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Types of Air Pollution

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The term "air pollution" covers a wide range of atmospheric pollutants. Air pollution can derive from natural sources or from human activities (National Geographic Society). Discussions about the effects of air pollution have concentrated mainly on human health, but devotion is being directed to environmental quality and amenity as well (Valleyair.org). Air pollutants are found as gases or particles, and on a limited scale they can be confined inside buildings as indoor air pollutants. Urban air pollution has long been a main apprehension for civic administrators, but gradually, air pollution has become an international problem. The San Joaquin Valley has been attainment for Carbon Monoxide since 1994. Since then improvements have been made to help reach attainment for Ozone and PM2.5 (Valleyair.org). Smog dangling above cities is the most notorious and obvious form of air pollution. However there are altered kinds of pollution- several visible, several invisible- that add to global warming (Samson, pg12). Basically any matter that people introduce into the atmosphere that has harmful effects on living things and the environment is measured as air pollution. In the San Joaquin Valley many of that air pollution is caused by industrial facilities (Valleyair.org). Ozone precursor release causes are generally separated into two classifications: stationary and mobile. Stationary sources fall into two types entitled point and area sources (Samson, 112). Point sources are large; easily distinguishable sources for example industrial facilities and operations. Area sources are causes that exclusively emit smaller quantities of pollutants. “They contain consumer products, house paints, pesticides, and agricultural burning, and small commercial sources such as gas stations” (Valleyair.org). Other sources that contribute to the cause of air pollution in the Valley are mobile sources and PM10 sources (human activities and natural sources). Agricultural operations, combustion of wood or fossil fuels, and wildfires also help in contributing to the cause of air pollution in the San Joaquin Valley (Valleyair.org). The severalty has grown throughout the years. The San Joaquin Valley Air Basin is roughly 250 miles long and is molded like a narrow bowl. The borders and southern frontier of the “bowl” are surrounded by mountain ranges. The Valley’s weather conditions comprise frequent temperature inversions, long, scorching summer, and stagnant, foggy winters all, which are conductive to the foundation and retaining of air pollutants (Valleyair.org). The bowl-shaped Valley gathers and hold emissions produced by the activities of the Valley’s three million residents and their two million vehicles, in addition to vehicles from other areas traveling on Highway 99 and Interstate 5. Furthermore, pollutants are likewise transported into the Valley from the Bay Area and the Sacramento Valley. These characteristics produce the San Joaquin Valley to be remarkably vulnerable to significant air pollution problems (Valleyair.org). Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is the main pollutant that is warming Earth (Samson 112). Though living things release carbon dioxide when they breathe, carbon dioxide is generally considered to be pollutant when linked with cars, plants, power plants and other human activities that in

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