Air Pollution and Your Health Air pollution is the cause for some main health problems. Every year the wellbeing of numerous people is devastated by air pollutants. Different chemicals affect the human body in many ways. How people will get sick depends on what chemicals they are exposed to, in what quantities, and for how long at a time.
The World Health Organization expresses that 2,400,000 people die each year from causes directly related to air pollution. The elderly are highly vulnerable to diseases induced by air pollution. People with heart or lung disorders are under severe risk. Children and infants are also at crucial risk.
Since so many people are exposed to numerous dangerous pollutants, it is usually difficult to find out which pollutants are the causes for a certain sickness. Moreover, because a combination of different pollutants can increase illness, it is often difficult find that single pollutant that is responsible. Many diseases may be caused by air pollution, diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, lung cancer, and heart disease can appear in people exposed to air pollutants. Air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide not only have harmful effects on us, but also have harmful effects on natural ecosystems. They can kill plants and trees by eradicating their leaves.
November 2009
http://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/ex/template_content_corner/ex70/images/family.jpg
SCHOOL Professional
Consulting
AIR QUALITY The quality of the air plays a major part of one’s life, after all of us need to breathe. As seen on the chart on the right, there are many different zones of air quality. The EPA categorizes these zones in two 6 different levels, each one worse than the other. The first zone is the green zone, which is good air. Everybody breathing air in this zone will be fine with no effects from the air. The second zone is the yellow zone, which is moderate. This zone, all though less quality than green, is okay for people to breathe in. Those people sensitive to lesser air quality should not prolong physical activities outside.
A major issue concerning the safety of children is the emissions of the school buses. Tailpipe exhaust often degrades the air qualities inside school buses, sometimes in doses much larger than air quality found outside the bus and diesel exhaust is not good for your child. Though you should be worried, you most likely do not need to pull your children off the school bus. The risks from diesel exhaust are linked with the number of years children ride the school bus. There is no need for children to cease riding school buses, but it is important for school districts to replace the old diesel buses as quickly as possible, so students are not exposed to harmful exhaust for many years.
Schools everywhere need to improve air quality, not just for the students, but for the faculty and staff too. There are few things that schools can do to improve air quality. Good ventilation is important, because it helps keep air moving and helps prevent pollution from building up. Opening windows in the spring time is a great way to improve ventilation and it saves energy. Just keeping the whole school clean is another good way, keeping everything clean will reduce build up of pollutants in the school.
POLLUTANTS
Diseases can arise if you breathe in bad quality air for extended periods of time.
The orange zone, which is the third zone, is Unhealthy for Sensitive groups. That means people with diseases that may be affected by the air should either not go outside, or try not to go outside as much as possible.
Asthma is a disease that can be brought on by very bad air quality, which can distinguished as chronic swelling of the lungs in which the airways are tightened. There are around 5000 asthma related deaths per year in the United States alone.
The fourth zone is red, which means unhealthy. This quality of air is very bad to sensitive groups and bad for everyone else too. Sensitive groups should not go outside in this zone. The purple zone is the Very Unhealthy zone. This fifth zone can cause serious problems for those with sensitive diseases and can cause new problems for everyone else. People should try to avoid going out in this zone. The last zone is maroon. This zone is hazardous and all people should not go out in this zone.
DISEASE
There are many different things that deteriorate air quality but there are 3 main ones that are very common. Particulate matter also known as particle pollution or PM, is a complex mixture of extremely small particles and liquid droplets
Carbon monoxide, or CO,is a colorless, odorless gas that is formed when carbon in fuel is not burned completely. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is one of a group of highly reactive gasses known as "oxides of nitrogen," or "nitrogen
There is no cure for asthma, but there are temporary solutions and precautions. Many different medicines prevent asthma, famous ones Advair and Symbicort. Medicines such as Albuterol stop asthma attacks in progress. A popular method of albuterol inhalation is the inhaler, commonly known as the “rescue inhaler.”