Air Quality

Air Quality

Air pollution is the introduction into the atmosphere of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause discomfort, disease, or death to humans, damage other living organisms such as food crops, or damage the natural environment or built environment.

The atmosphere is a complex dynamic natural gaseous system that is essential to support life on planet Earth. Stratospheric ozone depletion due to air pollution has long been recognized as a threat to human health as well as to the Earth's ecosystems.

Indoor air pollution and urban air quality are listed as two of the World’s Worst Toxic Pollution Problems in the 2008 Blacksmith Institute World's Worst Polluted Places report.

Part of the nature series
Weather
Calendar seasons
  • Spring
  • Summer
  • Autumn
  • Winter
Tropical seasons
  • Dry season
  • Wet season
Storms
  • Thunderstorm
  • Supercell
  • Downburst
  • Lightning
  • Tornado
  • Waterspout
  • Tropical cyclone (Hurricane)
  • Extratropical cyclone
  • Winter storm
  • Blizzard
  • Ice storm
  • Dust storm
  • Firestorm
  • Cloud
Precipitation
  • Drizzle
  • Rain
  • Snow
  • Graupel
  • Freezing rain
  • Ice pellets
  • Hail
Topics
  • Meteorology
  • Climate
  • Weather forecasting
  • Heat wave
  • Air pollution
  • Cold wave
Weather portal

Read more about Air Quality:  Pollutants, Sources, Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), Health Effects, Reduction Efforts, Legal Regulations, Cities, NATA, Governing Urban Air Pollution – A Regional Example (London), Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Atmospheric Dispersion, Environmental Impacts of greenhouse Gas Pollutants

Famous quotes containing the words air and/or quality:

    The Laws of Nature are just, but terrible. There is no weak mercy in them. Cause and consequence are inseparable and inevitable. The elements have no forbearance. The fire burns, the water drowns, the air consumes, the earth buries. And perhaps it would be well for our race if the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Man were as inevitable as the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Nature—were Man as unerring in his judgments as Nature.
    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)

    As the quality of water changes with the nature of the soil;
    So will a man’s reason vary with the quality of his friends.
    Tiruvalluvar (c. 5th century A.D.)