regarding the negative impacts, in the young as well as in the elderly, both short- and long-term exposure to air pollution can lead to respiratory infections and aggravated asthma. Adverse birth outcomes such as low birth weight in addition to pre-term labor during pregnancy are associated with being exposed to ambient air pollution. Furthermore, emerging evidence suggests diesel fumes may develop diabetes and neurological disorders in young boys and girls.
Moving on to much-needed steps to tackle the issue, on a personal level, driving and flying less, recycling and energy conservation can help reduce people’s carbon footprint—the amount of carbon dioxide a person is responsible for putting into the atmosphere. On a larger scale, governments ought to be required to limit vehicle and industrial emissions by putting direct taxes on carbon emissions or imposing higher levies on gasoline so that city dwellers and industrial complexes will have greater incentives to conserve energy and pollute less. Needless to say, restrictions on old trucks and buses can help improve air quality, especially in the cold season when pollution levels peak.
The bottom line is that manmade pollution intensified by weather conditions is here to stay and take a heavy toll unless both officials and ordinary citizens do their fair share to help alleviate the worsening crisis.
Mollazadeh
Word count: 380
Time: 60′
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