Scribd
Upload
82 views2 pages

Air Pollution: Sources

This document discusses air pollution, including defining it as substances that can harm humans and the environment. It describes primary and secondary pollutants, with primary pollutants being directly emitted and secondary forming in the air from reactions. Sources of pollution are categorized as stationary sources like power plants and mobile sources like vehicles. Natural sources include dust, methane from animal digestion, and volcanic activity. Health effects include respiratory issues. Ways to reduce pollution include land use planning, expanding regulations on mobile sources, increasing fuel efficiency, and converting to cleaner fuels. Control devices that can remove pollutants include particulate collectors, electrostatic precipitators, baghouses, and scrubbers.

Uploaded by

Zamil Ishak
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
82 views2 pages

Air Pollution: Sources

This document discusses air pollution, including defining it as substances that can harm humans and the environment. It describes primary and secondary pollutants, with primary pollutants being directly emitted and secondary forming in the air from reactions. Sources of pollution are categorized as stationary sources like power plants and mobile sources like vehicles. Natural sources include dust, methane from animal digestion, and volcanic activity. Health effects include respiratory issues. Ways to reduce pollution include land use planning, expanding regulations on mobile sources, increasing fuel efficiency, and converting to cleaner fuels. Control devices that can remove pollutants include particulate collectors, electrostatic precipitators, baghouses, and scrubbers.

Uploaded by

Zamil Ishak
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Air Pollution

An air pollutant is known as a substance in the air that can cause harm to humans and the
environment. Pollutants can be in the form of solid particles, liquid droplets, or gases. In addition, they
may be natural or man-made.
Pollutants can be classified as either primary or secondary. Usually, primary pollutants are
substances directly emitted from a process, such as ash from a volcanic eruption, the carbon
monoxide gas from a motor vehicle exhaust or sulfur dioxide released from factories.
Secondary pollutants are not emitted directly. Rather, they form in the air when primary pollutants
react or interact. An important example of a secondary pollutant is ground level ozone one of the
many secondary pollutants that make up photochemical smog.

Sources
Sources of air pollution refer to the various locations, activities or factors which are responsible for the
releasing of pollutants in the atmosphere. These sources can be classified into two major categories
which are:
- "Stationary Sources" include smoke stacks of power plants, manufacturing facilities (factories)
and waste incinerators, as well as furnaces and other types of fuel-burning heating devices
- "Mobile Sources" include motor vehicles, marine vessels, aircraft and the effect of sound etc.
- Fumes from paint, hair spray, varnish, aerosol sprays and other solvents
- Military, such as nuclear weapons, toxic gases, germ warfare and rocketry
Natural sources
- Dust from natural sources, usually large areas of land with little or no vegetation.
- Methane, emitted by the digestion of food by animals, for example cattle.
- Smoke and carbon monoxide from wildfires.
- Volcanic activity, which produce sulfur, chlorine, and ash particulates.

Health Effects
:-
aggravated asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, lung and heart diseases, and respiratory
allergies , difficulty in breathing, wheezing, coughing and aggravation of existing respiratory
and cardiac conditions.



Ways to prevent or to reduce air pollution

There are various air pollution control technologies and land use planning strategies available to
reduce air pollution. At its most basic level land use planning is likely to involve zoning and transport
infrastructure planning. In most developed countries, land use planning is an important part of social
policy, ensuring that land is used efficiently for the benefit of the wider economy and population as
well as to protect the environment.
Efforts to reduce pollution from mobile sources includes primary regulation (many developing
countries have permissive regulations),
[citation needed]
expanding regulation to new sources (such
as cruiseand transport ships, farm equipment, and small gas-powered equipment such as lawn
trimmers, chainsaws, and snowmobiles), increased fuel efficiency (such as through the use of hybrid
vehicles), conversion to cleaner fuels (such as bioethanol, biodiesel, or conversion to electric
vehicles).
Control devices
The following items are commonly used as pollution control devices by industry or transportation
devices. They can either destroy contaminants or remove them from an exhaust stream before it is
emitted into the atmosphere.
Particulate control
Mechanical collectors (dust cyclones, multicyclones)
Electrostatic precipitators An electrostatic precipitator (ESP), or electrostatic air cleaner is a
particulate collection device that removes particles from a flowing gas (such as air) using the
force of an induced electrostatic charge. Electrostatic precipitators are highly efficient filtration
devices that minimally impede the flow of gases through the device, and can easily remove
fine particulate matter such as dust and smoke from the air stream.
Baghouses Designed to handle heavy dust loads, a dust collector consists of a blower, dust
filter, a filter-cleaning system, and a dust receptacle or dust removal system (distinguished
from air cleaners which utilize disposable filters to remove the dust).
Particulate scrubbersWet scrubber is a form of pollution control technology. The term
describes a variety of devices that use pollutants from a furnace flue gas or from other gas
streams. In a wet scrubber, the polluted gas stream is brought into contact with the scrubbing
liquid, by spraying it with the liquid, by forcing it through a pool of liquid, or by some other
contact method, so as to remove the pollutants.

You might also like