Air Pollution

Between the years of 1970 and 2005 the total vehicle miles people travel in the india has increased 178 percent and continues to gradually increase at a rate of two to three percent each year. As a result of United States evolution from driving simple cars in the 70's too modern vans, sports utility vehicles (SUV's), and pickup trucks, these enlarged vehicles typically consume more gasoline per mile and many of them pollute three to five times more than cars.

Breathing polluted air can make your eyes and nose burn. Due to inhaling polluted air, it can irritate your throat and make breathing difficult. In fact, pollutants like tiny airborne particles can trigger respiratory problems, especially for people with asthma. In today's society, just about 30 million adults and children in the United States have been diagnosed with asthma. Asthma sufferers can be severely affected by air pollution. In contrast air pollution can also aggravate health problems for the elderly and others with heart or respiratory diseases. In a greater look at things, some toxic chemicals released in the air such as benzene or vinyl chloride can cause cancer, birth defects, long term injury to the lungs, as well as brain and nerve damage. And in some cases, breathing these highly toxic chemicals can even cause the fatal attraction of death. The health, environmental, and economic impacts of air pollution are significant. Each day, air pollution causes thousands of illnesses leading to lost days at work and school. Air pollution also reduces agricultural crop and commercial forest yields by billions of dollars each year.

Air pollution isn't just a threat to our health, it also damages our environment. Toxic air pollutants and the chemicals that form acid rain and ground-level o-zone can damage trees, crops, other plants, wildlife, lakes, and other bodies of water. Furthermore, those pollutants can also harm fish and other aquatic life. In addition to damaging the natural environment, air pollution also damages buildings, monuments, and statues. It not only reduces how far you can see in national parks and cities, it even interferes with aviation.

Although national air quality has improved over the last 20 years, many challenges remain in protecting public health and the environment. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) protects human health and the environment through the regulatory process and voluntary programs such as Energy Star and Commuter choice. (The Clean Air Act is a federal law covering the entire country). Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA sets limits on how much of a pollutant is allowed in the air anywhere in the United States.

This helps to ensure basic health and environmental protection from air pollution for all American's. Also, the Clean Air Act gives EPA the authority to limit emissions of air pollutants coming from sources like steel mills, utilities, and chemical plants. Individual states or tribes may have stronger air pollution laws, but they may not have weaker pollution limits than those set by the EPA.

EPA's main goal is to have clean air to breath for this generation and those to follow. Over time, the Clean Air Act will continue to reduce air pollution, but it will take time for some of the Act's provisions to have their full time impact.